Today, I want to talk to you about something that’s probably going to make you mad because this is mostly a lawyer group. I want to teach you a little bit of marketing psychology and how I would market paralegal services.
Recently, someone contacted me and said they’d been running Facebook ads and were not getting any results. They’re getting a few results, but they’re not getting a lot of leads. The ones they do get are people that say, “I don’t have any money, I can’t afford to pay you.”
I wanted to break down their ads and show you what’s going on. I’m looking at it from a purely marketing standpoint, i.e., what the problem is with these ads and what you can do differently.
The Problem With The Facebook ads
There are two ads that I saw. The first ad was running last night. It’s not currently running. And then the other ad is still running. So part of the problem is that you’re on Facebook and this is just a straight advertisement.
There’s nothing about the ads that are beneficial or interesting to people. Especially the ad with the big headline “Paralegal Solutions LI.” Most people don’t know what paralegals do. They don’t know that if they have, for example, an uncontested divorce with no children, or if they’re trying to get a simple contract done, that paralegal services are available for that.
Now I’m probably going to make some lawyers mad, because they’re going to say, oh, you can’t have a paralegal do that, you have to have a lawyer do that.
I’m not saying whether this is a good service or not. I’m just saying strictly from a marketing standpoint, what’s wrong with these ads and what I would do differently if I were marketing this company.
Don’t email me about all the problems with not using an attorney. Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just giving you some information here, but you can use this information for your own law firm.
Why Are The Ads Attracting Leads Who Can’t Pay?
The ads say, “Don’t let legal matters spook you. We are professional and affordable. We offer payment plans.”
Now, one of their big complaints is that people are contacting them and can’t afford to pay. But they’re already targeting people that don’t have a lot of money because they’re saying right off the bat, “We have payment plans.”
They’re saying that if you can’t afford a normal legal service, call us. So, I think they’re inviting some of those issues. I’m not saying don’t do that. I’m just saying don’t be surprised when you get people that can’t pay you.
So what’s the problem with this ad?
Where Are The Benefits?
The problem with this ad is that there is no benefit whatsoever. First of all, it doesn’t show you what they do, and then there’s no benefit whatsoever to the user. It doesn’t show you what the firm does. It doesn’t show you what the benefits of going with a paralegal versus going with a lawyer might be.
And it doesn’t show what the user is going to get. It just says, “Don’t let legal matters spook you. We’re professional and affordable, and we offer payment plans.”
Nothing is enticing there. Let me show you what I would do if I were to write this ad, knowing what they do: DUI, DWI, Criminal, Tennessee small claims, family law. They do a lot of different things here.
The Importance Of Focus
First of all, I wouldn’t include everything in one ad. I would create one ad for one thing. If you’re a personal injury attorney and you do personal injury and also criminal defense, and estate planning, don’t run an ad for all of them. Run the ad for one of them.
For this one, just using my marketing brain, here’s what I would do.
What Would I Do With The Ad?
Let’s say I’m going to do divorce. I’m guessing that a paralegal can handle a non-complicated divorce, if it’s maybe an uncontested divorce where maybe there are not a lot of assets, and there are no kids, and everyone agrees on everything, all you need is the formality of the paperwork. This might be a good service.
Again, this is not my opinion on the service. It’s my opinion on the ad. What I would do is say something like this, “Did you know that the average divorce attorney charges $3,000 or $5,000 for a divorce? Why pay that if you have a simple divorce where you can get the same paperwork filed and avoid all of the hassle of divorce for one flat rate of $995.”
What you’re doing is, you’re showing the new opportunity, showing that the benefit is that you’re going to save a lot of money by going with his paralegal. If I’m going through a divorce or if I’m thinking about a divorce and I see this ad right here, this paralegal solution ad is saying, “Don’t let legal matters spook you. We’re professional and affordable. We offer payment plans.”
I don’t even know what this is. I’m not going to pay attention to it. I’m just going to keep scrolling.
Whereas if I saw an ad that said, “Uncontested divorces? We’re going to save you $4,000 versus going to an attorney.” That would probably pique my interest, and that’s something that’s going to pique the average person’s interest.
What’s Going On With The Other Ad?
Now the same thing is happening in the next ad. In fact, this ad is not very attractive, and it’s all text. I’m surprised that Facebook is allowing this ad to run because it’s so texting heavy, but it’s the same type of thing. They say, “We offer payment plans,” that is in the top right corner of the ads.
It’s not very attractive, so I wouldn’t expect that they’re going to get a lot of contacts from this ad. What they might get is probably going to be the bottom of the barrel: people that are trying to, just figure out, how cheap can I get this?
How To Improve The Ad
Don’t run ads for the service, run ads for the benefit. How would I benefit from using a paralegal service instead of an attorney? That’s what I would do. I think that’s the best way to do it. This type of advertising campaign is extremely simple to run, and they’re very effective because you can compete on price a little bit.
You are a commodity because people are looking for an alternative to having to hire an attorney in a lot of places. If you can show that benefit and show how the user is going to benefit and how you’re different, show a new opportunity, then that’s what I would do.
If you’re an attorney, how can this apply to you? It’s the same type of thing. I see attorneys doing this all the time. I’ve seen attorneys run ads just like this, “Don’t let legal matters spook you. Call us today for a free consultation if you’ve been injured in a car accident,” or “If you got a DUI, call us today. We’ll give you a free consultation, and we take payments.”
How Attorneys Can Compete With The Paralegal Ads
Attorneys do these same types of ads. They would be better suited by saying, here are the benefits of hiring me, or here are the benefits of hiring an attorney versus hiring a paralegal solution.
If you want to take the reverse, where if you’re trying to run ads for divorce, and you know you’ve got a big company like a paralegal solution in your market, what you can do is you can basically say, here are five reasons that you need an attorney and not a paralegal to file your divorce for you.
Now you’ve changed their mind on that one. Then, you can throw in that while attorneys are more expensive, it will probably save you more money in the long run. And by the way, we offer payment plans starting at $500 a month or something. That’s if you want to try to get rid of some of those people that just absolutely cannot afford to pay you.
Hopefully, I didn’t make too many people mad in this video because I know it’s going to be a sensitive subject. But, look at psychology, and look at how this is working. Hopefully, this will help you improve your ads.