Many law firms have advertised on the radio for a long time.  Radio advertising, like television advertising in many respects, was a way in which many law firms were able to make a name for themselves quickly.

Obviously, radio advertising can be expensive in terms of airing and producing these advertisements.  Historically, picking and selecting the right station to the air these advertisements was often a difficult decision.  Coming up with the right theme or advertising approach also required a lot of thought.

While many have predicted it, the research out there shows that AM/FM Radio is not dead.  Many are still tied to their AM/FM Radio while they are driving in their automobiles.  This is good news, in many ways, for those law firms who still want to advertise on the radio.

However, many are now listening to the radio in new and different ways from the past.  According to research and data, many individuals are listening to the radio by streaming it online versus listening to it with a traditional radio.

While the increase hasn’t been as quick as many originally thought, many now listen to satellite radio.  With satellite radio, consumers have hundreds of additional radio stations they might listen to beyond the traditional stations on AM/FM Radio.

In addition to internet and satellite radio, many are tuning into podcasts these days.  More and more listeners also listen to the radio through applications like Pandora.  At the same time, National Public Radio has been slowly declining in the number of listeners according to statistics.

Nobody knows the future in terms of whether or not these trends will continue.  It could be that the trends continue in this same direction, or it could be that there is a shift in another direction.

Regardless of what the future brings, the difficulties with radio advertising is that listeners have so many different options other than AM/FM Radio.  And even with AM/FM Radio, there are so many stations out there.  So, a law firm could target a station or two and many listeners might not even hear the law firm’s advertisements.  With all these different options, it is harder these days to advertise on the radio with the success than it was in the past simply because there are so many different options.

This doesn’t mean that radio advertising for law firms is dead or that law firms shouldn’t try it.  But if you are going to conduct radio advertising, you will want to do thorough research on the demographics you are targeting.

If you are budget limited, you will also want to compare the cost of radio advertising versus the cost of other advertising a law firm could consider conducting instead.  If you are looking to get the word out quickly, it might be that there are better options, including online and social media marketing.

If you have any thoughts, feel free to share them below.