Video has given rise to a new way of marketing legal services. According to a global report issued by Cisco, 90 percent of all online traffic will be video content by 2013. Video is already showing promising results in the way general counsel evaluate legal services: 90 percent of general counsel ranked attorney biographies as the most important section of a law firm's website and two-thirds of the respondents "expressed interest in video interviews that would appear in the lawyer bios." Several respondents also explained that video "would be helpful in evaluating a lawyer's demeanor, presence or style...," according to a recent survey of general counsel by the Wicker Park Group on behalf of Hubbard One.
Marketers who incorporate video into their marketing plans will increase their search engine rankings by making it easier for prospects to find your firm. Search engines love video. Optimized video content has a better chance of being shown on the first page of search than your text pages. Video also has the added benefits of highlighting the knowledge of your attorneys and culture of your firm.
"It is inevitable that more firms will use videos," said Adam Stock, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP. "A law firm's brand only goes so far and good videos can build deeper relationships."
Stock works with an outside vendor to produce video versions of the firm's press releases and other communications. "Video has been more effective than a client alert on broad topics such as big cases in the news. Thefirm's video on the Supreme Court's decision on Dukes v. Wal-Mart has received more than 700 views on YouTube. "Video has also worked well when we needed to convey emotion, such as describing the firm's work on a community service project, and it's been effective in our recruitment efforts by showing our diversity," added Stock. In January, the firm usedvideo to promote its diversity and community involvement by featuring one of its environmental attorneys who also works as a foster parent for Guide Dogs for the Blind.
While video gives firms the ability to distribute video versions of their communications to reach clients and prospects, firms should also be mindful not to overlook their internal audience.
"I was tasked with building out a program for video four years ago," said Aden Dauchess, Director of Digital Media at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC. Dauchess who first began using videos for internal marketing. "Lawyers in one office don't always know lawyers in other offices or what they do, so we began producing service expansion [or cross selling] videos that were distributed internally. We received a lot of positive feedback which gave me leverage with our chairman to expand the program externally."
Dauchess said the decision to move the firm's video production in house was a natural expansion of how well the program was received. The firm invested in a videographer, mobile studio and green screen. "Our marketing managers, sales directors, office managers, and members of our client development committee are also involved," Dauchess added.
Today, Womble Carlyle uses video for communications such as client alerts, highlights of events the firm sponsors, attorney bios, and a multi-episode litigation series. The LMA Capital Chapter presented Womble Carlyle with an award for its "DC On the Move" campaign which included videos that outlined the advantages of the firm's new office for both staff and clients.
Whether your firm decides to produce its videos in house or work with an outside vendor, there's no doubt that we should be leveraging video to market attorney services.
By Sabrina McGowan, Public Relations Manager at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP for the November/December 2011 Issue of the Capital Ideas Newsletter