Segmenting a client list so the writing lands

A firm deciding to keep in touch with its clients usually writes one update and sends it to everybody. The result reads as general, because nobody wrote it for an audience that exists. The same message reaches a developer, a widow and a referring accountant, and two of the three delete it unread. Four segments, taken from fields the record already holds, fix that without any new data entry.

Four segments cover most firms

• Business clients, who care about changes affecting how they trade.
• Individuals, who care about property, family and estates.
• Referrers, who want to know what the firm can take and who to send.
• Dormant clients, who need a reason to remember the firm exists.

Each of those groups wants something different, and each is already identifiable from a field on the contact. A classification separating a company from an individual, a practice area on past matters, and a referral source cover all four between them. Diract CRM filters the contact list on those, so a segment is a saved filter rather than a spreadsheet somebody maintains. The filter also stays current as matters open and close, which no exported list does.

Practice area is the most useful divider

A client whose matters have all been commercial leases has little interest in an estate planning update. Segmenting on what the firm has actually done for somebody beats guessing from their industry. The matter history is a record of interest, and an industry is a guess about it. Diract CRM reads the practice area from the client's own matters, so the segment updates itself.

Write for one segment at a time

A message written for business clients reads sharper than one written for everybody and then softened. It is also shorter, because it can assume context the general version has to explain. A referring accountant needs a different kind of message again. They do not want legal analysis, they want to know what the firm is taking and who to send. That note is short, specific, and it converts far better than the client update they currently receive.

Send from a person, not the firm

A message from a named lawyer the client has met gets opened. The same words from the firm's info address do not. The named sender also gives the client somewhere to reply, and a reply is the point of the whole exercise. Diract CRM sends from a named lawyer and routes the reply back to them rather than to a no-reply address.

Frequency by segment, not one schedule

Business clients tolerate more contact than individuals, and referrers want more than either. Deciding that per segment prevents the compromise schedule that annoys one group and neglects another. Four sends a year to one segment and one to another is a perfectly reasonable answer. One schedule for everybody is how a firm ends up sending nothing at all.

Measure replies, not opens

An open rate tells a firm that a subject line worked. A reply tells it that somebody wants something. For a small firm the second number is the only one worth acting on, and it is usually a handful per send. The purpose is not a campaign, it is a short list of clients who replied and now need a phone call. A firm treating the reply list as the actual output gets more from four sends a year than from twelve.

Consent, bounces and a yearly clean

A client who asked for no marketing must not appear in a segment, and that instruction belongs on the contact rather than in somebody's memory. One field recording the preference makes every later send safe, and it protects the relationship the firm values. A dead address does quieter damage. A firm sending to an old email learns nothing from the silence, and assumes the client received something they never saw. Diract CRM records the bounce against the contact, which turns silence into a correction somebody can make.

Keep the segments honest

A segment nobody has reviewed for two years includes people who have changed firms, retired or died. A yearly pass over the list, checking the obvious, keeps the sending respectful as well as effective. That pass costs an hour for a small firm's list. Sending a cheerful update to somebody's estate costs considerably more.

What to change first

• Four segments come from fields the record already holds
• Past practice area decides the segment, not an assumed industry
• Each message gets written for one segment
• Referrers receive a note about capacity, not legal analysis
• A marketing preference field sits on every contact
• Sends come from a named lawyer, open to replies
• Replies get counted and called, rather than opens