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Case Study Newsletter-based Client Referral Program for Personal Injury Law Firm
Synopsis In the first quarter of 2005, Sandy Green of Isaac Gold & Associates, Lawyers contacted Articulate Consultants on a hunch that her idea to get new business from lapsed clients could work. Sandy's role in the firm involves overseeing its marketing and adversiting and acting as the primary contact for incoming enquiries from prospective clients. Once she spoke with Articulate’s principal consultant, Glenn R Harrington, she felt encouraged that the naysayers with whom she had broached the topic were as wrong in their views as she had hoped.
Indeed, Sandy found the expertise she needed, then proceeded to prove her doubters wrong by issuing newsletters every quarter and seeing them generate referrals that have “much more than covered all of the costs every time” through the years since then. Aside from the names being changed, these are the facts.
The Problem At the core of Sandy‘s problem was the unrelenting fact that, once a personal injury case is settled, the client seldom needs the same firm for legal representation again. This led her to wonder how to get satisfied clients of the past to refer qualified prospective clients today.
She also encountered skepticism. “Your past clients are past clients. Their social circles and influence have shrunk, in many instances. Even those who carry on with basically normal lives have no reason to refer others to you just because you send them a newsletter. Besides, a custom newsletter that would reflect a good image of your firm would cost a lot of money to keep on creating and distributing – plus your time. Don’t even try. It’s just not worth it.” So said the creative director of an ad agency with whom Sandy had discussed the idea. Others concurred.
Even so, Sandy hypothesised that a lapsed client need not be like a burnt bridge, but rather could be a referral generator after their case was settled, if only the firm had a low-cost way to maintain some semblance of a relationship with them. A custom newsletter could be the relationship-maintenance tool and it could specify what referrals were wanted from readers. She just needed a newsletter specialist to provide the expert know-how and help to make a system out of it.
The Solution When Sandy called Articulate Consultants, she understood from her role as her firm’s greeter that she would have to prove her merit as a prospective client. She briefly summarized her marketing and public relations programs and stated that she had already been advised by marketing experts not to issue a newsletter to clients whose cases had been settled. She added that she was willing to follow the advice of an expert, collaborate, contribute effort to the venture, and give it time to prove itself. Most importantly, she wanted a newsletter expert who could prove the concept valid in practice. Harrington accepted her.
Articulate issued an estimate and purchase agreement for custom newsletter services requiring Sandy to follow the advice of an expert, collaborate, and contribute effort to the venture. Sandy signed and returned both, having accepted Harrington’s warning that it takes at least four issues over one full year to make a start toward measurable results.
With Sandy as the signatory and contact person, Isaac Gold & Associates, Lawyers entered a contract for four four-page, full-colour newsletters per year, issued quarterly, printed, and distributed by postal mail. The articles and images of each issue would be laid out within a flexible custom template, written from source material Sandy would provide as agreed in quarterly newsletter planning calls, and accompanied by imagery either provided by Sandy or sourced for her at extra cost, also as agreed when planning each issue. The first issue went out to several hundred clients in the spring of 2005.
How The Solution Is Implemented Every three months, Harrington and Green connect by phone for 30 to 60 minutes. They plan the newsletter to appear in readers’ mailboxes about five weeks later.
Five weeks is the non-rushed timeline that Articulate’s newsletter clients tend to prefer. Green says, “I enjoy getting involved in the newsletter every season. With other things on the go, doing it right just happens to take five weeks. It’s a regular thing, so you should be happy with the process and the result. This timing works for us.” Harrington says, “Quality must not be rushed.” He adds, “While they pay me to lead the process, I know never to push the client.” This is how five weeks tends to be the timeline to develop a custom newsletter with any client, from the planning call to the newsletter arriving in readers’ mailboxes.
Following the planning call, Harrington forwards the outline for the current issue – how the newsletter’s on-going formula for content will manifest in this issue. Green then has one week to approve the outline and to provide source material for the articles plus any photos or other visual elements.
Once the source material arrives, Harrington oversees the writing of the first draft. As soon as the first draft is ready, Green receives it with a prompt for any factual corrections or other improvements toward an approval-ready draft.
The next time Green sees the newsletter, it is approval-ready content ready for layout. Her approval triggers Articulate to make any final refinements, secure any visual elements needed, and forward the newsletter text and imagery to be laid out in the custom design that was created before the first issue.
Sandy soon gets her first view of the Isaac Gold & Associates newsletter as a laid-out proof. She responds with a call to Articulate to discuss any adjustments to make it approval-ready. The goal is to agree on any tweaks for the newsletter to look its best, read well, and perform effectively. This leads to her receiving the approval-ready proof soon after.
When Articulate receives Sandy's approval, print-ready files go to the printer of her choice. The print shop then delivers the printed newsletters to the mailing service. Mr. Gold is pleased to see it, and pleased with the qualified referrals from past clients that it consistently generates.
The Results Each quarter since the first issue in the spring of 2005, this law firm newsletter has reached hundreds of the firm’s clients whose cases have been settled. Sandy knows that the newsletter is appreciated because she gets more change-of-address information than she had ever received before. “This indicates that they appreciate us staying in touch with them and don’t want to stop receiving our newsletter.”
How does she know this? Her clients tell her when they phone in the information, or send in address corrections by e-mail or postcard, that they enjoy the newsletter. When they specify which parts they like, the input reinforces the approach taken to develop each issue and becomes fodder for the planning of future issues. When one called and spoke to Sandy, she reported with a special feeling of inclusion, “Mister Gold writes to me every season, so I want you to know where to reach me.”
In addition to making past clients feel important, and seldom coming back as undeliverable mail, this custom newsletter helps this law firm to stand out meaningfully in the minds of hundreds who know what it’s like to find satisfaction through its good legal representation. Sandy says, “Referrals are up. It has been fairly steady since the first year, too.” Five years of continuing success for Isaac Gold & Associates, Lawyers and for Articulate Consultants. A Canadian, Harrington quips, “Not bad, eh?”
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