3 Simple Email Nurturing Tips for Client Retention

In a previous article, we covered the importance and overall process of Nurturing Prospects into a Thriving Client Base. We learned that 90%+ of your initial leads may not be ready to retain you immediately – even after you are able to connect with them. This is where email marketing can help you get in touch, stay in touch, build credibility and educate prospects – all the while bringing them closer to retaining your services.

As one of our clients explained, “Email marketing has helped us enormously. By the time we were able to reach a prospect, they were more educated and ready to retain our firm.”

Tip #1: Understand Your Target Audience Needs

Before you start, you need to know your target audience. What do they want or need upon calling you or sending in a request? If they contacted you about a DUI, for example, most likely, there’s an urgent need to know what to do now. So, the best thing is to email them immediately with critical information.

Attorneys in other practice areas like bankruptcy or divorce may not face the same demand for immediate attention as DUI attorneys. But, consumers do shop around nowadays, and if you don’t at least let your prospect know that you’ve received their inquiry, they will be sure to look elsewhere. So, at least send an email that lets them know you did receive their email, and better yet, provides them with some valuable information.

Tip #2: Get Some Automation

Nearly every attorney I’ve talked with agrees that their firm needs to do some email marketing, but claims that they don’t have the time or know how to get started. So, tip #2 tip is: employ the help of an email marketing service, such as ConstantContact or MailChimp.

These services not only facilitate the creation of emails, but also help you automate the distribution and tracking. The other thing these services now provide is a way to maintain and grow a list of prospects. All too often, we receive emails or meet prospects but cards and email addresses get lost. Now, you can create any number of lists and add your prospects to them.

With an email marketing service, you can literally set up a professional, personalized introduction email and send it out to 100 people in about 30 minutes. That’s considerably less time than it would take you to send an email individually to each prospect on Gmail.

Just pick a template, add your logo or company name, insert the copy and specify a list. The service will even tell you who opened and clicked-through on your email.

Tip #3: Set Up an Email Schedule

We established the importance of keeping in touch. Email is simply the most efficient and effective way to keep your name in front of prospects, even if you can’t reach them right away. But, how do you send regular emails and what should you send?

Following is a sample of what your schedule could look like if you’re a DUI attorney in California. The marketing automation features of MailChimp or other email marketing service will allow you to send these emails in drip fashion – each email going out automatically, based on a set number of days after the prospect was added to your list.

The End Result

So as you can see, there’s now no excuse not to do email marketing. Email marketing services make the process substantially easier than in the past, and require no programming ability. Best part is that your prospects might thank you for the information you provide and be more likely to retain your services.

Stay tuned for a follow-up blog post on Developing an Effective Newsletter.

Need Help Getting the Leads?

See our article on Lead Generation and consider a lead generation service.