Why in the world are so many personal injury lawyers advertising on television?
Simple answer, because television advertising is the most power advertising medium available. Not only are personal injury lawyers utilizing the power of television, they've been joined by, bankruptcy, social security, elder, and criminal lawyers. Television is the only advertising medium that openly invites advertisers into their home.
Just ask yourself, when's the last time you and your family sat down in the den for a relaxing evening of flipping through the yellow pages or, sorting through various direct mail pieces? Probably never, but families all over the world sit down every single day and or evening and watch their favorite television programming.
Why in the world are so many personal injury lawyers advertising on television?
Television offers the lowest CPM, 'cost per thousand." On average, in most mid size markets it's not unheard of for advertisers to pay a staggering $4.00 CPM. That's a meager $4.00 to put your face and firm in front of 1,000 potential clients. If you can find any form of media that can offer a lower CPM you would be a fool not to take advantage of it. But chances are, you won't.
Why in the world are so many personal injury lawyers advertising on television?
While personal injury lawyers have been saturating the yellow page directories for years, it doesn't take long to figure out that the law firms who purchase the largest ads always seem to be in the first few pages of the legal category. So, unless you're willing to spend thousands of dollars each month on a yellow page ad that if for some reason doesn't pull in the calls as you expected you're unable to chance it, you'll probably end up like most lawyers, twenty pages deep with a small B/W ad that virtually goes unnoticed. Not to mention, those tiny B/W ads often cost thousands per year as well.
Summary:
Although television advertising can generate dramatic results for personal injury lawyers in the same sense it can easily be overwhelming and in some cases be an easy way for an inexperienced lawyer to waste thousands of dollars by not knowing how to evaluate a television station and paying high advertising rates and just spending more money than needed.
The best advice I could give any personal injury lawyer is, if you're interested in putting your firm on television, hire an expert to help you. In most cases it will save you thousands of dollars on wasted advertising and hundreds of dollars on Ibuprophen purchases from having to deal with half a dozen advertising reps.
