Opryland’s 24 MPH speed limit – and your website statistics.

Opry Mills, the mega-mall outside of the Grand Ole Opry, has a curious 24 MPH speed limit. 

It caused us to wonder about it.  Why 24 instead of the typical 25?  We came up with three possible explanations, and ultimately a thought about its relevance to law firm website statistics.

1. It’s a conversation starter.

Printing “24” instead of “25” cost them no additional money, but generates a lot of conversation.  That’s good marketing.

2. It’s eye-catching.

This means you think about it more, and possibly obey it more closely.

3. Specificity is credible.

To a driver, “25 MPH” could mean “30” or maybe even “35.”  But “24 MPH” means – “Drive EXACTLY 24!”

It’s like telling someone to meet you for lunch at 11:57 instead of Noon. 

Here’s the connection –

In their websites, a surprising number of law firms use the “more than” or “over” modifiers, as in “Our more than 53 lawyers….”

I know many of us went to law school because we couldn’t do math, but “more than 53” is 54! 

If you’re going to estimate or round up a figure, it must be a big round number, typically one that ends in a five or zero, or is a multiple of ten or 25.  You can safely have “more than 25” practice areas, or “over 1000” lawyers.

That is, you can have “more than 250 lawyers,” but you can’t have “more than 251.” 

Make sense?
😉