How to Effectively Market Your New York City Law Practice

As with any small business, effectively marketing your law practice is the key to its success. Of course, there are plenty of media outlets in New York City to get your message to prospective clients across. But many of those outlets can be financially draining and inefficient. This article will explore some of the more cost-effective marketing strategies for lawyers in New York City and point out some of the pitfalls new attorneys must learn to avoid. Here are some tips on how to effectively market your New York City law practice.

If your law practice is located in any major city (and particularly New York), many of the conventional marketing strategies most lawyers employ may not be cost-effective for a new attorney just hanging out his shingle. For instance, the Yellow Pages. While advertising in the Yellow Pages in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, may be effective, in New York City ads will be too overpriced for your newcomer budget, and the competition will be too heavy to warrant the expenditure. Small, postage stamp-sized ads in Manhattan simply don't stand a chance against the full-page, full-color ads of your competitors. And even the smallest available ad in Manhattan can cost you up to and over one thousand dollars a month. My quarter-page ad in the Verizon Yellow Pages (without color) cost me $2,500 a month, more than the rent on my two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in nearby Hoboken, New Jersey. And Verizon is far from the only book in Manhattan. There's Yellow Book, New Yellow, Yellow This, Yellow That. It's impossible to keep up. However, if you do advertise in the Yellow Pages, make sure the salesman gives you a specific telephone number that can track calls that you get from your ad. This way, after your contract is up, you can decide for yourself if it was cost-effective and whether a renewal is warranted.