LONG Law Firm Names, Marketing & Vanity Numbers

Do you remember the old children’s song “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,” where kids pretend to have the same exhaustingly long name? Today many Americans have long names or names that are hard to pronounce.

This isn’t a problem in most professions, but law firms are almost always named after one or more partners. Those names can get hefty. A long string of names is hard for potential clients to remember. Names that are hard to pronounce can add an additional obstacle in a new client’s communication with a firm. Multi-syllable last names are tricky to spell, and a few letters out of line could make it difficult for a client to find you on Google.

Unfortunately, potential clients can be turned away from firms by even the most trivial obstacles. A surplus of attorneys has made the legal market incredibly competitive. If one firm has a more memorable name, that single factor could slide the scales in their favor.
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Tough Names in Advertising

If your firm’s name is in a radio ad, are you absolutely sure a listener could remember the name of the firm and have an idea of how to spell it? What about multiple partners, do you think that the listener remembers which order the names are in?

Billboards ads are no better than radio in this regard. If a driver speeding down the highway saw your firm’s billboard ad for only a few seconds, would he or she be able to quickly recall the name of your practice?

If the answers to any of the questions above is “no,” then it may be time for your firm to consider using a vanity number.
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A Case of Mistaken Identity

One of our clients, Rasansky Law Firm, was having trouble making their firm’s name stick in people’s mind. If they knew how it was spelled, they didn’t know how to pronounce it. Conversely, if they’d heard the name of the firm from a friend, they still had no idea how to spell it. Using the branding “1-800-ATTORNEY” has given clients an easy way to contact the firm.

Not all of the Rasansky Law Firm’s competitors have been as proactive. A nearby rival firm, where the attorney’s name also begins with “RA,” has several outdoor billboards. These billboards are overloaded with text and don’t give potential clients a good way to contact their firm. Sometimes potential clients only remember the first two letters in the attorney’s name – in this case is “R” and “A.” When the potential client goes home and google’s “Dallas accident lawyer RA,” it’s often the Rasansky Law Firm which comes up at the top. At this point the initial law firm has been forgotten, and the new client takes the case to the Rasansky Law Firm. While this may not happen often, personal injury attorneys know that one or two clients who have sustained serious injuries can make a big impact on the firm’s case load.
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His Name, is NOT My Name

The song goes, “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt / His name is my name too.” Yet, in the world of legal marketing you want to make it clear that your firm is different from the others. Otherwise you could end up losing potential clients over a simple, but crucial detail – spelling.

Here’s a checklist of how to combat a hard-to-spell name or a series of partner’s names:

♦ Clear Advertising

♦ Make certain that billboards aren’t too crowded with text and radio ads aren’t too long

♦ Speak clearly and phonetically whenever possible on a radio/TV ad

♦ Implement a Memorable Vanity Number

♦ Keep your vanity number classy and be certain your firm is giving a positive, professional impression

♦ Display the vanity number clearly using large font on billboards/TV ads

♦ Crisply articulate the vanity number in radio ads

♦ Online Ties

♦ Make certain the information on the billboard ties to one of the firm’s websites

♦ The vanity number should also lead to a webpage or online profile if Googled