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How to reach legal consumers using online video

By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//December 2, 2014//

How to reach legal consumers using online video

By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//December 2, 2014//

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Marketing strategy could help attorneys stand out from competition

By Elizabeth Millard
Dolan Media Newswires

Video-Marketing_expand_325By now, most lawyers understand the power of online marketing, but many are unsure about how to use online tools to effectively and affordably reach potential clients. Lawyers often struggle to simultaneously promote their practices, create content that is discoverable by search engines, and provide information that is interesting and helpful to legal consumers.

Developing an online marketing strategy is not an easy proposition when it comes to written content, and the complications deepen when lawyers venture into video marketing. Many lawyers have no idea where to start or what to say.

Still, there are a few lawyers who have been successful in that area. For example, Gerry Oginski, a New York City medical malpractice attorney, tapped into YouTube in 2006 so he could use online videos to reach potential clients for his solo practice.

“But the only law-related videos I could find on YouTube were lawyer commercials, which were pointless,” he said. “They weren’t teaching anyone anything. So I decided to create a video that taught potential clients something they didn’t know.

“My first video was awful. It was 6 minutes long, grainy and dark, and explained how to hire a New York medical malpractice attorney. Remarkably, despite the poor video quality, I received lots of calls from people who’d viewed it.”

Oginski said he realized he had hit upon a successful marketing formula by providing legal consumers with much-needed information about the litigation process.

“Now fast-forward eight years, and I have over 1,100 videos to market my solo practice,” he said. “These videos have directly accounted for $8.5 million of settlements. In fact, it was such a successful endeavor for my firm that I started a business, The Lawyer’s Video Studio, to help other lawyers learn how to make video marketing work for their practice.”

And if attorneys do it the right way, Oginski said, video marketing will help then stand out in the crowd.

“Online video marketing makes you more approachable so that legal consumers who are looking for information online feel more comfortable reaching out to you to learn more,” he said. “They love the fact that you’re available and teaching them something they don’t know, compared to your competitors who aren’t doing anything like that.”

Of course one of the most difficult parts about creating online content, whether written or video, is deciding what to discuss that will interest potential clients. However, Oginski said, the process often relies on attorneys trying to think like consumers.

“There are so many different ways to skin the cat to come up with ideas that will interest legal consumers,” he said. “The legal process is confusing. So teach them how it works.

“Think about the hundreds of steps that occur in a case from start to finish. Write down every step of the process from when they first call you to the very end of the case. You’ll find that all of a sudden, you’ve got tons of great content and that the hundreds of different steps are great fodder for blog posts, FAQs, videos and more.”

Attorneys who have been considering video marketing and wondering whether it might work for their law practices should wonder no more. Instead, they should pull out a notepad, outline the steps of cases and then get started.

If attorneys create interesting content that simplifies and explains the legal process, potential clients might just call to learn more.

Nicole Black is a director at MyCase.com, a cloud-based law practice management platform. She speaks regularly at conferences regarding the intersection of law and technology.

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