Generating leads with an effective marketing strategy is great, but your efforts shouldn’t end there. You also need to track those leads. After all, anyone who visits your website, engages with your social media, submits a contact form, or otherwise interacts with your law firm could be a potential client, but unless you know who they are and where they’re coming from, you can’t make informed marketing decisions.

Just as important as generating and tracking those leads, though, is nurturing them. Your marketing strategy isn’t just about making a solid first impression—it’s about maintaining it. When you follow up with your leads, you increase your chances of converting them into clients. And with upwards of four billion global users using email these days, email marketing has become one of the best platforms for nurturing relationships with current and prospective clients alike.

That said, lawyers are busy. We get that. Implementing and maintaining a successful marketing strategy takes a lot of valuable time and resources that may seem out of reach. This is where email automation comes in. With an automated email marketing strategy, you can communicate with your audience on an ongoing basis—without pressing pause on your legal cases.

What is email automation and how does it work?

No digital marketing strategy is complete without an email marketing campaign—and no email marketing campaign is complete without email automation. Email automation is, essentially, the process of sending automated emails to your target audience, ensuring that the right message is delivered to the right person at the right time.

The beauty of email automation is that you don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting. While you work your way through your to-do list, your legal technology is actively nurturing your client relationships with personalized content and responsive turnaround times. Here are a few examples:

Let’s say someone visits your website and subscribes to your newsletter or fills out a contact form. With email automation, you can have a welcome email automatically sent out to greet your new subscriber and give them an idea of what to expect from you moving forward.

Or, if you miss a call from a current or prospective client, your law firm can automatically send an email rather than playing phone tag and missing out on communication as your lead moves on to another law firm.

Benefits of email automation for law firms

One of the most obvious benefits of email automation is that it can save you valuable time and increase productivity. That said, some law firms may be hesitant to use email automation, as the common perception is that automated tech is impersonal, defeating the purpose of connecting with clients.

“Automated” and “impersonal” are far from synonymous, though. When you collect the right data—whether it be demographic, geographic, or otherwise—you can tailor your emails accordingly so your communications are always relevant to your target audience. That way you can send out emails at peak engagement times with relevant, informative content that makes your audience trust you more.

With cost-effective customized marketing emails, you can establish better client relationships and increase your ROI over time.

6 types of email automations to implement at your law firm

For your email automations to be effective, they need clear objectives. Here are a few examples of email automation sequences you can use to help grow your law firm:

1. Welcome sequences

Welcome sequences are one of the most important types of email automations, as it creates a solid first impression of who you are as a law firm, letting the client know that they can count on you to be responsive.

Let’s say a prospective client comes across your website and fills out a contact form or signs up for a lead magnet. Once they’ve provided their email address, they can automatically receive a message that thanks them for their interest, lets them know when they can expect to hear from you, and provides an alternative method of contact for urgent matters.

2. Client follow-ups

When waiting to hear back from a client, there’s a fine line between nagging and neglect. While you don’t want to overwhelm your clients with requests for more information, sometimes it just takes a little extra push to get the response you’ve been looking for.

Let’s say that a prospective client has reached out to you to schedule a consultation. You discussed next steps during your meeting but haven’t heard anything since. With automated follow-up emails, you can provide that lead with carefully crafted reminders that include tangible next steps and valuable content, without pressuring them to make a decision before they’re ready (and potentially turning them away).

3. Win-back sequences

Did you know that it costs five times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one? Long-term clients make for great law firm growth—but to maintain that clientele, you need to nurture those relationships on an ongoing basis.

Win-back email sequences can be used to re-engage leads that have gone cold, clients you haven’t received a response from, or even subscribers who haven’t opened your emails recently. Some well-performing types of win-back emails include:

A simple “hello” to remind people you exist
An incentive to encourage people to return for your services
Feedback requests
Unsubscribe emails—letting people know they’ve successfully unsubscribed to your emails, but that they’re always welcome back

4. Client newsletters

Sending out regular email newsletters to your contacts serves a few different purposes:

It allows you to share news and updates from your firm
It keeps leads engaged and your law firm top-of-mind
It establishes trust with your audience by sharing valuable information
It helps reinforce your law firm’s brand

Plus, if you have any subscribers who are on the fence about using your legal services, it offers a convenient way for them get in touch. Remember to make your newsletters attention-grabbing and scannable, with plenty of CTAs and links to drive traffic to your other channels.

5. Transactional emails

In addition to welcome and follow-up emails, you can also implement automated transactional emails. These are sent out when a transaction with a contact has been completed.

For example, if a client books a consultation session online, they can immediately receive a transactional email confirming the details of their session. Transactional emails are also useful for sending invoices along with payment information and reminders.

6. Surveys

A key element of any marketing campaign is analyzing your performance and making improvements wherever necessary. And who can provide better insight than clients who have interacted with your law firm firsthand?

Send survey emails to clients to ensure you’re delivering an optimal experience to retain clients in the long term. Use questions like:

How would you rate your experience overall?
What stood out to you in a positive way?
What would you change about your experience?
How available was your attorney to answer your questions?
How efficient was the billing process?
How comfortable did you feel discussing sensitive legal matters with your attorney?
How likely are you to refer the law firm to a friend?

Email automation delivers benefits throughout the entire customer journey. And just as it can add value to your clients’ lives by positioning you as a resource and trusted ally, it also has many advantages for your firm.

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Ready to improve your workflows and enhance client relationships? CosmoLex CRM supports streamlined communications through automated email marketing.

6 Ways to Use Email Automation in Your Law Firm Marketing