Kirkpatrick Creative, an advertising agency representing law firms, says probably not.

Not surprisingly, it seems that print yellow page phone books still work. Usually, when a new form of media arrives on the scene, it doesn’t replace another form of media but just adds another dimension.

One caveat is that I’m not sure how long yellow page phone books will continue to be printed. But as long as they are printed, they will probably still work.

Unfortunately, for lawyers who don’t have an enormous budget, adding more and more avenues for advertising just makes it more and more expensive. If your law firm can’t afford to advertise in every type of media, you’ll have to choose which ones work best for your law firm or area of practice.

Kirkpatrick Creative said of 15,408 leads generated for their clients during the last three years, 43% came from the printed phone book. —And that’s as of August 2016!

Most interesting is that Kirkpatrick Creative said that more than one third of phone book leads came from paid phone book advertising. The interesting part is the corollary — almost two thirds of those leads came from free listings in the phone book.

This shows that if your law firm doesn’t have a budget for advertising, you should at least take advantage of free listings in the phone book. If your law firm has a large budget, don’t rule out the Yellow Pages and make sure your law firm is listed in the white pages.

If your law firm budget can afford it, paid yellow page phone book ads should still be a serious consideration but your ad has to stand out.

I only like the back cover but whether you’re on the back cover or inside the phone book, your ad should be designed by a professional yellow book ad designer, not the yellow page salesperson. Ask your advertising agency to have it done for you.

Use of a vanity phone number is also important because of its impact and branding.

This is an example of a professionally designed yellow page phone book ad that has many features designed to make the phone ring.

Some of the important design elements in this yellow page ad are:

• Top headline says “Local Lawyers Working for You”
• Use of a vanity phone number across the top as a prominent feature for branding
• Tells the reader to call anytime, day or night
• Tells the reader why they should call, to “Know Your Rights & What They’re Worth”
• Use of the headline Accident Central with more information in the box
• Professional photo of the partners
• Displaying the vanity phone number again at the bottom of the page
• Displaying a numeric local phone number at the bottom right of the page

Also apparent from Kirkpatrick Creative’s data is the fact that people look for lawyers in the Yellow Pages and in the white pages for lawyers whose name they know.

While people are still using the printed phone books, they also use online yellow page directories. Make sure your law firm is listed in online yellow page directories and attorney directories.

When the yellow pages calls to sell you an ad, you might want to give it some thought before saying No Thanks.

Bar 3 Bar-B-Q, a Montana restaurant, found themselves listed for free under the “Animal Carcass Removal” section in the local yellow pages after they refused to buy an advertisement in the phone book.

The listing was a featured joke on the Jay Leno TV show. Bar 3 Bar-B-Q alleged the salesman intentionally placed the free listing because of their refusal to buy an ad and Bar 3 Bar-B-Q’s parent company, Big Sky Beverage Inc., sued the yellow book publisher Dex Media Inc. The suit was settled confidentially.

Hopefully, your law firm won’t be found under waste removal!

Update: The Yellow Pages are nearing an end and marketing guru (former giant in the Yellow Page industry) Dick Larkin has a new website for marketing Commandomarketing.com

I’ve wanted to write another article about the Yellow Pages, but want to get a quick note out about a FREE webinar tomorrow (the webinar is over, but you can still read useful yellow page and marketing information by Dick Larkin).

The webinar is moderated by Dick Larkin, the Yellow Pages Commando who is a nationally known expert who formerly worked in the Yellow Pages industry and for the last couple of years has been a proponent of online “yellow page” advertising.

I believe he has found that the print version is not yet dead and he promises to provide some very interesting and useful information. The webinar will also include several experts from the Yellow Pages industry.

I have attended several of Dick’s free webinars and they are very informative. In fact, I’m upset that I missed the last one. If you’re lucky enough to read this before tomorrow, you can sign up for the free webinar at the top of the page just under “Register Here”.

Just like a lot of people told me that TV advertising was coming to an end, many people seemed to think that the Yellow Pages would come to a quick end. While the Yellow Pages have seen a few bumps in the road, and may eventually disappear, I believe they still work well now.

I get calls every week from lawyers saying they’re not getting calls anymore from yellow page advertising. They don’t want to continue wasting their money, but they’re afraid to stop advertising and lose their spot. They want to know what’s going on and what to do.

Apparently, lawyers are not the only ones. In his article “Quit wasting money on Yellow Page advertising” by Peter Fernandez, D.C., a yellow page, print advertising and practice management consultant for chiropractors, Dr. Fernandez answers the question, “Why has advertising in the Yellow Pages changed from one of the best ways to advertise to one of the worst in just a few years?”

Additionally, Dr. Lynella Grant, author of “Yellow Page Smarts Snags More Callers” in her article “Yellow Page Advertisers: Your Calls are Going to Decrease – Here’s the Remedy” states, “Response rates to Yellow Page advertising are declining. There’s no getting around it, traditional Yellow Pages are in trouble. Fewer people use them every year. Even the best-pulling ad in the section isn’t getting the number of callers or sales it used to. At the same time, the monthly cost to maintain your same-size directory ad keeps going up.” “Some (like contractors and lawyers) are declining more steeply than others.”

Since 1976 through the 1980s, yellow page advertising was very effective. Why? The Yellow Pages and classified newspaper ads were virtually the only place a potential client could find a lawyer advertising; there were very few lawyers advertising on TV; the internet was unavailable to the public; there were fewer lawyers advertising in the yellow pages; until the Bell system breakup in 1994, there was only one yellow page book; and the cost per household was less than it is today. Today, all of these factors have changed and the combination has substantially reduced a lawyer’s return on investment from yellow page advertising.

There are now several county-wide yellow page telephone books for each county. If that’s not bad enough, there are also several competing village or community yellow page books. Most people keep only one yellow page book and throw out the others. I get two yellow page books and noticed that I keep the last book dropped off and throw out the one that came before it. Some people even keep using old books and throw out the new ones. Even if someone has two or three yellow page books, it is highly unlikely that they will look in all of the books. If your ad is in only one book, it may not be in the one that’s used!

To ensure that your ad is seen, you need to spend even more money to advertise in all of the yellow page books in your county. If you do business in more than just one county, you need to advertise in a lot of yellow page books. But, if you’re losing money from advertising in one yellow page book, your losses may be compounded by each book you advertise in.

Advertising fees for yellow page books has risen dramatically over the years. Yellow page publishers have been losing advertisers and revenue to competing yellow page books, TV, and the Internet, yet they must still print and distribute the same number of books. Faced with loss of revenue, rising printing, distribution, sales and overhead costs, yellow page publishers have had only two methods of increasing revenue. The obvious one was to substantially increase advertising fees.

Less obvious, yellow page phone book publishers uncovered new real estate to sell in their yellow page books creating even more competition within the books and diverting consumers from traditional inside page advertisements. Advertising is now available on card stock with a tab protruding from the telephone book; the front cover, back cover and spine of the yellow book; and even Post-it Note® style stickers glued to the front and back of the yellow page book.

It has long been recognized that the first few pages in front of your category produces many more calls. Now when a lawyer is advertising on the outside of the Yellow Pages book, Yellow Page users don’t even need to look at the first page in the category. Ironically, this method of increasing revenue is doing more harm than good to the Yellow Page books. By placing a lawyer on the back cover and another on tabbed card stock, the publisher is diverting business away from the 30 or 40 other lawyers in the attorney section and rendering the entire category useless.

The proliferation of lawyers advertising on TV has also diverted callers from yellow page advertising, particularly callers hurt in an accident and particularly those with serious injuries. Since upper income clients usually know a lawyer to contact when they need one, most callers from advertising are lower income. Since personal injury lawyers charge a contingency fee, this is one of the few areas where a low income client is attractive to a lawyer advertising on TV. Consequently, the majority of lawyers advertising on TV are personal injury lawyers. Callers with serious injuries are usually in bed either in the hospital or at home where it is difficult or not even possible to gain access to the Yellow Pages or the Internet. Lying in bed, it is much easier to call one of the lawyers advertising during almost every TV show.

Why else have lawyers rushed to advertise on TV?

With the return on investment disappearing from yellow page advertising, lawyers are looking for alternatives. Advertising in two or three yellow page books in just one county is now too expensive and is enough to advertise on TV. A lawyer purchasing a full-page ad in two yellow page books in each county of the New York TV market, would probably spend over $540,000 per month with the largest lawyer advertising budget in New York. Rather than advertising in two or three yellow page books, more and more lawyers have been advertising on TV.

Other factors making TV advertising more effective than yellow page advertising has also attracted more lawyers to TV. Although TV advertising requires a larger monthly budget, it is more cost-effective resulting in a lower cost per call because TV reaches many more people. Unlike yellow page phone books where a lawyer’s advertisement appears next to 20 others, television gives advertisers momentary exclusivity because only one television advertisement can be seen at a time. While new Yellow Page advertisers will be placed at the back of all the other lawyers, there is no preferential order given to advertisers in TV advertising and advertisers are usually separated so that two lawyers do not appear one after the other. Additionally, TV broadcasters do not have the ability to sell preferred advertising, devastating to other advertisers, such as on the cover of the yellow page book.

As more lawyers advertise on TV, the usefulness of the Yellow Pages is further diminished. One only needs to turn on the TV for a few minutes to see a lawyer advertisement.

There still are reasons to consider advertising in the Yellow Pages. 1) Yellow page books are appropriate for lawyers who are not interested in retaining clients residing more than 30 minutes from the lawyer’s office; 2) A small advertisement in just one yellow page book will require a smaller advertising budget then TV advertising; 3) Lawyers with large advertising budgets on TV may want to extend their reach and augment branding on TV, radio and billboards with advertising in the Yellow Pages.

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.

In the 1980s, yellow page advertising was very effective for personal injury lawyers. There were fewer lawyers advertising in yellow page books than there are today; there were very few lawyers advertising on TV; there was no Internet; there was only one Yellow Pages® telephone book and at the time it was extensively used. Today there are several countywide yellow page telephone books for each county and usually at least two village yellow page books. Some people stack several books on top of each other and use the one on top. Others will keep only one yellow page telephone book and throw the others out. Some people even keep using old books and throw out the new ones. Will your ad be in a book that’s on the bottom of the stack or the one 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. While faced with rising printing, distribution, sales and overhead costs, yellow page books have lost advertisers to competing yellow page books, TV and the Internet. Today, for the cost of a full page advertisement in just two county yellow page telephone books, a lawyer can advertise on TV and reach four to eight times the population of two yellow page books. More importantly, a substantially higher percentage of the population will actually see your advertising on TV. If you were to advertise in all of the yellow page phone books in all of the counties in your area, you would be spending enough money to have the largest budget on TV of any lawyer in your TV market and would have enough money left over for radio and billboards.

An effort by yellow page telephone book publishers to produce more revenue has led to the uncovering of additional real estate in yellow page books. Advertising is now available on card stock with a tab protruding from the telephone book; the front, back and spine of the yellow book; 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 advertising outside of the lawyer section 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 a personal injury lawyer who moved to the back cover. After his inside page wasn’t performing as well as it used to, he moved to the back cover. This resulted in a large increase in calls, but a substantial decrease in call quality. Most of the calls were for Landlord/Tenant problems and none of the calls were related to personal injury, which is what he advertised for. His biggest complaint was that because the yellow page book is only distributed once a year, he continued to receive calls throughout the year that were unrelated to personal injury, taking up the valuable time of him and his staff. He was extremely annoyed that he had to continue his monthly payments for advertising which he gladly would have paid to get rid of.

If you’re considering advertising on the front, back, spine, post it note, or tabbed insert of a yellow page book, you can eliminate annoying, unwanted calls by using a vanity phone number that is specific to the area of law you’re advertising for. For instance, rather than using a numeric number or a vanity number that is generic to the practice of law such as 1-800-LAW-1212 which will generate a lot of unwanted calls, license a vanity phone number specific to your practice such as 1-800-BANKRUPT, 1-800-DIVORCE, 1-888-DRUG-CRIMES or 1-800-HURT-911®. Practice specific vanity phone numbers provide the advantage of attracting callers only for the particular field of practice.

Using any vanity phone number in your yellow page advertising will help your ad to stand out from the others. A vanity phone number will impress potential clients, create instant perceived brand recognition, and give your law firm instant status and credibility. Any vanity phone number will increase your call volume. A really good vanity phone number will make a substantial difference.

Don’t even think of letting the yellow page publisher design your ad! You get what you pay for. At best, if your ad is designed in the US, you’ll get a generic ad changed for you. It will look like others in the yellow page book. At worst, it will be designed in India by someone who doesn’t understand your business. Considering the annual cost of a yellow page ad today; 20 to 60 lawyers competing for attention in the lawyer section; and an ad design that can’t be changed for an entire year, you need your yellow page ad designed by an agency that understands yellow page advertising. Yellow page advertising has issues that are very different than any other type of advertising. The cost of a custom professional design is very inexpensive. I recommend Joe Brown at Kenyon Design Group.

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. 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. If you do not have a vanity phone number, make sure that you use a portable 1-800 toll-free telephone number in your yellow page advertising. Additionally, make sure that you include your web site address.

Unlike yellow page phone books where your advertisement appears next to 10 or 20 others, 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.

The public’s perception of media (see pdf p. 24) shows television trumps all other media as the most effective media among adults, age 18 and over, in every category: Most Authoritative, Most Influential, Most Persuasive, and Most Exciting. TV was voted Most Influential media by 81.8%, with newspapers far behind in second place at only 8.5%. TV scores 66.8% Most Persuasive with newspapers, again, a very distant second at 14.2%. Television was also voted Most Authoritative media by almost twice that of the second runner up, newspapers. Of course, TV swamps all other media for Most Exciting. Finally, adults age 18 and over are 3 times more likely (see pdf p. 25) to learn about products from television than from the next most likely source.

My suggestion is that for personal injury lawyers, yellow page advertising be used only by law firms that are also advertising on TV and billboards. For law firms with geographically smaller practice areas, that typically do not advertise on TV, such as criminal law, divorce or bankruptcy, yellow page advertising will continue to be a valuable source of clients.

If you have decided that yellow page advertising is right for you, there are many more things that you should know. For instance, where there is more than one yellow page telephone book in your area, how do you know which one to advertise in? What size ad do you purchase, where in or on the yellow page book do you place your ad, and how do you design it to stand out from the others? Choosing the right book may result in a good experience however, choosing the wrong book can result in a quiet telephone. Choosing the wrong spot for your advertisement can result in unwanted calls. Not using an independent professional to design your yellow page ad can result in wasted money. Whenever planning an advertising campaign, whether it be in a yellow page book or on TV, always use an advertising professional to plan and design your campaign and advertising.