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Direct Mail: Just get the Data or Have a Company Do Everything?
There are generally two ways to have a Direct Mail Marketing company help you advertise as a Virginia Attorney: Full Service or Data only. Both methods have their pros and cons but both methods will help you work towards gaining new clients and gradually building your practice and sustaining it for the long term. We will take a closer look at Full Service Direct Mail Marketing as opposed to simply receiving the Data to do the marketing yourself.
Full Service Direct Mail Marketing
When you have a busy practice it is somewhat impossible to look up the names of people that have a pending charge that may need an attorney, find their address, transcribe their name and address into a word document, print them out on a letter you have created yourself, stuff the letter into an envelope, seal it, put postage on it, and mail it out. Doing this everyday for hundreds of potential client leads may drive you mad! Of course, would also include taking into consideration that you still would have to design your letter and the envelope and be sure you continuously have enough postage, ink, paper, and have access to new parts for your printer that will receive a lot of extra strain from the increased workload.
While Full Service Direct Mail Marketing in Virginia is more expensive than simply obtaining the data, all you need to do is pick which types of charges you wish to advertise for and the company will do the rest. The company you select to handle the Full Service Direct Mail Marketing for you will likely have access to advanced software that will verify the names and addresses of the potential clients and will also have the equipment necessary to handle large amounts of letters that are sent out each business day. They can help you design your letter and your envelope and will know what potential clients find appealing so that you get the most out of your direct mail campaign. While you are busy handling talking to clients or busy in court, your direct mail company will take care of your advertising for you and all of the necessary logistics.
Receiving Direct Mail Data
Simply receiving the data of potential clients can be beneficial because, first, it is less expensive than the full service. Instead of having the direct mail provider handle all of the logistics, you handle which potential clients you send an advertisement to. While this method can be labor intensive there are benefits to such a direct mail campaign.
Sometimes there are certain potential clients you do not wish to send mail to. For example, perhaps you have represented a client in the past and there was some animosity. As a result, that potential client may not be someone you wish to reach out to if they have picked up a new charge. Or perhaps a potential client has already reached out to you about potential services and they are simply waiting to get the funds together to hire you. In this case, it would not make sense to send them a letter. After all, they may wonder why you are sending them an advertisement when they have already spoken to you and that may hurt your chances of being retained by them.
In other instances, receiving the data allows you to look up their cases yourself and decide whether it is worth sending a letter to that potential client. For example, let’s say you advertise for reckless driving cases. You look up a person and find they are charged with a high-speed reckless driving charge (no big deal for you). However, after you type their name in on the court’s website, you find they have 4 prior reckless driving charges within the past 3 years. Is this really someone you can help? After all, while you may be able to help them avoid jail time or even a loss of license, it is likely they are already on DMV-probation and will lose their license with any type of moving violation. Consequently, the initial consultation with them, should they call, would have to include discussing with them the DMV complications of a conviction. This consultation may result in difficulty in establishing a meaningful long term attorney-client relationship because there is only so much you can do to help them given their past record.
Finally, most direct mail companies will supply you with the county and court date in which the potential client is charged. The nice thing about simply receiving data is you can look at your calendar and see if you are even available to help them in that county. For example, if you mainly represent clients in Arlington County but also advertise in Prince William County, it is entirely possible that a potential client has a pending charge in that county on a date that you are already in Arlington County. It may not be worth sending mail to someone you cannot help due to your schedule. It is difficult to establish a long term attorney-client relationship when you have to refer them to a colleague and you have wasted money on paper, ink, envelopes, and postage on somebody you cannot help.
Which Direct Mail Campaign is Right for You?
In each instance, you can build your practice for the long term. A Virginia Attorney can really build a robust practice by direct mail advertising because your clients don’t have to find you. Conversely, you are finding your clients and a Full Direct Mail Marketing campaign can help you do that as much as simply receiving the data and doing it yourself. Take a look at what works best for you and pick your method.
Whether you decide for yourself to have the direct mail provider handle every aspect of your marketing campaign or you wish to do it yourself, every Virginia Attorney that handles criminal or traffic cases should have a marketing campaign that includes direct mail because it assists potential clients in finding and hiring an attorney, such as yourself, who is skilled at the area of law they need help with. Rather than a potential client searching on the internet for a criminal or traffic attorney and ending up hiring a civil attorney, you can help ensure they get the right attorney for their charge while also helping you grow your practice.