Vanity phone numbers for lawyers are important for advertising, especially for personal injury lawyers, because they substantially increase ROI from all types of advertising.

Is a vanity phone number indispensable? No, but it will make a huge difference for your advertising ROI because very few personal injury lawyers have a brand.

Why Do Lawyers Need a Vanity Phone Number for Advertising?

The reason vanity phone numbers for lawyers are needed for advertising is that lawyers don’t have an existing brand.

A vanity phone number solves the problem of not having an existing brand because it creates an instantaneous brand. People who see your vanity phone number for the first time think they have seen it before.

FRANCKEL & PLEVY means nothing to the public, but 1-800-HURT-911® has instant appeal.

Instant branding is important for personal injury lawyers advertising with all types of media, but see why it is especially crucial for radio, billboards, and Google Ads for lawyers.

How Does Branding Improve Advertising for Lawyers?

Personal injury lawyers use a type of advertising called direct response advertising, which is designed to get people to call or contact the lawyer within seconds or minutes of seeing the advertising.

The problem with direct response advertising is that people are afraid to call a lawyer they don’t know. That’s true for any business.

Direct response advertising produces much better results and ROI when branding is associated with the advertising because it makes people feel like they know the lawyer even though they don’t.

Branding makes people comfortable calling a lawyer they don’t know. The better the brand, the more comfortable people feel, and the more they want to call that lawyer.

Is There a Difference Between Vanity Phone Numbers for Lawyer Advertising?

Yes. Because a vanity phone number is a powerful brand, it acts like your front desk receptionist deciding who can call you. Therefore, a lawyer must carefully choose which vanity number to use.

A vanity phone number that uses the word LAWYERS or ATTORNEY is good for a general practice law firm because people will call with any legal problem, from divorce to an eviction, even if they see a commercial showing a car accident.

I was told by a lawyer who used 1-800-LAWYERS in several states that he gave up the vanity phone number after using it for six months because 50% of the calls were unrelated to personal injury, and most were for evictions.

If you’re a divorce lawyer, you should advertise 1-800-DIVORCE because it creates instant branding, and you’ll only get calls from people who need a divorce lawyer.

Vanity phone numbers for personal injury lawyers should not be too general or specific.

For instance, a vanity phone number that uses the words “car crash,” “car wreck,” “bike,” or “motorcycle” will attract only people in an accident matching the words in the vanity number, even if they see a commercial for other accidents.

Are Vanity Phone Numbers for Lawyers Available for Sale?

Vanity phone numbers are rarely available for sale, but you may occasionally find one. Because there are so few, be prepared to spend a lot of money.

Like anything else, a good vanity number works better than a mediocre one, and a great vanity number works better than a good one. But even a mediocre vanity number is worth getting if you can get one.

A good vanity phone number is very difficult to obtain, and a great vanity phone number is almost impossible to obtain.

Consider licensing a vanity phone number for exclusive use in your desired territory instead of spending seven figures to buy a vanity phone number.

How Much Do Vanity Phone Numbers for Lawyers Cost?

I know of several vanity phone numbers for lawyers that sold for $1,000,000 each. One law firm purchased three vanity phone numbers for approximately $1,000,000 each. I’ve been offered $3,000,000 for 1-800-HURT-911®, which I declined.

You can’t legally sell or buy a phone number, but you can legally transfer it by selling a domain name that comes with the phone number.

An affordable way to use a great vanity phone number is to license exclusive use for your market. If you are a personal injury lawyer, your license must be for a territory large enough for TV advertising. Never license a vanity number by area code or zip code.

Make sure your license agreement renews automatically and doesn’t allow the vanity phone number to be given to another lawyer willing to pay more than you. That happened to a lawyer who lost the use of his vanity number and then became a licensee of the best vanity phone number, 1-800-HURT-911®.

I know vanity phone numbers work for personal injury advertising, and I know the HURT911® advertising program works because I’m a personal injury lawyer and advertise 1-800-HURT-911®.

Some people think vanity phone numbers are no longer relevant because of Google advertising, other online advertising, and smartphones, but the reverse is true. The branding power of vanity phone numbers makes them even more important for Google Ads and online advertising.

An A/B test of a vanity phone number in Google Ads showed that using 1-800-HURT-911® in the ad title resulted in an ROI of an additional 640% over using our law firm name. That’s huge!

Let me tell you how, in just two years, I signed cases worth several million dollars before we started using Google Ads!

Videos About 1-800 Vanity Phone Numbers

CNBC on How 1-800 Vanity Phone Numbers Increase Business

Importance of 1-800 Vanity Phone Numbers (1-800-HURT-911 is featured HERE)

Why Should I Get a Vanity Phone Number?

Advertising a 1-800 vanity phone number for personal injury lawyers on TV can significantly increase your return on investment. If you’re advertising on radio and/or billboards, you’re throwing your money out if you don’t advertise a 1-800 vanity phone number—

—Because your law firm name won’t get potential clients to call you!

Articles About 1-800 Vanity Phone Numbers

1-800 ADVOCACY Vanity Phone Numbers Make Your Firm Less Forgettable BY LAURA HODES ABA JOURNAL (also features 1-800-HURT-911)

Study Reveals Consumers Have Higher Recall of Vanity 800 Numbers in Advertising vs. Numeric Toll-free Phone Numbers and URLs

Study Shows Consumers of All Ages Have a Higher Recall Rate of Toll-free Vanity 800 Numbers Compared to Web Addresses

Toll-Free Numbers as Direct Response Mechanisms in Billboard Advertising

Use of Toll-Free Numbers in Consumer Magazines and Print Advertising – I use 1-800-HURT-911 as the focal point in my magazine advertising, and it works!

Use of Vanity Numbers in the Age of the Internet – 1-800-HURT-911 is our brand and the focal point on our websites, and it works!

Case Studies of Vanity Phone Numbers

Multi-Location Hospice Provider Evaluates Their Ad Spend Effectiveness with Vanity 800 Numbers – Finding: sales increased 213%

Medical Research Clinic Charts A 33% Increase in Call Volume By Using An Unforgettable 800 Number

50% of Incoming Calls to Custom 800 Number Become Sales For Health Insurance Broker

Vanity 800 Number Increases Response to TV Ad Campaign & Brands Cosmetic Physician

Vanity 800 Pitch Helps Agency Win Account, Boosts Sales for Skeptical Client – The only thing I disagree with here is the use of three different vanity phone numbers for tracking. Overall success will be increased substantially by branding only one vanity phone number.

There are other ways of tracking. Tracking is available for vanity phone numbers, but we use Call Rail tracking numbers for advertising our law firm with 1-800-HURT-911®.

Pain Centers Bring in 20% More Patients Each Month After Activating a Vanity Number – Important note: the 20% increase was done with an 888 number! The increase in patients would’ve been much higher with an 800 number.

Examples of Advertising Results With a Vanity Phone Number*

TV

$50,000 monthly TV advertising budget WITHOUT a 1-800 vanity number yields approx:
204 calls; 14 cases @ $45,000 avg ea & 1/3 legal fee = $210,000 monthly earned fees

$50,000 monthly TV advertising budget WITH 1-800-HURT-911 yields approx:
297 calls; 20 cases @ $45,000 avg ea & 1/3 legal fee = $300,000 monthly earned fees

Radio

$20,000 monthly radio advertising budget WITHOUT a 1-800 vanity number yields approx:
4.76 calls; 0.33 cases @ $45,000 avg ea & 1/3 legal fee = ($15,000) monthly loss

$20,000 monthly radio advertising budget WITH 1-800-HURT-911 yields approx:
66.66 calls; 4.66 cases @ $45,000 avg ea & 1/3 legal fee = $69,999 monthly earned fees.
Our radio ads target even higher value, fast cash flow cases!

Billboards

$10,000 monthly advertising budget WITHOUT a 1-800 vanity number yields approx:
0 calls; 0 cases @ $45,000 avg ea & 1/3 legal fee = $0 monthly earned fees.
Benefit to your TV & radio advertising = almost nothing.

$10,000 monthly advertising budget WITH 1-800-HURT-911 yields approx:
12.5 calls; .875 cases @ $45,000 avg ea & 1/3 legal fee = $13,125 monthly earned fees.
Benefit to your TV & radio advertising = can increase calls from TV by 50%.

Internet Advertising

Read about how using 1-800-HURT-911®  in Google Ads will increase your ROI.

*Actual results will vary depending upon many factors, including market rank, demographics, the amount of the actual ad budget, station programming, competition, competition for ad space from other large advertisers, such as elections or large short-term advertising campaigns from companies such as Verizon, political ad campaigns, and many other factors.