Video has been dominating social media for quite some time now, and its marketing strategy is out of this world. In 2020 so far, 1 billion hours of YouTube video content have been watched daily. While traditional marketing approaches such as direct mail, print, and word of mouth referrals might still be working for your law firm, your business is automatically being put at a competitive disadvantage because it is not growing digitally. Simply put, video marketing has many significant advantages that can help your grow your legal firm, including:
- Boosting online engagement
- Improving your SEO efforts
- Educating potential clients
Think for a moment about this: it’s probable that not many people are reading your website’s mission statement daily, but if that information is translated into an engaging video, instantly more individuals will be interested in knowing what your firm is all about. Video marketing sounds exciting. But how do its benefits apply to lawyers and law firms?
Boost Legal Client Engagement
Video marketing is wildly successful because the human brain processes visual content faster than text, and because of the ubiquity of smartphones, people are turning to videos to educate themselves, inform themselves about purchasing decisions and to engage in business. Social media is a highly effective way for law firms to attract new clients. The American Bar Association found that 35% of lawyers who use social media in regard to their firm have been able to gain new clients as a result.
In many cases, a potential client will use the internet to search for information before hiring a lawyer. In those instances, the potential client isn’t looking for a lawyer, but, if during their search, he or she lands on a law firm website that answers the question troubling them and demonstrates the firm’s extensive knowledge of the practice area, which firm is that client likely to call first when they are ready to seek the advice of a lawyer?
With the increasing number of lawyers available for clients to choose from, lawyers need to differentiate themselves, which requires establishing their expertise in a particular field. There is increased competition for legal work, not only from other lawyers but also from the abundance of non-lawyer online options a potential client may use to avoid engaging a lawyer in the first place.
Lawyers who have valuable, relevant, and meaningful content not only about themselves and their firms, but about common concerns, problems and challenges among clients in general. Lawyers are much more likely to attract the attention of potential clients and get that potential client to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment as opposed to the lawyers who have little or no information available about themselves online.
With the amount of content posted on the web every day, it is more important than ever for a lawyer to develop and implement a content strategy for their firm in order to ensure that the best content is being created and posted consistently.
Simply put, a potential client will want to see evidence of the lawyer’s expertise before contacting the firm. A lawyers who simply states on his website that he has the expertise or knowledge in a specific area is going to be at a disadvantage when compared to an attorney who demonstrates that same expertise with videos, photos and articles, that show that he or she is not only proficient in their area of the law, but that they understand the issues their clients face daily.
Content marketing will help humanize a lawyer by showing that he has a point of view and will give potential clients a taste of what working with a lawyer might be like. It’s an opportunity to become a trusted and empathetic authority and a resource for information or perspective on a legal topic.
Improve SEO Efforts
There is a correlation between improved social signals and improved search engine ranking. Social signals are the human interaction metrics on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Reddit. Examples of social signals include likes, dislikes, pins, shares, votes, comments or views which commonly help to display the popularity and engagement for a specific piece of content or topic. At the same time, Google continues to bring in content such as social feeds into the search results, so a strong social presence will lead you to controlling a more visible rank on search results for your law firm’s name and brand. Additionally, a properly curated social presence will contribute to overall improvements in online visibility and conversely increase traffic to your website and client leads. YouTube is where you can start building a following for your informational and educational videos. Remember, close to 35% of lawyers who use social media to advertise their firm have been able to gain new clients as a result. However, many lawyers upload their content and it ends up getting buried beneath a pile of other videos on the same subject. In order to stand out, you need to optimize your YouTube videos the same way you do with your web pages but with a few additional enhancements. For example, if you made a high-quality video on the topic of divorce law and someone searches for that term, your video needs to appear high on the first results page, the same way an article would appear on Google.
The best strategies to increase your YouTube ranking factors are:
- Session time – how long did users spend on the YouTube platform after watching your video.
- Watch time – how long did people watch your video?
- Audience retention – how much of your video did people watch.
- Engagement – how did people interact with your video (likes, comments, shares, etc.)
- Click Through Rate (CTR) – did viewers click the links you included?
Educate Potential Clients
Educational videos for law firms are a great way to feature the benefits of your legal practice. This type of video can build confidence and trust in potential clients. If you have difficulty coming up with content for an educational video, turn your blog topics into videos. Additionally, if your goal is to increase your law firm’s social media presence, create unique content that informs, rather than just imparts promotional content. The more you provide valuable information, the better you will be able to showcase your legal expertise. In the legal industry, your potential clients won’t decide where to take their business based solely on promotion. They will consider your knowledge and credibility as well as your sincerity and experience before they decide to hire you.
Lastly, it is crucial to consistently share informative posts and the latest industry news with your website visitors and social media followers. Don’t limit yourself to print content. Make a habit of curating interesting multimedia content, including photos, infographics and video to share with current and potential legal clients on your websites and socially. Search the web for other reputable industry posts to get ideas on how to present your content. A good resource is Law Ruler, a leading legal practice management software whose online SEO-enhanced content is a good example of how effective video marketing can be to growing companies.
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