Design & Create an Effective Billboard Ad by Using Industry Best Practices
Advertising can be a tricky affair if you don’t know where to start. Just because you leased a billboard, it doesn’t mean that your ad will get the response rate that you hoped for. Every business worth its salt understands the need for effective marketing and advertising, but not all know the tried and tested rules of outdoor billboard advertising.
A billboard can be a game changer if used and executed well. Placed along the right highways, these outdoor ads can help your firm gain massive visibility – and can take your practice to the next level. However, even the biggest, most colorful and most elaborate of billboards fail to get the impact they desire if they don’t adhere to the following rules:
Billboards Should Be Short And Concise
Studies say that the average person spends up to six seconds scanning a billboard. This doesn’t give them much time to absorb and process much information. Because of this, you want to keep your message short and sweet, all the while making sure that you’re communicating your message in a clear way. A great rule of thumb here would be to use a maximum of six words for your billboard headline. People just don’t have the time to slow down and read anything longer than 6 words. You really want to keep it simple to enable a prospective client’s short term memory to process and store the information so that they can recall it later.
Billboards Should be Used to Brand Your Firm
Some advertisers make the mistake of placing long numerical phone numbers (or difficult-to-remember website domains) in their billboard ads. Unless you expect people to kill their engines, walk out to the billboard and jot down this information, you’d be better off using the ad to brand your firm into the minds of those in your community. What’s the best way to brand your law firm AND convert these viewers into new clients? By using a simple, easy-to-remember vanity number! It’s no coincidence that 72% of all billboards which feature a phone number use a vanity number.
Take the billboard ad shown in the image above for example. This simple, yet effective ad tells the reader all they really need to know. It tells the reader that you’re an attorney, it focuses on getting potential clients to convert by calling the law firm via an easy-to-recall vanity number, and using a trusted phone number such as 1-800-ATTORNEY even adds a level of familiarity and trust to your message; both of which can lead to a higher response and conversion rate.
Be Creative and Indulge Your Target Market’s Senses
Boring billboards are a dime a dozen. One way to create a buzz around your product (as well as achieve viral visibility) is to use flashy and/or unconventional elements in your ad. You may wish to push the envelope by investing in digital billboards, 3-D billboards, creative lighting, and more. These tactics can help you sustain interest in your brand as well as stand out from the sea of run-of-the-mill billboards.
Choose Your Fonts Carefully
We’re all for being artistic, but with billboards, the most important thing is to get the message across in an effortless manner. Some fonts may look good in the boardroom. However, blown up, these fonts may be next to impossible to read. Because of this, you’ll want to choose a simple, easy-to-read font. While it may be tempting, experts say that you should always stay away from cursive, thin, or heavily-stylized fonts.
Why a Vanity Number Works So Well For Billboards
It’s simple. People are more receptive to (and more likely to remember) a good vanity phone number. Studies show that 68% of people will remember a phone number expressed as a word, versus only 16% who remember a numeric number. When was the last time you remembered a 10-digit numerical phone number used in a billboard? I’m guessing never.
Using a trusted and recognizable vanity number like 1-800-ATTORNEY means that your more of your audience will convert. In fact, a Chicago Tribune advertising survey found that advertisers using 1-800 vanity numbers were getting ten times the amount of response to those advertising with a numeric number!
If you want to exponentially increase your returns on billboard advertising, the answer is simple – use a vanity 800 number! One study showed that vanity 800 numbers like 1-800-ATTORNEY improve consumer recall rates in visual aids by up to 84 percent! Billboard advertising isn’t rocket science, but by following these simple rules, you stand to make a much larger return on your investment.
1-800-ATTORNEY®
If you are an attorney and would like more information on licensing the 1-800-ATTORNEY phone number in your local market (or your entire state), click here or call us toll-free at 1-800-704-3578. Spots are filling fast, so call us before your competition does!
