I had the pleasure of speaking last week on a panel presenting on "Growing Your Business Through Internet Marketing" at the 2012 Connecticut Bar Association Annual Meeting.
Among the other speakers on the panel was an employment lawyer, Scott Schaffer, who publishes an email newsletter, Workplace News, that is distributed to human resource professionals and other labor and employment attorneys. Scott shared many valuable tips on how he uses his email newsletter to generate new business.
One strategy that we repeatedly recommend to our own clients is to use your email newsletter or alert campaign "clickthrough" reports to generate leads. For example, if Scott sends his newsletter to 500 subscribers, and 100 subscribers open the email, and of those 100 subscribers, 25 subscribers click a link in the email to read a full article, Scott follows up with each of those 25 subscribers. The logic is that clicking on a link demonstrates interest, and so the subscribers with "clickthroughs" become Scott's "low hanging fruit" to see if he can convert that interest into new business.
But one tip I had never thought of before, but which makes great sense, is Scott's inclusion of links to various online resources within each issue of his newsletter - such as the full opinion of a case, or full text of a new regulation or law. Scott's thinking here is that if he includes a link to the actual text of the case, regulation or law he is discussing, subscribers will retain the email in their inbox (or move it to a folder) so they can easily access the link in the future. That is, Scott thinks in terms of providing his readers with access to online resources that they'll want to keep handy for future reference.
And lo and behold, Scott continues to see clickthroughs on links in his newsletter long after they were distributed. Now that's longevity in a day and age when emails are frequently deleted upon receipt.
In a nutshell, to increase the shelf life of your alerts and newsletters, include links to resources (even if they do not appear on your website) to which your readers will likely wish to refer back to in the future.
For a sample issue of Workplace News, click here.
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