Tips for Attorneys Tracking Their Advertising

Tracking is the most neglected marketing aspects only 20% of law firms track their results and 70% have no idea how their tactics are performing.

Download this 1 week form (duplicate it for a year) and you will have a method to know where your clients are coming from. Fill in the blanks for the Directory, listed name, page, etc. Include the display ad page and the anchor listing to the display also. Indicate each day where calls are coming from. You will want to know if they are accessing you by name in the column.

This must be done on the first phone call. Ask two questions of the caller: "Where did you get my phone number?" If their answer is the phone book, ask, "What page are you on?" This will give you and idea what heading they are accessing and it will tell you where to invest your dollars.

They may also say "website" or "referral." There is a place for that too.

It is extremely important that you do not ask, "Where did you hear about us?" They may have heard about in a jail cell, a political rally, a conversation. This tells you nothing about marketing tactics.

You are looking for tracking information, how they found your information to call you for an appointment. Suggesting they have heard about you will not help your marketing budgets.

Remote Call Forwarding: This is a way to have your calls measured by publishing a different phone number in publications that forwards to your existing phone without any equipment change.

Know what you are agreeing to. A few questions to ask before you decide to do this...

Exactly what information will the results give you? Callers name? Phone number? Location? Time of Call?

Make sure you are satisfied with the information.

You may buy this service yourself at any time for a small fee, and keep your results private.

Some publishers will provide this as a service at no additional charge for you, to prove the results of their product, and to sell your competitors advertising, with your call volumes...

The question to ask is, "Will your results be shared with your competitors?" Next question, "Are you okay with having your competitors know your results?" If so, no problem. Let them pay for it.

What happens to the phone number next year? How long before it is reactivated? How long has the phone number you are about to publish with your information been inactive? A year? Do you have the right to own the phone number after the tracking cycle is complete? What if people keep the old phone book? Many do.

Food for thought.