Law Technology Today From the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center
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With online video traffic experiencing substantial year-over-year growth, research has shown that one fact is certain: people want video, and they will continue to consume it at a staggering rate.
However, using video isn’t enough; how you use video should be the ultimate focal point. Anyone can create a striking video; the key to creating top-notch video content is crafting the message that it reinforces. How effectively can you tell your story?
First ask yourself what separates you from the multitude of competitors who offer similar services – is this something you know connects you to current clients or is a reason why they chose you over others? People are emotional beings, and your ability to connect your audience with your brand’s story is the key to a powerful video marketing strategy.
Then think about the look & feel you want to portray. Stylistically, is your video visually appealing? Is it filmed with a professional high-resolution camera, does it use background music to set the tone, and does it engage your audience and encourage them to take action? The aesthetic style of your video content is a direct reflection of your brand, and everything must reinforce the message of why your firm is the best choice for your client’s legal counsel.
While your video content must look the part, the true mark of a high-quality video marketing strategy lies in the engagement that it inspires. Does it truly speak to your audience? Does it bring you new clients?
Criminal defense attorney Daniel Stockmann is a testament to the effect that a well-conceived video marketing strategy can have on marketing efforts, and here’s how video marketing changed his practice:
It’s the proverbial David vs. Goliath story. Stockmann’s young solo firm is competing with much larger, more established practices with more manpower and resources than he has. It was clear that he needed to take an aggressive marketing stance to gain ground on his main competitor, but what was the most effective way to do it? He turned to video marketing.
After producing a high-quality brand video and a series of FAQs and educational content, the results were impossible to ignore.
In his words, “My revenue from 2014 to 2015 increased 80%. The first month my brand video was up and running I netted over $50,000 in additional revenue. This gave me the ability to really devote time to my clients and provide more services to them than I was capable of doing before.”
After running his video marketing campaign for one year, Stockmann’s market share jumped from 5% to 25%, his average case value rose from $1,000 to $10,000 – $15,000, and he was able to provide better service to his clients. By utilizing a well-produced, high-quality video marketing plan, Stockmann was able achieve lasting results for his firm.
Using data-driven video marketing techniques, Stockmann put himself in the best position to achieve impactful results for his practice. You can do the same for your firm.
Here are 4 reasons why a high-quality video strategy is imperative to growing your practice:
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Video Can Drive More Qualified Traffic to Your Website
YouTube is the second-largest search engine after Google, and Google owns YouTube. Therefore, Google heavily favors YouTube content when ranking pages for organic searches. Videos are 53 times more likely to rank on page one of Google, and they attract 43% of clicks on Google’s first page.
In order to bolster a video’s ability to rank, you should capitalize on long-tail keyword searches. By determining the phrases that your audience is searching for, you can tailor your content to answer their questions and provide them with the most value. In short, you will increase your visibility.
Helpful content for this includes FAQs and educational/how-to videos that mirror popular search requests for your topic.
Is a common search string, “How to find the right personal injury lawyer?” If so, create a FAQ video that matches that title, effectively serving it to people who are searching for that phrase. Make sure to include this long-tail phrase in your video description, tags, etc. to continue to improve search rankings. Use Schema markup (code that structures data to help search engines return more informative results for users) to further increase search rankings when embedding videos to your homepage.
By tailoring video content to reflect high-volume long tail search terms and answering these questions with easily digestible and informative video content, you establish brand authority while increasing the visibility and trust of your firm’s legal services.
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Video Marketing Can Lead to Higher Search Rankings
Your content can allow you to organically rank more than once on Google. How is this possible? Because online videos aren’t connected to a single post source, and you can re-purpose content and share videos across multiple channels to increase the effectiveness of your video marketing campaign.
YouTube video pages, websites, and blog posts all have the ability to rank on Google. If done correctly, it is possible to rank as the top 3 search results for a single piece of video content.
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Video Content Can Convert More Customers
High-quality videos can increase a visitor’s time on site by an average of 2 minutes, allowing you to use video content to create a lasting impression on your audience. The best way to do this with a brand video.
Brand videos serve as a vehicle to tell your story, and you can think of them as the virtual face of your firm. Because your brand video will be viewed as a direct reflection of you and your practice, make a strong effort to craft an engaging message that resonates with your target audience.
Connection and personalization is key, and it’s essential to humanize your story while highlighting your brand’s voice. Brand videos should focus on who you are, why you do what you do, why you’re the best choice for representation, and so forth. Storytelling is key. The goal is to inspire action, and this is your opportunity to convert passive viewers into prospective customers.
Brand videos are successful because they elicit emotion. It’s one thing to see an attorney’s sponsored post or banner, it’s another thing to hear it in his or her own words. The same goes for client testimonials. Which has more of an emotional pull, print testimonials unceremoniously transcribed onto a webpage, or the audiovisual appeal of your clients telling their success stories on camera? We’ll take the latter every time.
Furthermore, 57% of clients say that video increases their confidence in a legal firm. Utilize a your story in a high-quality brand video to build trust in your practice.
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Low-Quality Videos Can Hurt Brand Perception
While high-quality video marketing can improve brand perception, the opposite rings true for low-quality video content. 62% of consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of a brand that published a low-quality video, and 23% would hesitate to purchase from the brand.
Poor quality marketing on any front can lead to a poor perception of your brand which, in turn leads to poor performance for your campaign. In short, low-quality videos are not only ineffective, but they can deter potential clients from choosing your firm.
While these 4 reasons only provide a brief overview to the benefits of an effective video marketing strategy, they do effectively paint a picture of how you can use video marketing to benefit your practice.
High-quality video marketing can:
- Lead to higher search rankings
- Drive more visitors to your website
- Keep visitors on your website longer
- Convert more visitors to clients
- Enhance and reinforce positive brand perception
By effectively utilizing these techniques, you can use video marketing as a powerful tool to grow your practice.
