Video Marketing for Lawyers: What You Should Know
Video marketing for lawyers has become a critical component to firms’ marketing strategies. But if you’re like many firms, you may be struggling to keep up with the ever-changing online marketing landscape.
It’s no secret that video is becoming the predominant form of online marketing. It’s been shown that including video on a web page can increase conversions by up to 80%.
And if that wasn’t enough, adding a video to an email can result in a whopping 200-300% increase in click-through rates.
With that, Instagram videos, YouTube, and TikTok have opened wildly new windows of opportunity for video marketing for lawyers and firms.
If you aren’t using video, you’re already behind the curve. Video is one of the most effective mediums for growing your brand, visibility, trust, and business online. And the great news is that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a studio setup, lighting, and expensive cameras to create high-quality video.
Continue reading to learn more about video marketing for lawyers, how you can bootstrap a high-quality office video setup, and leverage video to grow your firm’s brand, visibility, and business.
Why Video Marketing?
The better question is: “Why wouldn’t you?”
Marketers, attorneys, and businesses of all types know that video…
- Shows potential clients you’re a leading firm and authority in your market
- Improves your firm’s SEO and organic search rankings
- Drives more clicks, leads, and new clients to your website
- Boosts conversions both on and off your website
In the last 4 years, video marketing has seen unprecedented growth. In 2018, the average consumer watched 10.5 hours of online video per week. In 2022, that figure skyrocketed to 19 hours per week.
Right now, around 80% of all consumer traffic online goes to video.
Here’s a run down of some other stats that may blow your mind:
- 31% of marketers use video to boost their SEO (on and off their website).
- Including a video on your firm’s landing page can increase your conversions by 80%.
- 81% of marketers report increasing their and their client sales with video.
Video Marketing for Lawyers: How to Get Started
Right now, you may have some concerns about jumping headfirst into video marketing:
- “Isn’t video equipment expensive?”
- “I’m super busy. How much time is this going to take out of my schedule?”
- “Do I really have to be on camera?” (gulp!)
- “Who’s going to edit, post, and share my videos?”
You’ll be happy to hear that shooting, editing, and marketing videos are far easier than they sound…
If you need help with your video marketing strategy and how that integrates with your content marketing, SEO, or paid advertising, contact our marketing team at OppGen today.
How to Bootstrap Your Firm’s Video Setup
You don’t need a Hollywood soundstage to make your video look and sound great.
If you want to go big and it’s in your budget, you can, but most attorneys don’t know you can actually put together a stellar in-office video set-up at your desk or in a conference room for between $400-$500.
Here’s how to do it…
Every Smartphone is a Portable Studio
We’re lucky to live in a time where virtually every smartphone can shoot high-definition, 4K video. If you have an iPhone or Android phone that was made in the next 1-3 years, congratulations — you can be your firm’s very own Spielberg.
Stabilization: Smartphone Tripods for Law Office Studios
Now that you’ve got your portable movie studio on your phone, you just need to stabilize it. We recommend browsing Amazon for a smartphone tripod that fits your needs.
Most of these have universal mounts that fit the vast majority of smartphones. You can get a gorilla-style tripod which is great for setting on desks and tabletops. They have moveable, jointed legs so you can attach them to doorways, chairs, and a variety of different objects around your office for unique shots and angles.
Traditional tripods with telescoping legs are also great if you just want to mount your phone from the floor.
Estimated Cost: $10-$50
Audio: The Most Important Part of Video
What you may not know is that sound quality may be the single most important part of video. You can have the best quality video on the planet, but if you have:
- Crackly, muffled, or distorted sound quality;
- Tons of background noise; or
- Quiet or unclear vocals
No one is going to stick around to watch your full video. Video marketing for lawyers is about nailing quality and clarity.
Again, you don’t need a big budget or fancy equipment to get that.
There are a lot of great, affordable, and even portable audio options out there to give your videos the crisp, clean sound quality they deserve.
Once again, go back to Amazon or Google and search for:
- Best Smartphone Lavalier Microphones: These compact mic setups easily attach to your shirt or blouse collar and can be used wirelessly or plugged directly into a tablet, phone, or computer.
- Best Desktop or Podcasting Microphones: Capture premium sound quality and can be plugged directly into your computer’s USB port.
Estimated Cost: $50-$150
Lighting Recommendations for Attorney Video Marketing
Lighting is another simple yet critical factor in making a great video. Once again, you don’t need a TV- or movie-quality lighting kit to make your videos stand out.
- Ring Light: Ring lights are one of the best, most portable, and most cost-effective ways to get a high-quality lighting setup in your office. A lot of these come with built-in smartphone tripods and even directional microphones.
- Box Lighting Kit: If you want to get a little more robust, you can get great multi-piece box lighting kits on Amazon as well.
Estimated Cost: $50-$200
Simple Video Editing Software
Microsoft and Apple computers both have free built-in video editing software. You can even use free studio-quality video editing software on your Android or iPhone.
Estimated Cost: $0
Outsource the Shooting and Editing Process
So you have your shiny new studio set up. Now what?
Unless you plan on spending your nights and weekends editing, publishing, and sharing your videos on social media, you’ll need some help.
That’s where outsourcing comes in. Finding someone to spearhead and take over the shooting and editing process — if you can — is essential for keeping video marketing for lawyers as simple and streamlined as possible.
If you already have a receptionist in the office, empower them by giving them the time and resources to learn these new skills.
If your reception staff doesn’t have a background in video or audio but is already fairly tech-savvy, it only takes a few hours of watching YouTube videos to learn how to shoot, edit, upload, and share great video content.
Elements of Good vs. Great Video Marketing for Lawyers
There are some other elements of great video marketing for lawyers that may require you to outsource talent out of the office:
- An opening animation sequence (5-20 seconds). This will be the standard opener you put at the beginning of all of your videos.
- A closing animation sequence with a call to action (5-10 seconds).
- Simple, yet signature, background music.
Take a look at this example video from our client GBM Law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLOr3PKN8Fo
What did you notice?
- An opening animation
- Great background music
- Captivating slide transitions between topics
- A call to action
- A nice closing slide
This is more technical work that would be great to outsource out of the office. You can find a lot of outstanding talent on Fiverr.com who can do all of this quickly and affordably.
There’s a lot more to marketing your videos than just publishing them to your website, social media, and YouTube. Contact our team today to learn more about video marketing strategies for your law firm.
Video Marketing for Lawyers: Content Topics
So now you’ve got your studio set-up, music, opening, and closing video assets and you’re ready to start shooting.
What are the topics going to be for your videos?
The types of content that tend to be the easiest to shoot and that perform best for attorneys are:
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Make a list of the most frequently asked questions you get from new leads and clients. See if you can come up with 10-15 of these.
- Client and case successes: Are there any recent case successes you and/or your client wouldn’t mind sharing on camera? (privacy, discretion, and client consent are key here).
- Unique value [ropositions: What makes you different and better than other firms? Why are you passionate about what you do?
- Involvement in your community: Is your firm actively involved in bettering your community? Talk about events that you’re participating in locally.
Video Marketing for Lawyers: Put it on the Calendar
If you don’t prioritize video marketing, it will never get done.
Get together with your reception and office staff and outline a shooting schedule for the month. Send out a calendar invite and reminders so you don’t miss it.
Here are some other tips for sticking to your video marketing plan…
1. Choose a Pace That’s Sustainable
Don’t make your shoot schedule overwhelming. Instead of committing to shooting or posting multiple videos per week, choose a number of videos that work with your schedule. We recommend shooting, editing, and posting at least two videos monthly.
2. Batch Shoot When Possible
It’s a lot easier to block out three hours of your schedule once per month to shoot a handful of videos than it is to squeeze six separate 30-minute shooting sessions into your calendar.
Batch video shoots and editing time into your schedules as much as possible to save time and create more content.
When you get more comfortable with shooting video and being on camera, you may be able to shoot 2-3 months’ worth of video content in a few hours.
3. Recruit Help Around the Office
Recruiting help around the office is key when it comes to everything from shooting videos to video marketing for lawyers.
It’s easy enough to set up your tripod, phone, and microphone to shoot video on your own, but your receptionists or partners can provide a helpful eye and ear during the process.
See if you can at least get one other person in your office to help you with setup and feedback while you’re shooting.
4. Automate Social Sharing and Maximize Visibility
One of the best aspects of video content is that videos can have a long marketing shelf life. You may shoot FAQ videos about your practice area or firm that are relevant for 2-3 years minimum. There’s a good chance your videos will have evergreen value, which makes them ideal for sharing and resharing on social media.
There are a few things we remind our clients of when they’re focusing on building their brand and growing their visibility with video, on and off social media:
- Posting or sharing something one time, doesn’t mean 100% of your audience will see it.
- Why post or share a helpful video on social media one time when that video provides ongoing, lifetime value?
- Resharing helpful content on social media is a great way to build up your audience, visibility, and trust in your local market, giving more people more opportunities to see your videos.
Posting on social media may sound time-consuming, but helpful social media management tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, and Sendible make social media marketing automation easy.
They give you the power to write or create a post once, and then let the software automatically:
- Queue those video posts to be shared and reshared on a schedule of your choosing (quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily)
- Post your content on the best days and times to maximize visibility, exposure, clicks, and engagement
In Closing
Video marketing for lawyers is becoming more and more popular as a way to build visibility, credibility, and trust with potential clients in your local market.
If you or your firm have any questions about integrating video marketing, SEO, PPC, social media, or social advertising into your digital marketing strategy, contact our team today for a consultation call today.
