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As many business professionals are already aware, YouTube has far more uses these days than simply posting and viewing entertaining videos, which may or may not go viral. Any lawyer who understands how to choose the right content, and includes a call-to-action, can take advantage of YouTube marketing to bring a legal firm to huge numbers of people out in the YouTube audience. It is the perfect vehicle for introducing yourself to the masses before they ever even attempt to contact you about a legal issue.
It’s extremely easy to get started with lawyer marketing on the YouTube platform, so with minimal effort, you can make millions of people aware of your firm, thus getting much more recognition and probably much more business as well. This discussion will center on some ways that you can use YouTube to your advantage, so as to help grow your legal business and to increase your presence online.
General Recommendations for Using YouTube
The thing that seems to hold back most lawyers from embarking on marketing is that the whole process is a big unknown to them, and they have a natural aversion to plunging into an unknown activity. The best way to overcome this aversion is to just plunge right in, just like you would dive right into a pool when you’re not sure how warm the water is.
Remember that people search for things online when they want to have a question answered or a need fulfilled. You can address this by answering common legal questions in your video, and by conveying what your specific skills are, or your area of specialty. For example, Griffith Family Law in San Diego, CA does a great job of addressing common questions dealing with child custody battles in their YouTube video Child Custody: Establishing Custody when Unmarried.
In fact, they made these helpful tips into an entire series of videos on YouTube which gives them even more exposure to people looking for help in this crucial area. Of course, you could do all this in a blog just as well, but blogs do not rank as highly as videos do, so you’ll reach a lot more people by creating a video that somehow is useful to them.
Include a Call-to-Action in Your Videos
Many viewers who have a chance to watch your video will wish to follow it up by calling your firm or visiting your website. You should facilitate this natural reaction by including a call-to-action on each of your videos, urging users to consult with you on an initial discussion. To this end, make sure to include your phone number and your website URL in the text of your video, and in a clear display at the end of the video. You should also include this information in a description of the video, making sure to add in your location and your legal specialty. Here’s a great example of a call-to-action where Council and Associates, LLC provides contact information and discusses reasons why a person should give them a call at the end of their video.
Don’t worry about over-selling with your call-to-action, because it’s an essential part of your video, and many viewers will actually be looking for it.
Post on All Platforms
It’s always a practical approach to get the most mileage out of any video you produce, so you should not only upload them to YouTube, but you should share them on social media as well. Not only will this reach a much greater number of viewers, but it will also provide a consistent message to all those viewers across platforms. Everyone who sees this, regardless of the platform they’re on, will then have exactly the same perception of your firm and your qualifications. In our earlier example, we shared a video from Council and Associates, LLC on YouTube giving tips about lawsuits involving Uber. They post videos to their Facebook platform as well, a good strategy to reach not only YouTube viewers, but their Facebook community as well.
Start Small
Keep in mind that when embarking on a program of lawyer marketing, the most important thing you can do is just to get going with something. Over-analyzing will not only prevent you from getting started, but it will complicate things unnecessarily. When you first get started with video productions, you should limit yourself to one or two each month. You’ll probably have to plan these out in detail because videos require much more thought than a simple blog does.
To maximize your time investment, you can produce multiple videos on the same day, so that you aren’t taken away from clients repeatedly. It will also help if you have retained a marketing agency which will do most of the groundwork for you, so that you just have to come up with ideas and content. After you’ve produced one or two videos a month for several months, you’ll have a much better handle on how long it takes to produce videos, and how much time you have to allow for production.
DIY or Professional?
These days, it’s easier than it ever has been to produce your own videos and upload them to YouTube. However, if you don’t already have those skills, and you don’t want to commit the time to learn them, your best bet might be to hire a marketing agency to create your videos for you. If you go this route, be sure to choose an agency that has a proven track record of creating personal connections through videos, because this is what’s going to bring people to your firm. In most cases, it’s well worth the investment to hire a professional agency that is adept at connecting with an audience through video, so this is probably the preferred route for most lawyers who get involved with YouTube marketing.