Legal Marketing 101

Should My Firm Start an Email Newsletter?

• Rosen Advertising • Season 4 • Episode 24

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Newsletters offer law firms a powerful marketing channel that bypasses algorithms and delivers your message directly to those who already know your work. But in 2025, are they still worth the effort?

This episode dives into the surprising effectiveness of well-executed legal newsletters in today's digital landscape. While social media increasingly feels like shouting into a void, newsletters provide a direct conversation with past clients, referral sources, and interested leads.

Ready to decide if newsletters belong in your marketing mix? The answer isn't about the medium—it's about your commitment to quality and consistency. 

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Speaker 1:

Should you start a newsletter for your law firm? Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen. Newsletters kind of feel outdated, or do they? Today, we're talking about what is actually working in 2025.

Speaker 1:

Newsletters are something that people mention every now and then, and a lot of firms have them up and running, but the reality is there are some ways to do this really well and there are some ways to do this really poorly. So for any firm that's considering more consistent client touch points or something to help improve your referral system or just to increase your retention across the board, this episode's for you. Here's the thing about newsletters they are a direct line right into the inbox of people who already know you or have shown interest in you. Think about it no algorithms that are deciding whether your content sinks or swims. You own the list, and social media is great, sure, but every year it feels a little bit more like shouting into a crowd and hoping that someone is going to hear you. With newsletters, it's completely different. We are having a direct conversation with this person and, let's face it, your clients are busy. You're busy, we're all busy, but they might need your services again. But unless you keep showing up with this helpful content. You are leaving it completely up to chance that they're going to remember you and remember your firm when that time comes, and sure you might be really personable and have good stories and all that, but it is still a bit of a gamble. Newsletters are another way for us to nurture relationships. They keep past clients and referral sources warm and they gently remind cold leads why they reached out to you in the first place, and they can even strengthen ties that way with your strategic partners or your referral sources, whoever it is. Repetition and relevance are key here, though we're going to talk more about this, but a good newsletter, delivered consistency always builds familiarity over time. That moves from this. You know, we used to use this firm, or we used it for this one random case. It moves you from that category to the go-to legal resource category for your clients. It's like planting these little seeds that sprout into credibility, trust and, ultimately, more business. So we're just getting started, and if you're still skeptical, I get it, but newsletters do still work, even right now. So let's talk about some of the biggest mistakes you can make before we get into the good stuff.

Speaker 1:

This is the stuff that you've all cringed at in your inboxes and look the first one here. You've seen it over and over. It's writing like it's still 2005. And you know what I mean by this Endless paragraphs that are filled with dense legalese. There's no call to action and definitely no personalization. Nobody wants this mini law school textbook dropped into their inbox on a Tuesday morning.

Speaker 1:

Keep the content short, skimmable and conversational. Trust me, your readers will thank you for this. Here's another common trap Generic content. Yeah, maybe it's kind of crappy and boring, but it can also be generic, which is a whole other thing. We've all seen these emails that start with something like Did you know June is National Safety Month? Okay, but why do I care about this? And if you're sending this to one of your clients, why should your clients care? If you're not giving your readers actionable insights, relevant updates or just something that is tailored to them and their needs, you are wasting their precious time and, ultimately, you're wasting yours. And then there's the inconsistency issue. Yeah, I'm skimming through these kind of quickly, but you've heard all of this and you've seen it all before.

Speaker 1:

If we send a newsletter every three months or randomly, you know, on a Tuesday, one week and on a Wednesday the next week and it just doesn't make any sense. This will not build any momentum. Readers need these regular touch points to keep your firm top of mind. It's kind of like the effective TV 20 years ago Everybody sits down on Wednesday night and watches the show. You don't want your newsletter to feel like an unexpected guest showing up unannounced or something that you have to rush to catch because it was a surprise. You want to make sure it's consistent and anticipated, and that anticipation it's the feeling we're going for.

Speaker 1:

And finally, one big mistake is ignoring the numbers. I know I talk about data all the time, so I'm not going to spend too much on it this time, but if you are not tracking who opens your emails, which links get clicks, which topics resonate, you are flying blind. Marketing is not guesswork, it is all data-driven. Pay attention to your metrics, tweak your approach and you will see a measurable difference in your engagement. And if you avoid all these pitfalls, we've got a strategic asset here. My friends, instead of being an inbox annoyance, we have something that we can actually work with.

Speaker 1:

So let's jump into the pros and cons the good, the bad and the potentially ugly. First, the good stuff Newsletters are one of the, if not the most, but one of the most affordable marketing channels that you can find, especially for something in digital marketing. You can start simple, you can test the waters and you can scale up, maybe for free, but definitely without breaking the bank. And that's a fantastic way to amplify and explore your brand voice and show clients exactly who you are, month after month or week after week, and over time, your readers will start recognizing your firm's personality. It's going to start to feel like this helpful, approachable expert that just shows up in my inbox in time every week. And here's an underrated perk of this Newsletters are brilliant for cross-selling services. Do you have a seasonal promotion, a new service area, something that you're doing that's different than what the client may be experienced previously? You can drop a quick announcement or highlight in the newsletter and you've instantly placed it in front of your best prospects, your existing client base. You know they'll spend, but let's talk reality check.

Speaker 1:

Newsletters do come with challenges. First off, creating consistent, quality content takes time. There are no shortcuts here. Even if you use ChatGPT, you still have to do some good work. Your newsletter isn't something that you're going to quickly squeeze in between meetings or in the back of a car from point A to point B. It requires a genuine commitment to regularity and relevance to build momentum. And then there's the technical and the compliance side keeping your list clean. This means removing people who are bouncing emails that aren't actually hitting the inbox or something is going wrong, getting rid of inactive subscribers. None of this is glamorous, but it is absolutely essential for long-term success. And plus, if you're not segmenting your list to target the right message to the right audience, your readers are going to tune out anyways. And let's not forget the legal compliance. That's a big one, especially crucial for law firms. Most systems like ActiveCampaign or Brevo there's a lot of these they're going to help you make sure that you're following all the anti-spam laws, keeping your privacy policies clear and respecting unsubscribe requests very promptly. But you do have to pay attention to this. If your system doesn't deal with the things that are relevant to your jurisdiction, maybe switch or get somebody on that program to make sure that you are going to be consistent with the rules you need to be consistent with.

Speaker 1:

And last, we have the uncomfortable truth about newsletters. If you don't do this right, it can actually hurt your brand. Think about those emails that you roll your eyes at, from you know, a yogurt shop down the street, a smoothie place or Kedoba or Chipotle. You don't want to be them. So if you're going to do this, you have to commit fully, and you have to do this well, or maybe reconsider if it's really right for your marketing strategy, as I assume we would say in North Carolina. You need to go whole hog or no hog here. So now that we've scared all of you into maybe not doing this, let's talk a little bit about the best practices, and I think this is really where you can decide. If the pros and cons that I've been talking about haven't really explained it for you, this is the area where you can probably figure out if this is going to work for you or not. So let's talk about the playbook for this.

Speaker 1:

First is segmentation. This is something we've talked about with email systems a little bit in the past, and it is something that is increasingly important with law firms, especially if you handle multiple practice areas, if you don't skip along. But if you do, this is critical, because you wouldn't send the same text to your mom as you would to your best friend or your boyfriend, right? Same principle here. Maybe not with the content of the text, but same principle right. Same principle here, maybe not with the content of the text, but same principle. Break your subscriber list into meaningful categories, like your existing clients, your referral sources and your potential leads, and then we tailor the messaging we send to each segment. Tailoring this messaging ensures that we're speaking directly to the interests of that audience specifically and actually trying to help with something that they need. Your referral sources maybe they appreciate insights into recent case results or updates and information about your involvement in the community so they can talk about it. But leads are probably going to be more interested in practical tips for their scenario or frequently asked questions about the firm. The bottom line here is that relevance is what equals results. It's a pretty simple equation.

Speaker 1:

Next, unlike what I do with this podcast and you guys, we need to respect our readers' time, aim for short, punchy and visual content whenever possible. Nobody really wants to scroll through endless walls of text on their phone. I do, but I'm a Wikipedia person, so that's a different scenario. And on phones we need to assume that's where our newsletter is going to be read, so we need to optimize to be on phones, optimize for mobile first, bullet points and images, short paragraphs, bold headlines, color All of this makes your content much more easily skimmable, increasing the chances that it actually gets read and maybe shared, because, remember, our goal is to deliver value quickly and clearly. That doesn't necessarily mean writing a lot of content, and if we do something that's really sticky, as we say in the digital marketing world, it might get shared, and that's a great side effect for us. So what kind of content actually works? I hear you asking this already. I'm going to give you five proven winners that you can recycle. You might already have this on your website and you can generate these quickly.

Speaker 1:

Number one FAQs. These are quick, digestible answers to common questions that clients regularly ask. I'm sure you have a hundred of these in your brain right now. Put them in an email newsletter. Send three of them out on Monday. Number two is recent wins, and of course, we have to anonymize here and be very careful, but sharing these success stories and highlighting our expertise without bragging it's the best bragging we can possibly do. Number three is upcoming events or webinars. This encourages engagement and it helps keep subscribers in the loop about these potentially very valuable opportunities for them, but in general, we're also trying to fill up our events, for our webinars anyways. So this is a great place to advertise these and it gives these people something to actually call them to action without having to make that retention.

Speaker 1:

Number four is law updates. We can simplify complicated changes in the law. Whether that's at a state or a federal level, or even at a municipal jurisdiction, it totally doesn't matter. We can simplify these changes and explain to the reader why they should care or what part of it they should care about and how it affects them. Number five is strategic guides or checklists. These are practical, they're easy to use and they're resources that can genuinely help your audience. People are going to feel like they're getting something for free and of the items on this list, this is definitely the most marketing focus. That is what we talk about a lot of the time as a lead magnet.

Speaker 1:

These kinds of things do still work really well in newsletters, and if you're already doing updates or recent wins or FAQs in your newsletter newsletters, and if you're already doing updates or recent wins or FAQs in your newsletter, don't be afraid to tack on a strategic guide or checklist to the bottom. If you've already got some content but you want to give an extra call to action that could work and here again is the big secret weapon for these emails. I talk about it a million times and you should be able to guess it because I just said it 10 seconds ago, but it's a clear call to action and it can be just one. Whether this is scheduling a free consultation, forwarding the email to somebody who'd benefit from it, downloading a helpful resource, you just need to make the next step obvious. Your newsletter isn't going to just be informational yes, it's going to be really great and it's going to educate people and it's going to help but it should still drive an action and clarity. As much as I would like to disagree with this, clarity always beats cleverness in these scenarios and because, like many things, I've sort of beaten them to death.

Speaker 1:

We need to talk about automation, but I'll keep it quick. When you build this system, lean on the automation tools to keep things consistent. Platforms like Brevo, mailchimp, hubspot all of these make your list easy to manage, easy to track the performance and really easy to schedule out these emails, so you don't have to write one every week. You could write your 12 for the year or write your 50 for the year, depending on how you want to schedule it and schedule them all in January and be done with it.

Speaker 1:

Automation in these tools helps you maintain the crucial consistency we talked about earlier and it ensures that your readers come to expect and then look forward to hearing from you regularly. So if you stick with these best practices, you build great content, you deliver it regularly and you work hard to make sure that the people in your audience are actually getting what they need. Your firm's newsletter, it's not going to be just another email. It's going to be a valued, trusted resource for your clients and for potential clients, because, whatever year it is when you listen to this episode, I think there's something I can say that will work pretty much forever. Newsletters aren't outdated. Bad ones are. That's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out RosenAdvertisingcom for more Thanks.

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