2024 Lawyer Marketing: Capitalizing Digital and OOH Advertising

In the fast-paced digital age where digital marketing and search engine optimization have become the norms, it's easy to assume that traditional marketing channels like outdoor advertising have lost their relevance to legal professionals and law firms. However, integrating law firm marketing statistics into outdoor advertising strategies reveals a different narrative. Outdoor advertising remains a highly effective tool, especially for industries where local recognition is paramount. This is particularly true for lawyer marketing, where compelling law firm marketing statistics can be leveraged. This exploration delves into how law firms can strategically leverage outdoor advertising to fortify their marketing efforts, optimize their law firms spend on marketing, and secure an edge in a competitive landscape, drawing more website traffic and enhancing online presence through effective firm marketing strategies.

The Significance of Lawyer Marketing

The landscape of the legal industry has significantly evolved over the past decade. The market is saturated with over 1.3 million lawyers in the United States alone, leading to a highly competitive environment. As such, law firms have had to rethink their marketing strategies to attract and retain clients.

Lawyer marketing is pivotal; it’s a multifaceted tool that includes firm marketing strategies, law firm websites, social media marketing, and outdoor advertising, enabling law firms to distinguish themselves in the marketplace, augment website traffic, and ultimately, foster business growth. With the American bar swelling with lawyers, a precise and nuanced approach to marketing is essential.

A study conducted by the Legal Marketing Association and Bloomberg illustrates the point: nearly 48% of legal firms felt their efforts were overshadowed by their competitors' marketing strategies, underscoring the imperative nature of law firm spend on marketing. This alarming statistic has resulted in 62% of legal businesses reevaluating and amplifying their marketing strategies, as per a report by Lawyer Monthly.

The Power of Out Of Home (OOH) Advertising

Out Of Home, or OOH, advertising refers to any form of promotion that occurs beyond the confines of the consumer's home. This can include printed ads on billboards, posters, and flyers, as well as digital advertising on digital billboards and screens situated by roadsides, in city centers, on public transportation vehicles, in malls, entertainment venues, office buildings, airports, and train stations.

Billboards have long been a favored marketing method for attorneys. Every city freeway features billboard advertising showcasing various types of lawyers, with drivers typically using regular travel patterns, ensuring repeated exposure and higher recall.

DOOH advertising is revolutionary in the context of legal marketing statistics, bridging the gap between traditional and digital advertising realms, allowing law firms to optimize their law firm spend on marketing effectively.

The Advantages of Digital OOH (DOOH) Advertising for Law Firms

Although traditional OOH advertising is effective, Digital Out of Home or DOOH advertising provides numerous advantages for law firms seeking to optimize outdoor advertising opportunities.

Traditional OOH advertising tends to be static in nature, with marketers having to consider variables such as the physical location of the display, its design, and the duration the consumer is exposed to it. This means advertisers may have to wait weeks, or even months, for their poster or billboard to yield the desired impact. Additionally, production fees associated with updating or changing printed ads can be costly, and the billboard material can fade, peel, or weather, potentially tarnishing your brand image.

DOOH advertising overcomes the limitations of static advertising by using digital technologies and media to construct its outdoor displays.

Best Digital OOH Practices for Law Firms

DOOH advertising comes in various forms:

• Roadside Outdoor: These billboards are unobstructed and strategically located in high-traffic areas and public roads. Examples include spectacular digital displays in Times Square, bus shelter ads on Oxford Street, or large unmissable highway billboards. Roadside Outdoor billboards provide large advertising spaces with wide reach, seen by millions of people in the US each day.

• Transit: Transit DOOH is designed to reach travelers and commuters in environments with high dwell times that draw heightened attention to advertisements. These can include displays on top of taxis and buses, effectively converting transit vehicles into moving billboards. A similar concept has been utilized effectively in car top advertising, proving the potential reach and impact of such strategies. Placed in high-traffic areas such as train/subway stations, bus stations, and airports, transit DOOH captures a captive audience with minimal distractions.

• Retail: Retail DOOH inventory can engage with audiences at their most receptive moments on their path to purchase, found in environments like malls, pharmacies, convenience stores, etc. A recent study found that 86% of adults in the United States prefer to shop for their groceries in person, making retail DOOH a perfect way to increase brand visibility to audiences on-the-go.

• Place-Based Media: Place-based media or networks reach consumers where they spend much of their time outside their homes. This includes venues like office buildings, malls, hotels, universities/colleges, gyms, salons, and points of care. Place-based advertising can be highly customized, targeting specific consumer audiences at the right time and place.

• Programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) solutions are like the marketing agencies of the outdoor advertising world, enabling the delivery of relevant ads to targeted audiences at optimal moments. The innovative technology employed allows for real-time adjustments and automations in ad delivery, a leap forward from static, traditional methods.

One of the main advantages of DOOH is the ability to change its displays in accordance with a range of parameters such as the time of day, weather patterns, and different types of clients or consumers. Thanks to the power of the internet and sophisticated programmatic DOOH platforms, legal marketers can now reach their target audience with personalized, relevant, data-driven, and measurable marketing via Digital Out of Home billboards and other digital displays.

Historically, purchasing advertising space on billboards and other Out of Home inventory has been a cumbersome, time-consuming process, with middlemen negotiating prices with ad space owners, which increases the advertiser’s costs.

Programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) solves these problems by delivering relevant ads to targeted audiences at the perfect moment when they walk or travel past the digital signage. pDOOH platforms allow advertisers to buy ad space based on specific criteria, such as footfall, traffic, weather conditions/ temperature, time of day, or a range of other options. This allows you to approach OOH advertising from a whole new data-driven perspective.

Similar to how online ads use cookies for audience targeting based on browsing behaviors, pDOOH technology uses (anonymized) location data or location-based mobile data to target audiences by understanding where they spend their time, how long they remain in certain places, and their daily routines. This happens in real-time, and the entire ad bidding, buying, and delivery process is completely automated.

DOOH and pDOOH advertising allows law firms to precisely reach their target audience, delivering a potent and cost-effective tool in today's increasingly competitive legal marketplace.

Embracing Outdoor Advertising for Enhanced Lawyer Marketing

Outdoor advertising's efficacy has been proven time and again across various industries, including legal services. It complements other media channels effectively, enhancing the reach of search online strategies and social media marketing, and the precision it offers in targeting specific demographics is unparalleled.

OOH advertising can significantly boost law firm’s spend on marketing efficacy, making it a powerful ally in legal firms' marketing arsenals, especially when coupled with digital marketing strategies like search engine optimization and social media marketing.

1. Local Recognition

First and foremost, outdoor advertising emphasizes your law firm's local presence. Irrespective of the size or reach of your firm, the cornerstone of a successful law practice lies in its reputation within the local community. OOH advertising successfully targets local audiences, making your law firm the first point of contact when legal services are required.

2. Cost-Effectiveness

Outdoor advertising is unmatched in cost-effectiveness. It offers the lowest Cost per Thousand (CPM) impressions, providing exceptional value for every marketing dollar spent. Moreover, OOH ads are displayed 24/7, ensuring your law firm maintains a constant presence in the public eye.

3. Enhancing Other Media Channels

OOH advertising isn't just powerful on its own; it's also highly effective at boosting the reach of other media channels. Adding OOH to your marketing mix can increase the reach of television ads by 18% and mobile advertising by a staggering 316%, as per the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA).

4. Precision Targeting

With the advent of advanced targeting technologies, legal firms can leverage outdoor advertising to reach their ideal demographics. Whether it's mass audience reach via billboards or localized targeting based on income or age, outdoor advertising meets diverse legal marketing needs.

OOH Advertising Advantages	Description
Local Focus	Enhances your law firm's reputation within the local community
Cost-Effective	Offers the lowest CPM impressions and the highest ROI
Boosts Other Channels	Can increase the reach of TV ads by 18% and mobile advertising by 316%
Precision Targeting	Targets specific demographics accurately

5. Outdoor Advertising Statistics for Attorneys

The American Bar and law firms can reference compelling firm marketing statistics to understand the unprecedented advantages of OOH advertising. A recent study done by The Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) reveals some compelling statistics about outdoor advertising's effectiveness for attorneys:

• 82% of people searched the web as a direct result of seeing an OOH ad after five exposures.

• Outdoor advertising is 80% less expensive than television.

• Roughly 7 out of 10 OOH ads promote local businesses like law firms.

• The Return on Investment (ROI) for OOH is forty cents higher per dollar spent compared to TV and print.

FAQs

Q1: Why should law firms invest in outdoor advertising?

Outdoor advertising offers an array of benefits for law firms. It enhances local recognition, is cost-effective, boosts the reach of other media channels, and enables precision targeting.

Q2: How can outdoor advertising complement other marketing channels?

OOH advertising can enhance the reach of other media channels, such as television and mobile advertising. For example, adding OOH to your marketing mix can increase the reach of TV ads by 18% and mobile ads by 316%.

Q3: What are the cost implications of investing in outdoor advertising for law firms?

Outdoor advertising is known for its cost-effectiveness, offering the lowest CPM impressions. It allows your law firm to maintain a constant public presence while making the most of your marketing budget.

Q4: How does outdoor advertising boost local recognition for law firms?

Outdoor advertising targets local audiences, helping your law firm become the go-to service provider in the local community.

Q5: Can outdoor advertising be targeted towards specific demographics?

Yes, outdoor advertising can target specific demographics accurately. Be it billboards for mass audience reach or local ads targeting groups based on income or age, outdoor advertising can cater to diverse marketing needs.

By combining outdoor advertising with digital strategies, such as search engine optimization and social media marketing, your law firm can significantly enhance its market visibility, draw more clients, and experience substantial business growth. It's not just about having a functional law firm website; it's about creating a comprehensive marketing strategy, which includes the right amount of law firms spend on effective advertising. In the digital age, where everyone is vying for attention, a multifaceted approach, leveraging both digital and traditional marketing means, will make your law firm stand out.