Many people use HTML emails with images and colorful templates and headers and footers. Their newsletters look like an actual newsletter or magazine. Very professional.
Most of the top marketers, however, use plain text. I do too.
Why? Because plain text emails get a better response.
Email is (or should be) a personal communication. From me, to you. Like I fired up gmail and sent you a personal email.
Even if it’s a newsletter.
For five years, I wrote The Attorney Marketing Letter, a paid subscription eight-page newsletter mailed in a number ten envelope. It was printed on letterhead with the name and address at the top. The paragraphs were indented and the margins were “right-ragged,” not justified. I used Courrier for the font. Each letter began with a salutation, “Dear _____,”.
Just like a real letter.
Today, I try to simulate the affect of a real letter by using all text emails. I don’t use HTML because I don’t want slick and professional. It looks nice but I don’t care about that, I care about communicating with my subscribers and I care about response.
People don’t want slick. They get enough magazines. Their mailboxes are filled with junk mail. If your newsletter looks like it was produced by a graphic artist and a team of copy writers, it is mentally lumped in with all the other commercial messages that flood their mailbox and is deleted with the rest of the junk mail or skimmed and then deleted.
People like getting real letters from real people, and they read them. There’s nothing more important.
You may have great content in your newsletter but you can’t build a relationship with (or sell something to) subscribers who don’t read it.
There’s another reason why plain text emails are important: smart phones. More and more people check email on the little screen in their pocket. They can sometimes read it if its HTML; they can always read it when its plain text.
“But plain text is ugly!”
“Maybe so, but the money it produces is beautiful.”
Do lawyers need a blog?
Sorry, but you didn’t miss much.
From a technological standpoint, not much has changed since I switched to the blog format. I’ve changed the color and layout and added some new plug-ins, mostly having to do with social media integration, but not much else.
My site has grown because I focused on creating content, not on the latest bells and whistles. Content creates value for visitors, allows you to demonstrate your expertise, and brings traffic from search engines and from word of mouth. And so the number of subscribers to my newsletter has grown and the number of blog subscribers has grown and I have continued to sell products and services.
Do you need a blog? If you want to get more clients online I think you do.
A blog has several advantages over a static web site. As you update your content, search engines are notified and they bring visitors. As those visitors see the solutions you provide, they may (a) take the next step toward hiring you, (b) connect with you by subscribing to your newsletter or your blog feed or commenting on your posts, or (c) tell others about you via social media.
Your blog allows prospects and referral sources to see you “in action”. Your content is not just puffery about how great you are it is an exemplar of your abilities. As visitors become familiar with your style and hear your “voice,” as they get to know and trust you, your preeminence grows, your traffic grows, and your client base grows.
You can set up a blog yourself  in about an hour. WordPress makes is easy. There are many free and inexpensive “getting stated” videos available and you can hire people inexpensively to do it for you. Contact me if you would like some referrals.
Once you have your own blog, you control it; you don’t have to wait for tech support to do updates for you, you can do them yourself. It’s as quick and simple as using a web browser. And, other than paying for hosting (under $10/month), it’s free.
What about content–do you have enough to say? Trust me, you have enough. There is an endless amount of material you can supply. Everything from posts about the law and procedure in your practice areas, success stories you helped created, general business (or consumer) advice, guest posts from experts (referral sources) in allied fields, and much more. A post can be as short as a few paragraphs and as simple as you commenting on something you found on another web site or blog or in the news. And you can outsource content creation, too.
A blog may seem to be a big commitment but think of it as the front door to your online office. You won’t be there 24/7 but your presence will be. If you write an offline newsletter, publish articles, or do any public speaking or networking, you are already doing the things that are done online through a blog.
If you have a web site, you have something you can point to and that’s good. But you have to do the pointing. If you want free traffic, you need a blog.