When radio was invented, many people must have predicted doom for newspapers, just as most of us wrongly foresaw the extinction of television with the advent of digital media. No one knows what is in store for us in a decade or two. No one can deny the growing influence of social media, online advertising and new digital media such as streaming services. However, none of these developments have been able to dent the effectiveness of advertising on television. Even today, people pick up reliable newspapers for their daily dose of current affairs. Print, radio and television have coexisted for almost eight decades now, rather harmoniously and in a mutually beneficial way. Now we are seeing television or old media coexist with new media, often in a mutually beneficial manner.

 

There is a dedicated television audience that still does not rely on or fully explore digital media. Sponsored ads, promotional posts and various organically placed advertisements in the virtual world do not generate as much traction as a prime-time television commercial does. Nothing builds a brand and instills confidence in the consumers as commercials on television, not streaming services or digital television but the good old traditional box or flat panel nowadays with scheduled programming.

 

Why is New Media advertising on Old Media?

 

Have you come across advertisements of Netflix shows and movies on television? You must have. Every worthwhile service, from Roku to Hulu to Apple TV, is spending big bucks on commercials. If digital media was so omnipresent and omnipotent, then new media would not have needed to rely on television to promote itself. Truth is, when it comes to viewership and trust, nothing trumps television.

 

Live Events are still a Rage

 

An average adult in the United States watches around thirty-three hours of television every week. A majority of that is dedicated to sporting events. There are very few programs in any form of media that can match the excitement of catching a live event with family and friends, be it at home or at a bar. Events like Super Bowl draw over a hundred million viewers, which are still used as a medium for lawyers to advertise on. Imagine a hundred and twenty million people or more watching live television, at the same time all around the country. Now imagine the impact a commercial can have if it is aired strategically during such prime-time galas. Streaming services do not have any real time collective viewing unless a video on demand has a time bound broadcast or availability. From the Oscars to the Grammys, Emmys to the various sporting extravaganzas, television is still the de-facto medium for live events.

 

Limited Attention Span of the Young, Viewing Habit of the Old

 

The younger generations have an alarmingly low attention span. Does anyone remember the last online advertisement they may have seen, willfully or otherwise? But most people will remember some of the commercials they have watched on television, including San Joaquin County DUI Attorneys. Television will also remain relevant in years to come as the older generations are not that much into digital media. It is the more mature audience that watches more television and are likely to make buying decisions based on the commercials. They also have more purchasing power than the millennial or subsequent generations.

Though most people (especially those that have never studied law or practiced law as an attorney) believe lawyers to be some of the most well-paid people on the planet, the cold hard truth of the matter is the overwhelming majority of lawyers make nowhere near as much money as most people believe them to.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the value that these attorneys bring to the table (after all, there is a reason why attorneys are believed to be so well-paid in the first place), but absolutely everything to do with the fact that attorneys really struggle when it comes to marketing and advertising.

Many attorneys believe that they have to focus strictly on their legal and representative abilities, and forget completely that they are first and foremost business owners, operators, and people that need to actively sell their services to clients.

Thankfully, there are a variety of different things that you will be able to do to maximize your marketing efforts went comes time to advertise your attorney firm, and we are going to highlight some of the most beneficial and easy to put into place.

Let’s get right to it!

You aren’t going to grow your firm without advertising

It is absolutely impossible (and irresponsible) for you to believe that you are going to have any success whatsoever growing your legal firm without spending money on advertising.

For whatever reason, lawyers and other legal professionals believe that they are going to be able to survive entirely upon word-of-mouth marketing and referrals, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Sure, these efforts are definitely going to help you earn more clients as time goes on, but the truth of the matter is you will never be in the command position to increase your business if you are relying on other people to do your marketing and advertising for you – it’s too much of a reactive approach versus a proactive approach.

Instead, you’re going to want to make sure that you are able to increase your advertising as much as possible, using up to 2.5% (or even more) of your gross revenue on marketing, advertising, and salesmanship efforts. This will help guarantee that you are getting out in front of the marketplace and driving new business actively as opposed to passively, and you should expect to see reliable returns on this investment.

You have to advertise to the right people

The number one reason that the overwhelming majority of attorneys out there do not spend money on advertising is the first place is because they believe it to be nothing more than a waste of money.

And honestly, for the overwhelming majority of attorneys out there, advertising IS a waste of money.

That’s because too many legal firms are out there doing nothing more than coming up with standard advertisements and marketing pieces that look like carbon copies of their competitors, using platitudes and other “fuzzy language” to try and convince people that they are better than the other lawyers in the area – but with no real reason why, no proof to back up their claims, and no incentive for a prospect to choose them over anyone else.

Injury Lawyers should be advertising directly to people that are most likely to need a personal injury lawyer, rather than using a “shotgun approach” with their marketing and hoping that they cast a wide enough net to catch someone.

That’s going to waste a ridiculous amount of your resources, and you’re going to be very (VERY) disheartened by the response rate. Don’t waste your money, instead laser target and focus your advertisements to the people that are most likely to become your clients in the first place.

Let your past successes do the bulk of the talking for you

If at all possible, you’re going to want to try and find a way to use your past successes – the results that you have gotten for your clients and your track record for success – to do the bulk of the “heavy lifting” for you in your marketing and advertising.

Anytime you are talking about legal services (or any other service that isn’t tangible), you are going to be dealing with a “prove it” kind of problem. Unless you were able to prove that you are able to do exactly what you are promising to do for your prospects, you’re going to end up missing out on a lot of business that you would have otherwise earned easily.

Sure, all of the biggest promises in the world are going to win you some business, but nothing is going to earn you more business quite like proof. Prove absolutely everything you can in your marketing and your results will shoot through the roof.

When the police lights are flashing in front of you and you realize a DUI checkpoint is waiting for you, what’s your first reaction? Is it panic due to either breaking the law or being ignorant to the law? If so, an Iowa-based lawyer aims to change that feeling of dread with the Oh Crap! App.

The goal of Bob Rehkemper, co-creator of the Oh Crap!, was to educate those who have been stopped at a DUI checkpoint by the police and are unsure of their rights based on their specific current situation. On the home screen of the app there is a large, aptly labeled “Oh Crap!” button. When a driver is in a moment of need at a checkpoint, they simply open the app and tap that button. Following the tap, Oh Crap! will record the next 15 minutes of audio. The app’s goal is to capture any and all pieces of conversation that could aid in litigation against the checkpoint. The recording is evidence that would be indispensable to any law firm aiming to represent the driver.

In addition to producing and saving the recording, Oh Crap! has a number of other functions. Once the driver’s conversation with the officer has finished being recorded, the app has an option to send that data to many different attorneys in the area. In addition, the app offers basic legal advice but reserves the really valuable information for the actual lawyers being recommended. Legal advice isn’t all the app offers at a single tap; users can also find a taxi company or a bail bondsman.

Attorneys will find that Oh Crap! App can become a very valuable tool for advertising their practice. If the lawyers offer minimal free legal advice via the app, that will draw in more customers who need to find out more regarding their specific traffic stop situation.

In an effort to help both parties, attorneys could advertise the app and the team who created it in their offices. In exchange for these displays, the app could add a few banner ads of supportive firms to the home screen or informational screens. Although most users hate banner ads, they are always a solid choice for advertising and are proven traffic producers.

Oh Crap! uploads the recorded file to their servers where all relevant groups in the area can access the file and use it to aid the driver’s case. Therefore as long as an attorney is listed as specialized in dui checkpoint stops, more customers will be coming in. In addition to just having more business, the drivers are coming in with much more useful information than in the past. A recording of the audio from the first 15 minutes of the police encounter can be especially useful in defending a case, depending, of course, on what is contained in the audio. Each Oh Crap! user will have a detailed recording of every minute of their interaction with the police officers.

Oh Crap! is currently focused exclusively on DUI related traffic stops. Many law offices that do not practice DUI law are missing out on attracting new clients and spreading their name. Leaving out such a large portion of the law-practicing community is quite an oversight. The app should obviously be upgraded to include different functionality for different driving situations. Rehkemper stated that he had plans to develop different apps to fulfill this functionality; but one app could sufficiently do the job and be done with minimal tweaking.

Additionally, a ranking system could be implemented for the offered attorneys, taxi drivers and bondsmen. This would provide an advantage for both the customers and the best businesses in each category. Oh Crap! users would be able to filter their service choices by ranking and always be ensured that whomever they pick is one of the best in their field.

The businesses attempting to create more profit would strive to earn the top spot on the review list and therefore their services would improve. Healthy competition always creates strong growth in markets.

What does already have reviews and ratings is the app itself. Oh Crap! has a four-star rating on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Most of the reviews are glowing recommendations, “Just downloaded and love this thing already. Full of so much useful information”, but scattered throughout are some negative reviews where people have encountered small glitches within the app.

It appears that the only real complaint of the current user base is that the app crashes occasionally on some devices but this can easily be remedied with a simple update from the app developers. Another user suggested fix is to add the ability to search outside of your immediate area for checkpoint laws including concealed carry permit statuses.

There are only a total of two-hundred reviews across both app stores; but bear in mind the app is still relatively new and the creators are still attempting to advertise their platform, create more functionality and design more apps. Time will tell how successful and helpful this app really turns out to be.