"LEGAL ACTION" In The Yellow Pages: Hard Sell, Soft Results By Cliff Jackson • Fulbright Fellow • LL.B. With Honors • Highest Score Ark. Bar Examination (July 1972) • Member, American, Arkansas, Pulaski Bar Associations • Member, American And Arkansas Trial Lawyers Yellow page advertising by lawyers is not all it's cracked up to be, according to a survey I conducted recently of local allorneys who have display ads in the metropolitan lillie Rock phone book. (I practice in lillie Rock and have had a yellow page ad for the last two years.) The results, according to my survey, are in sharp conflict with telephone company representations concerning the bonanza lawyers can expect from yellow page ads. An 800"10 Return ... Phone company salesmen are telling lawyers that they can expect an $8 return for every $1 spent on a yellow page ad, and the salesmen even produce national bar association surveys allegedly supporting their claim. My survey of the Little Rock lawyers with yellow page ads, however, shows much different results. Only one of the twenty-four lawyers surveyed professed to be totally "satisfied" with the financial return from his ad. This lawyer, who asked not to be identified, said that he had made a "lot of profit" from his ad. "Quite honestly, Ijust had a couple of lucky clients," he said in explaining his "significant" return. ... Or "A Disaster" ... At the other extreme, several lawyers characterized their advertising experience as a "disaster" and indicated that they definitely would not renew their ads next year. Typical of this group is Stephen D. Carver, who said he had received only two cases since February which he can definitely trace to the ad. "I think it [the ad] is absolutely useless," he said, adding that perhaps his poor response is due to his advertising a specialty (patent law). Two separate dissatisfied lawyers, who asked not to be identified, even went so far as to suggest a "class action" lawsuit against the phone company for misrepresentation concerning the expected return from the ad. Another lawyer said that he felt "hoodwinked". Just "Breaking Even" ... The bollom line for about ninety percent of the lawyers is that they are just "breaking even." In other words, the return from the ad pays for its cost and very lillie more. A typical comment is that of John Haskins, "I don't think it paid for itself. It's just about breaking even, maybe not even that." 16/Arkansas Lawyer/January 1982
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_' ,1' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - /1 \ Everett O. Martindale, who is one of the pioneers in legal advertising in lillie Rock, says that he is thinking about not renewing to see if there is a large drop-off in his business. "It's so expensive-l don't know really if I've gollen enough business to pay for it. Maybe it just paid for itself and, if that's so, what's the point?" Martindale asked. Alternatives Considered ... Mike Hulen agrees and indicates that he and Phillip Cuffman will probably cut back to a postcard size ad in the alphabetical listings. They are thinking about pUlling their advertising dollars elsewhere, perhaps in radio. Evans Benton says that his firm has gollen more response from newspaper ads than from the yellow page ad. "Last year, the ad paid for itself, perhaps slightly more, but this year it's questionable whether it's even paid for itself," he said. He added, "The only people making any money [from yellow page ads] is the phone company." David Williams and Paul Johnson, who do not plan to renew their ad, apparently feel about the same. "We haven't gollen twenty-five phone calls thus far," David Williams says, "The thing hasn't come close to paying for itself." Time-Wasting Calls Cited... Both Bubba Madden and Basil Hicks say that they definitely will not renew their ads. I'm not gelling any business, and what business I'm gelling is not productive," Madden says. "In addition, I get too many calls that aren't 'significant'. It just takes up too much of my time. It's simply not worth it.