Direct email campaigns, if done right, are a great source of new leads and new business. This type of legal marketing is very cost effective for firms, practice groups and individual attorneys, particularly when concerns around spamming or potential problems with state bar associations are addressed up front. Here’s how to proceed: 

• Don’t ever try to sell something in your email messages. Promoting and selling are very different things.
• Give away GREAT information that your target audience can use sooner rather than later.
• Make sure the information meets the needs of a very specific audience.
• Ensure that your message does not violate any state bar association guidelines.
• Write a thoughtful subject line that promises something and then fulfill that promise. 
• Make sure contact information is included and easy for the reader to find.
• Don’t overwrite the subject with too many message points. Leave room for them to come back to you with questions.
• Make the message graphically appealing without making it digitally “heavy.”
• Be consistent ... a one time effort does not make a campaign.
• Always give the reader an easy way to unsubscribe.

Do direct email campaigns work? If you follow the guidelines listed above and provide useful information, making it easy for clients to recognize your value as a resource, then yes – they do. You’re reading this aren’t you?