By: Trey Ryder
The first estate planning lawyer I worked with used radio to attract calls from genuine prospects. In fact, his message drew as many as 80 calls per commercial. He filled his calendar every month for three years from airing only four radio commercials each month.
Other areas of the law can profit from radio, too. I urge you to consider radio as part of your marketing mix. Here’s what you need to know:
NEWS/TALK VS. MUSIC STATIONS
News/talk stations usually outperform music stations because people listen to talk stations but only hear music stations.
Talk stations can be broken into educational talk and sensational talk. The first informs, the second inflames.
Educational talk attracts educated audiences, middle income and above, strong in the 40+ age group. Attorneys looking for seniors, professionals, executives and affluent clients can do well on these stations.
Sensational talk stations attract anti-establishment listeners, often who have less education than other stations. These stations can attract blue-collar clients for areas of consumer law, including personal injury, divorce, criminal defense and bankruptcy.
TWO KEY WORDS
Forget technical terms, like gross rating points and cume. (I have never met a radio sales rep who could explain those terms so I could understand them.) The only terms you need to know are “reach” and “frequency”.
Reach is number of people who hear your message in the demographic group you define. Frequency is the average number of times those people hear your commercial during the schedule you buy.
For education-based radio spots, you want maximum reach so you deliver your message to the largest number of genuine prospects. I shoot for a frequency between 1 and 2.4. If your offer is appealing, your prospects will call the first or second time they hear your commercial. If they don’t respond after the second time, ten more times probably won’t help.
Radio sales reps promote high frequency because (1) most advertisers use mediocre messages that need considerable reinforcement, (2) after you’ve reached the entire listening audience, frequency is all the rep has left to sell, and (3) he works on commission.
Larger stations can often run a computer printout of data (one is called a Tapscan report) so you can see how many people you’ll reach in your target audience. For example, if you want to reach men age 30+ and you ask for printouts of three different commercial schedules, you might see something like this:
— Five commercials reach 10,235 males age 30+ at a frequency of 1.7. (This means men in that age group will hear your commercial on average 1.7 times.)
— Ten commercials reach 18,544 males age 30+ at a frequency of 2.3. (Good, because when you double the number of commercials you also nearly double the number of prospects you’ll reach.)
— Fifteen commercials reach 19,872 males 30+ at a frequency of 5.6. (Not so good, because most of your added investment has gone to increased frequency, but not much increased reach.)
If the frequency exceeds 3, run a smaller schedule and then run more commercials next month, when the station has new listeners and when current listeners may need your services.
Most small stations can’t afford computerized ratings services. In that case, test a few commercials to see if you’re pleased with the response.
HOW TO SELECT A RADIO STATION
DEMOGRAPHICS: Ask how many of your prospects you can reach by age, gender, education, assets and income. Demographics may change at different times of the year if your area has seasonal visitors.
Often, you can target audiences by program or personality. For example, you might choose to advertise during sporting events, cooking shows or business shows. Well-known celebrities like Paul Harvey, Rush Limbaugh and Clark Howard have a specific following, too.
SIGNAL RANGE: Ask to see a signal map because larger stations send signals hundreds of miles. You may decide the signal reaches too large an area for your practice. On the other hand, many lawyers open satellite offices to serve clients across the station’s broadcast range.
MARKET PENETRATION: Small-town stations give you the ability to saturate your audience at a low cost. I once carried out a campaign on the largest station in a small town for only $9 per minute. On the other hand, commercials at large metro-area stations during peak times often top $300 per minute.
YOUR APPROACH
PURPOSE: In education-based marketing, your purpose is to persuade prospects to take a specific action. Often, the action is to call your office and request your packet of educational materials. Everything in your commercial should be focused not on your services, but on why your prospects should request your materials.
LENGTH: Buy only 60-second commercials because 30-second spots are more expensive per second and aren’t long enough to convey your message.
VOICE: Record the spot yourself so you build a relationship with prospects. Don’t hire a professional voice because you would likely face contractual limits on geographical area and time period. Plus you’ll pay at least union scale. If the person is well known and respected in your area, you could pay much more. (Celebrity voices can cost a fortune!)
HOW TO WRITE POWERFUL RADIO COMMERCIALS
Use the commercial to generate qualified inquiries from genuine prospects. Offer free information and advice that you’ll send to anyone who calls. Focus your commercial on only one idea: calling for your free materials. Here’s one way you might do it:
To generate inquiries from broadcast commercials, make sure your commercial contains at least these eight elements, in this order: Number one, open with a statement or question that seizes your listener’s attention. Two, tell your listener to get a pen and paper. Three, introduce yourself. Four, announce that you’ve written new educational materials. Five, offer your materials free to anyone who calls. Six, tell the listener the many things he’ll learn when he reads your materials. Seven, remind your prospect that you’ll email or mail your materials to him free. And eight, give your telephone number at least three times, slowly.
This format can be substantially the same for all areas of the law. You change only the words.
Whatever you offer, make sure you can track response. While many lawyers use commercials to offer free materials, you can also use them to invite prospects to seminars or call for a free in-office consultation.
TESTING AND EVALUATING RADIO
Run your commercial three or four times on the same station during one week, then on another station another week.
Rates and audience size vary by program and time of day, so run your commercials where you expect your target audience will be the largest.
Different areas of the law and different sized stations bring varied responses.
A small station may generate one call per commercial; a large station may generate 50. A personal injury message may attract two calls per commercial, while an estate planning message may draw 75 calls. Still, one injury case could bring in more revenue than 100 estate planning clients, so evaluate your investment by dollars earned for dollars invested, not only by the number of new clients.
Thirty years ago (in 1985) my first radio commercial aired on the largest talk station in Phoenix. Seven commercials brought an estate planning attorney 540 inquiries, averaging 77 calls per commercial. Seventeen years ago (in 1998), one of my clients in North Carolina attracted 300 calls in three days from prospective clients.
You’ll likely get calls immediately after your commercial airs. If you expect lots of calls, consider setting up a voice mail line on a separate number. Voice mail answers 24 hours a day. Plus, it answers simultaneously so no one gets a busy signal. (I would never use a live answering service.)
Regarding money, radio stations usually ask for advance payment until you establish “media credit”, which is different from ordinary credit. Depending on how long you’ve been in your community, they may offer you credit from the beginning. But don’t be surprised if they ask for payment in advance.
If you write and record the commercial yourself — and if you ask — most stations will give you the ad agency discount of 15%. Also, they usually provide production time (up to 30 minutes or so) so you can record your commercial at no charge. If you’ve rehearsed your commercial, you shouldn’t need more than 10 to 15 minutes.
If your commercial does not work to your satisfaction, change some of the variables. You might try different wording, a different offer, a different time of day, different days of the week, even a different radio station.
Results: Don’t expect your results to be like the results achieved by other lawyers. Nearly every situation is unique. Even so, after you test a few variables, you’ll likely find what works best for you.
You may find that you get the best results when you rotate commercials among three different radio stations. Or you may find that one commercial works better than others. Just remember to test your commercials on a small scale. You don’t need many commercials to see whether you’ll get a favorable response. If you get a good response, you can always buy more air time. If you don’t get a good response, you want to minimize your losses.
I encourage you to test radio to see how well you attract responses from qualified prospects. Since most lawyers don’t run radio commercials, you may discover that you’re the only attorney advertising on any given station, which really helps your commercials stand out.About The Author:Trey Ryder specializes in Education-Based Marketing for lawyers. He has provided marketing services for lawyers for 37 years. Trey offers three free articles: 7 Secrets of Dignified Marketing, Marketing Secrets of Superstar Lawyers, 11 Brochure Mistakes Lawyers Make To receive these articles, send your name and e-mail address to trey@treyryder.com and ask for his free e-mail packet of articles!
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Quick Tipby: Steven H. HeislerIn the opening paragraph of this weeks newsletter I alluded to the potential scarcity of new cases in these troubled times. My advice? Devote any additional time you have due to Covid-19 to double up on creating and cultivating new relationships. Multiple relationships are the backbone of any successful law practice. Take this time to reach out to potential strategic partners such as chiropractors, physical therapists, body shop owners, and let them know you want to establish a mutually beneficial relationship. You will be astounded by the results (more cases) if you put the work in!
That’s it for this week. I’ll have a brand new issue for you this time in two weeks. Stay safe! Also, if you have any questions or comments about the content in this newsletter please email me at sheisler@injurylawyermd.com ~SHH
