Advertising: Pay Attention To Your Content
A number of attorneys find value in radio advertising, me included. Radio spots in metro cities work especially well, and in smaller towns they are relatively inexpensive.
I have been able to find out what works in radio spots. I call them Mark's Radio Rules.
First, an easy to remember telephone number. Whether it is a vanity number like 1-800-JUSTICE or a simple number like 800-444-2222, the key is having that number.
Second, repeat the number at least three times. Once within the first 5-10 seconds, once in the middle, and once more at the end.
Third, have an easy to remember .com address. One that works is simply using the telephone number, such as "our website is our telephone number, 800justice.com. This works if you have a hard to spell website or one that is phonetically vague- such as as last name that could be "C" or "K."
Fourth, keep them short - thirty seconds at most.
Today I heard an ad that violated those rules. The ad ran sixty seconds. The telephone number in the Atlanta area had a 404, and then numbers that were all over the place, none of which were repeating.
As I listened, I kept waiting for the telephone number. At the end, the number was repeated twice within the last five seconds of the spot. By then, most listeners had changed the channel to another station, thus the importance of saying the number within the first 5-10 seconds.
Finally, the ad did not direct the listener (which in Atlanta is probably a person behind the wheel at 8:10 a.m., when the spot ran) to any website. As a bonus, the attorney firm had a firm name that was difficult to spell. Interestingly enough, after finally finding the firm's website, what did I find? A pretty decent domain name that is very easy to remember.
I blame not only the attorney for the mess that went on air but the ad agency that allowed this to be produced. If the attorney simply placed the ad himself, the radio station should have done more than simply taken the money for the spot.
Is an attorney in your area making these mistakes? Are you?
I suggest going to GoDaddy.com and doing domain searches for something very easy to remember, and spell, as you say. It doesn't matter that you already have a domain name. Get more!. GoDaddy.com makes it very easy to redirect those new domain names to specific pages inside your website..to specific practice areas, for example.