Text Message Marketing for Law Firms & Lawyers
Text message marketing is a powerful resource for many industries, from retail companies to doctor’s offices and law firms.
Law firms, in particular, have a major need to communicate on a large scale. Most especially law firms that specialize in more than one area of law.
One of America’s greatest exports is its example of justice, and that example wouldn’t be possible without the hard work performed by American lawyers and law firms.
As defenders of justice and equality, having the ability to communicate with clients quickly and efficiently is essential.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing harnesses the power of text message communication tools to distribute marketing, promotional, and transactional communications to a mass audience.
You’d be hard-pressed to find an adult today that doesn’t have a cell phone in their pocket, purse, backpack, or briefcase. It is for this very reason that SMS marketing provides an enormous advantage in capitalizing on communication effectiveness.
Why use SMS marketing?
You should use SMS marketing because of its statistical advantage over other marketing and communication methods.
As we just mentioned, this advantage starts with the mere fact that most customers and people in the world today have phone numbers capable of sending and receiving text messages and phone calls.
Couple that with the mass availability and affordability of cellular service and plans, and you have a recipe for success. This combination of widespread adaptation and availability fuels the success rate of SMS marketing.
For instance, when you send a text message to 100 people, 98 will open it, 45 will respond or engage with it, and it all happens within 90 seconds.
If you’d sent an email to those same 100 people, only 20 would’ve opened it, only six would’ve responded, and it would’ve taken them an average of 90 minutes to do so.
Texting, therefore, has an obvious statistical advantage. These grossly lopsided results are partly due to the psychological nature of cell phone use and ownership.
For instance, three out of four people become anxious when they forget their phone at home or the office, and the same amount of people wake up and check their notifications within 10 minutes. Nearly half of the people surveyed admit to being addicted to their phones.
How can law firms and lawyers use SMS marketing?
Law firms and lawyers can use SMS marketing to significantly enhance office logistics such as appointment scheduling, sending out reminders, sending updates to clients, and billing notices.
Additionally, you can leverage SMS marketing for actual marketing efforts, such as requesting referrals from existing clients or promoting services to potential clients.
Appointment scheduling and reminders
Chances are your law firm is busy, regardless of the size of your firm or market. While being active is an excellent problem, having clients miss their appointments isn’t.
To remain efficient and maximize your availability, texting clients appointment reminders and confirmations is paramount.
TextSanity offers a variety of tools to help your firm accomplish this task easily. Using our marketing calendar, your office staff and paralegals can automate the entire process.
Simply create an appointment reminder text message, assign the message to the correct client via a tag, and set the date and time you want the message sent. Then sit back and let our automation work for you.
Client communication reminders
Staying in contact with your legal clients throughout their legal journey is vital for both them and you. Texting clients improves the attorney-client relationship, as text communications help streamline information.
Missing court dates and failing to provide your law firm with relevant information can cost money and impede the judicial process. With SMS marketing, your firm can send follow-up text messages to clients to remind them of missing data or times to be at your office or court.
Additionally, you can use SMS marketing to send out promotional information to former and prospective clients.
For instance, you may want to run a legal special one month where you’re discounting legal representation for minor traffic offenses or offering free consultations for a limited time.
Texting is the best way to get these promotions in front of the most people and can lead to increased revenue.
Quickly update clients
Practicing law inevitably means there will be times when issues or matters arise that require urgency and immediate response.
For instance, you may have told a client they didn’t need to appear in court only to discover the district attorney is calling their name and needs them present. Failing to appear could lead to fines or worse.
Managing client files is simpler with SMS than other forms of communication, even regarding legal matters.
Streamlining time-sensitive information to clients’ mobile devices ups the chances that they’ll see it, as mobile phones and SMS is most customers’ preferred method of communication.
SMS marketing gives clients the best chance to receive your urgent message quickly.
Invoicing
Representing some clients pro bono is a terrific way to do your part in ensuring fair and equal representation in court under the law. However, your law firm cannot survive without paying clients.
Invoicing and billing can be a complicated tedious logistical necessity for your law firm. Simplify it with SMS marketing.
By texting, you can send an invoice or bill to your clients and accept payments. TextSanity’s platform significantly reduces the amount of human and time resources that need to be involved in this process and makes the function almost entirely automated.
Referral requests
Chances are you’ve been out of town on a business trip or vacation and wanted to find something local to eat. The first place most people turn to for recommendations is Google.
A quick search for places to eat will yield several results alongside user-submitted reviews. We venture to say you read the reviews before you went, right?
Getting reviews is essential to running a successful business, including law practices. You can use SMS marketing to request your existing and former clients to leave reviews about your law firm on Google so that future prospective clients are more likely to choose you over the competition.
We understand how important this is to grow, and our platform provides tools to help maximize your chances of receiving these all-important reviews on Google.
What text messaging tools are available for law firms?
Society today has grown accustomed to interacting with businesses online via ecommerce websites, social media, or text messaging. An effective marketing strategy incorporates these touchpoints to fuel, enhance, and connect.
Text message keyword campaigns
When it comes to text message marketing, keyword campaigns are the foundation.
Before you can send text messages, you need to have a list of contacts to send messages to. Text message keyword campaigns help contacts opt-in so you can send broadcast messages, text message drip campaigns, and even individual messages.
Online text marketing opt-in webforms
Most law firms require basic information about every client, especially information relating to demographics. Likewise, text marketing opt-in webforms are a simple way to collect contact opt-in’s.
Once opted-in, clients become contacts on your TextSanity account accessible via the “Contacts” page. Clients can then be included in any type of broadcast or drip campaign message.
Mass text messaging (Broadcast messaging)
One of the great tools of text message marketing is sending broadcast messages. After contacts are opted-in, you can tag them with a customizable tag which allows them to be included in mass text messages.
These can be any message type from promotional to reminder to invoicing. These messages are great because you can reach a large number of contacts at the same time. Even tens of thousands if needed.
The bottom line
As you can see, SMS marketing is a powerful tool in your communication and marketing arsenal to effectively and efficiently communicate with former, current, and future clients. Managing a law firm is dynamic; as with any other business, it also comes with competition.
SMS marketing can give you an advantage over other law firms and optimizes electronic communication with clients.
Unlike other industries, communication failures in law firms can lead to people losing freedom, having fines doubled, licenses suspended, and lawsuits dismissed. For proper case management, communication is critical.
No effort can provide 100% guarantees about future performance. Still, SMS marketing and business text messaging can help increase the likelihood that important and urgent communications will be received promptly and efficiently.
Additionally, SMS marketing can help increase the number of reviews you get online with Google and helps you reach more people to become clients with your law firm.
Success is measured by growth. SMS marketing can help increase your conversion rates.
Connect with us today and discover how TextSanity can elevate your law firm’s marketing and communications.
