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Email marketing should be a core part of everyone’s marketing strategy.

Email marketing is still the most effective marketing channel surpassing social media and SEO. It is simply because people use email more than other platforms.

I find so many B2B businesses aren’t sending emails as often to communicate with their clients and prospects and are instead relying on social media to distribute their content and other information– and this is a big mistake.

There is no better and direct way to reach clients and prospects (if your contact list is updated and segmented) than email. It is particularly important for boutique, small- and mid-size firms to utilize email to stay top of mind with their referrals and clients.

Why? Because it helps you stay top of mind. It also puts the content directly into their inboxes, your name appears front and center in their inbox – whereas on LinkedIn or any other social platform, they may or may not see your post due to whether they are on that social platform at that moment, whether that piece of content gets buried in their news feed due to their settings and LinkedIn’s tricky algorithm.

As I mentioned above, you simply don’t know if or when someone is on social media at any given moment on any given day. And that means they may or may not see your content. But we know business professionals are on their email all day long. That’s why sometimes good old email is the most effective and direct way to reach your target audience.

So, if you write a substantive blog post or article (which you should be doing) or are hosting a virtual event and want to make sure your clients and prospects know about it, make sure to send it directly to your mailing list so you increase the likelihood that they will see it.

You should use email to build upon existing relationships with your clients and prospects by providing relevant, valuable information.

Remember, your clients, prospects, referrals, alumni, media and others who are on your lists actually prefer to communicate with your company through email because it is permission based. The people on your list actually signed up because they want to get updates from you.

A great benefit of email marketing is that it’s incredibly easy to track your ROI. Everything is trackable with the use of email marketing software so you can determine who is opening your emails, who is clicking onto your site through your emails and more.

Thank you to the New York Law Journal and Mid-Market Report for publishing my new article, “20 Ways Small- and Mid-Size Firms Can Appropriately Market Themselves During the Pandemic.”

Your most important job right now is to lay the foundation for when we return to “normal” and also to be ready, willing and able to assist your clients during this time of great change, confusion and stress. Empathy is the single most important characteristic you can have right now to build stronger relationships.

In case you are looking for some “homework” in the marketing and business development area, here are a few ideas to keep you busy during this period. 

It’s a challenging time for everyone in terms of generating new business.

Some clients are reluctant to engage with outside counsel and certain matters have been put on hold with…

We are in uncharted waters right now with the outbreak of COVID-19. Law firms and other businesses are trying to function in a volatile and rapidly changing environment, including adapting to its employees working remotely for the first time. Most of our contact both professionally and personally will be done online for the foreseeable future. So how do you market your company and yourself during this uncertain time? The answer is online.

As so many of us have been forced to isolate and much of the world is on a temporary shutdown, we will be depending on social media more than ever to connect with others, and using online resources to conduct business and network.

Pandemic or not, LinkedIn is the most important social media channel for professionals in any field. While we need to be physically apart at this time, we should not be social media distancing. In fact, we should be leaning into social media and using it to enhance our relationships both personally and professionally. It’s exactly the social glue we need right now.

Content marketing and sharing content via email and social media has never been a more important way to communicate with clients, colleagues, referral sources, recruits and alumni while we are unable to see each other in person. Your goal should be to build stronger relationships and help others through value-added content during this stressful time.

While you should be completely sensitive to current market conditions and create content relevant to what’s happening in the world right now (such as creating coronavirus-related thought leadership and webinars), this is not the time to disappear from your clients — or to suspend your marketing activities. In fact, this is the time to lean in and position yourself as a leader and authority in your respective area of the law.

There are so many things you can do right now to help guide your clients through the coronavirus outbreak using social media and content. Here are some ideas.