How did you hear about our firm?
Asking potential clients, “How did you hear about our firm?” provides sometimes actionable—albeit subjective—information you can use to understand how your marketing is working for you. To single out two answers, “Word of mouth” usually tells you your systems are working and your clients are happy, while “TV” tells you your advertising is garnering new potential clients.
At cj we have been tracking this question—and its answers—for decades. As you may expect, the percent of “TV” leads is slowly changing over time. On its own, that might be misleading, but when we look at TV-sourced leads in the broader context of your advertising’s evolution, we get a clearer picture of how TV is still a core part of your success.
The Rise of Second Screening
The ubiquity of smartphones has drastically altered habits and interactions with marketing. People are using their smartphones while watching TV at a rate of more than 70%, a trend called “second screening.”
While someone using their phone while watching TV sounds like a distraction, second screening is not a bad thing in the world of direct response advertising. Rather, it encourages immediate action to your marketing message. TV is often the spark that guides people to visit your website for more information. How often have you heard something on TV and then used your phone to Google it?
The Interaction of TV and Web
As we can see by the below spike analysis, TV and web work in tandem, with direct and organic web sessions closely mirroring the patterns of TV airings by date and time. It appears that the perception of marketing influence when answering, “how did you hear about our personal injury law firm?” is likely skewed to a person’s last interaction that triggered the conversion.
These patterns help us understand that the sales funnel is more nuanced than ever, and we can’t look at any source in a silo. We live in a 360° marketing world where each platform works together and influences each other (especially TV and web). While still evolving, TV continues to build awareness, branding, and drive engagement both on its own and with your law firm’s various other marketing channels.
