The other night I heard a radio commercial for a tax attorney. Not a “tax resolution” firm that does offers in compromise, a regular tax firm. At least that’s the way it was presented.
This was during “drive time” on a station that probably has many hundreds of thousands of listeners. Drive time radio is expensive, especially on a show with a big audience. How many listeners have a tax problem and can afford to hire an attorney?
I’m sure the attorney doesn’t need many clients to pay for the ads and turn a profit. But why not advertise on a Sunday “investor” show? Small audience, but much more likely to need a tax attorney. And the cost of that kind of show is a fraction of the cost of a “drive time” ad buy.
Anyway, I’m listening to the ad, waiting for the call to action. Now if you were running expensive ads on drive time radio, what would you want as the call to action?
You would want to offer a free report, wouldn’t you? So you could build a list of people who aren’t sure they need an attorney and need more information. A list of people who don’t have a tax problem right now but think they might soon.
Yep, that’s what you’d want. You are an attorney advertising genius.
But not this attorney.
This attorney made the same mistake most attorneys do in their ads. The call to action was to have listeners call the attorney’s office to make an appointment. (I don’t remember if he was offering a free consultation.)
The ad never mentioned the attorney’s web site. No “free report”. No way for the attorney to generate leads of prospective clients so he could stay in touch with them.
Call or don’t call. Those were the options.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with telling people to call for an appointment. But don’t make that the only option. Reach out to the “maybes” and get them into your marketing funnel. Build a list of prospective clients. Some of them are going to need your services at some point and you want to be “in their minds and their mailboxes” when they do.
One more thing. If you’re driving home from work and hear a radio commercial, what’s easier to remember a phone number or a website?
Exactly.
Anyone who advertises today and doesn’t include a website is really missing the boat.
You don’t have to advertise, but you do need a website. Find out what to do here.
Great points. Most viable potential clients won’t call until they get home or are otherwise out of the car, and they have had time to look up the lawyer online to see who they will be talking with, read reviews and do other due diligence activities. I agree that having an easy to remember web address to send them to in the commercial is a must.