Revisiting Old World Marketing: The Yellow Pages

I always enjoy getting the new phone book each year, just to see which personal injury lawyer purchased the biggest yellow page ad or the first yellow page ad in the "Attorneys" section of the Yellow Pages. I also enjoy seeing the lawyers that try to place higher than me (you know, last name Abril) in the White Pages by using a dubious dba, such as "AAA- Accident Attorney Clinic" or "An Accident Law Firm." I personally supported my law firm's decision a few years ago not to purchase any Yellow Pages advertising because the prospective clients who called us after seeing our Yellow Pages ad either could not afford us or were not looking to hire an attorney. Instead, they were seeking free legal advice. My law firm is back in the Yellow Pages if for no better reason than some people thought we had gone out of business because they did not see our Yellow Pages ad.

If your firm advertises in the Yellow Pages, encourage the Marketing Coordinator to also purchase single line reference ads for each professional in the firm and locate that reference ad under a particular practice area heading. In this way, the calls you get are focused to what you're doing. It doesn't necessarily matter that you do not possess all of the skills sets you hope to have in that area in say 10 or 15 years. Yet, a Yellow Page ad that identifies you with a practice area will prevent calls coming to you that are 180 degrees from the type of work you have done already in your brief career.

Further, if your firm's Yellows Pages ad identifies particular practice areas or services offered, then mention to your firm's Marketing Coordinator that a particular person in the firm with experience in that practice area should be listed next to the practice area. The thinking for placing a professional's name next to a practice area is that prospective clients are more likely to call the firm and ask for a person than to call the firm and ask for the person that handles a particular practice area. In our firm, a partner who has been a trial lawyer for most of his professional career has been listed as the contact for Corporations and Partnerships calls because the Business Litigation spot was taken and the person who handled Corporations and Partnerships was already listed next to Taxation. Associating this trial lawyer next to Corporations and Partnerships looked odd, but I now understand the rationale.

As a junior person in your professional firm or practice, you probably do not have any say on whether your firm advertises in the Yellow Pages. That should not stop you in making suggestions to the Marketing Coordinator how your firm's Yellow Pages advertising can be more effective or whether a smaller ad should be used instead so the savings can be used in other media formats. In an age where there are so many creative (and often less expensive) ways to promote your firm, I would have serious reservations about the "forward thinking" of my firm if the Yellow Pages were the firm's sole promotional device. On the other hand, Yellow Pages advertising has been a promotional vehicle for business for over fifty years and will continue to be the foundation for business promotion for at least a few more years. Accordingly, encourage your firm to strive for a unique Yellows Pages presence, rather than simply having a presence.