A 5-Step Guide to Video Marketing for Law Firms

Lights. Camera. Action. Online video has increasingly become one of the most planned marketing tactics year over year. According to a Hubspot marketing survey, in 2015, only 33 percent of video marketers reported that video gave them a positive return on investment (ROI). In 2021, that number is 87 percent. To make matters even more persuasive for video marketing, according to the same Hubspot report, the pandemic has increased the amount of video content consumers watch online. 

If you want to get in on the positive ROI of video marketing, keep reading. This article will walk you through a 5-step guide on video marketing for law firms. 

Choose the Right Topic

To understand the best topics for you, do a little due diligence. Your topics should be interesting, relevant, and/or entertaining to your target audience. Additionally, your topics should relate to your goals; if you want more family law clients, create family law videos. Here are some ways to ensure the topics of your videos will hit the mark with your target audience and get you closer to your goals:

1. Check in on your competitors – Make a list of your top competitors, then take a look at their social media . What type of videos (or content in general– blog posts, images, etc.) have they shared? Which of those videos have the most views, comments or likes? The more engagement a video has, the more you can be sure it’s content your target audience is interested in. 

2. Ask your clients – This is a strategy that is often neglected by even the brightest of marketers – asking your clients is an easy way to know what they might find helpful. Additionally, understanding how they found you in the first place is advisable. When you know what works, you can do more of that.

3. Use online tools – Today, there are several online tools that help you understand what your target audience might be looking for online. Tools like Keywords Everywhere, Buzzsumo, Google Trends, and AskThePublic.com can tell you what topics people are most often searching.

4. Hire an internet marketing agency – An agency can help you do the upfront research to plan monthly, quarterly, and/or yearly content calendars, so you always know what’s on the agenda.

Once you’ve identified the hot topics, you should create your script. Having a script vastly helps you not ramble or get off topic. This will also help you choose the right tone– will your video be serious? Informative? Funny? Witty? Matter-of-fact? 

Once you’ve chosen the tone, begin to create an outline. Your script will give structure to the video, which will help your viewers better follow and understand it. Don’t forget to include a call-to-action to match your goal. Do you want more calls? Give your number and tell your viewers to call you. Do you want more contact form conversions? Link it in the video and direct your viewers to click on it. 

Pro tip : Write your script, then review it and cut all of the words you don’t need. The goal is to have a bullet-point list by the end, documenting all the important points you don’t want to forget. 

Start Filming Your Video 

With your outline written, it’s time to begin production. You don’t have to be a professional camera operator, and you don’t need a huge budget. Here’s a comprehensive list to get you started on a fixed budget:

1. Camera – Luckily, it’s 2021, and we all have cameras built into our smartphones. Your phone is more than sufficient. Additionally, many computers have built-in cameras, too.
2. Tripod – For about $20 you can get a tripod that will hold your smartphone, while you film.
3. Lighting – Don’t forget to consider lighting. There are smartphone tripods that have built-in lighting systems if you want to kill two birds with one stone on this.
4. Sound – A common beginner’s mistake when it comes to video marketing for law firms is background noise. It’s important to have clear sound in your video. Ensure you film in a quiet room– try a closet or bathroom. You can also pick up an inexpensive microphone on Amazon.
5. Editing – To ensure your video is top quality, editing is advisable. 

Pro tip : It’s difficult to shoot your video in one long clip. We recommend filming in multiple parts, so you don’t have to try and memorize the entire script or be forced to start over each time you mess up. At the end, you can edit it all together. Programs like iMovie and editing apps make it fairly simple to edit your video. Additionally, having an internet marketing agency on call can make this entire process seamless for you.

Now that your video is ready to post, it’s time to go live. Publishing your video is incredibly easy today. There are several platforms to choose from. It’s best to match your distribution channels with  your marketing strategy. Here are a few ideas on where to share your videos: 

1. YouTube – Owned by Google, this platform has a lot of pros, including increased SEO, an audience solely there to watch online videos, and sophisticated analytics.
2. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn – Depending on the channels within your overall strategy, you should definitely make your video available to your audience on those.
3. Your website – A video is a great way to enhance your blog or a landing page experience. Have a dedicating landing page to car accident cases? Create a video to add to it.
4. Email – Videos make great content to send to your email list. 

The last step in your video marketing plan is measuring your results. This helps you to determine your success, then optimize your next videos in the future. Some metrics you might want to consider tracking include the following:

1. Shares, likes, comments and reactions – These metrics will signify the popularity of your video, which will tell you if your audience resonates with/enjoys your content.
2. Watch time – This metric is the amount of time viewers spend watching your video. This can tell you where your viewers are dropping off– is your intro too long? If they are dropping off before they get to the meat of your video, you know you’ll need to jump into the topic more quickly. You might also find out how long your videos should be, depending on the average watch time.
3. Click-through rate – This is the rate that people feel compelled to go through with your call to action (clicking on your contact form link, etc.). Calculate this metric by taking the total views and dividing it by the number of CTAs.
4. ROI – At the core, your marketing should generate revenue. Video ROI can be calculated by how many clients you converted from the video by how much you spent making the video. An experienced internet marketing agency can help you measure your overall marketing ROI to understand where the best place is to put your marketing dollars.

Remember that you can’t optimize what you don’t measure. Not measuring your marketing effort leaves a lot of clients on the table.

Video marketing is an excellent tool for both brand awareness and lead generation, making it a very effective and versatile tactic to add into your overall marketing plan. Hire Oamii as your go-to internet marketing agency, and get started creating videos to attract qualified clients to you today. We welcome you to contact us at Oamii to help you market your firm and build your book of business.  Please fill out our online contact form, or call us at 561-228-4111 today.