The Magic Free Offer
I'm always amazed at how little original thought many
advertisers put into their ads. And how they consequently throw
away money. Right now I am looking at several full-page Yellow
Page ads for local law firms. These are mostly general practice
firms who handle the usual plaintiff's cases: personal injury,
personal bankruptcy, family law and criminal defense.
They aren't blue chip firms on Wall Street, their business is on
Main Street. There is a need for these types of firms and they
don't appear to be ambulance chasers. But there really is
nothing about their ads that set them apart from their
competitors. In fact, each ad says essentially the same thing as
the next ad: 1) a laundry list of the cases they handle, 2) how
much experience they have, and 3) grim, no nonsense photographs
of lawyers who mean business and are ready to go to war on your
behalf.
One thing is for certain; all of these full-page ads cost these
firms a lot of money. But what if they could greatly increase
their response rates from these ads, and make their ads
outperform all of their competitors' ads, without spending an
extra dollar?
Here's how: By offering free information. Free information
lowers the bar for a person to respond to your ad. Instead of
having to call, set an appointment and meet with a
lawyer, the person can just call or send an email for a free
booklet (or you can send a free white paper, a free ebook, a
free audio CD, a free DVD, a free tip sheet, a free interactive
software program or anything you like as long as it is genuinely
informative).
What kind of free booklet? Let's just focus on criminal cases
for now. What if your ad offered the following free booklets: