• 84.5% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• 181 million viewers, 37 billion videos viewed, 21.8 hours spent watching per viewer.
•  The duration of the average online content video was 6.4 minutes, while average online video ad was 0.4 min.
•  Video ads accounted for 20.5% of all videos viewed and 1.6% of all minutes spent viewing video online.
•  Top 3 video ad networks based on video ad volume: Hulu, Google Sites, BrightRoll Video Network.

Check out the full story here:  comScore Release April 2012

When marketing attorney services, video shows promising results. What started as an internal marketing experiment at my firm six months ago—creating eight short marketing videos—turned into a major firm-wide effort when early feedback showed that videos were one of the most effective forms of online communication. Not only do the videos convey what services and expertise the attorneys can deliver, but they also show how they might deliver those services as well. The “small experiment” has blossomed into a full-scale, video-centric website project with more than 80 videos slated to be launched through the end of the year.

Try before you buy
Early in my career when I marketed and sold software, providing a trial version was an effective way of getting potential customers comfortable with our products and their value. But when I switched to marketing and selling attorney services, that model was not an option. There is no “legal-professional-in-a-box” option available, but our early experiences with online video are bringing us a step closer.

Brand the practitioner, not the firm
One of the most formidable challenges in legal services marketing is differentiating legal services. For example, “Law Firm A” has as good of a reputation as “Law Firm B.” For this reason, clients will often say that they “hire the lawyer and not the law firm.” If this is true, presenting attorneys in the best light possible should be a primary goal of legal services marketing. By capturing attorneys in action, video places the attorney brand before the firm brand.

For years I hired (and fired) attorneys from highly reputable law firms because the services they provided bore only a loose correlation to the reputation of their firms. The level of service I received was as varied as the attorneys delivering those services. As long as firms market their standings, wins, reputation and expertise rather than the ways their individual attorneys approach problems and deliver service, they are missing a critical element in the legal marketing equation.

Benefits of online video
Online video has shown to have many advantages over other media. It highlights the attorney and provides an opportunity to demonstrate his or her persuasive powers. Through the combination of visuals and sound, video delivers ideas and positions with more authority and emotional impact.

Also, complex information can be explained simply. In fact, because effective videos are two to five minutes in length, they force attorneys to explain issues in a simple format that is ultimately more appealing to prospective clients. Finally, distribution is nearly free. Not only are there no incremental costs for distributing video online—you can post it on YouTube for free—but the medium is in such high demand that others will recommend and share it, thereby assisting in its distribution if the quality is there.

The rise of online video
Online video is a much more viable format now than it was a few years ago because of the changes in online user behavior, online technology advances and reduced costs. Here are a few other factors that have contributed to the growth of video:

Popularity. According to a recent Pew Internet study, “Generations 2010,” 66% of Internet traffic was video!

Sociability. If you use Facebook and/or YouTube, you’ve likely seen video emerging as a primary social medium that is regularly viewed, shared and commented on.

Discoverability. Videos are indexed, tagged and fed into the blogosphere and aggregated on websites at an astounding rate, especially when integrated with written summaries of their content.

Accessibility. More people can make reasonable quality videos more inexpensively than ever before.

But, like any medium, video presents many challenges in producing professional results. It isn’t easy to strike the right balance between delivering the production values of professional video and ease of creating of amateur video. Finding a balance that meets the standards of firms that guard their reputations and brand image carefully may be one of the most difficult hurdles in developing a video program at law firms.

Before embarking on developing videos at our firm, we viewed dozens of online professional services and product videos. We saw more mistakes than successes, such as bad sound, bad light, bad quality, overproduced videos, talking heads, unnatural delivery and too long.

Our approach
Our approach to video is very simple:

• Explore the video versions of every type of communication that we would provide clients and prospects. This approach provides us not only a purpose for each video, but a way of evaluating its effectiveness and identifying benefit.
• Don’t forget that we are developing online video and not feature films. This approach guides our view toward content, length, cost per video, number of videos and distribution.
• Each of our videos represents a video version of regular type of firm communication. This approach allows us to understand the video format’s effectiveness in achieving our marketing results. The areas include legal alerts, press releases, educational videos and community involvement videos.

Leaving the “online” in online video
Understanding that video is an online social medium is critical to its marketing success. We have borrowed what we’ve learned from successful blogs.

Publish frequently: Volume matters in gaining followers and viewers. We publish approximately one new video per week, making them available to clients who access our videos through a subscription.

Keep videos short: Like blog entries, shorter is better. Based on our experience, online video is best at 1½ to 3 minutes. We may go up to five minutes for a very technical topic.

Tag and share: Like blog entries, tag content and share it through social networks and use syndicators to push out content.

Account for a short shelf life. Videos have a limited shelf life, so don’t make one that will take too long to produce, otherwise the information will be outdated by the time you release it.

Integrate. Integrate online video into your other forms of marketing. For example, you may find that marketing both through email and video may yield a better result than each of these media alone.

Measure results. Like all online media, you can measure views, referrals and the number of times videos are shared. Monitor this information and learn what works for you.

Summary
While our results are far from definitive, the inroads we have made and the potential we see going forward has prompted us to make an ongoing commitment to video. Like any marketing effort, we fully expect to continue experimenting with videos and our approach to promoting them, and monitoring and measuring our results. The ability to continually fine-tune and improve a video marketing program is one of the most exciting aspects of this new medium, and any firm with access to technical know-how, creativity and time can make it work for them.
By Adam L. Stock

Adam L. Stock is Director of Marketing and Business Development at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP. Prior to working for law firms, Adam marketed and sold software at high technology companies for 15 years. He is the Chairman of the 2011 Legal Marketing Technology Conference.

Facts and figures that help tell our story…

• YouTube is the #2 search engine behind Google.
• Cisco reports that by 2013, 90% of Internet traffic will be video.
• Per Forrester Research, a website with video is 53x more like to show up on the first page of a Google search than traditional text pages.
• In a Digiday survey, 57% of respondents plan to increase video advertising in 2012.
• YouTube reported that the site has reached 4 billion daily global online views, a 25% increase in the past 8 months.
• 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute.
• The average Internet user stays on a website for less than 60 seconds; however, with the inclusion of video, the length of time a user stays triples to 180 seconds.

Making videos and posting them online is fairly inexpensive. Unlike display ads or billboards, if you spend money to record once, your video will still be getting views a year from now and beyond.

*For review only.

There’s a wide range of lawyer videos that can be produced. Here we’ll discuss two types, personal introductions of each attorney within a firm and more specific topical videos that may be of interest to a potential client.

Personal introductions give lawyers the opportunity to show their “human” side, providing information about their practices and personal viewpoints. Online video is one of the least expensive, most effective ways to introduce yourself to a variety of clients at one time.

In addition to personal introductions, and more valuable from a search optimization perspective, law firms can produce a number of videos providing information on their area of expertise. To engage potential clients, lawyer videos need to capture the attention of your prospects and answer the questions that your experience tells you they are asking. Addressing their needs before they even speak to legal counsel puts a personal face on your law firm. With these videos…your website becomes stickier and your practice becomes one step closer to gaining a new customer.

Law firms can turn online video viewers into clients by creating videos that:

• Talk about the potential client and his/her needs rather than entirely about the law firm
• Create videos that talk about frequently asked questions and concerns
• Talk about past cases and how you were able to help clients
• Educate potential clients on your field of practice and position yourself as an expert
• Be “human” and let clients get to know you personally

Bottom line, if you can create lawyer videos that contain information that sticks with potential clients – rather than just trying to sell your firm – you’ve got a good shot in seeing an increase in the number of people contacting you law firm or visiting your website to learn more about your services and attorneys.

No matter what your business or service, one characteristic that you undoubtedly find important is to convey your professionalism. You’ve spent money on a fancy logo, a website and collateral that makes that point. You’ve impressed me! But why are you making shaky videos with minimal light, bad shadows and some unidentifiable screaming in the background (or was it an airplane?!)? The wind is blowing directly into the mic, the script is boring – although, that doesn’t matter much since I can’t really hear you anyway.

It is impossible to convey that professionalism you find so important when your video is below amateur level. Take the time to learn some video skills or hire someone to fix this problem! Take a look back at some of our previous posts for some tips as to how to make a decent video if you are going to venture out on your own. Of course, you could save your time and just give us a call…

We’ll get off our soapbox now, but only if you promise to keep yourself looking professional!

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many people are beginning to understand the purpose of video – and some (as we continue to educate!) are aware of the benefits it has for their business from a marketing sense, but at times, they simply just don’t know what to feature in their video.

First of all, you need to relax! Your videos will appear unnatural if you are nervous. Second, share with your potential viewers what YOU know best!

It would be a mistake to try to promote something that you don’t know much about – you’ll come across as phony and insincere. More importantly, you need to do your research and share your ideas. Perhaps there is a specific subject you know very well – take that knowledge and run with it! You can make a video showing step by step instructions or walking through a specific procedure in your industry.

Ideas are endless if you can relax and approach the making of a video with an open mind. Videos are perfect for marketing your business, whether it is your product or service. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and share your thoughts on video!

Today, we’re all very skeptical. There are so many products and companies that claim to deliver, but in the end, do not. We’re exposed all the time to ads that seem too good to be true, but how do we really know what’s good or bad?

Customer testimonials are a great way to attract and convince potential customers to purchase your product or service. Unlike Amazon, most websites don’t contain user-generated testimonials – just those that you copy and paste up for others to see – this is why video testimonials on product pages/service sites are beneficial.

Video testimonials show potential customers a person they can relate to – a person with a similar issue or situation that was solved by your product or service. The videos themselves are generally easy to produce; however, there are a few things to keep in mind so that your video produces the results you’re looking for:

Authenticity: Your subject must be credible – allowing you to share their full name and proving that he/she is an actual satisfied customer, not an actor.

Be Specific: Video testimonials need to specifically tell how your product or service solved a situation or fulfilled a need. Saying “Their service was great” isn’t enough. It’s also helpful to include qualitative facts, such as, how much money was saved by using your service.

Demographic: Before selecting previous customers to involve in creating video testimonials, determine your target demographic for the videos. Be sure to utilize people within the same target demographic for the videos as people relate well to others of a similar age and occupation.

Practice: You want the videos to reflect sincerity in a professional manner. While you may need to help customers come up with a script or outline, be sure it’s really the customer’s voice that comes through strongly.

Done correctly, videos of satisfied customers can be one of your most effective sales tools.

Steady Camera: Select the appropriate camera and use a tripod if moves are necessary. Don’t let anyone’s face be chopped off!

Writing: Keep it simple! Don’t try to jam too much into one video. People don’t have the time to watch for extended periods, so keep it short.

Audio: External microphones are a must to help eliminate background noises and the sound quality is leaps and bounds above a camera’s recording device.

Meaningful: Don’t just give your viewers “fluff”. They want/need a take away that will resonate with them. Think about the goal of the video prior to beginning and ensure, when complete, that the goal has been met.

Professional: We say it again and again – if you want your business to look professional, it is important that any video you upload to your site is professional. This doesn’t mean it needs to be the quality of a feature film – but poor quality video and bad sound are a turnoff – you’re better off without it!