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.
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.
✅ 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.
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.
