Most lawyers know by now that they need a custom vanity phone number to compete with – and stand out from – other attorneys in their field. However, the next question can be more complicated. How do you choose the ideal phone number for your law firm?

On the surface, it might seem easy… find your name or a legal term and buy the number, right? Not quite. There are a few important considerations to weigh before you choose the marketing asset that could define your firm for years to come.

Here are some of the questions you should factor into your decision:

Do we need a local or toll-free number?

A local number helps to identify where you are, and a toll-free number provides a more polished, professional appearance, even if you only use it in your region. 800 is itself a brand among numbers. Each has their brand-boosting benefits, which makes the choice a strategic decision for your law firm.

If you operate in multiple areas, toll-free numbers are an easy way to connect regional offices and have a unified branding approach. Local numbers can speak to very specific communities and create a connection that way, but it can be just as hard to find pure 7-digit phrases in the right area code.

In both cases, if you want to convey a specific message with your number, you may have to be somewhat flexible and come forward with several ideas, in case the one you want is not available.

A trusted number provider like RingBoost can help you find great options in either scenario, but it’s important to be aware of the potential challenges.

For some attorneys, it’s simply best to offer both options and let clients decide. Providing a custom local phone number alongside a memorable toll-free vanity number can also help a law firm to understand which works best. In some locations potential clients may prefer a familiar area code, while others will prefer the size and stature conveyed by an 800 number.

If in doubt, work with both to find out what your clients want.

Should we have a vanity number or is easy-dial better?

Because vanity phone numbers act like a call filter, attracting only callers with problems matching the vanity phone number, some law firms don’t want to be pigeonholed into one area of law based on the spelling of a vanity phone number such as ###-CAR-CRASH or ###-DIVORCE.

Instead, an easy-dial number which has a memorable cadence can be used. Examples include repeaters, where all seven digits are the same number (e.g. ###-444-4444) or millions where the number is mostly zeros (e.g. ###-200-0000). Other patterns such as ones that alternate numbers can sometimes be just as memorable and are less expensive.

Are competing law firms already using a custom number?

With the popularity of vanity numbers in the legal sector, there’s a good chance other firms in your area will be using a custom vanity number in their law firm advertising. This furthers the case for your firm to jump on the bandwagon, but you’ll need to be more selective in the number you choose so your advertising stands out.

Look at how your competitors use their number in offline and online advertising. If it’s simply an afterthought, your firm can take the lead in creative vanity number selection and marketing.

However, if other law firms are already using memorable numbers at the heart of their marketing, you’ll need to find a unique message that stands out from the crowd. This will flow from the number you choose, so make sure it’s one that reflects a key brand value or selling point of your law firm. From that firm marketing foundation, you can build campaigns that clearly communicate why potential clients should call you first.

Should we use our firm’s name or area of expertise?

Attorneys value name recognition more than most, but a custom number isn’t always the place to promote that aspect of your brand. One of the key advantages of memorable phone numbers is how clear and concise they are, which rarely aligns with the many characters typically associated with a law firm.

There are several ways to get around this. One is to focus on your field of specialty, which can be explicit, like 1-800-DIVORCE, or implied, like 1-800-HURT-NOW or 1-800-HURT-911® for a personal injury attorney. Your number can also reflect a characteristic of your brand personality such as 1-888-WE-FIGHT.

There are advantages to each approach. Clear numbers help explain exactly what you do and how you can help a client in seconds, while more emotive numbers can have a greater impact in some areas of law, generating a stronger call to action.

Which type of vanity phone number you choose depends very much on understanding your target audience and the style of your law firm, but the broader concept of considering custom numbers based on your field of expertise will open up more options.

What numbers are actually available?

Depending on your answers to the questions above, the range of options available to you for a new number could vary a lot. If there are only a few numbers that meet your criteria, the decision will now be easy. If there are still plenty of choices on the table, work with a reputable provider to help you identify the ideal number for your law firm.

Companies like RingBoost have helped thousands of businesses raise awareness of their services and increase inbound leads with a custom phone number. If you have any questions about how to find the right one for your law firm, they are here to help.

To speak with a consultant about finding a number that is the exact fit for your business, call 1-877-RINGBOOST.

About Paul Faust

Paul Faust is Partner and Vice President of Business Development at RingBoost.com, the nation’s leading provider of memorable toll free and local vanity and easy dial telephone numbers. Paul is responsible for national business development as well as overseeing the company’s sales and marketing functions. As a recognized industry leader Paul organized the first industry-wide trade conference in 2010 and led the panel discussion on vanity numbers at the annual SOMOS Conference.

Paul has worked with hundreds of law firms across the country and exhibits or attends 8-10 industry conferences every year including: AAJ, MTMP, NTL, PILMMA & M&L. In 2017 Paul had the honor of being inducted into the PILMMA Hall of Fame.

With the importance of Internet advertising for lawyers, some attorneys have the misconception that the internet makes 1-800 vanity phone numbers less important then they used to be.

In the Internet Age, Vanity Phone Numbers Are More Relevant

According to a study of US customers by research agency eConsultancy, phone calls were the most preferred method of contact, slightly beating out email, live chat and click to call.

ConversionSciences, experts in website conversion, says “Calls are king” because:

• Phone calls are 10X more likely to convert into a sale
• 61% of mobile searches result in a phone call
• 52% of mobile ad clicks result in a phone call

According to Godaddy,

Toll-free numbers still carry the implicit trust that people have, over the years, come to place in that 800 prefix.”

“Even though we carry the world in our pockets, with smartphones that don’t charge extra for “long-distance calls,” we still trust a number first established over 50 years ago by AT&T.”

“What phone number you choose to make your business line might seem like a pretty small detail, but it really can have a considerable effect on the image of your brand and on your relationship to your customers.”

“Think you may want to avoid the ‘old days’ feel of the 800 prefix and register for a newer option? Not so fast: A study by Engine Ready showed that 1-800 toll-free numbers had far higher conversion rates than toll-free numbers with newer prefixes. For example, phone numbers beginning with 800 had up to 60% higher conversion than those beginning with 855.”

According to CountryCode.org, “Toll free numbers, however, remain a crucial element in business telecommunications. They continue to provide legitimacy for businesses and are particularly effective in one regard: vanity numbers.”

Most Lawyers Don’t Understand What A Vanity Phone Number Does

Most lawyers (and others) think the importance of a vanity phone number is that people will remember how to call you. That’s what the ABA Journal reported in 1-800 ADVOCACY Vanity Phone Numbers Make Your Firm Less Forgettable. It’s certainly a great feature but not even close to being the most important.

Attorney Big Al’s website

The most important aspect of a vanity phone number is that because it’s a brand it substantially improves the conversion rate and ROI of both off-line and online advertising and marketing.

According to CountryCode.org, “Not only do they [vanity phone numbers] make the number easier to remember, but they can lend credibility to a business, as well as function as an effective branding tool that can associate a business with its phone number.”

In other words, a vanity phone number is what makes people want to call you.

Why? The reason is simple.

1. Vanity phone numbers are impressive. It’s like a lawyer wearing a Rolex watch and driving a Bentley. People just want you to represent them because you look successful; and
2. Vanity phone numbers create instant branding. A brand makes you look important and people think they’ve seen your number before, even if they haven’t.

Used properly as on Attorney Big Al’s website displaying 1-800-HURT-123 in your face, a vanity phone number is what makes people want to hire you. A law firm name does not.

Big Al understands the power and simplicity of 1-800-HURT-123. He also understands Attorney Big Al is more brandable than his name. By the way, it’s not even his real name but it is brandable. What’s Big Al’s real name?

What brand characteristics create the best conversion and ROI? A great brand is striking, simple, identifiable, memorable, conveys a message, provides a solution to a problem and satisfies a need.

It’s possible to brand anything, but the important question is how much money is needed to create the brand and how much is needed to maintain the brand.

Because it’s not a natural brand, it took $100 million to brand Jacoby & Meyers and it takes a lot of money to keep it at top of mind.

Cellino and Barnes probably spent nearly as much to brand their name before they eventually bought the vanity phone number 1-800-888-8888 for over $1M. Now that Cellino and Barnes are breaking up (Cellino & Barnes breakup turns nasty amid poaching claims), their law firm name isn’t worth anything but their vanity phone number is. Barnes quickly got another even better vanity phone number 1-800-800-0000 for approximately $1M. They’re also suing each other over that vanity phone number.

If you were starting a new soda, what would you pick for the name? Coke, Pepsi or Cellino and Barnes soda. Maybe that’s why Dr. Pepper isn’t as big as Coke. A law firm is no different.

CBS Sunday Morning reported (9/24/2017) that people with shorter, simpler names are more likely to succeed and lawyers are more likely to make partner. People’s names are no different when it comes to branding.

When someone looking to hire a lawyer visits your website, what is the conversion factor that will get them to call you? Will it be your law firm name, large verdicts or maybe even a pretty website. Will they call you or a lawyer with a vanity phone number on their website?

Advertising savvy lawyers understand how to get the most of their vanity phone number brand by displaying it very large on their website.

But don’t use your vanity phone number on just your website and TV! Use it everywhere.

Because it’s what gets people to call, it’s very important to use a vanity phone number in online advertising. Use a vanity phone number in the title of your online advertising with Google Ads, Bing, and other online advertising. You should also use it in local listings like Google My Business.

Google doesn’t allow numeric numbers to be displayed in paid advertising and Google My Business listings but they do allow a vanity phone number to be displayed because it’s also a brand.

Testing with 1-800-HURT-911® vs. Franckel & Plevy, LLP in the title of Google Ads showed a 640% increase in ROI when advertising 1-800-HURT-911®.

In states that prohibit lawyers from using a trade-name as a brand, a vanity phone number eliminates the problem because you have the right to display your phone number. It just happens to also look like a brand.

Google My Business local listing displaying a vanity phone number

FRANCKEL & PLEVY, LLP uses the 1-800-HURT-911® vanity phone number on websites, Google My Business listings, T-shirts, pens, bumper stickers, mouse pads, mugs, event tent, and even plastic bags to put everything in.

1-800-HURT-911® vanity phone number on Tshirts at Personal Injury Advertising

Lawyers Levine & Wiss understand the power of a vanity phone number and brand their vanity number with a sign in front of their office which is larger and more prominent than their law firm name. A photo of their sign is on the homepage of their website to impress clients so they call.

1-888-GOT-HURT is the conversion factor on this law firm website

The 1-800-HURT-911 trademark is prominently displayed at the top of every page on our law firm website and our law firm name appears under the logo on the left column.

I can positively say our 1-800 vanity phone number is at the top of every page not just so people know how to call us but because it’s the conversion factor that gets people to call us.

No one knows our law firm name but when they see the 1-800 vanity phone number, they’re far more likely to call

This attorney’s website displays the vanity phone number 1-800-HURT-NOW so it’s easily seen although not as prominently as the other websites. The attorney’s name doesn’t appear on the homepage, just his vanity phone number.

1-800-HURT-NOW in white and red on a black background is easily seen (but should be larger) on this attorney’s website

Vanity Phone Numbers on Billboards — Simple, Powerful

If you use a tag line with your vanity phone number, don’t limit callers to car accidents like this lawyer did on the billboard with CAR ACCIDENT? IT’S A 911 CALL!™. Our tagline is ACCIDENT? IT’S A 911 CALL!™

I even advertise HURT911® on my license plate and 1-800-HURT-911 on my car signs. Motorcyclists often wave to me.

Toll-free vanity phone numbers are not only easy to remember, but after the end of a long advertising campaign a good vanity phone number can be remembered for years. After a law firm discontinued a two-year advertising campaign with 1-800-HURT-911, calls continued to come in for another two years.

That’s the problem with the New York State DMV hotline 1-800-DIAL-DMV. Due to budget cuts, the toll-free vanity phone number was dropped by the state 18 months ago and that’s when the problem started.

A certain telephone company, well-known to the toll-free industry, just waits for a toll free number to be dropped and immediately grabs it before anyone else can get it. Even worse, they never give up the numbers and cannot be forced to even if the number was trademarked, because they don’t use the number in a way that infringes the trademark.

Why do they grab toll free numbers?  When people call these numbers, the callers get connected to sex lines.  And that’s left the New York State DMV rather embarrassed.

The local TV news reported today that 18 months later callers are still calling 1-800-DIAL-DMV and reaching a sex line called Intimate Encounters. But don’t try calling it unless you want to risk the service capturing your phone number (you cannot keep your phone number private when calling a business which only works when calling another residence).

The smartest solution would have been to license the number to the DMVs in other states and put advertising on the line which would have earned money for the New York State DMV instead of costing money.  Other solutions could have been to keep the toll free vanity phone number and block the number from callers in New York State or put a recording on the line telling callers to call a local phone number.  This would would have allowed the state to consider other alternatives and would have prevented it from being used as a sex line.

The phone company grabbing numbers has ultra fast computers to grab any toll free number which becomes available, not just vanity phone numbers.  If your law firm or any other company is considering dropping any toll free line, make sure it’s not a telephone number which clients or customers called.

If you just got a new vanity phone number and want to use it to replace your regular toll free number, just don’t disconnect your regular toll free number.  You have have both your regular toll free number and your vanity phone number ring to the same local line in your office.  It’s not a good idea to disconnect your regular toll free number anyway because you may get calls even years later from a previous client who had the number.  I once got a call 10 years after I stopped using a local number.  Although I stopped using the number, I never disconnected it and someone who had my old card called 10 years later!

 

UPDATE: 1-800-BUSINESS was sold

1-800-BUSINESS, LLC is being sold at auction together with the valuable toll free vanity phone number 1-800-BUSINESS and related domain names.  The auction was announced earlier this week and will be held on May 27, 2010 by Streambank LLC.

The company is including the domain name 1-800-BUSINESS.com, but 1800BUSINESS.com and 800BUSINESS.com were registered to someone else.

The President of 1-800-BUSINESS, LLC said a number of bidders have already registered. To become a registered bidder, a certified check which is refundable to the losers must be submitted by the bid deadline of May 25, 2010.

For more information about the auction of this valuable toll-free vanity phone number, see the press release and the Domain Name Journal.

 

I received an e-mail today from Jerrold Parker, senior partner at Parker Waichman, LLP, a well-known New York personal injury law firm.  Jerry was writing to ask me to evaluate and list his new personal injury case management software called SmartAdvocate. Apparently, Jerry invested a substantial amount of money in developing custom case management software for personal injury and mass tort cases and is now licensing it to other personal injury lawyers.

I responded to Jerry’s e-mail, and he called me back a few minutes later. During our telephone conversation, we began discussing my vanity phone number, 1-800-HURT-911, other vanity phone numbers for lawyers, and Parker Waichman’s vanity phone number, 1-888-BIG-CASE.

I mentioned that I tried to get 1-800-BIG-CASE in 1992 when I got 1-800-HURT-911, but it was owned by a bank using the numeric version of the number, and they would not give it up. Jerry said he recently tried to get the 1-800 version and found that it was still owned by the bank. However, Jerry is quite happy with 1-888-BIG-CASE and said about their vanity phone number, “BIG-CASE increased our call volume 500%”. I asked Jerry if I could quote him on that, and he said, “absolutely.”

If you are a lawyer advertising with a big budget like Parker & Waichman, it obviously makes a lot of sense to get a good vanity phone number. Experience with 1-800-HURT-911 lawyers has shown that for lawyers advertising with a small budget, it’s a matter of life or death.

In one case, a lawyer called me to say that he had been advertising for two months and had not received even one call. The lawyer had been advertising without a vanity phone number, with a small budget, in a small market that was dominated by another attorney advertising with an extremely large budget.

With the same small budget and the same TV station but advertising with 1-800-HURT-911, the lawyer received three calls on his first day and averaged 2.5 calls per day. A year later, after signing up well over 100 cases, the attorney advertising with an extremely large budget would probably say he stole the cases.

Don’t take my word for it. Just ask Jerry Parker what he thinks about vanity phone numbers for lawyer advertising.