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YELLOW PAGE ADVERTISING FOR LAWYERS, COST EFFECTIVE?

by Philip L. Franckel, Esq., President 1-800-HURT-911, Inc.

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Yellow page telephone books are distributed within small geographic areas.  There are generally two types of telephone books.  The smaller community telephone books are very small, representing just one or two villages.  The larger telephone books usually reach a county.  Costco is able to offer low prices because they buy products in very large quantities.  Similarly, the more people advertising reaches, the less it costs per person, but the more it costs overall.  Advertising in a county-wide yellow page telephone book is more cost-effective than in a village yellow book, but more expensive.  Advertising on radio will reach more people than a yellow page book, while advertising on local TV will reach more people than radio.  The most expensive and most cost-effective advertising is national TV which will reach the most number of people.  Chances are that you don't practice nationally and the most number of people within your geographical area of practice will be reached by local TV advertising.

The public's perception of television gets the votes for Most Authoritative and Most Exciting.  Both influential and persuasive, TV wins over other media, in both categories, by a wide margin among Adults 18+. TV scores 81.8% in the Most Influential category, with newspapers a distant second at 8.5%. TV scores 66.8% Most Persuasive with newspapers, again a distant second at 14.2%.

An effort by yellow page telephone book publishers to find additional real estate to produce more revenue has led to additional advertising appearing in the form of card stock with a tab protruding from the telephone book; advertising on the front, back and spine of the telephone book; inside the front and back covers; and even Post-it Note^® style stickers glued to the front and back of the yellow page book.  Due to so many lawyers with full-page yellow page advertisements, lawyers looking to stand out have raced to the covers.  The problem with this type of advertising is twofold.  First, it is more expensive since you will be paying a premium price for increased visibility.  The second and most important is that I heard from one lawyer who moved to the back cover, after his inside page wasn't performing as well as it used to, that the back cover resulted in a substantial increase in calls, but almost all the calls were unrelated to personal injury.  His biggest complaint was that because the yellow page telephone book is only distributed once a year, he continued to receive calls throughout the year that were unrelated to personal injury and were annoying him and his staff.  Additionally, he was annoyed that he had to continue to make monthly payments for advertising that he would've paid to get rid of.

The front cover or back cover of the Yellow Pages is a good way to substantially increase calls.  People will see your ad and won't have to look inside.  If you limit your practice to personal injury, this can be a problem.  Even if you practice in other areas, this will still be a problem.  Why?  Because you will receive a substantial increase in calls, mostly from people looking for a $400 divorce or bankruptcy.  They will all want to tell you a 30 minute story.  You have to let them know you can't help them, but you can't be rude and rush these people off the phone because they could have a serious injury in the future.  The answer is to advertise a vanity phone number that is specifically for personal injury.  For instance, with 1-800-HURT-911, you will only get calls for injury cases because of the word HURT in the number.  When you advertise with 1-800-HURT-911, you will get a free yellow page ad custom designed for your law firm by one of the best yellow page ad designers in the US.

Unlike yellow page telephone books where your advertisement appears next to 10 or 20 others (assuming you can't get the cover), television gives momentary exclusivity.  Only one television advertisement can be seen at a time.  Additionally, broadcasters attempt to separate like advertisers so that two lawyers usually do not appear one after the other.  Furthermore, people with serious injuries are usually either in a hospital bed or in bed at home where it is difficult or not even possible to gain access to a telephone book or the Internet.  Seriously injured people in bed are usually watching TV and will call a lawyer they see advertising on television.

Many years ago, yellow page advertising was far more effective.  There were very few lawyers advertising on TV, there was no internet and there was only one Yellow Pages^® telephone book which was extensively used.  Today there are many yellow page telephone books and in some areas there are as many as four or five.  Most households will keep one yellow page telephone book and throw out the others.  Some people keep using old books and throw out the new ones.  Will your ad be in a book that's thrown out?

Advertising fees for yellow page telephone books have risen dramatically over the years, quite probably due to an attempt to maintain profits, when faced with fixed printing and distribution costs, while advertisers are spread among competing yellow page books and some advertisers have moved to TV.  Today, for the cost of a full page advertisement in just two county yellow page telephone books, you can advertise on TV and reach 20 times the population.  If you were to advertise in all of the yellow page telephone books in all of the counties in your area, you would be spending enough money to afford a substantial advertising campaign including TV, radio and billboards.

Since yellow page advertising is printed once per year and cannot be changed until the next year, it is important that you carefully review your advertising to make sure that it doesn't violate ethics rules.  Additionally, this will also be a consideration if you're planning to move your office to a new address and possibly a new telephone number.  Additionally, some people keep using old books.  These are important reasons for using a vanity telephone number in yellow page advertising.

My suggestion is that yellow page advertising be used only by larger law firms with very large advertising budgets where the yellow page advertising is used to augment branding efforts on TV, radio and billboards.  If you will be using yellow page advertising and you have a vanity telephone number, be sure to use your vanity telephone number in your yellow page ad.  Additionally, make sure that you include your web site address.

If you have decided that yellow page advertising is right for you, there are many more things that you should know.  For instance, if there is more than one yellow page telephone book in your area, how do you know which one to advertise in?  Choosing the right book can result in a good experience however, choosing the wrong book can result in a quiet telephone.  For assistance with your advertising campaign please contact Philip Franckel at www.HURT911.org.