Email Marketing Campaigns Across the SSDI Client Lifecycle

Introduction

Email is arguably the oldest form of digital marketing. It has been around for more than 30 years. Its staying power rests on how it helps build lasting relationships with your customers by providing tailored, valuable content that meets their needs and interests.

According to multiple studies, the average ROI for every email marketing comes out to be anywhere between $36 to $40 for every dollar spent. The reason behind this is that email marketing serves as a major driving force in moving prospects forward.

In this article, we will examine how SSDI firms and advocates can leverage email marketing campaigns to inform applicants and clients at various stages of the customer journey:

The SSDI client journey is like a conveyor belt that places the prospect on a positive path. At each stage, SSD marketers need to put themselves in the prospect’s shoes by answering the question: how would you like to be treated as a customer? What turns you off? What motivates you to move forward with an organization?

Email Marketing for SSDI Firms

SSDI firms and advocacy groups, like many businesses, invest in capturing leads through a variety of online and offline channels. Branding and advertising campaigns, for example, are two of the most effective ways to generate traffic, subscribers and leads for most firms.

Once these firms capture a prospect’s contact information and consent, the challenge shifts towards segmenting your contacts into lists based on their lifecycle stage and providing valuable information to help move them through the customer journey.

The primary aim of email marketing is to establish a line of communication between the SSDI firm and the prospect. A set of well-timed emails are utilized at different points of contact, gradually drawing prospects closer until they convert into clients and then advocates (happy clients who tell others about your services).

Achieving this requires meticulously crafted messaging that informs, reassures, and prevents drop-offs, making the whole process appear more like a fine art than an automated system.

The SSDI Client Lifecycle

The SSDI client lifecycle is vastly different to other sectors given the painstakingly lengthy process to receive benefits. For the simplicity of our discussion, we will categorize prospects into four stages of the client journey.

Subscriber

Someone interested in your firm but is not ready for a conversation with your intake team. They reach this stage after subscribing to your blog, newsletters, or through lead magnet (a website tool or app) in exchange for their contact information.

Lead

Someone who has expressed interest in your legal services either through a web form or phone call.

Client

Clients, or individuals who have either completed the intake process or signed a contract to be represented by your firm.

Client Advocates

Those who have received their disability claims through your representation.

Each stage of the SSDI client lifecycle has its own unique goal, requiring a specific email marketing approach to achieve it.

Email Campaigns for Subscribers

Leads are generated once a prospect has provided some form of personal information, often an email address obtained during sign-up or opting-in.

Upon reaching this stage, it is critical for SSDI firms to start a proactive marketing approach from this point onwards and employ effective lead nurturing strategies to prevent them from disengaging.

The objective for this email campaign is to introduce your firm, outline your expertise in SSDI claims, and set expectations about the kinds of information and support they can anticipate.

Use initial interactions to collect more information about their specific conditions or interests to tailor future communications.

SSDI firms can include multiple call-to-action areas within their email to encourage more engagement.

Email Campaigns for Leads

Client intake typically starts when an anonymous user or subscriber agrees to speak with the intake team about their case. This occurs when they request a legal consultation through a web form or by calling your firm directly.

Here, the firm has obtained details beyond just their name, such as contact information, location, age, disability or impairment, basic employment and treatment status, and confirmation that the person is seeking representation or help with an initial application.

To maximize the contact and conversion rate of potential applicants at this stage, email communication needs to go out immediately after someone has submitted a web form. These messages are needed to prepare the applicant for the consultation, outlining what documents to bring and what to expect during their appointment.

Communicate the value of your services and the successes you have achieved for others in similar situations by sharing case studies and testimonials from past clients to build trust and credibility.

The most successful firms build a series of 3-5 emails, along with 3-5 call attempts.

Email Campaigns for Clients

No SSDI law firm assumes this is the easy part. Now considered as an active matter, law firms in fact pour all their energies into this stage.

It will be a long fight ahead, and the law firm and applicant must deal with a new set of challenges that can sometimes lead to clients giving up.

In consumer marketing, retention emails often function to maintain customers’ interest in their product or service.

But in SSDI, retention emails involve providing critical positive reinforcements to maintain client motivation and morale.

We’re not just talking about building customer satisfaction or piling up points for loyalty here. SSD clients are often experiencing difficult emotional and financial circumstances and understandably need to see progress and engagement. In fact, failure to do so contributes to one of the biggest challenges firms and advocates face, client drop-off.

“In SSDI, retention emails involve providing critical positive reinforcements to maintain client motivation and morale”

But how can you personalize your client communications when you have hundreds of clients? This is where email marketing tools shine. If SSDI firms and advocates are diligent about carefully capturing and curating the information profile of each client, these automation platforms can insert personal information into an email message that will appear highly personalized.

For clients, such “personalized” email messages are therapeutic. It helps them fight anxieties, depression, and hopelessness, especially when the case drags on for months—even years.

However, clients should not feel that they are just sitting on a conveyor belt and going through the motions. By combining personal touch points like periodic phone calls, mailers, and other initiatives such as events or webinars, firms can minimize client drop-off and help people get the disability benefits they deserve.

Email Campaigns for Client Advocates

Imagine you just crushed it for a client. High fives all around, right? Case closed, time to move on!

Your job isn’t done when the gavel falls. Those clients? They’re not projects, they’re people. And like any good friend, you need to keep in touch!

Show them you still care – a quick check-in, a birthday wish, even a request for a review. Glowing reviews are priceless.

By going the extra mile and reminding them you still have their back, you’ll turn satisfied clients into your biggest fans. Remember, happy clients become walking billboards – and that’s yield’s better results than any dusty old ad in a phone book. So, keep the conversation going, show them you appreciate their business, and watch those referrals roll in!

Summing Up

Again, we need to emphasize that email marketing campaigns are not a rigid system that automatically runs its course across various contacts, leads, and clients.

The best strategies strike a fine balance between art and science. On the one hand, it is about empathy and looking at it from the perspective of SSD applicants and on the other it’s about capturing the right data and leveraging technology.

Email Campaigns with DL Marketing

Email marketing is a cost-effective way for SSDI law firms and reps to nurture leads and help them move them forward. Disability Law Marketing offers comprehensive SSD growth consultation for growing firms. Contact one of our growth strategists today!