Video content is the future of the internet. By 2022, over 80% of traffic on the internet will come from video content. Therefore, it is imperative for lawyers to use video marketing in their online marketing strategy.
Video marketing is simply using videos to promote your law firm, boost online engagement, educate clients and reach prospective clients through a new medium.
Video marketing is wildly successful because humans process visual content faster than text*. And with the ubiquity of smartphones, more people are turning to videos to educate themselves, help make purchase decisions, engage businesses and more.
Video marketing sounds exciting. But how do its benefits apply to lawyers and law firms?
Create Brand Awareness
People watch videos as part of their research process before committing to a purchase. Over 70% of prospective clients would rather watch a video to learn about a service or a brand than reading text.
Your law firm is your brand! Videos give you the perfect opportunity to tell the story behind your brand and show clients what your firm stands for. It also helps to humanize your firm as clients can get to know you and other attorneys in your firm from the comfort of their home.
And guess what? The more people learn about your law practice, the higher the chances they will come to your firm when they need legal representation.
Educate Clients
Apart from creating awareness of your law practice, you can use videos to educate new and existing clients. Educational videos that address legal issues clients have help position you as a trustworthy authority.
Search engines like Google place videos high on the organic search results page. This is why websites that incorporate video into their content see over 150% increase in organic traffic.
Say Sara is looking for legal representation in a criminal case in San Diego. She comes across your video on how the California court system works and what to expect in a criminal case in San Diego.
Sara is more likely to contact you for a consultation. This is because you have positioned yourself as an authority on her issue by educating her with a video.
Build Brand Loyalty
Loyal clients who come back to your firm for all their legal issues are the lifeblood of any law practice. Video marketing is an excellent way to build and maintain brand loyalty. By giving your clients an insider view into your practice, you will reach them at a more personal level.
Did you know that 92% of people who watch videos on their phone will share it with their friends and family? Video is a great medium for satisfied clients to recommend your firm to their network. This is important for law firms that rely on referrals in practice areas like criminal law, personal injury and family law.
Types of Videos to Create
Now that you understand how video can help you generate new leads and boost conversions, here are the types of videos you can create:
Meet the team/attorney profile videos
A video introducing the attorneys at your firm and the work they do is a fantastic way to show prospective clients who they can expect to work with when they contact your law firm.
Meet the team videos are excellent at humanizing your firm as clients can put a face to your services. This kind of video also helps to strengthen brand loyalty.
Explainer and How-to videos
Explainer and How-to videos showcase the expertise of your law firm in different practice areas. Educating people about legal processes and issues establish your firm as a trusted authority.
You can create videos explaining the process required for one to create a living will, how to file insurance claims or how to document an accident with images.
Frequently Asked Questions
Over many years of practicing law, you would have encountered similar questions from clients. Take those questions that clients would normally ask and answer them in a video.
If your attorney office has more than one area of practice, you can make different videos to cover each area. You can educate clients and answer the questions they would most likely have asked in their consultation all with one video.
Vlogs
A video blog is a diary-style video that one attorney in your practice can film with a camera or webcam. In vlogs, people share their personal experiences or thoughts. Your law firm can use this medium to provide insights for clients by sharing personal court or client experiences, all without disclosing personal information.
Testimonials
Testimonial videos provide social proof that can persuade prospective clients who may be undecided to contact your law firm. Third-party validation of your attorney services will win over new clients as people always use reviews to make purchase decisions.
How to Start Video Marketing as a Lawyer
Now that you know the kinds of videos to create, here is how you can get started with video marketing:
Keyword research
This is the first step in your video marketing journey. Like keyword research for articles on your website, keyword research for video content is important as it helps you understand the type of videos your target audience wants to watch.
YouTube is one of the best places to carry out keyword research for video content. Just like Google, YouTube is a giant search engine in its own right geared towards videos alone.
Type a keyword into a YouTube search that relates to your firm’s practice area and use the autocomplete feature to find other related keywords that people search for. You can use a handy chrome extension like VidIQ to analyze keywords that your competitors are using and narrow down keywords to give you the best idea of which one works best.
Alternatively, you can use Google search for keyword research. It works just like YouTube with autocomplete and a list of related terms.
Create a video script
Armed with the knowledge of the kinds of videos your clients are watching, you can finally dive into creating a video script. The great thing about the video is that what you have to say is just as important as the visuals.
A video script is essential to your video marketing efforts as it organizes your thoughts into talking points and provides a direction for your video. Take a few minutes to write out your introduction which should include one about the topic and yourself, a bullet list of your talking points and an outro that includes a call to action.
While you may be intimidated by the thought of writing your own video script, doing so makes you sound natural in your video. When writing your scripts, keep sentences short and conversational.
Avoid legal jargon as your target audience are not attorneys who understand legal speak. Finally, practice your talking points in front of a few colleagues so you can emulate that conversational tone and connection in front of the camera.
Shoot and edit high-quality videos
Creating and editing a video used to be daunting. But not anymore. With many software and devices available, anyone can make and edit their own videos.
Do you know you can shoot a great video on your phone? All you need is a tripod, lapel mic and to shoot your video in landscape mode. You can buy lapel mics and tripods online.
When shooting your video, always get more footage than you need as you will cut that down during editing. Another thing you need to shoot a great video is a good location. Pick somewhere quiet where you can shoot without interruptions.
Like creating your video, editing is also easy. Your computer comes with free video editing software like iMovie and Windows Movie Maker that can cut clips, add titles and handle other basic editing tasks.
YouTube also has an online video editing platform that you can use if the software on your computer is not adequate. You can also use professional editing software like Final Cut X Pro to edit your videos.
Keep video length in mind
Video length is a bit controversial as different marketers have different opinions on what works best. Some marketers who are proponents of short video lengths cited the fact that 60% of viewers click away after watching a video for 2 minutes.
But this is not always right. For example, any lawyer will be hard-pressed to explain the ins and outs of child custody law in Los Angeles in 2 minutes. The rule of thumb is to let the type of video you are creating determine the length.
A testimonial video will be shorter than a vlog style video on courtroom experience and both will obviously be shorter than an explainer video on what to do after a traffic accident in San Diego.
The decision of legal representation is one people take seriously. The people watching your videos are looking to be educated and informed before they decide on who represents them. Your goal as a law firm is to provide that information and convert those watching your videos.
PS: Google and YouTube always rank longer videos higher. Do not drag out videos to get ranked higher. Let the video type determine its length.
Use call-to-action (CTA) in your videos
After creating amazing videos, many law firms forget to add a call to action. When video marketing your firm, a CTA takes care of the marketing part after you have created the video. The assumption the viewer knows what to do after they watch your video may be the death of your video marketing efforts.
A call to action invites the viewer to take action which is exactly what you want. Your CTA does not have to be “salesy”. You can use links to blog posts that explore more of the topic in your video as CTA. It can even be your phone number or email asking the viewer to reach out to your firm for a consultation.
Add captions/subtitles to your videos
Captioned videos enjoy benefits that non-captioned videos do not. First, captions help deaf people and others who aren’t fluent in English follow what you’re saying. This means your video will reach as many people as possible.
Another benefit to adding captions to your videos is boosting your YouTube rankings. When you publish your video on YouTube, adding a subtitle helps increases your rankings as the subtitles contain your keywords.
Captions and subtitles are also helpful if you are publishing videos on your law firm’s Facebook page. Over 80% of the videos posted on Facebook are viewed with no sound. Subtitled videos posted on Facebook will enable viewers to follow what you’re saying even without sound.
Publish your videos on different platforms
When publishing videos, your law firm’s website should not be the only place in mind. You should publish your videos on as many platforms as possible to reach more people.
A good place your videos can go is YouTube. Create a YouTube channel. And upload all your videos there. Pay attention to YouTube SEO so your videos can rank higher. Use your keywords in your title, description and add appropriate tags to videos you upload.
Share your videos on social media platforms like Facebook. You can also publish videos on your LinkedIn and Avvo profiles. Videos on social media get shared 1200% more times than images and text. Publishing on many platforms will grow your reach and audience.
Always repurpose your videos in your marketing efforts
One mistake people make is creating videos for video marketing alone. But video marketing and videos can be part of your overall marketing strategy. Your videos can work in tandem with other forms of content and in other areas of marketing.
You can turn your video on child custody law in Los Angeles into a blog post, share it in your newsletter via email or use it for a Facebook display ad campaign.
Conclusion
Video content is here to stay. Therefore, video marketing is essential for every lawyer that wants to increase leads, conversions and grow their practice. Creating videos that people watch is one surefire way to achieve your goals.
As always, I enjoy hearing from lawyers who are using video marketing in their practice. How has video marketing impacted your practice? Leave a comment below.
Are you having any issues with video marketing and need professional help? You can contact me directly for a consultation.
