Marketing a Law Firm | Video for Your Website?

I want to apologize for not posting on here the last couple of weeks, to myself, if nothing else. This is a complete excuse, but we recently moved into ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif new office, and the move and design of it has sidetracked me big time. Here's a post I've had in the hopper for a couple of weeks, and I plan on posting regularly going forward.

If you know me, then you know I am constantly looking for new ways to market my law firm. Some of them are out of the box, some of them are more traditional, and some them are simply variations on a theme. Today I want to talk about something that is a variation on a theme - video for your website.

If you check out my website, you'll see that I don't have any video on there, yet. But I think that will be changing very shortly. And the reason is simple, video allows you to make a connection with someone that text and pictures simply can't. I can talk directly to potential clients with video, I can answer their questions, and I can show them I am good at what I do (and include some marketing fundamentals that help make the whole thing pop).

What you get from most law firm videos is what you would expect a law firm to make - boring, predictable, almost like they were reading from the text of their website. Does that do any good? It can't hurt. But your law firm website video can be so much more than that (and I'm trying to make mine just that).

I'm no law firm marketing genius - I'm just a lawyer who opened his own firm and wants it to be successful, but I've tried to learn from people who are, and this is what I've come up with for a recipe for success:

1. Don't be afraid to tell people what to do - when my video is put on the blog it's going to have with it a big sign that says "Click to Watch." Leave out the sign, you'll leave out viewers.

2. Include some production value. RJon, as a big proponent of videos, probably won't really agree with me on this one, but I think the video that's going to be on the front of your website and is meant to get people to call should have some production value. By that I mean it shouldn't look like you made it in your basement or probably even in your office.

3. Include as much proof as you can. There are two types of proof here you want to include - real and social. The real proof includes your training and experience. Member of a special group? Let em know. Publish an article somewhere? Let em know. Social proof is how you've helped others. Tell one of your more compelling client related stories.

4. Tell your prospective client what you can do for them. This is where you hit them with the time, reputation, money benefits. Let them know you can help. Tell them about your process and why you are different from everyone else.

5. End with a bang. Let them know what they should do next. "Call us" is a good start. And, it might be creative to let them know who shouldn't call. "If you are just looking for x, then we might not be right for you." The thing is, though, if you are going to use this qualifier, it should be something that will actually exclude people, not one of those "what's your greatest weaknesses turned into a positive" things.

I'm putting together my script right now. Once it's all put together I'll post it up here and let you take a look.

Hope all is well and you are on your way to starting a successful law firm!

Oh, and one last thing. June 1 was the two year anniversary of my firm. The people at the bank that are now trying to get me to take out a loan with them tell me the first two years are the toughest. I'm looking forward to moving out of survival mode and into growth mode in the coming years. You should join me!