Legal Advertising Do's and Don'ts for the Beginning Practitioner

by Terri Olson

I'm going to go out on a limb here and admit that I'm not very enthusiastic about traditional advertising for attorneys. It's not a matter of taste, although it would be nice if some lawyer efforts in that quarter were a bit more restrained. It's simply that I've seen no direct statistics that correlate advertising dollars with good clients retained. So, when you advertise your legal services, keep in mind that the burden of proof is on your advertisement to show that it's worth the money you're paying for it. Never proceed under the assumption that advertising is just another necessary expense: sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. Whether it is or not depends greatly on the type of practice you are advertising, the nature of the advertisement, and where you choose to place it.

With that in mind, here are some basic do's and don'ts for those placing their first series of advertisements:

General caveats. Advertising is expensive. Bear in mind that the big boys, wherever you are located, have a bigger advertising budget than you do. If you place a quarter page ad, they'll place a half-page color ad in response. Be prepared for a continual upping of the ante. If you rely on advertising as the main source of your clients, it will be a considerable ongoing expense.

Be very careful about trying to attract clients through "free initial consultation" or "free phone consultation." While there's nothing wrong with making an effort to get these folks in the door so they can see what a wonderful lawyer and person you are, be aware that many people who respond to such an offer are simply looking for free legal advice. They have no intention of forming a paying client relationship with you. Unfortunately, ethical rules don't generally have "money has changed hands" as a criterion for establishing a lawyer-client relationship. So you may end up having exactly the same ethical obligations towards the person who chats on the telephone with you about his credit problems, or the person who drops in to get free information on custody issues, as you would towards a long-term trusted and paying client.

Keep careful track of how well each advertisement or other marketing effort works. Don't put hundreds or thousands of dollars into a Yellow Pages advertisement without following up the relative success or failure of the undertaking. Every time a new client retains you, find out what made that client walk in the door: was it personal knowledge of you? A referral? Reading the ad? Keep meticulous records and review them from time to time so that you can adjust the direction of your marketing push if need be. (Tip: most case management software has user-definable fields you can use to input any information you want. This is a great place to track the source of the client.) Doing this will also help you distinguish advertising that makes the phone ring from advertising or marketing that brings clients through the door bearing their checkbooks.

Distinguish yourself. Place advertisements that distinguish you from the rest of the legal community (within ethical bounds, of course). If you want to attract clients who are using the Yellow Pages as a source for a lawyer, consider what you need to do to separate your ad and your practice from the dozens of other similar ads that may precede and follow it. What is special about your practice? Is it your specialty area of practice? Is it the kind of service you offer? Is it your prices or payment options? For example, I have seen the following comments in legal ads that I think are very helpful to potential clients: home appointments, evening and weekend appointments, practice limited to criminal defense, MasterCard and VISA accepted, prepaid legal plans accepted, former prosecutor, representing clients statewide, on call 24 hours, free information packet mailed to you, etc. This is all genuinely useful information that serves to separate the firm running the advertisement from all the other lawyers out there.

Use targeted marketing. Target marketing is a buzzword in the advertising industry, and it simply means that you are aiming advertising at a section of the populace that you believe will be more likely to respond positively than will the general population, either because of previously expressed interest or demographics. This is a thoroughly practical concept and one that is easy to implement. An example is running an advertisement in a specialty newspaper or advertising circular aimed at a particular neighborhood, ethnic group, or interest group that you felt would be more interested in you than the general population (e.g., the Black yellow pages, a church bulletin, a newsletter for new arrivals in an area, a journal for ham radio operators).

Target marketing can involve not just advertising to a particular group of individuals, but also advertising through certain chosen media. You may want to limit yourself to neighborhood bulletins or newsletters, or to personalized mailings (please remember to comply with the ethical regulations concerned unsolicited advertisements). An advantage is that you can often trim your costs while focusing your marketing. Generally, it will cost much less to run an ad in a hometown directory or church bulletin than it will to take out a Yellow Pages advertisement in the main Atlanta book.

Photo do's and don'ts. Placing a photograph in your advertisement is expensive, and photos are often counterproductive. What captivates one person about a picture (she's so young! She'll understand my problem -- she's about my age!) may utterly turn off another (she's so young! There's no way she'll have enough experience!). And what if some potential client just decides you're funny looking or untrustworthy, or worse and more insidious, that they don't want someone of your race or sex to represent them?

But, if you must, include photos of the attorneys only: even if there is a caption, it's not likely potential clients will catch on to the fact that of the seven people in the picture, six are paralegals and one is the lawyer. Pictures of nonemployees offered as testimonials are also likely to be misleading and subject you to disciplinary action. Get proofs with the photograph already reproduced for your approval, not proofs with a space where the photo will be: it's embarrassing and a waste of your money to end up with an ad containing a few dark, fuzzy shapes instead of the sharp picture you submitted.

Learn the basics of design, or have the ad professionally designed. It's tempting to save money by laying out an advertisement yourself, but amateurs in the design field have created some jarring and hard-to-follow ads. Typical problems include overcrowded ads with too much text, too many typefaces competing for attention, poor balance, irrelevant and out-of-proportion clip art, and too many or noncomplementary colors. Nonprofessionals are also notoriously poor proofreaders of their own work. Even if you design your advertisement yourself, hand it over to someone else for a quick proofreading and editing session. It will be well worth whatever you spend.

Don't forget the obvious. You can get so carried away with being creative or impressive that you leave out essential information or fail to adequately proofread for correctness. An advertisement without a correct, current telephone number is useless, no matter how clever it might otherwise be. Ditto for the address. (Tip: make sure you know the last date the directory or other advertiser will accept changes, and place that date on your calendar). If you know your office is difficult to find, you may want to include succinct directions (the corner of 5th and Mountain; one block past the courthouse on the right). Including no address, or a post office box only, in your advertisement will of course discourage unwanted drop-ins but may also discourage potential clients, so use your own best judgment. Always list your office hours so that callers will understand why they got the answering service or phone mail at 8:30 a.m.

Teri Olson is the former Director of the Law Practice Management Program.