Betties Book Brief | Outrageous Advertising
This month, we read Bill Glazer’s Outrageous Advertising That’s Outrageously Successful. Believe us when we say this book is a must-read if you ever feel you’re coming up short on marketing ideas! Bill goes over different tips and tricks of copywriting, but he also provides concrete examples of fantastic campaigns that can be adapted for any industry – including legal. The key to swiping these ideas is to let them inspire your own spin on them, but don’t copy word for word.
For example, we loved the idea of sending out an invitation and requiring an RSVP that was mentioned in the book. So, we created a mailer that looks exactly like a formal invitation, inviting potential clients to RSVP for a new service we are rolling out soon (wink, wink – keep an eye out for what that may be). But we didn’t use their exact design or copy, just the idea and adapted it into what works best for our business. There’s no right or wrong, you just want to grab your potential clients’ attention with your marketing.
With that being said, we highly recommend this read to anyone who struggles in the copywriting or advertising department because it will help you! Check out our main takeaways below:
Outrageous Advertising Takeaways
What your offer needs:
- Always list the pertinent details. Every time! Company name, location, hours, phone number, website, products/brands, etc.
- A solid direct response ad will always: Make an offer, give a deadline (2 weeks max), and allows you to track the responses.
- Deadlines are mandatory for a successful offer.
- A great headline needs to answer: who cares? what’s in it for me? why are you bothering me?
Other things to keep in mind:
- Reason Why copy: responses go up when you explain why you’re making an offer. Do this in a story format and you are almost guaranteed results. Good reasons why: fire/flood sale, need to pay my taxes sale, scratch and dent, birthday or anniversary, server crashed, it’s raining, the boss is away. As you can see, the limit does not exist. Anything can be a reason for a promotion as long as you pair a story with it.
- The more you tell, the more you sell. Long-form copy works!
- Rethink ROI success. Outrageously successful means the proportion of money spent to the money generated by the campaign. If we spent $600 on direct mail and received 1 client whose lifetime value was $3000, this is a 5x return on our investment.
- People are going to respond to your advertisement for fear of loss or personal gain.
- You don’t have to always offer a discount – the hot new shoes being released cause people to line up because of scarcity, not a discount.
- Offer a choice between premiums and let the customer choose. The choices could be something like a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant OR a donation to the charity of their choice OR we will give you this survival kit.
- Mix up your media during campaigns. Engagement and response rates increase substantially with each additional touch so get yourself seen everywhere your ideal client is. An example could be: direct mail first, follow up phone call, postcard, then final email reminder.
Have you read Outrageous Advertising? What tips have you implemented in your law firm’s marketing? We’d love to hear your thoughts over on Facebook!
Answering the phone when it rings. Easy as pie, right? Not necessarily! The way that you answer your phone (and actually ensuring that someone always does) can make or break you when it comes to landing clients. When potential clients are calling a law firm, they are likely running down a list, trying to find anyone who can help them. Attorneys are not scarce and it’s important to stand out by way of communication and customer service. Once you’ve missed their call, it’s likely that you’ve missed their business altogether.
