When it comes to social media for lawyers, YouTube is one of the biggest platforms available. Its video content grabs lots of attention and there are billions of people who use it to find legal information, not just watch funny cat videos.

Here is an example: Open a tab right now and search YouTube for “how to contest a will.” The first video that pops up has thousands of views.

That said, the number of views on any video is, to an extent, a “vanity statistic.” This means it doesn’t tell you the whole truth, especially for Chicago lawyers who practice within a local radius.

Don’t let your marketing vendor wow you with views alone. Make sure they’re helping you reach your local audience on YouTube by using local keyword tags and targeted advertising to boost your local SEO and attract clients who are searching for nearby lawyers.

YouTube marketing content is also great for SEO for law firms, so expect your Google ranking to jump—meaning you will reach even more prospects.

You’ll know your law firm video marketing is working when you’re inundated with calls and messages from prospective clients.

Video Content for Law Firms: What to Talk About

All your marketing content, including YouTube videos, should answer common questions from your target audience. Content marketing works by offering readers informative and useful information that educates them about complicated legal issues.

Regardless of your video concepts, your content should always provide value and consequently establish your firm as an industry leader.

The most well-received law firm video marketing campaigns contain:

Explainer videos: Short videos that make complex legalities easy to understand. For example, “what does probate mean?”
Testimonials: Videos where past clients speak positively about how a firm helped them resolve a legal issue.
Need-to-know advice: Educational videos that highlight important factors relating to specific types of legal scenarios. For instance, why you should get a lawyer if you’ve been arrested.
Branded/commercial videos: Traditional advertising, showcasing your firm’s specialty and strengths.

Don’t be concerned if others have already posted similar content; the internet loves fresh videos.

Your digital marketing agency can also help you conduct competitive research to reverse engineer a strategy based on the success of other firms’ video concepts.

Next, be ready to take a stand. Be opinionated. Speak in hyperbole or spice things up with personal stories. By spicing things up, you can get more views on your YouTube videos. Just look at what happened to this banned TV ad that blew up 8000% online after it was discontinued.

A tip on video creation: Most marketers will create a content calendar and film several videos well before their publication date. This ensures you have enough content to gain traction without spiraling into a last-minute scramble to create something new.

We recommend creating a pipeline of video content a month in advance. Once you get the hang of it, you can run production like a well-oiled machine, ensuring you post consistently to build brand awareness and audience trust.

How to Find Ideas to Promote Your Law Firm with Video

It’s easy to find a video concept when you look in the right places. From past clients to keyword research and more, here’s how to come up with the best videos:

Draw on Past Successful Cases

What better way to convince potential clients you can solve their problems than by telling them a story about someone you helped who faced similar issues to theirs?

Making videos about client success stories is an effective way to get large volumes of qualified traffic.

A word of advice: Make sure you highlight clients and cases you want more of and get consent from past clients before sharing their success stories in the public domain.

Furthermore, don’t confuse your audience with multiple stories. Each video you create should focus on one story (case), keeping things simple and easy to follow.

Conduct Keyword Research

Video marketing for lawyers would not be successful without thorough keyword research. Knowing what searchers are looking for online can result in better YouTube and search engine marketing, higher rankings in Google’s video carousels, and a detailed understanding of your prospect’s buying journeys.

By optimizing your video titles and descriptions with the right keywords, you improve your chances of connecting with ideal clients. YouTube’s autocompleting automatically suggests queries based on popular searches and is a good place to start. You can also use Google Keyword Planner to find keywords that are best related to your area of practice.

Be Inspired by Your Competitors

The point of competitive research is to create better alternatives to your competition’s existing videos to beat them in search engines and social media platforms. Besides brainstorming and writing the script, you’ll need to put some thought into what your videos look like.

Do you want to film the content at your desk? Or perhaps you’d prefer a less formal space? Have you thought about coordinating graphic elements to match your brand, etc.? It’s perfectly okay if you haven’t considered any of the above. You can watch some of your competitors’ videos to find inspiration.

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Ask Your Audience

In the age of social listening, there is no excuse to create content your audience doesn’t engage with. Asking them what kinds of videos they wish to consume serves two purposes. Firstly, it makes them feel part of a community, and secondly, it boosts online engagement.

You can send an email or conduct a survey on social media. Platforms like Instagram already have built-in polling functionality. If you want open-ended replies, you can simply post a question, but if you already have a rough idea of what your audience is interested in, it is better to create a poll with a few, limited options.

Use FAQs

As a lawyer, you can probably predict the types of questions your clients will ask during an initial consultation. The easiest way to ideate video content ideas is to turn your answers into individual videos. Chances are because these types of questions are asked so often, they’ll get hundreds of views on YouTube and social media.

Video marketing for law firms needn’t be difficult. You just need a few minutes to jot down FAQs. You can even involve your colleagues and create a list. A Google search and review of legal forums will provide you with tons of material as well.

4 Steps to Prepare Your First Law Firm Video Marketing Campaign

A quick disclaimer: Your attorney video marketing will take time to gain traction, especially if you’re still developing your firm’s online presence. Digital marketing is also an ongoing process. Once you’ve run your first campaign; you’ll find it easier to implement your next, or you can just hire a digital marketing agency like Comrade to do the work for you!

Follow these steps below to ensure your videos attract the right leads:

1. Choose Your Target Audience

Only once you understand your audience’s needs and pain points can you craft marketing messages that resonate with them. Before writing any scripts, you should create buyer personas (if you haven’t already). These semi-fictional profiles of your ideal customers allow you to segment your client base into different groups.

For instance, if you’re a personal injury lawyer, you might deal with clients who have suffered dog bites, as well as those who are injured due to work negligence. Obviously, the videos you create will be different for each buyer persona, hence the importance of choosing your target audience carefully.

2. Write a Good Script

A good script is to the point and conversational. We recommend practicing in front of colleagues or friends to get feedback before you film yourself.

Keep in mind that 350 words usually equals roughly two minutes of audio, which is an ideal length.

A good script should:

Introduce the subject as early as possible to keep viewers hooked.
Be as succinct as possible. You’re communicating the very basic idea, i.e., a summary.
Avoid legal jargon. Aim to communicate with your audience, not confuse them with legal speak.

Compelling scripts tell a good story. Structurally, you should start with a pain point/challenge and then explain how it’s solved, which results in a “happy ending.”

3. Record High-Quality Videos

Anyone can whip out their smartphone and shoot content, but that doesn’t mean it’s high quality. There are technical requirements you need to follow to ensure your video is of a high production standard:

Lighting: Make sure you’re well-lit. If the location you’re in has windows, then face them when filming to make the most of natural light.
Composition: Position yourself properly within the frame. Don’t sit too far away or too close to the camera or leave too much headroom between the top of the frame and your head.
Sound: Try to film in a quiet environment. Investing in a lapel microphone is the best way to record clean and crisp sound.
Camera: The camera you use should record in at least 1080p, although a higher resolution is also perfectly fine. Buying a tripod is also worthwhile as you won’t have to worry about stabilization.
Background: Try to keep the background clear from clutter, as this can be distracting. When filming, keep some distance between yourself and the background to give your video more depth.
Editing: The best editing apps are usually paid. We recommend using them as their plug-and-play functionality makes it easy to add music, delete or add clips and export your footage in the right format.

4. Distribute Your Video

To multiply your marketing power, your videos should be shared on your website, YouTube, and relevant social media. If you’re using Facebook, which is a popular marketing platform for lawyers, it’s best to upload your video directly within Facebook, rather than link to your YouTube video.

This is because videos posted natively to the social media platform benefit from larger thumbnail images and the capacity to autoplay in newsfeeds, increasing organic reach. It’s also a good idea when uploading your video to YouTube to implement subtitles, as 50% of Americans watch videos with them.

The Hardware

Here’s all you need to start posting on YouTube:

A smartphone. A tripod. A microphone. And a room with good lighting.

Yes, YouTube is as cost-effective as it gets.

Set it up correctly and hit record!

After you’ve done filming, edit the video with an app or hire a video editor on www.fivver.com or www.upwork.com to make your videos look and sound a little more polished.

How to Turn YouTube Videos Into a Lead Magnet

Here’s the one critical thing you should do: use video to capture prospective clients’ contact info.

You can refer to a free resource you’ve created that’s available for your viewers to download. For instance, a legal procedure checklist or guide with more in-depth info.

When it comes to legal matters, clients love checklists because it gives them peace of mind they haven’t neglected any important steps in the process. Basically, you should offer free information in exchange for their contact details.

So, create checklists your audience can download in exchange for their contact info. Then, have your legal web agency set up a lead capture form on your website that gathers contact info and automates an email campaign follow-up.

The idea, once you have their email address, is to send them valuable content that nudges them further down the sales funnel.

You know that people who watch a video are searching for information. You also know that a single two-minute video can’t give them all the info. So, as part of your law firm video marketing strategy, you create a series of videos where you provide information on related subjects.

This makes you the helpful expert looking to educate them on the issues that matter in their lives right now.

When it comes down to it, that data is the endgame. Want to see why? Jordie van Rijn has some cool insights on email tactics.

A Bonus Tip

YouTube lets you create custom audiences. For example, you can create an audience of users who have viewed at least one minute of your video or the whole thing.

In the coming weeks or months, you can promote more of your videos directly to this audience. It’s a win-win because they’re already interested, and you have the information they’re looking for.

Producing and publishing a decent library of videos allow you to cross-pollinate their feeds with more video content that answers their questions.

Remarketing is always an effective marketing strategy because you isolate interested audiences who are close to converting. You already know what content they’re after, and with YouTube marketing, they’ll be familiar with your brand—and even your face.

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“What’s easy to do, is also easy not to do” Jim Rohn

Don’t overthink video marketing for lawyers. Your videos don’t have to be Hollywood quality, so long as they’re decent, you should just get going and post. Taking action is the only way to win your share of the market!

Comrade is a Chicago-based digital marketing company that specializes in website design and marketing for attorneys. We offer a full range of digital marketing for lawyers, including legal video marketing. Read more about our content marketing service for law firms.

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