How to Start Utilizing Video Marketing for Lawyers

Video, as a medium, has dramatically improved internet marketing, making it highly engaging and entertaining. For information-dense subjects, a carefully polished video reduces the research burden on general audiences, who often don’t know where to begin. Their legal and financial security is usually on the line in some way — but competent video marketing for lawyers ensures their prospective clients feel much less intimidated, isolated, and confused when trying to resolve a sensitive legal matter. For law firms, video can be the most efficient way to present services, answer commonly asked questions, and introduce their attorneys with a personal flair. Clients can more easily picture forming a relationship with your firm and attorneys, and you’ll have made a crucial first impression before the large majority of your local competition.

How Video Marketing for Lawyers Bolsters Digital Marketing Strategies

Most law firms have not yet made video marketing a cornerstone of their web presence, but those figures are rising. The ABA’s Websites and Marketing TechReport for 2022 shows that 31% of law firms are using video marketing, which is five points higher than in 2019. Those numbers rose to 47% for larger firms (staffed by 100+ lawyers), suggesting labor bandwidth is likely an obstacle to establishing a video marketing presence. Any law firm can get started almost immediately with a video marketing company for lawyers. Doing so can be easily justified if a firm’s marketing history shows a positive ROI on its overall digital marketing performance.

Video marketing is useful for any field of law, especially elder or family law, which requires the utmost personability and warmth as plain text on a screen simply can’t provide. Prospective clients can immediately see your level of professionalism, authenticity, and communication skills. They’ll see your command of the subject in a comfortable light and be more likely to explore more of your content.

Strategic Application of Video Marketing

Firms in metropolitan areas especially need every edge they can get to maintain the highest local recognition, and video is becoming more tightly woven into even hyperlocal web marketing efforts than ever. YouTube has even become the second-most-popular search engine. High discoverability on YouTube simultaneously boosts listings in Google’s search rankings, producing higher visibility on the leading two search engines. Videos can also be used in geotargeted ads, ensuring your video marketing budget is directed most appropriately.

Beyond Video Platforms

The major social media sites have made posting videos more user-friendly, meaning the power of video is cutting through even basic news feeds and comment boards as the user scrolls through their daily digest. Video marketing for lawyers and law firms puts the emphasis on social media, ensuring audiences feel invited to connect further. Embedding videos into your website also makes for a much more engaging experience, even once traffic has already been generated.

According to one study, embedded videos result in increased time spent on websites, which has the added benefit of boosting SEO further. Multiple videos can boost engagement times, especially if they are sequenced logically according to the target audience’s needs. At the same time, website visits should convert to successful CTA without taking excessive time. If it does, it could mean the video content may have left the audience wondering what to do next, emphasizing a need for higher video quality. Ensuring videos convert is much easier with an experienced legal marketing firm on your side.

Where To Begin?

Begin by making generic videos. Answer the most common questions first, then branch out into the niche topics that rank highest in your web traffic KPIs. For example, if videos and web pages related to estate planning and wills get more traffic, video series that dive deeper into those topics would be a wise use of video production efforts.

The following are the most essential tips for video production in an overall legal digital marketing system:

• Maintain a consistent style
• Ensure the video production, like your presentation style, is professional and clear
• Balance the quality of information with ease of comprehension and entertainment value
• Include closed captions for the hearing impaired — this also provides an indication of the video’s contents during muted autoplays on social media
• Place a clear and relevant call to action in each video
• Include geolocation, both in the video and the video description
• Embed videos into relevant portions of your websites, and ensure they operate smoothly without requiring excess scripts that could bog down slower computers

Video Testimonials

76% of consumers always or regularly depend on reviews to shape their purchasing choices, which means video testimonials are an excellent way to boost interest in your law firm. Reviews can be smoothly integrated into the flow of a story during a video, accomplishing multiple marketing goals at once. Audiences rely on this kind of “positive social proof” even more for specialized trades — 81% of consumers consider positive reviews “important” or “very important” when seeking legal and financial services specifically.

Those numbers are almost the same for consumers shopping for care services. As elder law must emphasize issues of medical, in-home, and end-of-life care, testimonials are essential in video marketing for lawyers specializing in this subfield (including family law and any other practice involving highly sensitive subjects). Of course, take time to learn and heed the legal marketing regulations of the ABA and your state bar. For starters, obtain a signed statement from each reviewer attesting that they did not receive payments or incentives to give their review.

The Advantages of a Dedicated Video Marketing Company for Lawyers

Be aware from the outset that making videos is only part of the work. Video marketing for lawyers also requires consistent promotional efforts to ensure your videos are seen by your niche audience and lead to new conversions. It requires foresight and planning, and legal marketing videos should be integrated smoothly into a cohesive and far-reaching web optimization effort. As much, or more, care should go into the application of legal videos as their actual production.

Video marketing becomes much easier with time, especially with a dedicated and experienced legal marketing firm at your side. They’ll have already learned what works and what doesn’t with video marketing in general — and if they’re also experienced in the particular legal practice of your firm, you’ll have a powerful ally in the legal marketing landscape. To learn more, contact Alerio with any questions or to request a quote. In addition to our trusted and proven legal digital marketing services, we’re also a leading video marketing company for lawyers. Together, we help firms grow by meeting their audiences where they already are.