Every law firm sends them. Some send dozens. A couple send hundreds. All end up fundamentally in the same place. Clients report they receive so many email alerts saying essentially the same thing. So, here is what clients think about all these emails alerts:

• 64% consider them a necessary inconvenience—they scan for relevance based on the subject line

• 11% find them a waste of time

• 11% have no real opinion or accept them as a part of their role

• 14% like them

Of this group, 78% will read an email alert with a cover note including some specificity from an attorney they know or with whom they work.

Getting Clients to Read Your Email Alerts

The most successful email alerts offer user-selected personalization and are delivered in bite-size chunks. Otherwise, they risk falling off your client’s screen—or worse—into spam or blocked. Here is what clients want:

• Bullet point executive summaries

• Bullet point conclusions

• Conclusive titles

• Digests and summaries, unless the insights are timely or urgent

• Pertinent information only

• Summaries of surprises or unexpected insights

• Pinpointed exclusions to regulations

• Prioritization by the content’s importance

Clients describe email alerts as thick paragraphs of text with descriptive titles. Rethinking how you message and present your content can be the difference in creating a valued digital dialogue and delivering descriptive text.

As I discuss above, 64% of corporate counsel read email alerts because they feel they have to—your challenge is to make them want to. And want to read yours.

MBR