Amie Lawson, CEO @ Email Agency & LawLogic Inc
Amie Lawson
CEO
561-706-7734
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amie-lawson-b4040ba/
Skype: amielaventhall
I'm so excited to feature the legendary Amie Lawson as our featured Female Power Player! As the dynamic Chief Executive Officer of both Email Agency and LawLogic Inc., Amie is a true trailblazer in the business world. With her impressive leadership and innovative approach, she has made significant strides in the legal and performance marketing industries. Read her interview below to learn more about her remarkable journey, her insights into business success, and her exciting plans for the future. You won't want to miss this inspiring conversation!
Your tenure as CEO at Email Agency spans an impressive 14 years, during which you've made incredible accomplishments in online marketing and advertising. Can you give us a high-level overview of what Email Agency does, what sets you apart, and who should reach out to you to work together?
Email Agency has evolved over the years. We obviously started in the email space, hence the name, broadcasting for agencies and name brands like Disney, Hallmark, Nissan, Margaritaville, etc. We grew into legal lead gen due to the fact that when I started in this industry I was in legal marketing; selling lawyers SEO placement and legal directory spots. With so many legal contacts at my disposal, we gravitated to legal lead gen. Over the years, that evolved into providing leads, calls and signed retainers to law firms. In the past 3 years, we have elevated our game and included intake services, a diligent QA process that helps protect firms from fraud claims, and built a custom software platform that we are now beginning to offer to customers.
With your extensive experience in lead generation, email, and data lists, how have you managed to keep the company at the forefront of the industry, and what major changes have you witnessed in the marketing landscape during this period?
While we can work in pretty much any vertical, the majority of our clients are in the legal and medical fields. We work in a very hands on capacity with the law firms and pharmacies we service. Most have been with us for 5+ years and move from one case or medical ailment to the next together. Our clients are more like partnerships, and as a result we get to be in the know on upcoming cases (or new medical products) before most marketing firms. This allows us time to start prepping campaign build outs and landing pages, setting up affiliates and traffic sources, and training reps on the case or product specifics to help them be able to speak to the consumers with knowledge and understanding.
These advantages allow is to be at the forefront of cases with a better experience for the consumers we deal with; and that leads to better results for the clients we deliver them to. We have been seeing a massive increase in fraud in the industry; as a result we were among the first companies to implement a fraud detection process in our QA to help protect our clients. Over the last 2 years we have revised and improved the QA workflow numerous times, as we continue to find better and deeper ways to check for fraud. It is an ever evolving process of course, as fraudsters are continuously coming up with new ways to try to fool us. Buyers who use our full legal QA process have their claimants pass a rigorous 8 check identity and medical verification process before being approved. This has set us apart in the legal vertical and we continue to keep growing this process to stay ahead of the curve and maintain our reputation as a leader in the space.
Navigating the dynamic arena of legal services can be quite challenging, yet you’ve excelled as the Chief Executive Officer of LawLogic Inc. How have you successfully led the company in providing comprehensive services like intake screening, lead generation, signed retainers, and QA services to firms, and what do you attribute your success to in this role?
The legal vertical is completely different from any other vertical. I actually spoke about this topic in a panel at Lead Generation World in January. You cannot treat it like a standard campaign as it is a true partnership with the firms you align yourself with. These cases span years and even when you are done delivering clients, the work is not done for the firm and your responsibility to them is still in play. You have to stand behind you work years down the line. You must also have to have an intense commitment to compliance and take the time to understand LEGAL marketing guidelines, not just marketing guidelines; these are two different things. I have always tried to live a life of honesty and integrity, that has flowed into my work decisions and processes I have built for Email Agency and LawLogic. I believe us doing business this way has led to our long standing relationships with some very successful firms and funders in the space and that has resulted in our steady success through the years.
LawLogic’s recent initiatives, including new legal software and an influencer platform, have garnered attention in the market. Can you elaborate on how these innovations are transforming your business operations and how they are being received by your clients?
After about a year of building and coding, implementing dozens of adjustments and changes, the software platform is now at a point where we are beginning a serious focus and push on growing that service of our company. We have had a handful of clients from the legal, medical financial industries on the platform for the last 4-6 months. We have taken all the feedback and custom needs they shared with us to improve on the first version of LawLogic. With LawLogic 2.0 finally ready, and more robust than we ever imagined, we are excited to have Amanda Farris (our COO) and Patrick Sjoholm (our CTO) now actively doing demos and getting new clients onboarded. Thus far clients and prospects alike have been excited about the LawLogic platform and really enjoyed the fact that it is a lead management system, sales CRM, document storage and case/client management system that covers the full term of the consumer. This means no more fighting with multiple reports from different platforms that tend to not match, when typing to gather company statistics and conversions. Also, you can now have your team work in a single platform, which makes things more efficient and cost effective for the business.
Mass tort campaigns require meticulous planning and execution. What strategies have you implemented to increase the volume and effectiveness of these campaigns, and how does your expertise in mass tort, diabetic, and influencer traffic play a role in this process?
Our detailed vetting of affiliates, consistent communication with them regarding quality and the integrity of their downline, an intake team well versed in the tort process so they help consumers during our intake process and the innovative and deep QA screening all result in the campaigns we run being effective. The campaign being efficient and quality allows for the stability of long running campaigns. Volume is always a bit of a struggle, as we get very large volume commitments from our clients, but we hope our affiliates and traffic providers see the benefit of a stable and long lasting profit with us rather than chasing multiple buyers and smaller budgets that means stopping and starting campaigns which leads to a variety of issues for an affiliate.
With a robust background in various marketing channels, including TV, radio, SEO, and social media, how do you decide which channels to leverage for different campaigns, and what criteria do you use to measure their success?
Honestly we are open to using anything that is compliant and makes sense for the audience we are trying to reach. We base success not on just the conversion rates of a sale/signed retainer but also on the stability of regular volume coming in, the amount of fraud we catch in QA (obviously a high amount of QA rejected consumers for a particular traffic source is not a successful traffic source), the responsiveness of the claimant to the firm in the months after while the firm reaches out about their case and the percentage of medical records that actually verify the injury making their claim valid.
Balancing two high-profile roles simultaneously is no small feat. And, you’re a mom too! As the CEO of both LawLogic Inc and Email Agency, how do you prioritize your responsibilities and ensure both companies continue to thrive under your leadership?
That is something I honestly struggle with every week. I am constantly learning and trying new ways to master this skill better. I have an amazing team that all help me with this, not only by doing their jobs to the best of their abilities, but by all being invested in our company’s success as a whole and going the extra mile when needed. Late nights or a task perhaps out of their department are sometimes needed and everyone is a true team player and pitches in when needed. I am so lucky to have such a talented and committed team behind me.
My top priority is ALWAYS my daughter, but I am lucky enough to have been able to build my company in such a way that when needed I can work from home, from the bus as a field trip chaperone or in line at Disney. Everyone does this now, thanks to Covid, but I was working that way for a decade before that so I could raise my daughter being as hands-on with her as I wanted to be. As a single mom I needed that flexability. Ella grew up watching me work late nights and weekends, so I could do those things with her. I hope I have shown her a solid work ethic that will help her in life. I’ve also made her hands on with the business (so I work and still get time with her) as she has been an intern several times over the years doing things like stuffing swag bags, highlighting call log reports, opening and sorting medical records before they are reviewed and have even attend a few work events with me. I really love when I can make that part happen so she can learn about professionalism, how to speak to people, to be confident and also meet lots of successful and powerful women she can look up to (like all my LinkUnite ladies)!
I am so excited to hang with you and the crew of incredible ladies in Nashville for LinkUnite at the end of June! What are you most looking forward to?
I am beyond excited to get back together with those amazing women! I have to leave the event a day early so I can make it to the legal summit we are sponsoring, but even 2 days at LinkUnite is incredibly beneficial. Not only do I get to learn from the informative and helpful sessions there and from the women there who are all incredibly knowledgeable, but I have made real friendships with many women I truly admire. Just being around them in the LinkUnite setting makes me feel at peace and inspired by them to strive for more and work harder.
Will you be attending this years’ AFFY Awards Gala and legendary Affiliate Ball the night after during Affiliate Summit East in NYC? Is there an awards category you’d want to be nominated in?
I believe I will be there. I have even been thinking about taking Ella with me to ASE to expose her to more of the industry if possible and get some really unique quality time with her. I would certainly be honored to be considered for any of the awards as it would be an amazing experience having my peers feel that what we have accomplished at Email Agency and LawLogic is award-worthy. It would fill me with such pride and joy! Based on last year's categories, I think the ones that would make sense would be maybe Most Innovative Company, Professional of the Year or perhaps Agency of the Year.
Though you’re often traveling to trade shows, what are some of your favorite activities or places to visit during your free time at home in Boynton Beach, Florida? How do these hobbies and interests help you maintain a work-life balance?
I love having family adventures with my husband and daughter. We frequently find fun things to do down in Miami like taking a boat out on the bay or seeing a play or concert and having a nice dinner at a restaurant that has some unique aspect to it (like Barton G’s or Runway 84). We also frequently do BBQ pool days at the house with our close group of friends. My core social group actually includes several members of my team and people in the industry. I have known most of my team for 10+ years and we started as friends and then grew into colleagues. We end up talking shop and brainstorming workflows or campaign concepts while having a Sunday Funday at my house in the hot tub listening to music and watching the kids play. It really is the best of both worlds!
What do you love most about working in performance marketing, and how do you find fulfillment in the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of this field?
I love and hate that performance marketing is always changing. Whether it be new compliance laws to learn and master or a new case starting to learn and build out or a whole new vertical entering the scene…. I love the challenge and the fact that I am never bored. It is a double edge sword though, as that same thing can make you feel like the to-do list never ends or the goal line keeps moving. I think the benefits outweigh the challenges though and this makes me excited for what we will accomplish in the next 5-10 years and how Email Agency and LawLogic will continue to grow and expand.
