Lawyers Are Saying Goodbye to The Yellow Pages in Favor of TV

April 30, 2012 - Many lawyers are coming to realize what we at Professional Media Services Inc. have been saying for years: it's time to bid a not-so-fond farewell to Yellow Pages advertising. While keeping your phone listing in the book may yield a small return of old-schoolers who still use the phone book, the future of legal advertising is on television and the internet. Placing large, expensive ads in the Yellow Pages is no longer a cost-effective way to market a law firm.

The Decline of The Yellow Pages

Many blogs that cater to lawyers are saying the same thing: phone books are going by the wayside. With the rise in the prominence of the internet and smart phones, it's simply faster, easier and smarter to look up information online rather than hauling out a clunky, heavy, dusty phone book.

Mason-Dixon Polling reports:

• 25% of all phone directories are discarded the day they arrive
• 33% of all people under the age of 45 throw away their new phone books immediately upon receipt
• 60% of respondents said that phone books have become irrelevant
• 80% of those age 18-29 reported having no use for a phone book
• 97% of survey participants had not used their phone book in the previous week

Dr. Lynella Grant, author of Yellow Page Smarts Snags More Callers 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." Attorneys should take heed of her warning: "Some (like contractors and lawyers) are declining more steeply than others."

The High Cost Per Call of Yellow Pages Advertising

Throughout the 1970's and 1980's, advertising in the Yellow Pages made good sense. Since there was no internet, and very few lawyers made television commercials, newspapers and The Yellow Pages were the best forms of advertising. You simply had to have an ad in the book, and the bigger the ad, the better.

Prior to the 1994 breakup of the Bell system, there was only on Yellow Pages. Today, in addition to competition of TV and the internet, many communities have competing yellow books in circulation. Verizon Yellow Pages costs lawyers approximately $6,500-$7,000 per month for a full page ad. When a law firm tries to advertise in every yellow book in a community, it can break their marketing budget.

Television advertising is more cost-effective, resulting in a lower cost per call, because TV reaches many people simultaneously. Television commercials are more effective because, while The Yellow Pages posts your ad next to many other attorneys' listings, only one commercial can play on a TV at a time. Your television commercials will not sit flat on a page, but will capture the viewer's attention with action, sound, and your strong message.

Let the experienced team at Professional Media Services show you how our targeted approach of television advertising, coupled with our strong internet presence, can help you say goodbye to The Yellow Pages and hello to new clients.