The Lawyers' Definitive Guide to Video Marketing

By Gerry Oginski, Esq., a New York medical malpractice and personal injury trial lawyer in practice for more than 21 years. He has produced and created more than 200 educational and informative videos to market his law practice where he explains to consumers how lawsuits work in the State of New York. To see just one really cool example of how Gerry has used video to promote his own practice click here. You can reach Gerry 516-487-8207 or Gerry@lawyersvideostudio.com.

You've made the choice to jump right into video to market your legal services. The move is a good one. It will help you distinguish yourself from everyone else. Here now, never before released, is my definitive guide to video marketing for lawyers.

Nine Benefits to Using Video:

1. Viewers get to see you.
2. Viewers get to hear you.
3. Viewers get to know you.
4. Viewers begin to trust you before they ever walk in your door.
5. You become the wise man at the top of the mountain.
6. You are viewed as the legal expert.
7. You are giving away information in order to gain an audience.
8. Viewers see that you are a real human being.
9. The image of a grumpy unapproachable stuffy lawyer dissipates when a viewer sees you on video.

“What should I talk about in my video?

Create an educational message.  What do I mean?

Do not use online video the same way lawyers have used TV commercials since 1973. A 30-60 second commercial on YouTube does nothing to help you get new clients in your door. Take advantage of the web’s unlimited capacity for video. (There are some important caveats you need to know. More on that later.)

TIP #1: EXPLAIN YOURSELF (There’s a million dollar tip included here)

Explain the last case you successfully handled for a client. Tell your viewer why your client came into your office. Explain the legal issue in layman's terms; tell the viewer what you did to help your client solve their legal problem. Then, (and here's the million dollar tip), explain to your viewer that if they have a similar problem, they should call you for more information. That’s known as a ‘call to action’.

That’s right -- they should call you for more information to start a conversation.

TIP #2: GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE

Give the information away. It's free anyway (for most consumer-level attorney specialties). If you are a personal injury attorney or workers compensation attorney or divorce attorney, explain how things work. Your potential clients will get this information from you when they come into your office anyway. Why not give it away and allow your viewer to become a better informed and educated consumer of legal services? The internet is the ideal place to give away your information. The more you give, the more calls you get. (There's a lot of psychology involved in that reasoning that I will not go into here.)

TIP #3: BE CONCISE

When creating video, do not expect a viewer to watch you ramble endlessly. You must make your video long enough but also short enough. (How's that for a double-sided lawyerly answer?) You want to be concise, but you do not want a short commercial. You want to explain, but you don't want your viewer to lose attention and go elsewhere. What's the ideal length for a relevant video? Approximately 2-3 minutes. Yes, there are always exceptions, just as in law. Some will be shorter; some will be longer.

TIP #4: NO WEBCAMS NEED APPLY

"Can I use my webcam or little flip video camera to make these educational videos?" You could. But then you'd be wasting your time wondering why not many people are watching your videos. Your webcam is great for a quick hello to a friend or relative. The video quality is generally poor, as is the audio quality. The new generation of flip video cameras are great little hi-def video tools that were unheard of five years ago. The major drawback is that they do not work well in low-light situations and none of them have the ability to use an external microphone, which is an absolute must when creating quality video to post online. If nobody can hear you clearly, they will not watch your video.

TIP #5: CHOICES

You have two options to create attorney video:

1. Do it yourself.
2. Hire an experienced video company to do it for you.

If you are a do-it-yourselfer, like me, you need tons of time and dedication to creating strategy, setting up your lighting, audio and video. You need to calibrate your equipment, take time to actually shoot video of yourself, upload the video footage to the computer, learn how to edit, insert transitions between scenes, correct color, add stereo sound, add graphics, add intro and exit music along with any background music, shoot b-roll footage to insert into the video, render the video to a QuickTime or flash file, then compress that file to make it small enough and compatible to upload online. Then, you have to upload the edited video to video sharing sites, put it on your blog and website.

“Is that all?” No, there's more! You now have to optimize the text that describes your videos so they will be found in the search engines. You must give your video 'tags' and 'keywords' for the search engines.

“Is that all?” No, there's more! Then you have to let the world know about what you've just created.

“How?” Simple. Use social media to do that. "Ugh," you think. "All that, just for one video?" That's right...if you want to do it properly. You've got to Tweet about it. You've got to put your video on Facebook and MySpace. You've got to tell your friends, relatives and acquaintances about it.

"Is that all?" No. There's more! (I feel like I’m in an infomercial where they say, "Wait...there's more! For only $19.95 you get...")

Then it's time to start your next video...and the cycle continues.

If you do not have the time or desire to learn the technical details of creating, editing and uploading your video, I strongly recommend that you skip option #1 and go directly to option #2: Hire a reputable video company to create your videos for you.

What to Look for When Hiring a Video Production Company

1. A firm with experience producing attorney videos. Do not use a video company that just finished a wedding shoot that weekend. The same could be said for court reporting agencies that hire freelancers to videotape depositions. Why? Because those videographers usually do not have experience knowing what an online viewer looking for an attorney wants in an attorney video. 
2. The truth is that 98% of most video production companies don’t know what a viewer looks for when searching for an attorney online. Anyone can grab a video camera and press the record button. Just go on YouTube and watch the lawyer videos in your specialty. Most are useless and do not provide any real information. Most do not help distinguish one lawyer from another. Put yourself in the position of a person who is looking for a lawyer with your expertise. What questions would they want answered? Which of these lawyers are answering those questions in their video? Some video producers have film and TV experience. “Isn’t that good enough?” It may be. They may know the technical details of how to create a good looking edited video. They may know how to put together a video clip. But the key is having an experienced video producer who understands lawyers and what they do.  
3. Ask whether the video producer is a lawyer. Why is that important? A practicing lawyer has a pretty good insight into what consumers need to see, or want to see in an attorney video. A lawyer brings a particular type of experience when creating attorney video; especially an attorney video producer who has created hundreds of educational videos for use in his own legal marketing. (Notice the subtle plug here for my video production services?)

Seriously, ask your video producer if they know who your ideal client is without you giving them a tutorial about what exactly you do. If they don’t, you might want to think twice about using them. What’s the difference? A video producer is the one who helps you decide what you’re going to talk about in your video. A producer decides what will stay in the final video and what gets edited out. If a producer doesn’t know what online  viewers look for when they have a legal problem, then there’s no way you’re going to  wind up with a useful video that will help you market yourself and increase the number of calls to your office.

Here’s my NEVER list. These are things that you should never do with video:

1. Do not use your video to sell yourself. If you do, a viewer will click away, never to return.

2. Do not say “Come to me because I’ve been in business for 20 years and I’ve gotten great results...” Not many people want to hear a verbal resume from an attorney either. A viewer searching for an attorney assumes you graduated law school and that you know what you’re doing. Don’t prove them wrong.

3. Do not denigrate or bad mouth another attorney or law firm. Doing so will most definitely cause you much upset with the grievance committee of your State.

4. Do not compare yourself to any other lawyer or law firm by name. About 10 months ago I came across a trial lawyer’s video that did exactly that. He even went so far as to say that his firm takes cases to trial, unlike that other law firm (which he mentioned by name) across town which only takes cases to settle before trial. That was bad. Very bad.

5. Do not talk about yourself. Yes, you read that correctly. Why? Because viewers simply do not care about you. If you want to waste your hard-earned money to create a video that talks about yourself, go right ahead. If your video producer tells you to create a video that tells us where you went to school and whether you were on moot court or law review, then my only suggestion is to run the other way. The only people who will watch that video are your family members. A viewer online who is looking for an attorney to solve their legal problem does not care about you.

6. Do not do what all the other attorneys do online. If you follow the crowd, a viewer will never be able to distinguish you from any other lawyer in your community. You’re different from the rest. Use video to show how.

7. Skip the mood music. Some use melodramatic mood music to play in the background. While music is generally fine if used at the right time, I don’t like my heartstrings pulled when tear-jerking melancholy music is playing right at the moment I see gory pictures of crashed cars and injured victims being taken away in the night by ambulance.

8. Skip the webcam and the flip video camera. You need good quality video, and great quality audio. A viewer will excuse poor quality video. Yet a viewer will never excuse poor audio.

9. Don’t shoot your video while driving. You should be as creative as possible when deciding where to shoot your video. But please, don’t do it while driving; it’s dangerous. I’ve seen some enthusiastic attorneys try to use their drive-time productively by shooting video while driving in their car. It’s not the best idea. If you want to use your car as your backdrop, that’s fine, just pull over to shoot your video.

10. Don’t use legal jargon. If your video is geared toward the general public, then talk like a human being. No legal citations. No legal language. Talk as if you’re sitting across from your viewer in their kitchen. If your video is intended for other lawyers, then go ahead and use citations and common phrases such as “judgment non obstante verdicto” and “right of subrogation” and feel free to be pompous and condescending (there’s a little humor here in case you missed it).

Gerry’s Top 10 Verifiable Benefits of Using Video

1. I get callers from across the country and other parts of the world thanking me for providing useful information that nobody else provides (and I’m not giving out legal advice either!)
2. I have people call me telling me their situation is just like the one they watched in one of my videos.
3. I get calls from viewers looking for a medical malpractice and personal injury lawyer in New York. Ironically, many of the callers from around the country call me despite the fact that every one of my videos has a bold graphic stating “New York Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Attorney.” In addition, in every video, I welcome my viewer by saying “Welcome and thank you for joining me. I’m Gerry Oginski, a New York Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Attorney.” I was getting so many out-of-state calls that I actually created a video titled “Where does a New York Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Attorney Practice?” (The answer obviously is New York).
4. Even though I reject many callers just from a brief phone call, these people would otherwise never have called me if I didn’t have my videos online. Statistically, I receive more calls from people who have watched my videos compared to people who have come from visiting my website or blog.
5. When I invite a potential client into my office, they often will tell me that they feel like they already know me. They’ve watched me in the comfort of their home. They trust me (at least I hope they do). They know what I look like and what I sound like.
6. I created a video that I make every one of my clients watch. It’s called “Who is my ideal client?” Why did I create such a video? I only want ideal clients. They may not have the ideal case, but at least I know going into a case that they meet the criteria I look for in an ideal client. A viewer will think about whether they fit into the criteria I need for a perfect client. If not, they self-select themselves out. Similar to some jurors during jury selection.
7. I enjoy creating videos so much that I decided to start helping other lawyers get onto video. That’s why I created the Lawyers’ Video Studio where I offer a turn-key system for lawyers to create video; I offer educational articles, tips and useful information on how to create attorney video and how to improve your next video.
8. Almost two years ago, Larry Bodine was asked on his Law Marketing Portal what a personal injury attorney should be doing to market themselves in order to maximize their return on investment. I am very pleased to say that I took his timely advice and now believe that creating attorney video to market my legal practice is the best return on investment anywhere.
9. When I create a single video it can be watched one time or 30,000 times. All for the same exact price: Nothing. Yes, that’s correct. Obviously there’s significant cost and time associated with creating the video, but once it’s uploaded to video sharing sites, it works for me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It works while I sleep. How great is that?
10. Creating video has changed my life -- in a very good way. It allows me to target specific potential clients. It allows me to explain how and what I do in my law practice. It gives me the opportunity to show viewers that I know what I’m talking about, and care about the legal problems that they have. Video gives me the chance to create a video one time, and instead of repeating myself every time a new client comes in asking the same frequently asked question, I simply direct them to one of my videos.

Conclusion

Video is a game-changer for lawyers who market themselves in today’s economy and online. Social media is great and video is the king of social media. Lawyers who fail to recognize this major fact will wake up years later and wonder “Why didn’t I start creating video when I read Gerry’s definitive guide to video marketing for lawyers?” You cannot afford to ignore this important part of marketing your legal practice. Whether you’re a solo practitioner like myself or are in a mid-size or big-law firm; video will help distinguish you from all of your competitors. I guarantee it.