Video Marketing for Lawyers: How to Make Your Videos Awesome

October 21, 2015
Daniel Decker

Online video is massively popular.

YouTube alone has over a billion users – and every single day people watch  hundreds of millions of hours of video.

Globally, people are now watching as much video online as they are on TV or through other traditional sources.

This presents a significant opportunity for lawyers. Video is one of the best ways that a lawyer can establish trust with potential clients who visit the firm website or connect on social media. Video gives the potential client to look the lawyer in the eye, hear him speak, and read his body language. And it allows the lawyer to demonstrate his knowledge and command of his practice area. Short of a face-to-face conversation, there’s no better way to establish rapport.

We recommend that lawyers use video in two different ways.

First, include a video on the home page of your website in which you introduce yourself, your firm, and most importantly tell your audience how you can help. (Here’s a great example from one of our clients.)

Second, we recommend creating a video FAQ section on your website, where you can build a library of practical video responses to the types of questions that your potential clients are asking. (Here’s an example from another client.)

Of course, the quality of the videos you create matters greatly. Below are five tips for creating engaging, professional, and effective videos for your law firm website:

  1. Be yourself. Act as though you are having a conversation with the person behind the camera. That will make your viewers feel as if the natural next step is to come in to your office, sit down, and continue the conversation with you. In general we do NOT recommend that you memorize your lines. You should have a general idea of what you want to talk about, but talk naturally – don’t recite lines.
  2. Make sure the audio is high quality. Obviously your video needs to be high quality. These days, it’s not hard to shoot a video that looks great. But just as importantly, and much harder to get right, is the quality of your audio. Poor quality audio makes your video seem cheap and unprofessional. It’s worth investing in good equipment or hiring a professional videographer to make sure you get the audio right.
  3. Look at the camera. It’s very noticeable when you look away from the camera or shift your eyes, even just a little bit. It can make you appear nervous or even untrustworthy. Look at the camera for the duration of the video.
  4. Don’t fidget or pace. Be expressive. Use your hands if that’s how you communicate. But don’t fidget and don’t move back and forth. These movements may feel natural at the time, but on camera they are distracting and can look odd. Hold your position relative to the camera.
  5. Think carefully about whether to sit or stand. For some people, standing to shoot video is much more natural. For others, sitting is more comfortable. There is no universal right or wrong answer, but what’s important is that you figure out which position is more natural for you and choose accordingly.

One final note – many lawyers and other professionals think that their videos have to have flashy graphics or other bells and whistles. While those aren’t bad things if they are done properly, the connection you create with your viewers is FAR more important than fancy effects. Focus on the basics – be yourself, speak confidently, smile. If you want to add graphics and other effects later, great. But the connection you create with your viewers is more important… don’t lose sight of that fact!

If you’d like to learn more, or if you want help creating a video marketing campaign for your law firm, we’d love to hear from you!

 

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Daniel Decker

Daniel Decker is a co-founder and Partner at Spotlight Branding. In addition to helping lawyers stand out from the crowd, he spends his time writing, dreaming up new marketing strategies, and coming up with catchy subject lines. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys playing sports, guitar, politics, and Minnesota sports.