Why Use Video Marketing For Law Firms?
The main reason is to help warm people up to know, like, and trust you more. Then to eventually do business with your firm when the timing is right. Most attorneys try to go out and ask for business before they are known and there really is a process to building your law firm and video helps speed that process up.
The Law Of Reciprocity
Have you ever had someone give you a gift for Christmas, or any holiday you celebrate together, and you didn’t get them a gift? Don’t you feel like you need to go get them a gift now? That is the law of reciprocity kicking in. Your subconscious mind feels like you want to pay someone back when they do something for you.
We are all like that as it is human nature. When one friend buys a round of drinks at the bar, you almost feel obligated to get the next round. Welcome to human nature.
What’s good with that is we use video marketing in the same way. You can give valuable information away for free, which builds the law of reciprocity and makes people want to give you their business. That is what good video marketing does. It also builds you up to be a local celebrity in your market and it can really build your law firm quicker than not using video.
Attention Is A Commodity
Video marketing for law firms is a marketing strategy that used to be an option and now we feel it is a must going forward. The reason is because the law firm with the most eyeballs on its marketing message will win every time. Attention has become a commodity in the age of the Internet and if you lack attention, your business will lack as well. With all sorts of social media platforms and digital media outlets at our fingertips, video marketing has gotten easier over the years.
Law Firm Video Marketing VS Television Advertising
Traditional advertising is always a great way to advertise and we feel every law firm should do it if it makes sense with your firm goals and marketing strategy. It also has to fit into your budget and that is not always advantageous when you have a lot of other options out there. Depending on the cities you are trying to play your TV commercials in, most law firms will spend a minimum of $5,000 per month, not including production costs, to local cable channels to get multiple 30 second or less commercial spots on a couple channels.
The Internet Has Our Attention
The problem is that people are starting to cut the cord. Regular cable television is losing the attention of the general public more and more every year. Where is that attention going? The Internet, especially the social media sites. TV commercial advertising is a very sexy form of advertising as well because who doesn’t want to advertise their business on TV?
Luckily for you we have multiple forms of advertising now with this thing called the Internet and so that opens up many more options than the old firms used to have 20 years ago. Now you can create a simple video on your smartphone and post that video on your Facebook page and have that video placed in front of thousands of people within 24 hours for a lot less money. Facebook, Google, YouTube, and various other websites also have our attention so getting your videos played there might be a little more advantageous than TV in this day and age.
What Is The Cost Of Video Marketing For Law Firms?
That question always seems to amaze me because it comes down to a mindset issue. Think about what it is costing you to not use video marketing in your branding and your marketing strategy. However, I know you want to know what a solid law firm video marketing strategy might cost you so you can determine if it is a strategy you want to use.
Video marketing for your firm is usually a lot less than the cost of running a TV advertising campaign, but it really depends on the company you are working with. It is also possible to film your own videos and post them yourself, but it’s probably smarter for you to outsource that and have a professional company handle your videos and the advertising of those videos so you can focus on your business and your clients.
Video Production Costs
You have the cost of the videos on the front end. If you want professional grade videos, you are going to have to pay for that quality and that guidance to pump out professional videos so you have to factor that in to the overall investment. You might be looking at anywhere from $250 per video up to $1500 per video, depending on the company you are working with and how much work each one takes. A TV commercial will probably be more if you are working out of a big studio with more overhead.
Someone will have to shoot the video for you and then edit the video. They will also have to bring the appropriate equipment to help step up the quality of your videos. We have done one-off videos for law firms, but we usually recommend a weekly video marketing show now to help grow your law firm’s brand and to be consistent.
Video Marketing Advertising Costs
It also costs money to put your videos in front of eyeballs online. Whether it is Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or another website, these websites charge you money to place your videos in front of people to watch. Each platform has different costs but they are all cheaper than playing your videos on TV. Your marketing company can make recommendations for what your ad spend should be every month.
Video Marketing Management Costs
Most law firm marketing agencies have a monthly retainer to manage your ad campaigns if you advertise online. Consult with your marketing agency to determine what they would charge you to manage your ads and strategize with your videos online to help you get more cases and more revenue. You can definitely run your own ad campaigns if you know how.
Types Of Video Marketing Strategies For Lawyers
- Commercials- You can put together a quick 30-second commercial similar to what they would use on TV. This is great because it allows you to do a traditional advertisement for your law firm. People do not have a large attention span nowadays so a quick commercial will get your point across and allow someone to take you up on your call to action at the end if they are interested.
- Educational Purposes- Educating people about certain topics can really boost your brand and allow you to enter the cold market. Asking people for their business before you gain trust with them is exactly what most law firms do. If you want your law firm to stand out from the rest, help people out with educational material before you even ask for the sale. This will make asking for the sale that much easier because people do business with whoever they know, like, and trust. If you build rapport with them through educational videos, they will begin to know, like, and trust you even more so when they need an attorney, you will be the one they call every time.
- News Videos- Sometimes you have something that may be newsworthy, but you might not have an “in” with any local news stations. Maybe it is newsworthy but not good enough to put on the 7 o’clock news. That is when you can film something yourself and present it on your website, your social media pages, and even your Google My Business page. Let your audience know what you are doing and it will come back tenfold.
- Interviews- These are great videos to share with people to allow you to display your expertise from a third party interview. It is easy to get on a video and talk about something you know, but getting on a video with someone else asking you questions has a power to it. An interview will allow you to validate your expertise by having another expert ask you questions so you can show everyone how you can help them.
- Testimonials & Reviews- Testimonial videos and reviews of your firm are great videos to show people in your marketing flow. These types of videos validate how you can help people and they really build trust with others. Any law firm can say they are the best, but when you have a bunch of other people talking about you in a great way on different videos it is extremely powerful and a great way to get your message out to the masses.
There are other types of videos but these are five of the main video types we like to use with our marketing flow. Comment below if you have any other video types you have used with success in the past.
How To Re-Purpose Your Video Marketing Campaigns
Once you are making videos on the regular to help grow your law firm, you can use these videos all over the place. Videos are assets your firm can continue to use over and over. We consider each video to be a salesperson that works 24/7/365 because once it is placed online; it is available to play every single day with no interruptions. Your videos do not have to take sick days. We can use your videos over and over if done correctly.
Here are a couple different ways we like to use videos with our clients:
- Blog Posts- When you make a video you should upload that video to a video hosting site like YouTube, then embedding that video on to your own website to create content for your target audience. Blog posts are great ways to show people you are an expert and they do wonders in helping you get found in the search engines.
- Facebook & YouTube Advertising- We like to put your videos into targeted advertising campaigns on Facebook and YouTube to help put your marketing message in front of more people every day. This helps to build an audience and to turn you into a local celebrity as everyone goes on Facebook and YouTube almost every single day.
- Email Marketing- Building an email list is important because an email list allows you to market to those people whenever you want for a minimal price. Sending out your videos to your past clients and to your list of potential new clients allows you to stay in front of your target market with something that is helpful. Sending your videos to people gives them the choice to click on your video links to play them if they are interested in the topics you are sending out. If you do not stay in front of your target market, another law firm will and you will miss out on a lot of new cases.
- SEO Marketing- Videos can be uploaded to YouTube and YouTube videos can actually be ranked in the search engines to show up when people are searching for topics on Google, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, and more. YouTube is actually the second largest search engine in the world behind Google so do not underestimate the power of YouTube. Make sure you talk to your attorney SEO company to let them know you are making videos to see if they will help you rank them on Google and YouTube.
There are definitely more ways you can re-purpose these videos to use them over and over in multiple marketing channels.
Law Firm Video Marketing Conclusion
Video marketing for law firms is bringing sexy back, and it’s time you used videos to tell your story. You can save a lot of money over TV advertising by creating some sleek videos on a budget and putting them on Google, Facebook, YouTube, and more. The commodity of attention is not going away and you have to stay in front of people or they will quickly forget about you.
Video marketing will also help your firm to stand out among the other firms because most law firms are not going to take the time to do video. Video marketing is not the path of least resistance so most law firms will take the lazy route and they will put their marketing dollars in other places that take less effort on their part.
You can follow suit and do the same thing or you can choose to stand out with video. If you want people talking about your firm, consider implementing a video marketing strategy into your law firm marketing campaigns and see what happens. If you have questions about video marketing, comment below or message us directly on our contact page. If you got value from this article, please share it on Facebook.