It takes skill and ingenuity to target the right audiences and attract prospects who will become regular clients. These are skills that you can develop through practice and educating yourself about what does and does not work. Let's look at what does not work and why. Here are 3 reasons why advertising doesn't work for law firm marketing.

1. You use ads that aim at the wrong audience. This is a poor advertising choice. For example, you purchase a number of television spots, but can only afford to put your law firm's ad on after midnight on cable channels. Most television advertising is a waste of good money, as it has not been proven to produce results for law firms. It is crucial for the success of your law firm marketing campaign that you determine who your target audience is and then focus only on them.

2. You use the wrong medium. For example, you have tried using television ads when advertising on the radio or in a trade magazine would prove more successful. It will not help your cause to conduct your law firm marketing through daytime television ads when your target audience would be at the office with their radio on in the background.

The same holds true if you were advertising on late night radio in order to reach an audience that would likely be flipping through a trade magazine at some point during their work day or while running errands on their lunch hour.

3. You have no call to action in the advertisement. Every ad should answer the question, "Why should I call you now?" If your law firm marketing strategies involve flooding the market with various correctly focused advertisements, yet you have failed to hit your mark, then you have not given them any reason to contact you.

The simple truth of law firm marketing is that if you aren't prompting your prospects to take action and contact you in order to become clients, you are wasting your money, your time and the client's time. This is how you lose clients, not how you attract them.

Your goal is to reach your target audience in ways that will keep your firm in their minds and call them to action. Their actions must be to not only contact you, but to hire you for all of their legal needs. To do this successfully, focus on the four basic criteria of AIDA:

* Attention: Grab attention with a catchy headline, intriguing question, powerful statistic or thought-provoking quote

* Interest: Tell prospective clients why they should be interested. Don't make them guess

* Desire: Answer these two questions. Why should I buy from you? Why should I buy from you now?

* Action: Offer a low risk way to contact you. Give away a free special report, or offer a low-cost public seminar or a workshop

A well-structured and intelligently thought out marketing plan is the only effective method to attract prospects and turn them into clients. Any other attempt that does not employ the basic common sense rules of good law firm marketing is just a feeble attempt at testing the waters. That will get you nowhere except over budget and under stocked in your client pool. Use your good sense and talents as a voice for people who cannot speak for themselves to reach those people who need your services.