Using Video to Tell Your Story
This is an excerpt of the Leader column that I wrote for the November 2011 issue of Professional Marketing magazine:
Everyone working in law firm marketing is looking for the ‘killer app.’ I’ve looked over the horizon and seen the future of legal marketing: it is online video.
Video is the number one reason that people go online, according to Pew Internet Research. Clients and potential clients would rather watch a two-minute verbal explanation than read a two-page article. “I don’t want anything on paper. I don’t have an inbox; if I did everything in it would go into trash. I want something that will catch my eye in 30 seconds or less, certainly not a long block of text. I’m more likely to look at a video,” said MeMe Rasmussen, VP and chief privacy officer of Adobe Systems Inc.
Consider this:
- YouTube videos were viewed 700 billion times in 2010.
- A video on your website improves Google results.
- For people to retain a lawyer, they must know, trust and like them. Video accomplishes all three.
A large law firm that has embraced video in its marketing is Allen Matkins of San Francisco, which issues video news releases and has uploaded 57 videos on YouTube. CMO Adam Stock hired a news reporter to give the firm’s videos a compelling sound and look, and even hired a helicopter to record ‘B-roll’ of the city’s skyline. See www.youtube.com/user/allenmatkins.
A small firm that is harnessing video is Tully Rinckey of Albany, New York. The firm has 200 videos on YouTube, and many are clips from TV news reports, in which a station interviewed a lawyer for comment about current events. CMO Graig Cortelyou has cultivated good relations with local TV producers who give him the clips for free. See www.youtube.com/user/tullylegal.
Click the link to read the rest of the Leader column.
