End of Year and Beginning of Year Sales in the Legal and LegalTech Worlds
The end of the decade is upon us. By the time this article is released, there will only be 12 days left in the year. Leaving only a short time to wrap up those end-of-year sales and close the year strong. Do not be worried, with such little time remaining, we’re also going to give you some insights for starting 2020 strong.
By the time you read this article, you may be wondering, is there anything you can do to make sales in the last 12 days of the decade? Yes. You can. You can still make sales in the last 12 days of the year.
End of Decade Email Campaign & Promotion: If you get to work the moment you read this article, you can create a multi-email campaign, offering an end of decade promotion. Why “end of decade?” It stands out a little better than “end of year.” Many companies will be sending a variety of “end of year” email campaigns. If you offer something slightly different, it will resonate better with the recipient of your offer.
This is the perfect time to offer incredible savings to your customers.
Using a catchy subject line about the decade coming to an end with a really great offer, you can close some significant end-of-year sales.
Whether you are a legal technology SaaS company subscription-based service or a family law attorney who knows many people look at starting the New Year with a divorce, this is the time to make an offer your customer cannot refuse.
For example, WordRake, a legal technology software company that helps you write and edit for clarity and brevity, recently offered a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale. Offering forty percent off their one-year or three-year subscriptions. My friend, Ivy B. Grey, is WordRake’s Vice President of Strategy, so I was lucky to receive some commentary on this sales offer. Ivy described this promotion as hugely successful! They tripled their sales volume for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion.
Forty percent off is a huge savings. The thing is, WordRake rarely offers discounts on their services. This was a calculated move to close the year strong. The added benefit helps incentivize customers, who may be on the fence about purchasing the service, to decide. After that, you now have customers who learn the benefits of the service by using it at a discounted rate. If they love the service, and I’m certain they will, they’ll be hooked and more likely to renew.
Many companies do not like offering discounts, so they offer discounts which are not convincing enough to close significant sales. You have to think of this as a way to get users. Bring customers in at a discounted rate so they have a chance to see the value of your service.
My employer Experts.com, an online marketing platform for expert witnesses and consultants, just completed an email marketing campaign for the month of November. We called this our “gratitude” promotion. To show our gratitude, we sold memberships for 15 months, instead of 12 months. In essence, the price of the membership stays the same, but customers receive a twenty-five percent increase in the membership term. To make this discount more convincing, we offered to grandfather-in the membership term. Now as long as those members continue renewing their membership, they receive a 15-month term for as long as their membership remains active. I can tell you from experience, this is a very successful offering.
Now back to your promotion with only twelve days left in the year. As we did with our “gratitude” promotion, I’d like you to think of something catchy, hence the “end of decade” promotion. Something that grabs the recipient’s attention. For purposes of this article, I’m assuming readers are using email automation software. If you are not, that needs to be one of your first investments in the New Year.
Choose your discount amount for the end of decade promotion. If you’re looking to end the year strong, I would encourage you to offer a fairly significant discount. You’ll want to hit your email list with at least 3 emails in the 12-day period. There are some difficulties with this given the holidays. So, I encourage you to get the first email out on December 20th.
The follow up email, letting your recipients know there’s only a few days left to take advantage of your compelling offer, should probably be sent out on December 26th. A lot of people will be in the office the day after Christmas because Christmas is in the middle of the week this year. Finally, I would send out the third email on December 31st. New Year’s Eve is in the middle of the week, so many people will still be working. This final email should include a clear and convincing call to action. Let your recipients know the “promotion ends today!” Or, this is “their last chance to take advantage of huge savings before the new decade begins.”
Take this suggestion and go out and close the decade strong!
New Year Email Campaign & Promotion: Starting the New Year off with a promotion is not going to be the best option for all businesses. It will really depend on what, and to whom, you’re selling. Think about your buyer. In business-to-business sales, you may have more success by offering a New Year special. If you are a business-to-consumer service, depending on your target market, buyers may be tapped out and tired of spending after the holidays.
As I indicated above, there are some audiences who may do well with a New Year promotion, namely family law attorneys and legal technology companies offering divorce services. With many people looking to start the New Year by uncoupling, it might be beneficial to offer a New Year discount knowing in advance that January is a big month for divorce.
The New Year discount is really going to be based on your buyer’s persona. If you are selling direct-to-consumers, you may wait to do any promotions until later in the Year.
February Email Campaign/Promotion: In the US, we have Valentine’s Day (a romantic celebration) in February. Normally, it’s a good idea to offer a promotion in parallel with an identifiable day or holiday. With that being said, our example of divorce promotions is not a recommended offer as a Valentine’s Day promotion.
However, if you are selling a legaltech productivity tool to law firms, this could be a fun holiday to offer a Valentine’s promotion. You can run an email campaign with subject lines like “show your staff how much you care this Valentine’s Day.” Or, “those with a big heart, give their team a simpler workflow.”
As LegalBusinessWorld is a global publication, I’ll offer another promotion that is likely far more fun than Valentine’s Day. For those readers in Brazil, you have some spectacular options for a massive February Carnival promotion. I’ve never attended Carnival, but I’ve heard amazing things. With that said, I should also caution you, I’m not familiar with any cultural sensitivities around the event, so I have to make some assumptions. If these assumptions are incorrect, kindly ignore my advice.
With a national unifying celebration similar to Carnival, I would create an email campaign to begin February 1st and have it end the day before Carnival. In this campaign, I would communicate to your audience with four or five emails, offering a massive discount.
Similar in respect to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday discount offered by WordRake. For such a massive holiday, you can offer a pre-Carnival discount. Encourage your customers to take advantage of huge savings prior to Carnival. Make it a Carnival “blow out” promotion!
Close strong and start strong: The point of this article is to emphasize the value of email sales and promotions. I’m very active on social media. So is my company. Although we make sales through social media, they pale in comparison to the number of sales closed via email marketing. As much as I personally dislike email, there is no doubt about its power and success.
Craft some fun subject lines. Have your promotion coincide with a holiday or other major identifiable event. Employ convincing calls to action. Use this format for your campaign:
First email – Notify your customers about the sale and nurture excitement.
Second email – Reminder that the sale is ongoing and that it is a limited time offer with huge savings.
Third email – Sent a day or two before the final email, or in some cases the third email will be the final email (i.e. “end of decade offering”). Reminding them the offer is ending soon, emphasize the date the offer ends.
Fourth email – Last day to take advantage of the offer. Make it clear that the promotion ends on the day of this email and make sure to inform them the date and time the offer ends. The above format is a good guide for email campaigns. Such a campaign should never be less than three emails, and I would caution against sending more than 6 emails within a 30-day period. You want to build interest in the offer. You do not want to anger your customers.
Go out and close the year strong.
About the Author Nick Rishwain, JD, is vice president of customer relations and business development for Experts.com, and primary author of the company blog. He is fully immersed in legal technology professionally and personally. In his own time, Nick is the co-creator and host of a live video legal technology show called LegalTechLIVE. The show has been online for more than 4 years and presently focuses on legal technology startups under one year of age. The show promotes the legal technology journey in an effort to build community. Nick is an avid dog lover.