The simplest explanation for e-mail marketing is that it uses e-mail to communicate your expertise to your customers and potential customers. It's an easy, cost-effective, and a fast way to reach a widely diverse audience. You can publish client-focused newsletters via e-mail for a fraction of the cost of mailing printed newsletters.

You're probably on at least one e-mail marketing list... do you get newsletters from the Legal Marketing Association? Or e-mails from Harry & David, Amazon.com or other online retailers, notifying you of sales?

Amazon.com is a great example for e-mail marketing, because they do a mix of regular mailings (daily deals, for example) and targeted messages based on previous purchases. They distinguish themselves from spam by using an opt-in method where you sign up for any updates you want to receive.

The same basic e-mail marketing concept applies for law firms. You can target your audience based on what newsletters they sign up for; some law firms have distinct newsletters for each practice area. Your goal is to provide the reader with information they want and need, using your firm's brand to remind the reader of your firm's expertise on the subject.

There are, of course, difficulties you may encounter in the process; spam filters and the variety of available e-mail programs top the list. What works for Web site design doesn't necessarily work for e-mail programs, and support for HTML e-mails varies from program to program. In fact, it varies so much that the Email Standards Project maintains reports on how the most popular e-mail programs handle HTML e-mails.

Still, the e-mail programs seem like minor obstacles when you see the tracking and reports available. I'll tell you more about that next time.

-- Frances

Mid-February, we launched a new Web site for Curiale Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP, an employment law firm in California. The new Web site for Curiale Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP ("CHK") is a concise, user-friendly site intended as a resource center for the firm's clients. To see what services and features we incorporated into the site, you can read the case study on their new Web site here.

The launch of the new Web site coincided with the announcement of their firm name change. We worked with them to develop a new brand image that would highlight the firm's creativity and extraordinary depth of knowledge in employment law. You can read the case study on their re-branding here.