The Ultimate Guide for Incorporating Video into Your Small Law Firm Marketing Mix

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an immense financial burden on law firm owners all over the United States. For many, foot traffic and referrals from personal networking have dried up completely. Touchpoints with customers and clients are harder and harder to come by. 

Small firms live and die by their connections with their communities. Before the pandemic, in-person consultations that included handshakes and face-to-face contact were not life-and-death situations—they were the norm, the very beginning of a fruitful attorney-client relationship. 

In this new landscape, how can small law firms connect with clients and tell their brands’ stories in a meaningful way? By adding videos to their marketing strategies.

Lawyer Video Marketing Statistics in 2020 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million when you have so little time to capture attention.  

Getting attention is essential, but it is not the only part of video marketing that matters. According to a 2020 study from Wyzowl, 87 percent of people who used videos in their marketing strategies said it increased their web traffic. A whopping 95 percent said videos improved viewers’ understanding of the product or service featured. 

And what about the bottom line? The same study found that videos increased sales in 80 percent of cases.

Law Firm Brand Storytelling Through Video 

Your law firm has a story. If more prospective clients knew that story, you would likely have more clients. That is why videos must tell the story of your brand. But how do you achieve that? 

When creating a video for your law firm, the most important factor to consider is emotion. What will the viewer feel when watching this video? Will they feel inspired to contact you? Will they understand where your firm comes from and how it stands up for its clients? 

Here are a few items to include in a video that will help to tell the brand story of your law firm: 

• A shot outside of your law firm with other local businesses or landmarks in view to show that you are truly a part of your community 
• A brief interview with a founding attorney that covers the firm’s creation story and mission 
• A video of a satisfied client giving a testimonial 

Why tell potential clients about yourself when you could show them through video? They will come away understanding your brand on an emotional level that is nearly impossible to recreate through text alone.

How Good Law Firm Videos Provide Value 

While videos have clear advantages over many other law firms’ marketing methods, they will not inherently add value for your firm. When 500 hours worth of videos are uploaded to YouTube every single minute, you have to create videos that will not drown in an ocean of subpar content. 

Here is how you can add value to video marketing for your law firm: 

• Answer questions. For non-lawyers, the law is complicated at best and completely inaccessible at worst. Create explainer videos that explain complex legal topics that matter to your viewers in ways they can understand. 
• Let your personality shine. Your law firm’s personality is a big part of your brand. Do you have an office pet? Does one of your partners have a special hidden talent? These are great ideas for social videos that will entertain your viewers and gain shares and followers on social media. 
• Emphasize benefits. Your viewers and potential clients have legal problems they need to solve. Use an informational or branding video to show that your firm can help and that getting legal help can provide potentially life-changing benefits. Think huge settlements for personal injury, worry-free divorces for family law, and reduced or dropped criminal law charges.

What to Expect When Creating Videos 

All of the benefits of video marketing for law firms sound great, but what does the video-creation process actually look like? For many firms with limited manpower and technical skills, it is daunting, which is why they often outsource video creation to experienced video marketers. 

Here is what you need to know about creating videos for your small law firm: 

Timeline 

Unfortunately, you cannot simply point the camera, shoot the video, and call it a day. Expect to spend hours or days getting the right footage and at least a week of focused video editing to put it all together in a brief, high-quality video. 

Production 

If you hire a professional videographer or video marketing company, expect on-location interviews and teleprompter reads, several stages of review and revisions, and full rights to the finished products. There are also times when you can use lower production videos to communicate your message and appeal to your audience. 

Cost 

Depending on the subject matter and location, video production costs can range from between $1,000 and $5,000 per finished minute of video.

Promoting Your Law Firm Videos 

You cannot simply create your videos and let them gather dust. To get the true value of your video marketing efforts, you have to promote your law firm videos.  

Many attorneys who are new to video marketing are unsure of how to start marketing their video content. Here are some tips: 

• Share your videos on every social media platform your firm has a presence on, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, Reddit, and more. 
• Upload your videos to YouTube and make them public. YouTube is a massive search engine in its own right, so many people might discover your videos there. 
• Send your video out to your law firm’s email or newsletter list.  
• Embed your videos on relevant pages of your website. For example, a brand video would go well on an “About Us” page, and an explainer video would go well on a blog post that covers a related legal topic. 
• Ask others in your network to share your video. 
• Consider purchasing commercial spots on local television networks. 

In time, your potential clients will come to know you as a reliable source of informative, engaging, entertaining, and helpful video content. And when the time comes for them to hire an attorney, your firm will be much more likely to be the first one to come to mind.