Stacey Ivol – IFTS, Inc. Blog

The Ultimate 13-Point Email Marketing Checklist for Law Firms in 2025

Are you using email marketing to help grow your firm?

If not, you are missing out on a LOT more business.

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools that law firms have. It allows them to engage current clients, establish authority with both clients and prospects and it helps generate leads.

With ever-increasing competition and digital trends changing almost constantly, attorneys need a strategic and planned approach to maximize the effectiveness of their emails.

Enter this 13-point checklist!

We are going to show you key strategies that your firm should implement to build an email marketing system that works for YOU – converting prospects into clients and building your relationship with existing clients with ease.

✅ 1. Send Consistent and Valuable Emails

Consistency is THE KEY when it comes to email marketing.

You should be sending at least one high-quality email per week…and maybe more.

Why?

It helps your firm maintain visibility with current clients and builds up trust with prospects on your email list.

So, What Should Law Firms Email About?

Legal insights on popular cases in the news and industry updates
Case studies and success stories, staying within your attorney-client privilege guidelines
Answers to frequently asked legal questions
Updates about your firm’s services, awards, and recognitions
Common legal mistakes and how to avoid them
Additional services that you offer current clients
Videos that you have created (Wanna know how to create these videos? Check out our article on video content creation for law firms!)

When you provide this valuable, expert content, your firm will remain top-of-mind when the need for legal services arises.

✅ 2. Automate Follow-Ups for Leads and Clients

When you receive a lead from your website or ads, how fast do you get back to the person?

People like to see a reply right away and this doesn’t always happen.

In fact, many potential queries that attorneys receive never are followed up with because they get lost in the day-to-day shuffle. Email automations help keep these prospects engaged.

Key Automated Email Sequences For Law Firms:

Consultation Follow-Ups: If someone books a call but doesn’t show up, send a friendly reminder.
Website Submission Sequences: When someone submits via your website, immediately send them an email to let them know that you will be in touch shortly, then send them information about your firm over the next few days.
Lead Nurturing Sequences: If a potential client downloads a legal guide but doesn’t reach out, send a series of emails explaining how your firm can help.
Case Progress Updates: Keep existing clients informed with automated updates on their legal matters.

Automation ensures that no potential client falls through the cracks. You can even add yourself and your team into the email sequence. Using GoHighLevel? Here’s a step by step guide to creating an email sequence.

✅ 3. Make Sure Your Emails Reach the Primary Inbox

If you are landing in spam or in the promotions tab, it will substantially reduce your firm’s open rate. To have your email show up in the primary tab, you need to improve your email deliverability.

How A Law Firm Can Improve Email Deliverability:

Authenticate emails with DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records within your DNS records. Typically, your email sending program will give you the records to add (Here’s how to add those DNS records)
Do not use spam trigger words like “free consultation” or “guaranteed win” within your email subject or text
Get the recipients to reply and engage, which signals to email providers that people want to receive emails from you
Use a recognizable sender name (e.g., “John Doe, Esq.”) instead of a generic firm name

Better deliverability means higher open rates, more engagement, increased conversions, and more clients!

✅ 4. Plan Your Firm’s Email Content in Advance

When you have an email plan, you are able to send consistently with a sequence of topics that make sense. You’ll never find yourself scrambling to send a last-minute email with low quality.

How to Generate Endless Email Ideas:

Use your website FAQs to expand on your original answer
Talk about any legal updates in the news and explain how they might impact clients
Highlight your firm’s success stories and talk about any time you are in the news
Discuss additional legal services that you offer that clients and prospects may not be aware of

By creating a plan with a proactive approach, your law firm will always have compelling emails ready to send.

Want to ensure your law firm’s emails are engaging, effective, and converting prospects into clients? Download your FREE 7-Point Email Success Checklist to craft high-performing emails that drive results.

✅ 5. Use High-Performing Email Formats

Not all emails are created equal.

Stick to formats that have already been proven to engage your legal clients. You want your open rates to be as high as possible so you stay in that Primary Email tab.

Five Effective Email Types for Law Firms:

Educational Emails – “5 Estate Planning Mistakes to Avoid”
Story-Based Emails – Client success stories or lessons from past cases
Engagement Emails – Polls, surveys, or Q&A invites
Authority Emails – Feature firm awards, media appearances, or testimonials
Conversion Emails – Promote consultations, webinars, or legal services

Mix up these email types to keep your clients and prospects interested and engaged.

✅ 6. Master the 7-Point Checklist for Email Success

Don’t just write emails to write emails. You want to be sure that they are successful at accomplishing your goals.

These successful emails should include:

Problem – Identify a common legal issue (e.g., “Are you prepared for tax season?”)
Promise – What the reader will gain (e.g., “5 legal tips to save money”)
Timeframe – Why it’s urgent (e.g., “These tax laws change next month!”)
Specificity – Use concrete examples
Simplicity – Avoid legal jargon, keep messages clear
Credibility – Highlight expertise, past results, and testimonials
Relatability – Speak in a way your audience understands

Following this structure improves engagement and response rates, which ultimately will get you more clients and grow your business.

✅ 7. Write Subject Lines That Get Opened

You only get one chance to make a first impression.

This applies to emails as well. Your subject line determines whether your email gets read or moved to the trash. Make sure that you have high-impact subject lines that pique curiosity.

High-Impact Subject Line Examples For Law Firms:

“Do You Actually Need a Lawyer for This?”
“3 Common Contract Mistakes That Could Cost You Thousands”
“How a Simple Will Saved This Family Years of Legal Trouble”
“Don’t Sign That Contract Until You Read This”
“How To Protect Your Business From A Lawsuit – Fast!”

As you can see, curiosity-driven subject lines increase open rates significantly. Open a loop in the reader’s mind that they can only close by reading the emails.

✅ 8. Repurpose and Refresh Old Content

Stop reinventing the wheel!

Look at your emails from years past. Which ones performed the best?

Take those and update them for the current year. Then, you can re-send them to get similar high-performing rates.

How to Repurpose Emails For Law Firms:

Change the subject line or update it with the year
Update statistics or case examples
Add a different or new call to action
Add an image, gif or meme

By tracking the emails that perform well, you can maximize your firm’s best content and save time.

✅ 9. Leverage SMS Alongside Email

Is your firm sending out text messages to clients?

Many law firms ignore SMS marketing, but it’s a highly effective tool for follow-ups and appointment reminders.

Best Uses for SMS in Legal Marketing:

Consultation reminders
Court date reminders
Urgent legal updates
Webinar invitations

Did you know that SMS has a 98% open rate?

By sending texts, you can all but ensure that clients will see your most important messages. By improving your communication methods, you are also at a lesser risk of legal malpractice claims.

✅ 10. Build a 30-Day Email Plan

It’s really easy to create a 30-day email plan using an Excel spreadsheet or even a Word doc. This helps to ensure consistency, keeps your audience engaged, and prevents last-minute scrambling for content. Start by mapping out a mix of educational, promotional, and engagement-focused emails to maintain variety and value.

Example Weekly Email Schedule For Attorneys:

Monday: Legal tip or case study
Wednesday: Story-based email about a past client success
Friday: Call to action (consultation, webinar, etc.)

When you plan everything in advance, you can align your schedule with seasonal trends, firm events and more. Also, having a set schedule helps you track email performance over time, so you can adjust based on engagement and response rates.

✅ 11. Track Email Results and Optimize Results for Growth

As Peter Drucker says, what gets measured, gets managed.

This applies to email results as well. Measuring performance is crucial to improving email effectiveness.

Key Metrics to Track:

Open rates
Click-through rates
Response rates
Conversion rates

To refine your strategy every month, you’ll want to try A/B testing subject lines, CTAs, and email formats.

✅ 12. Grow Your Email List with Smart Strategies

To grow your firm, you’ll want to continue adding to your email list over time. The more people that receive your emails, the more chances that you have to get clients and referrals.

Best List-Building Strategies for Law Firms:

Offer free legal guides or pdf checklists on your website in exchange for a prospect’s email
Host webinars or Q&A sessions monthly
Try to be a featured guest on legal podcasts
Run lead-generation ads on Facebook and LinkedIn offering free consultations or downloads.
Cross-promote with financial advisors, real estate agents, and business consultants.
Use exit-intent pop-ups to capture visitors before they leave.
Collect emails at industry conferences, bar association events, or local business meetups.

A growing email list means more potential clients engaging with your firm.

✅ 13. Make Unsubscribes Work for You

A big question that we get from attorneys is “What if we are bugging people with these emails?”

Most people will just unsubscribe from your list, which is what you want.

Losing subscribers isn’t always a bad thing.

How Your Law Firm Can Benefit from Email List Unsubscribes:

Direct them to follow your firm on LinkedIn or YouTube instead
Offer a “less frequent emails” option
Include a final offer before they leave (e.g., “Need legal help? Schedule a free call before unsubscribing!”)

Believe it or not – strategic handling of unsubscribes can still lead to new clients!

So, What Now? How Can My Law Firm Start Sending Effective Emails?

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways for law firms to attract and retain clients. By implementing these strategies—consistent emails, automation, high-performing content, and deliverability best practices—your firm can build stronger client relationships and grow in 2025.

How to Connect Google Calendar to GoHighLevel: A Step-by-Step Guide for Seamless Scheduling in 2024

If you’re using GoHighLevel for your business, connecting your Google Calendar is a must for ensuring your schedule is always up to date. In this guide, we will walk you through the process of integrating your Google Calendar with GoHighLevel so that you can manage your appointments effortlessly and prevent any scheduling conflicts.

Step 1: Accessing Calendar Settings

First, log into your GoHighLevel account. On the left-hand menu, click on Calendars, then select Calendar Settings from the upper menu. Here, you will see your current calendar setup.

You might notice open slots in your calendar, which will soon be synced and updated automatically once you connect your Google Calendar.

Step 2: Adding a New Calendar

In the upper menu, click on Connections. Under the Calendars section, click on Add New. Now, choose Google Calendar as the service you want to connect.

Step 3: Signing in with Google

You’ll be prompted to sign in with your Google account. Select the account that you want to sync with GoHighLevel and click Continue.
GoHighLevel uses a system called “Lead Connector” to sync with Google. When asked, click on Allow to complete the connection.

Step 4: Checking Calendar Connections

Although there isn’t an immediate confirmation, go back to Calendar Settings and click on Connections again. You should now see your Google Calendar listed as available.

Step 5: Adding a Conflict Calendar

It’s crucial to set your connected Google Calendar as a Conflict Calendar to avoid double bookings. Select your Google Calendar from the list, name it (for example, “Google Calendar” or your company name), and click Save.

Step 6: Syncing Your Appointments

You’ll see a “processing” status as the sync happens. If this seems to take a while, try refreshing the page to speed up the process. Once it’s done, you’ll see that GoHighLevel is now synced with your calendar. You can test this by checking your available slots—appointments should now reflect correctly in your calendar.

All Set and Ready to Schedule

Syncing your Google Calendar with GoHighLevel is a quick process that helps you stay on top of your appointments and prevents scheduling conflicts. Follow these steps, and you’ll have a fully integrated system for managing your schedule in no time!

How to Set Up a Review System like Birdeye or ReviewLead using GoHighLevel Automation: Step-by-Step Guide

Collecting customer feedback is essential for any business that wants to grow and build credibility. Reviews not only help potential customers make informed decisions but also improve your business’s reputation. But manually managing reviews can be time-consuming. That’s where automating the review process comes in. In this blog, we’ll walk you through setting up an automated review system in GoHighLevel to streamline feedback collection, manage negative experiences, and boost your positive reviews.

Let’s dive into the step-by-step process of setting up this system to automatically gather and manage reviews for your business.

Creating a Custom Review Link

The first step to automating your review process is creating a custom review link that you can share with your customers. This link will direct them to your review page.

Log into your GoHighLevel account.
Navigate to Settings and click on Domains.
Add a subdomain specifically for reviews. We recommend using something like reviews.yourdomain.com.
Verify the DNS settings with your provider (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap) by adding the required CNAME record. Once verified, your domain is ready for use.

Designing a Thumbs-Up/Thumbs-Down Review Page

Next, you’ll need to create a simple review page where users can indicate if they had a good or bad experience. This will allow you to filter feedback based on customer satisfaction.

Go to Sites > Websites and create a new page.
Design the page with two simple buttons: Thumbs-Up for positive feedback and Thumbs-Down for negative feedback.
Add a thank-you message above the buttons, expressing appreciation for their time.

Example text: “Thank you for choosing us! Your feedback helps others find trusted businesses like ours.”

Redirecting Positive Reviews to Google

If a customer clicks on the thumbs-up button, you’ll want to direct them to leave a review on your Google Business profile.

Go to your Google Business Profile and copy the direct link for leaving a review.
In GoHighLevel, select the thumbs-up button, set the action to open a URL, and paste the Google review link.
Save your changes.

Now, anytime a customer has a positive experience, they’ll be directed to leave a review on Google!

Creating a Bad Experience Feedback Page and Staying Google Compliant

One of the most important steps in building an automated review system is handling negative feedback effectively. For this, GoHighLevel allows you to create a separate page for customers to share their bad experiences, ensuring you receive private feedback and maintain Google compliance.

Step 1: Create a "Tell Us About Your Bad Experience" Page

After setting up your main review request page, it’s time to add a dedicated page for customers who didn’t have a positive experience. Here’s how to do it:

Navigate back to Websites in GoHighLevel, and select the Request Review site.
Create a new page named “Tell Us About Your Bad Experience.” You can create the URL path as something like /sorry/tell-us-more to keep it simple.
For the design, start with a blank, full-width layout. Add a single-column section where you’ll include your logo and a headline, such as:
- “Please tell us about your experience with our company.”

Step 2: Add a Feedback Form

ext, you’ll need to collect detailed feedback about their bad experience. Here’s how to add a form:

Add a form element to the page that asks for basic information, such as First Name, Last Name, Phone, Email, and a multiline text box for them to describe their experience.
Customize the form’s submit action by selecting Form Builder, then under Options, set up a message that thanks the customer for completing the form. Example message:
- “Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. A member of our team will be in touch shortly.”

This ensures the customer feels heard and reassures them that their concerns are being addressed.

Step 3: Linking the Bad Experience Option

After creating the feedback page, link it to the “I had a bad experience” button on your main review page. Follow these steps:

Copy the URL of your bad experience page.
Edit your main review request page, go to the “I had a bad experience” image, and set the action to go to website URL.
Paste the URL of the bad experience page and save your changes. Now, when a customer clicks on “I had a bad experience,” they’ll be directed to your feedback form.

Step 4: Staying Google Compliant

Google requires that all customers, including those with bad experiences, be given the option to leave a public review. To comply with this:

On the bad experience page, add a text link at the bottom that says:
- “No, thank you. I would like to leave a review.”
Link this text to your Google review page. Be sure to open the link in a new window, so customers don’t lose their place on your feedback form.

Step 5: Publish and Test

Once you’ve set up everything, preview your pages to ensure they function correctly. Customers should be able to navigate smoothly between the review request page and the bad experience page. For the final step, publish your changes and test the system.

With this setup, you’ve created an effective way to privately manage negative feedback while still complying with Google’s requirements for review collection.

By ensuring that negative feedback is handled internally while still allowing customers to publicly review your business, you can address concerns privately and maintain your reputation. This is a critical component of building trust with your customers and ensuring you’re continuously improving.

Creating Review Request Automations

Now that your review pages and forms are set up, it’s time to implement automations that will simplify the process of collecting reviews. Automations help you send reminders and requests without manual effort, ensuring that you stay engaged with your customers and gather more reviews.

1. Creating the Review Request Emails and SMS

To keep your review requests polite but effective, we recommend sending three emails and one SMS over the course of a few days. Here’s a breakdown of what each email and text message should include:

Email 1 (Day 1):
Subject: Thank you for placing your trust in us
Body:
- Thank the customer for their business and offer to answer any questions they may have.
- Ask them to take a moment to leave a review and provide a direct link to the review page.
- Example: “Would you take a moment to review us at the link below? Your review will help others find the best service for their needs.”
Email 2 (Day 3):
Subject: Just a reminder and a thank you
Body:
- Remind the customer about your review request and thank them again for their trust.
- Reiterate how their review will help others in the market find your services.
- Include the review link again.
Email 3 (Day 6):
Subject: One last reminder
Body:
- Let the customer know that this is the final reminder and that you won’t send any more review requests.
- Provide the review link and mention how their feedback helps others.
SMS (Day 1):
Message:
- Keep it short and simple: “Hi, [Company Name] here. Just wondering if you could take a moment to leave us a review. [Insert Link]”

Each email and SMS should include a review link to make it easy for customers to click through and leave their feedback.

2. Automating Review Requests

Now that your messaging is ready, it’s time to build the automations in GoHighLevel:

Step 1: Create a Workflow
Go to Automation > Create Workflow, and start from scratch. Name this workflow something like “Review Request Automation.”
Step 2: Trigger the Workflow
You can trigger the workflow by adding a tag to the customer’s profile after they’ve completed a service with you. For example, you can create a tag called “Request Review.” When the tag is added, the workflow starts.
Step 3: Send the SMS
Once the workflow starts, send the first SMS message, asking the customer to leave a review.
Step 4: Wait for 15 Minutes
Add a 15-minute wait to see if the customer responds by clicking the review link. If they do, the automation ends. If not, proceed to the next step.
Step 5: Send Email 1
If the customer hasn’t clicked the link in the SMS, send the first email request with the review link.
Step 6: Wait for 3 Days
Wait for three days to see if the customer clicks the review link in the email.
Step 7: Send Email 2
If they haven’t left a review yet, send the second email reminding them to review your business.
Step 8: Wait for 3 More Days
Wait another three days to give the customer time to click the review link.
Step 9: Send Email 3
Send the final reminder, letting the customer know it’s their last chance to leave a review.

3. Creating Trigger Links

To stop sending review requests once a customer has completed a review, you need to create trigger links:

Step 1: Go to Marketing > Trigger Links, and add a link to your review page.
Step 2: Name the link something like “Request Reviews” and save it.
Step 3: Use this trigger link in your emails and SMS messages. When the customer clicks on it, the automation will stop sending further review requests.

4. Internal Notifications for Bad Experiences

Finally, set up a separate workflow for handling bad experiences:

Step 1: Create a new workflow called “Bad Experience Submitted.”
Step 2: Set the trigger as the submission of the bad experience form.
Step 3: Assign an internal notification to alert your team when someone submits the form. The notification can include the customer’s name, email, phone number, and their feedback so your team can follow up quickly.

Launch Your Review Request System

Once you have your workflows, trigger links, and messaging set up, your automated review request system is ready to go. Now, you can start tagging customers and collecting reviews effortlessly, all while handling negative feedback with care.

With everything in place, your business will enjoy more customer reviews and valuable feedback, which can help boost your online presence and improve customer satisfaction!