Is Making Your Own Attorney Videos Hurting Your Firm?

Attorney videos are quickly becoming an integral part of effective marketing strategies for law firms across practice areas. However, whenever attorneys make their own videos without professional help, the results can leave much to be desired. According to Hubspot, more than 80% of businesses use video marketing as a tool in their customer outreach strategy, and according to Google, 6 out of 10 people would rather watch videos than television. These statistics indicate that video marketing has the potential to be a powerful motivator for potential clients, especially in the legal industry.

Additionally, focus group research has proven that potential clients are more likely to trust an attorney they are able to see and listen to in a video than one they find in a blanket web search. The legal industry seems to be catching on to this phenomenon. However, many attorneys go about it the wrong way. The skills and techniques that go into producing a professional-grade video take years to master; an attorney might be great at what they do, but unfortunately this does not mean they have the skillset to be a videographer. If you are considering making video marketing an effective part of your marketing strategy, reach out to a legal video marketing professional.

Ways that making your own attorney videos can hurt your practice may include:

• Video quality: It’s no secret that professional video recording equipment tends to be expensive, and often takes a certain level of expertise to identify. Rather than waste money on low-quality video equipment, or waste a lot of money on professional equipment that might not be right for your needs or worth the price, hiring a professional who already possesses the right equipment ensures excellent video quality at a reasonable price.
• Sound quality: The quality of a video’s sound is one of the most overlooked but important aspects of a video. If the sound quality is poor, not only can it be difficult for viewers to understand what the attorney is saying, but it can be extremely distracting. Background noise, fuzzy sounds, and microphone pops can make the listening experience unpleasant and will likely push a viewer to seek out a video with better sound quality. Professional-grade microphones can go a long way to solving this problem and can be notoriously expensive. This is where hiring a professional can help; not only will they already have professional-grade mics of their own, they will likely be able to recommend a reasonably priced alternative for your firm as well.
• Editing: One of the biggest mistakes homemade attorney videos make is the lack of editing. Viewer attention spans tend to be short, and need to be frequently and intentionally engaged throughout a video. Filming long attorney videos and posting them without cutting them down, changing camera angles, or clipping together pieces from the same recording that fit together awkwardly can dramatically reduce the impression of professionalism an attorney needs to aim for with their videos.
• Time consumption: One of the biggest reasons an attorney should reconsider filming, editing, and posting their own videos is the sheer time consumption involved in this process. From the set-up of the camera and microphone, to the time it takes to record itself, upload to a computer, edit, and post, the process of posting a single video can take hours away from an attorney’s practice. Alternatively, a video marketing professional can do the same thing in a fraction of the time at a much higher quality.
• Competition: Next to time-consumption, the competition attorneys face in their field is one of the biggest reasons to consider hiring a professional for your attorney videos. Other law firms and attorneys are hiring video marketing professionals to record, edit, and post their videos. If a potential client has the choice to view a homemade attorney video or a professionally edited one with crisp, clear audio-visual quality, the choice is obvious. Additionally, many legal video marketing professionals can provide additional marketing services, such as landing pages on their site, blogs, and additional social media coverage.

To learn more about attorney video marketing or for help making your own video, reach out to AskTheLawyers™.