Yellow Page Advertising For Lawyers - Where Have All The Calls Gone?
Many lawyers are realizing that Yellow Page Advertising no longer works as it has in the past and are looking for alternatives.
With the current economic environment, advertising may be one of the last things you want to be spending money on. The question you want to ask yourself is this; “What am I getting out of this investment?”
In a recent email survey completed by over 30% of our firm’s clients, more than half responded that after doing some research about where their business was coming from and what would work best for them, they chose not to renew their Yellow Page Advertisements. This decision was based on the fact that they were able to get better results from other sources.
If you are currently advertising your law firm in the Yellow Pages and have thought about discontinuing your campaign, here are some things you should consider.
The most common reasons our clients continue their Yellow Page Advertisements include;
1. Reputation - Over half of our survey participants indicated that they have a strong feeling that their business is doing well because their firm name is listed in the Yellow Pages, even though the majority of their client referrals come from other sources.
2. Maintenance of the book - Many firms continue advertising in the Yellow Pages because it allows them to send out a reminder letter to their existing clients once per year to remind them that they have been retained.
2.1 Local Clients - Firms are quick to update themselves on changes in their local legal market. There was a time when they would receive over 100 calls per month from local clients looking for additional legal services. We estimated that up to 40% of those calls come directly from the Yellow Pages (25% search, 13% Referral). Businesses need to be aware of this trend in order for them to correctly evaluate their level of success or failure with their current Yellow Page Advertisements.
2.3 Market Analysis - Firms should analyze their market to determine what sort of advertising would work best for them.
There are some ways to determine how to advertise by telephone in the Yellow Pages. Here are some pointers:
1. How do other firms that have advertising in your local Yellow Pages fit into your market?
2. How many calls, per month, do you typically receive from clients when their business relationship is known? (i.e., the firm that lists you in the Yellow Pages knows who you are and has already referred clients to you).
3. How much business are you losing to lawyers who are not in the Yellow Pages?
These questions should be answered when trying to determine whether your business would benefit from advertising in the Yellow Pages.
As with most adverting, you need to pay close attention to your campaign’s results. With Yellow Page Advertising, it is easy to get caught up in how long you have been advertising and not how effective your spending has been over a longer term. If you have been paying for an ad for many years, look at all of the marketing tools that have been developed within those years and decide which ones have worked best for you.
An effective campaign should never be based on the number of ads that an attorney has bought. It is best to create a campaign that fits a firm’s goals and objectives. Market research can help in determining how to design and run your advertising campaign.
Always keep in mind what kind of client you are trying to attract when considering how you want to advertise your law firm. You will likely be advertising more than one type of law firm, but each ad should be tailored for the type of business the attorney hopes to attract with his or her ad.
Lawyers' Yellow Pages
http://www.lawyersyellowpages.com
Lawyer Advertising in the Yellow Pages
http://www.lawyersyellowpages.co.uk
(2004)
9Muses New Media, Inc., Keyword Ad Structure Performance Data Combined with Content Analysis, A First Look at the Benefits of Yellow Page Advertising for Lawyers, 9Muses Control Center v2.0 User Guide for the Power Analyzer and Content Analyzer (2004). Retrieved August 7, 2006 from: http://www.9muses.com/downloads/YellowPages-UserGuideFinal2-12-03.pdf
http://www2.govexec. com/contracts/lawprof/20041101-1111.htm
http://www.lawyer.com/article/10789037P2F_LAW-a1c1
http://lawblogs.lawyer.com/moderngrid
http://www2.govexec.com/contracts/lawprof_documents-first100.htm
http://www.nacdl.com/Products/NACDL_ADVERTISING_PRODUCT_MANUAL_NACDL.pdf
"Loyalty is a word that most of us agree is important and we certainly expect to be rewarded for it. But when we see that business done in our name, it’s hard to believe that we are not being rewarded for good work but for simply buying what was done for us in the first place."
The Death of the Yellow Page Advertising: How a Scamming Industry Has Taken Over the Local Advertising Market
http://www.lawyeradvertising.com
http://blog.local.com/2006/01/21/a-lurking-dangerous-threat-to-online-local-advertising/
(2006)
Site Owners Unite to Shut Down Lawyer Advertising Networks, Large Sites Move to Terminate Affiliates and Ads, http://www.lawyeradvertising.com, filed Dec 27, 2006
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2022549 (2007)
http://www.blogherald.com (2008)
TBA
'The Yellow Pages: Survival or Extinction?' on the website of the British magazine 'The Lawyer'.
Conclusion of "The Yellow Pages: Survival or Extinction?" on the website of the British magazine 'The Lawyer'.
http://www.nacdl.com/Products/NACDL_ADVERTISING_PRODUCT_MANUAL_NACDL.pdf
http://www2.govexec.com/contracts/lawprof_documents-first100.htm
http://lawblogs.lawyer.com/moderngrid
http://www2.govexec.com/contracts/lawprof_documents-first100..