YELLOW PAGES & LAWYER ADVERTISING
Do The Yellow Pages Still Work?

It seems that everyone has been saying that Yellow Page advertising is dead.  The truth is that the Yellow Pages have suffered numerous issues which caused a decline in cost/benefit, but people still use the Yellow Pages.  The ABA Commission on Advertising reported that “Nearly a third of firms advertising in the Yellow Pages do no better than break even.”  Conversely, this means that 2/3 of lawyers are making money from Yellow Page advertising.  It also means that your advertising must stand out from the rest. The internet is only the latest problem, but it will probably never replace the Yellow Pages.  Books won't disappear just because you can read them online.  Just when you think there couldn't be yet another method of advertising, a new type of media pops up.

I wrote an article at www.Lawyer-Advertising-Blog.com covering the reasons why the Yellow Pages used to work so well and the issues facing the yellow pages today.  The biggest problem that lawyers face with the Yellow Pages is that to recoup sagging revenue due to competing Yellow Page books, the Yellow Pages started selling advertising space on the back cover, spine, tabbed pages and even sticky notes on the front! 

It's rare that the back cover becomes available, but if you can get it for your law firm, grab it.  If you think you can't afford it, I can tell you how you can, for a lot less than you think.  If you can't get the back cover, consider a tabbed page and put a vanity phone number on the tab.

You should use a vanity number which is specific for your practice because your call volume will go up substantially for every kind of legal problem, annoying you and your staff.  Branding a vanity number specific for your practice, such as 1-800-HURT-911, 1-800-DIVORCE, 1-800-BANKRUPT or 1-888-DRUG-CRIMES will eliminate unwanted calls.  If you use a vanity phone number, it should be branded in very large type.  I would also put one or more local numbers on the bottom of the page.

Advertising in the Yellow Pages is very different than other types of media.  That's because the Yellow Page book is a reference book and that's why they have such a high conversion rate.  Don’t let the Yellow Pages sales person design your ad.  They sell yellow page ads.  They don't know how to design them. 

When you advertise with 1-800-HURT-911 in the Yellow Pages, we will pay $750 for a full page Yellow Page ad designed for your law firm by one of the best known Yellow Page ad designers in the US.

See Lawyer Advertising in Yellow Pages & TV