Sending out an email newsletter is one of the best ways to stay in touch with your network, build your brand, bring in leads, and generate referrals. This is common knowledge among owners of solo and small law firms, but many of them still don’t hit the send button — why? 

If you’ve never put together a newsletter, the prospect of spending time and effort to create one might be intimidating. However, the process is much easier than you think. In less than an hour, you can create a DIY email newsletter that will take you only minutes to maintain each month. 

1. SIGN UP FOR A PLATFORM

There are plenty of email newsletter platforms to choose from, and you can create an account for little to no cost. I prefer Mailchimp, but Constant Contact and Zoho Campaigns are great options, too. 

2. CHOOSE A TEMPLATE

Don’t waste your time building a newsletter from scratch each time. Just about every platform offers newsletter templates, complete with visual editors. All you have to do is customize the colors, add your logo, and fill in the content the first time. Every time after that is just copying/pasting the new content.

3. DRAG AND DROP YOUR EXISTING CONTENT

You also don’t have to have exclusive content for your newsletter: Simply pop in the blog posts and videos you’ve already made and rotate them each month. You can even add a section for firm announcements and specials.

4. CREATE AND MAINTAIN AN EMAIL LIST

You need to add the email addresses of your past and current clients, referral partners, and other contacts to your chosen platform. If you’re lucky, your office CRM like Clio will give you the option to export your contacts and integrate them automatically. After the initial input, make a note to add new addresses each month from leads you’ve generated, people you’ve met networking, and more. 

5. SEND THE NEWSLETTER MONTHLY! 

As you’re going through this process, remember that your newsletter doesn’t have to be perfect. Something is better than nothing, and you can improve it over time. Sending it monthly is also a good cadence—that’s only 12 times per year! And yet each time you send it out, you will likely receive referrals and requests for repeat business. That means the few dollars per month you spend on the software could yield a MASSIVE ROI.