Selecting the right advertising medium: Yellow Pages

 
Of all the advertising media, the Yellow Pages is one of the most effective. Unless prospects have a piece of your collateral in-hand, the phone book is one of the first places they’ll look to find an attorney. At this point, which is more effective is probably a toss-up between the phone directory and the Internet, but we’ll get to that medium later.

It’s almost essential to be listed in the phone directory if your clients are primarily individuals rather than companies and it’s a good idea to have an ad that provides basic information about your firm, such as areas of law, address, phone number, free first consultation, etc. in addition to your basic listing. But, you don’t need to have the biggest ad in the directory to be successful. The other strategies in your marketing plan will give you much more flexibility and generate more new clients than a huge ad in the Yellow Pages.

To maximize your exposure, you’ll also want to consider listings in all the directories that cover your geographic area and all the sections of the directories which cover the areas of law you practice. This means you could spend a lot of your marketing budget on phone directories, but don’t spend more than necessary to be consistent with your business plan and objectives.

Selecting the right advertising medium: Radio

 
Radio is a much more cost-effective way than television to reach a large, yet targeted, audience. The spots are inexpensive to produce and can be changed easily so you can try a variety of different ideas to see what works best.

You can also target your audience much more effectively. If your demographic information bears it out – and this can be as simple as a couple of questions asked of your current clients – you can probably find a station, a segment and a time slot that fits your needs.

Selecting the right advertising medium: Television

 
Inevitably, there are a few attorneys who feel that television is the best way to reach their audience.

That may be true, but with the production costs to create a decent commercial and the cost of air time, it will have to bring in a lot of new business to pay for itself. If you add it all up, it’s probably less expensive and more profitable to go door-to-door handing out brochures to strangers; something else I wouldn’t recommend.

If you watch legal television advertising, you’ll see that most of the ads don’t run very long, a sure sign that they’re not producing clients. If you find one that continues to run month after month, pay close attention to it; they’re doing something right. You still may not want to put your money into television, but you can probably pick up some tips to make your own advertising more effective.

Selecting the right advertising medium

 
Once you know what you want to say and to whom you want to say it, it’s time to select the best advertising medium to communicate that message. Each has advantages and disadvantages depending on who you want to reach and what you want them to do.

What’s in your business plan: Promotion Strategy

 
Promotion is how you intend to tell potential clients about your firm and its services. It can include advertising, public relations, membership in civic and trade organizations or even the country club. Anything you do that puts you in a position to generate new business from your target audience can be considered as promotion.

It’s the most obvious of the four P’s of marketing and the one we usually think of when we think of marketing, but product, price and place are essential as well and should drive all decisions about promotion. After all, if you don’t first decide what you’re selling, for how much and to whom, no promotion will save you!