Lawyers spend a lot of money to make themselves memorable. If you’re practicing some form of consumer law, you’re probably spending a good sum on promotion, whether that is website lead generation, ads, billboards, TV, radio, PPC on Google and more.

So if you are spending so much to generate leads, why don’t you have a memorable phone number to drive those leads to the right place?

I discussed this recently with Paul Faust, VP of Business Development for Primary Wave Media and RingBoost, a leading provider of vanity number marketing services.

He said that, given a choice, most lawyers would prefer to be contacted by a prospect on the phone rather than through email or a website lead.  Which makes sense since studies show that inbound calls convert to revenue 10x more than web leads. So having a memorable phone number is most definitely going to help the ROI on your marketing spend.

Paul and I discussed the four primary phone number products and the benefits/pitfalls of each:

Vanity — these are numbers that are often just words — or a mix of words and letters — that are designed to be memorable. For example, a PI firm might use 1-800-HURT-NOW. Vanity numbers can be assigned geographically so you have a protected territory. These help with building a strong brand in your marketplace.

Easy Dial — these are numbers that aid in fast recall. An example of an easy call number would be 1-800-800-8000.

Local — instead of settling for the number the phone company gave you, you can customize a local number to be vanity or easy dial. It has been Paul’s experience that most attorneys want both a local and a toll free number.

Tracking — big firms that advertise a lot like to use tracking numbers so they can tell which advertising vehicles are delivering the best response rates. But accurate tracking is not always this black and white. Say someone sees a billboard but can’t remember the phone number. They look up the firm online, find the number and call. That is not a clean track. If you want to track your ads accurately, it is probably better to ask at intake how the person heard about you.

Phone numbers that are easy to remember also help with referrals. Your referral source may tell someone to look you up, but if that prospect goes to the Internet to find you, they might find someone else instead.

So is one type of number better than another? Should you have both local and toll free? Paul’s answer is, it depends. Phone numbers are just one tool in your marketing arsenal, and the best choice for your firm depends on what you are currently doing in the marketplace. This is why the folks at RingBoost work with you to find the perfect phone number solution specifically for your firm. Every market is different — usually it’s best to default to letting prospects decide by giving them both a local and a toll free option.

Your phone number is one of the few things that stays constant. Your marketing mix may change, Google algorithms certainly change, but your phone number stays the same. You should put just as much thought into the right phone number as you did with your firm name, domain name and other branding you do for your firm.