AVALANCHE: The Lawyer Marketing Group

The Headline of Your Ad is the Ad for Your Ad.

Have you ever noticed that most advertising is pretty humdrum? (Have you ever noticed that you do not notice most advertising?) Sometimes – occasionally – an ad jumps out and grabs your attention. Often, that is the headline at work, grabbing your attention, then, engaging your mind.

Good headlines work; good headlines grab attention. Buyer-focused headlines are even more powerful than company-centric headlines. Buyer focused headlines guarantee that ads get read. In fact, eight out of ten readers decide whether or not to read an advertisement based on the strength of its headline.

So most advertising has headlines, right? Yes, most do. However, take a look at lawyer advertising. (A good place to see a lot of lawyer advertising is in a yellow pages directory.) You will see that headlines are the exception, not the rule.

If the headline of an ad is the name of a law firm such as “Bergston, Williams & Hankman” or the name of a lawyer such as “David L. Johnson, Attorney at Law,” the ad does not have a headline; it has a name at the top. These advertisers are wasting their most valuable message space (the headline) telling readers something that is of absolutely no interest to them.

New York-based Video Storyboard Tests conducts extensive research to discover the value of headlines. In a recent study, they showed focus groups ads that included headlines communicating key buying points. They then showed other focus groups the same ads without the headlines.

The ads with the headlines scored dramatically higher in message recall and understandability. More importantly, the test groups rated the ads with headlines substantially higher in persuasiveness and relevance. Headline ads persuade. Headline ads are seen as relevant. Aren’t relevant and persuasive what you want in your law firm advertising?

Which kinds of headlines work best?

• Headlines that provide solutions to readers’ problems (or suggest to readers that if they continue reading they will find a solution to their problem)
• Headlines that communicate key buying points, and
• Headlines that jump off the page and grab the readers’ attention.

How can you write a powerful, engaging, attention-getting headline for your law firm advertising?

• Create a question.
• Create an attention-grabbing statement.
• Create a statement that engages the reader.
• Create a problem followed by a solution.

The best headlines are headlines that:

• Provide solutions to readers’ problems (or suggest to readers that if they continue reading they will find a solution to their problem)
• Communicate key buying points, and
• Jump off the page and grab the readers’ attention.

If you want your ad to work, make the headline work.

Time for a New Slogan?

Recently when I presented a client with a proposal to change his slogan, he hesitated. After all, he had "invested ten years of time and money promoting" his practice through this slogan. After investing ten years promoting his firm’s slogan, would it be wise to change it? Wouldn't he lose all the goodwill his slogan generated for him over the years?

Maybe. Maybe not. Let's take a closer look at the importance of a slogan to marketing a law firm.

If, in 1953, the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency had not changed the slogan they had been using in their commercials for Scott bathroom tissue (a slogan that drove the brand to be the number one selling bathroom tissue in America). Scott Tissue commercials would still warn consumers of "the troubles caused by harsh toilet tissue."

In its early cigarette commercials targeting women, Lucky Strike used the slogan "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet." Years later, they changed their slogan to "Torches of Freedom." Had candy had gone out of vogue? No. The brand managers in charge of advertising saw that the values of America's women were changing. Lucky Strikes needed to reflect what American women were interested in today, not in what had worked in the past.

Can you imagine today's women viewing cigarettes as "torches of freedom?"

Advertising is important. Slogans are an important part of our advertising (for law firms and others). Advertising helps to transform consumers' values. For example, advertising made us aware of such "problems" as halitosis and body odor. Before these "problems" were brought to light through advertising, bad breath and offensive body odor were considered natural and unavoidable (if they were considered at all). We didn't think about eliminating body odor seventy-five years ago any more than today's average person thinks about buying a shampoo that tastes good.

What potential do slogans (and law firm advertising) have for your law practice?

Through advertising, consumers were taught that their body odors were offensive. Consumers learned to take offense by body odors. Then consumers bought products to eliminate their newly-found odors. It's the process: advertise, inform, convert.

Frequently advertising plays a major role in changing values. During the post-war era (WWII), advertising, almost single-handedly, transformed American's heartfelt values for frugal living and saving money into the new values of consumerism and must-have materialism.

That's right: the power of advertising, not the availability of goods, created the new economy. One could argue that advertising, through creating new values and subsequently, a new economy, created the new world power.

When it comes to marketing any law firm, advertising and slogans can be very influential.

But, lawyer advertising and slogans lose their power if they do not change lockstep with consumers to reflect that which consumers value as they (and their needs) change. To be effective, lawyer advertising - and slogans - must change as our culture's awareness, expectations, desires, values, and ideals change.

A long time ago, a beer could advertise itself as "cold" or "refreshing" and win market share. But "cold" and "refreshing" do not win market share anymore. Everybody knows beer is cold and refreshing. "Cold" and "refreshing" no longer win market share because all beer is cold and refreshing. Is your law firm slogan stating the obvious, the thing that today's consumers take for granted?

Years ago, companies touted their products as "reliable" and their stores as "the low price leader." "Largest selection" was a way to differentiate one retailer from another. Not any more. With super stores transformed into mega stores and big box discounters, "superstore," "largest selection," and "low price leader" don't raise any eyebrows. We expect great selection and low prices everywhere we shop. Likewise, we have come to expect reliability in our products and if a manufacturer advertises "reliability" today, the nation sighs a collective "ho-hum."

Is your lawyer marketing generating a collective "ho-hum?" Is your telephone ringing off the hook?

So, what Hera*censored*us said 2,600 years ago - "you can never step in the same river twice" - holds true today. Just by the nature of immutable, natural law - that nothing stays constant - what was once cutting-edge, attention-getting branding is now commonplace.

Today, your law firm slogan may be perceived with the same enthusiasm as beer that is cold, cars that are reliable, and produce that is fresh.

So, how can you find out if your law firm's marketing, and the slogan that served you so well for so many years, has become as valuable as yesterday's newspaper?

Look at the advertisements that other lawyers use. Look at other law firm advertising in your yellow pages directory.

Have other lawyer advertisers copied your slogan? Have they imitated your message? Do other lawyers and law firms have more powerful slogans? Is their marketing better than yours? Has your marketing grown stale?

Do a search for your slogan on the Internet. Look at some of the pages where your slogan appears. Is there anything there that impresses you? If not, it might be a great time to adopt a new slogan for your law firm.

Adopting a new slogan can help you to build a new future for your law firm. Want to know how to use a slogan to help you skyrocket your practice? See next week's post: I'll have the answer for you then.