You’re considering lawyer advertising on TV, but you’re afraid your law firm can’t compete. You’re probably thinking that you can only afford somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000 per month, but there are two or three law firms each spending $200,000 per month on advertising, monopolizing your market. With the public seeing your competitors’ commercials all day long, can you successfully compete and ensure that your money will not be wasted?

One lawyer I know was doing just that. In a small TV market where three law firms were spending a total of over $5 million a year in advertising, he took a chance on TV using TV commercials made for free by the TV station and advertising his local office telephone number. After two months he didn’t receive even one call and decided to try using a vanity phone number. After looking on the Internet, he found 1-800-HURT-911® which provided him with high-quality TV commercials in addition to the 1-800 vanity phone number. After advertising 1-800-HURT-911, he saw immediate results with a monthly advertising budget of only $4,200 and is now successfully advertising. He began advertising 1-800-HURT-911 on billboards, radio and giveaways. Now he is interested in adding two more TV markets to his advertising campaign.

Yellow page telephone books are distributed within small geographic areas which may be ideal for lawyer advertising, when the lawyer is not interested in clients residing more than 30 minutes from the law office. There are small yellow page books encompassing one or more villages and larger countywide yellow page books. 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 still more people. The most expensive and most cost-effective advertising is national TV which will reach the most number of people.