Video marketing is the way forward
Video-based content and thought leadership can shorten the sales cycle and help build trust amongst new and prospective clients, says John Wallace, managing director at Ridgemont.
HubSpot’s 2022 report on the use of video in online marketing found that more than 80% of online traffic is video based and that number is increasing year on year. The time to start producing video is now.
Videos offer us the opportunity to provide clients and prospects with leveraged, valuable content, making us an authority on construction and real estate law. Our content enables us to take a prospect through the sales journey so that they understand our expertise, how we will charge, how our services will be provided and what is expected of them as a ‘good client’. These videos act as a self-qualification system to ensure that those picking up the phone to us are much further down the sales process funnel than they would otherwise be.
And before you say “we already do videos,” the vast majority of law firm produces videos that I have seen involve a ‘grey lawyer’, wearing a grey suit, sitting in a grey room, talking about a complex legal issue in a way that nobody can understand and nobody is going to be interested in. Those videos don’t count.
The key to successful video marketing in law is that the video must be engaging, provide substantial and pragmatic value and look, sound and feel great. That is the winning recipe.
To produce great video content, legal businesses need to:
- Identify a target demographic for their marketing efforts
- Understand what issues or obstacles they are looking to overcome
- Spend time staring out of the window thinking about how great video content can help that person
- Produce a script in as natural a voice as possible, avoiding complexity, and providing pragmatic tips that viewers can implement now
- Find a great location that will be an interesting backdrop to the video
- Set up sound and lighting so the video looks and sounds great
- Record the video numerous times to ensure there is sufficient ‘reel’ to create a short min edit of a couple of minutes
- Remember, no ‘sales’, ‘call to action’ at the end of the video – you are building trust by providing valuable content, do not lose credibility by selling your firm at this stage.
You can get away with recording the video on an iPhone, but invest in a tripod, lighting and microphones. Always film in landscape. HubSpot’s report found that 64% of people considered production quality important or very important, so record up to five takes of each video to get it just right. Ensure that the presenter is energised when talking to keep a viewer engaged. Don’t sit down at a desk and prohibit head/shoulder shots, you will look like the ‘grey lawyer’.
To take things to the next level, you can sub-contract the recording and/or editing to a professional videographer. The difference will be substantial, but you may lose some authenticity if the production is over polished. Ensure all your videos have commonality and a sense of your brand. You can take the strain from creating new content by asking strategic partners to co-produce content with you.
Ridgemont is launching a video-based website that will teach prospective clients everything about the firm, to allow them to self-qualify before picking up the phone to us. Our ground-breaking continuous professional development (CPD) registered educational hub will educate our clients so they have a handle on the legal framework in which they work and better understand the advice we give. The fact that our courses are CPD registered means that our clients’ teams can ensure their professional development obligations are met by watching videos when they are on the train or waiting for a bus.
Video dominates the internet and is, put simply, how people want to consume content. Resisting is futile.
