Bankruptcy Attorney Advertising in the Digital Age

Yellow Pages--maybe not so much anymore. Websites, AdWords, and social media--yes, yes, and occasionally.

Little has been written about bankruptcy attorney advertising. The last Credit Slips post focused on bankruptcy attorneys' ads in the 2013 Yellow Pages and surveyed the wording that attorneys used to describe their roles as debt relief agencies. One of the comments on the post suggested that the Yellow Pages remained a fruitful advertising venue for consumer bankruptcy attorneys. But my current research seems to point in a different direction.

As part of my research regarding nonprofits' use of reorganization to deal with financial distress, over the last year, I've spoken with 76 attorneys who represented religious organization debtors in their Chapter 11 cases. Many of these attorneys' practices are predominately consumer debtor oriented. Half of the attorneys maintain practices that are at least 70% consumer debtor work. The attorneys also are located across the country--from Massachusetts to Colorado to California.

As part of the interviews, I asked the attorneys if and how they advertise their practices. The results are anecdotal, but the attorneys' experiences may signal a switch from print and television advertising to complete reliance on websites, Internet leads, and social networking sites.

Focusing on attorneys whose practices were at least 50% consumer debtor based (which is 75% of the interviewed attorneys), less than 20% advertised in the Yellow Pages or any type of print / television / radio media. Those that did often went big--varying combinations of cable TV commercial, radio shows, Yellow Pages, and flyers in supermarkets. More telling are comments about the decreasing utility of non-digital advertising. Several attorneys had or were moving away from Yellow Pages because of the cost. A third of the attorneys did not advertise at all.

Those attorneys who said they advertised online predominately maintained websites and did nothing else in the way of advertising. Besides websites, the most popular form of digital advertising was Google AdWords (attorneys referenced it by name). A few attorneys bought leads on the Internet or used referral services such as LegalZoom. Those that did seemed to find the services to be money-sucking disappointments.

The most interesting responses were references to social networking sites. LinkedIn was mentioned several times in reference to consumer debtor practices. It was mentioned even more frequently among attorneys whose practices are predominately small business debtor oriented. My favorite response was craiglist. It was brought up only once, but by an attorney who had abandoned the Yellow Pages in favor of a less expense online option.

Considering the attorneys' responses, I wonder if the utility of advertising consumer bankruptcy practices in the Yellow Pages has dropped significantly in the last couple of years? And is social media picking up some of the slack?