The Marketing Attorney Blog

Yellow Pages advertising for lawyers are pricey and competitive. The sales reps for many of these outfits (there are now so many yellow-papered directories with choices and options that you need a rocket scientist to figure it all out) rarely make it easier to compare apples with apples, not to mention get a listing of price quotes and options. I recently dealt with a Verizon rep in one of my law firm customer’s markets that never gave me a straight answer on deadlines, prices or options. When the proofs arrived, they were wrong. Yet, in many markets, the books have the lawyers convinced they have no choice but to do as they are told! Pay up, shut up and be happy you get in the book. If it was up to me, he would have lost the business. Lucky for him.

Remember the following…(1) Yellow Page ads are targeted toward consumers. If you are targeting corporations or small businesses, there are probably more effective ways to spend the cash; (2) you should be able to track calls and clients that get to you via these ads. Figuring out true ROI in this day and age is often hard. In the case of yellow pages, it is usually rather easy to know if you are profiting on the venture. If an ad cost $30,000 and you know that it led to fees of $90,000, well, stop crying. If you received a lot of off-target phone calls, people price-shopping and a few cases totaling three grand, think again; (3) take the time to make your ad stand out and try targeting an audience as opposed to shooting bbs at the side of a barn; (4) price shop among “yellow pages” options in your neighborhood. They players in your city or suburb may differ from my own; (5) be wary of online yellow page knockoffs and telemarketing schemes making you think that you will appear in “your” yellow pages, instead of a poor facsimile.

I certainly do not want the folks at SuperLawyers to think that I’m picking on them. They are doing what you can find in those special advertorial sections of almost every legal magazine these days. Putting together a survey, naming as many lawyers at as many law firms as possible, and selling those great self-congratulatory ads. One colleague told me how he personally called everyone on the nomination ballot to make sure he got as high a score as possible on this recent PA SuperLawyers survey. I perused the list and saw plenty of people that I know are very good and some that are very lame. It is not that exclusive a club—for Pennsylvania, 1500 lawyers in 50 practice areas were named SuperLawyers. You’ve got to make sure you get a bunch of lawyers from every big firm, so you can get a big ad sold.

Here is my advice. First, certainly send out a press release and promote it on your web site. That costs nothing. Second, be sure to point out to the attorney that 1500 people “won”, so do not expect the local TV station to rush out for a full-feature profile. Third, always encourage filling out those surveys. Again, it costs nothing. You might as well get on the list, and use it for promotional purposes. In terms of buying the paid listings or ads, you will notice that very few of the 1500 buy the paid listings or place ads. If you believe that an ad in Philadelphia Magazine hits your target audience, it may well be worth it. I subscribe myself, if that means anything to you. (It should not.) Overall, be wary of anyone that demands money in exchange for a great honor. In my weekend Philadelphia Inquirer, there is an ad for the ten leaders of criminal defense law in New Jersey. If you look at the fine print, you will find that the 10 bought the ad.