Marketing for Lawyers- Why Media Mix Is Still Important

Many legal marketers are familiar with the concept of media mix for attorney advertising, yet some don’t grasp the impact that an integrated campaign can have.

/lawyermarketing101.com/Kevin Quinlan/ 10/14/2009

Kevin Quinlan, president of legal marketing firm Cepac, reports why legal marketers should know about new Nielsen research that shows why a consistent message using a diverse media mix is still important for law firm marketing.

 

Many legal marketers are familiar with the concept of media mix for attorney advertising, yet some don't grasp the impact that an integrated marketing campaign can have on their potential clients. Prospects are highly mobile, whether they require legal services now or in the future, and are exposed to innumerable marketing messages throughout their day.

 

To illustrate the point, here is a hypothetical day-in-the-life of a consumer. After getting up in the morning, your potential client either watches the early news on TV or reads a newspaper, while having his first cup of coffee of the day, and is exposed to a variety of ads right away. As he drives to work, perhaps listening to the radio, passing billboards on the highway and shelter advertising on the local streets, many more marketing messages are front and center. While in the office, browsing the web and checking emails, he sees pay-per-click and banner ads for a variety of products and services. At home again in the evening, watching TV, and perhaps browsing the web looking to purchase or research an item of interest the cycle is completed.

 

Obviously this over dramatized consumer media experience may be a marketer's fantasy, but it shows the reality that consumers may be exposed to many diverse messages throughout their day. The goal of skilled legal marketers is to select the media most appropriate for their potential clients and create a compelling and consistent message that breaks through the clutter of all of the advertising they are bombarded by every day. This approach creates a synergistic top-of-mind awareness so that when their need for an attorney arises, your name comes to mind or seems very familiar when they next see your firm's name.

 

Although this practice is one of the tried and true mainstays of any good law firm marketing program, new research from Nielsen's Three Screen Report now shows that  it may be even more important now. Their report provides single source electronic measurement of TV and Internet usage in the same homes. As of June, the research indicates, "57% of consumers with Internet access at home watch TV and go online simultaneously at least once a month. On average these consumers spend 2 hours, 39 minutes each month simultaneously using the Internet while also watching TV. Their online experience at home is in front of the television almost a third of the time."

 

What that means to law firm marketing is that consumers in need of legal assistance look to more than one single source to assist in making the decision to contact and hire a law firm. By integrating a firm's marketing strategy and including TV, search engine optimization (SEO), optimized web videos, and social media in the marketing mix it creates a greater chance for success for each individual medium.  Consumers have not abandoned traditional media for new media. The research shows that they consume both, sometimes simultaneously.

 

For more information on law firm marketing planning, SEO for attorneys or TV advertising, contact Kevin Quinlan.

 

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