The evidence is compelling—a study by Forbes Magazine concluded that nine of every ten digital marketing plans incorporate video as part of the overall approach. That makes perfect sense, as another Forbes study concluded that 90% of consumers admitted that online video was instrumental in informing their purchasing decisions (nearly two-thirds said that an online video convinced them to purchase a good or service).
According to research compiled by Vidyard, online video is growing almost exponentially. Vidyard looked at the trends of more than 600 businesses, and collected data from more than a quarter of a million videos. Some of the key findings include:
- Strong growth in the presence of online video—On average, the companies examined by Vidyard published 33 new videos every month. With that type of growth, it’s expected that their video libraries will double every year.
- Surprisingly, the vast majority (89%) of online videos are screened on a desktop computer, not on a mobile device
- While the average length of an online video is around nine minutes, the bulk of videos–more than three-quarters—are less than two minutes in length. The shorter the video, the more likely viewers will watch the entire video—approximately six of every ten videos under 90 seconds long are watched in their entirety, whereas less than 15% of videos over 30 minutes long have that same experience.
- In addition to video posts on website pages, marketers are increasingly using other digital mediums—for example, the use of video in e-mails went up by about 33% over this past year.
The Vidyard study also found that marketers are employing more frequent and sophisticated analytics to assess the success and return on investment for online video. More than a third of the businesses involved in the research reported using either intermediate or advanced analytics, and those that relied on advanced analytics were twice as likely to report an improved return on investment.
Strategies for a Successful Online Video Campaign
With the evidence strongly supporting the importance of online video in your comprehensive digital marketing approach, it’s wise to move swiftly to incorporate video into your plan. As you formulate your strategy, here are some of the essential components to include:
- Make certain your video engages and empowers potential clients – Your prospective clients want to know they’ve made a careful and correct decision to hire you. In your video, do more than just tell people what you do: make certain they understand the value you bring to them.
- Use video to present consistent branding – Effective branding does two things: it makes you recognizable and it sets you apart from your colleagues in the legal profession. In your videos, strive to distinguish your practice from others. In addition, establish a consistent and recognizable persona, with similar color schemes, logos and visual elements.
- Make your content available to persons with disabilities and persons from other cultures – There’s a huge market for legal services for people for whom English is not a first language. There’s also a great demand from people with physical challenges. It’s not that difficult to have your videos transcribed and translated, so that you reach a broader market, and one that is relatively untapped.
- Prepare your videos to be posted on other sites – There’s benefit to posting videos to Facebook, YouTube and other sites. In addition to increasing your online visibility, there’s a good chance that you’ll also gain an advantage with the search engines.
- Make your videos fun and friendly – Videos give your prospective clients the first opportunity to put a face with a name, and to get a sense of your personality. People tend to be drawn more to laughter and light-heartedness. A conversational approach is best in an online video.
GetLegal Offers Full Service Video Production and Implementation
At GetLegal, we have the experience, knowledge, products and resources to design and implement a successful online video campaign for you. We will start by learning as much as we can about your practice, as well as the message you want to convey to potential clients. We’ll work closely with you to identify an overall strategy, and to prepare scripts for each video. Our experienced video team will handle all the details, from helping you select the appropriate attire and location for your video, to providing voice coaching, to ensuring that seemingly small things like hair and makeup are right. We have a full production studio where videos can be shot, or we can go on location to your office or elsewhere. We also have extensive video editing experience, and know how to get the maximum online exposure for your videos.
To learn more about how we can enhance your firm’s online presence with video in 2018, call us at 817-GET-LEGAL or use our convenient online form.
