The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an immense financial burden on law firm owners all over the United States. For many, foot traffic and referrals from personal networking have dried up completely. Touchpoints with customers and clients are harder and harder to come by.

Small firms live and die by their connections with their communities. Before the pandemic, in-person consultations that included handshakes and face-to-face contact were not life-and-death situations—they were the norm, the very beginning of a fruitful attorney-client relationship.

In this new landscape, how can small law firms connect with clients and tell their brands’ stories in a meaningful way? By adding videos to their marketing strategies.

Lawyer Video Marketing Statistics in 2020

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million when you have so little time to capture attention.

Getting attention is essential, but it is not the only part of video marketing that matters. According to a 2020 study from Wyzowl, 87 percent of people who used videos in their marketing strategies said it increased their web traffic. A whopping 95 percent said videos improved viewers’ understanding of the product or service featured.

And what about the bottom line? The same study found that videos increased sales in 80 percent of cases.

Law Firm Brand Storytelling Through Video

Your law firm has a story. If more prospective clients knew that story, you would likely have more clients. That is why videos must tell the story of your brand. But how do you achieve that?

When creating a video for your law firm, the most important factor to consider is emotion. What will the viewer feel when watching this video? Will they feel inspired to contact you? Will they understand where your firm comes from and how it stands up for its clients?

Here are a few items to include in a video that will help to tell the brand story of your law firm:

• A shot outside of your law firm with other local businesses or landmarks in view to show that you are truly a part of your community
• A brief interview with a founding attorney that covers the firm’s creation story and mission
• A video of a satisfied client giving a testimonial

Why tell potential clients about yourself when you could show them through video? They will come away understanding your brand on an emotional level that is nearly impossible to recreate through text alone.

How Good Law Firm Videos Provide Value

While videos have clear advantages over many other law firms’ marketing methods, they will not inherently add value for your firm. When 500 hours worth of videos are uploaded to YouTube every single minute, you have to create videos that will not drown in an ocean of subpar content.

Here is how you can add value to video marketing for your law firm:

• Answer questions. For non-lawyers, the law is complicated at best and completely inaccessible at worst. Create explainer videos that explain complex legal topics that matter to your viewers in ways they can understand.

• Let your personality shine. Your law firm’s personality is a big part of your brand. Do you have an office pet? Does one of your partners have a special hidden talent? These are great ideas for social videos that will entertain your viewers and gain shares and followers on social media.
• Emphasize benefits. Your viewers and potential clients have legal problems they need to solve. Use an informational or branding video to show that your firm can help and that getting legal help can provide potentially life-changing benefits. Think huge settlements for personal injury, worry-free divorces for family law, and reduced or dropped criminal law charges.

What to Expect When Creating Videos

All of the benefits of video marketing for law firms sound great, but what does the video-creation process actually look like? For many firms with limited manpower and technical skills, it is daunting, which is why they often outsource video creation to experienced video marketers.

Read the full blog post at the Martindale-Avvo Blog.