In a sea of webinars and podcasts how does a law practice use its video appearances to break through clutter in the marketing world?
“Quality over quantity” is best a catchphrase in a brainstorming session. How does a law practice turn content often accused of ‘dryness’ into honey flanked by social media bees?
Churning out video after video, without seeing a stir, is destined to run your law firm’s marketing budgets and motivation wells dry.
Lawyers in India have gone rogue in this regard recently. There are examples of homegrown productions venturing beyond traditional legal discourses. Some even venturing into the domains of personal subjects.
Whichever brand story a law practice chooses to adopt, certain first principles will have to be universally worked with.
Don’t go down the following four routes, if you’re looking for success:
1. Can’t please them all
In the realm of law practice marketing in India, we’ve all heard age old adages around first impressions being last impressions. When that comes to your social media video in 2024 – take it to be the first 12 seconds. That’s the length a ‘story’ is allowed on various marketing platforms, setting the tone for your law marketing strategy. If scroller doesn’t like it scroller, quite literally, is shown a few dozen other 12 second stories without even tapping their finger on the phone screen (Tip for the scanty users: social media story sections work on auto mode once user taps on the first story).
We’re assuming our measuring unit for attention span as the smallest available unit of free content to the user.
In the competitive arena of marketing for lawyers, the above laid out information can bring desperate clickbait measures out of some creators, while causing others to give up.
Very few have the gumption in strategically aligning their law firm marketing strategies in order to use the ‘hook-seconds’ to amplify their core brand message and put that above scroller-pleasing (the newest take on people-pleasing!).
When delving into marketing for lawyers, the introduction of your video can’t catch them all. But it must not miss at least any of those four high value clients who it hopes to solve problems for.
Design your hook as speaking to a sharply curated microcosm of the audience, and make it the most interesting for them. Your brand message and your most coveted client – these are two sides of the same coin, after all.
Amidst the vast landscape of marketing for lawyers, how will it speak to them? How will it make them care? Obvious things first- At least be audible and visible in your own video. You’ve lost the battle before starting if the audience strains to even hear and see you. A well-lit room with the camera placed such that the speaker is aesthetically placed along the lines of a 3X3 grid, with light on their face, is the starting point. Invest in a good microphone. Do not mash up music into it in a way that it clouds out what you’re saying/. And be careful about noise cancellation.
With the basics sorted, what are you going to say that will make watchers care? Read the next section for ensuring your message resonates and leaves a lasting impact in the dynamic landscape of law practice marketing in India…
2. Can’t self-indulge
Within the landscape of marketing for law practices in India, B2B clients respond well to, what we at Lawfinity call, ‘propellers’. Propellers – agents who are pushing forward the client’s cause and literally campaigning for them, not just in it for the sale.
Naturally, you have to move away from making the space about yourself and highlighting a list of your accomplishments and competence. If you come across as credible and competent enough to strike at the core of the client’s deeper problems, don’t worry about missing out on the accomplishments story. They’ll ask.
Therefore, effective marketing for lawyers involves incorporating anecdotes and simulations. Look for the newest inner industry terms. Look for simple ‘DIY’ contributions you can make. Look for community initiative suggestions and future plan recommendations.
What we’re saying is – sympathy, trustability, hope, excitement. Look for triggers to these in developing law firm marketing strategies,.
Second – self-indulgence caution doesn’t end at finding client-facing content prompts. The packaging is important. As lawyers, used to reading a lot of long form and having monologue space to ourselves in courtrooms and boardrooms alike, you can’t underestimate how unrelatable that is to the business side.
In the dynamic landscape of law firm marketing strategies, crafting memorable content is pivotal. Memorable content that stirs something in the viewer, is bite-sized, easy on the memory, carrying a positive undertone, and full of action words that compel the viewer to move.
To be easy on the memory, it is more graphic and metaphorical, than technical. Don’t movies let you carry vivid imagery back in your mind for years?
Forget Oppenheimer,, in your most favourite productions, are there a lot of complicated mixed messages in the storyline or just one straight, intuitive, almost-too-obvious message to take home?
In the post-covid world, audience has emotional fatigue. Negative drama, particularly in the space of work where people come to escape it, doesn’t do so much to stir into action, as it does to shock. Therefore focus on humour, compassionate warmth or just hope words to elevate your legal marketing efforts.
Of course anchor this exceptionally good message in realtime evidence. That’s the craft that separates ‘good’ from ‘too good to be true’. And this strategic fusion on the same hand, ensures your law practice marketing in India resonates with clients on a deeper level, fostering lasting connections.
3. Can’t take effects lightly
Imagine if your law practice marketing strategies failed after all that content and angle research just on account of some frivolous and unrelatable images and sounds popping up in it.
That’s precisely what Canva, Filmora and a host of other DIY videomaking technology in this age of fast content creation, tends to trap one into. Marketing for lawyers is not just about creating content; it’s about ensuring that every element contributes strategically to the overall message. Imagery and music can make or break a video.
Creators of various levels of finesse have all realised the role of imagery, sounds and music in audience acquisition. Legal marketing in India is evolving, and understanding the strategic placement of pop up images, dialogue boxes, buzzers and other sounds and, most important, the soundtrack to the video is no amateur play.
When it comes to law firm marketing strategies in India, involving a production team insures yourself from the risks of experimentation. And from analyses paralysis. Proof of concept behind selection of certain imagery and sound is based on due diligence and research into the intended audience.
We’re often complimented on the track to The Dealmaker’s Theorem. We suspect it has sometimes led our audience into watching the whole episode and not quitting early.
Where there’s a sale, you’re dealing with emotion before logic. Ensure you select the rhythm and tune according to what your client would like to see themselves as. Music is a powerful tool for evoking the emotion we’ve been talking about in the context of marketing for lawyers. It’s an integral part of law firm marketing strategies, influencing how your audience perceives your message.
4. Can’t ignore the promotion leg
So you perfected all the details above and cut out a brilliant film. What next? Its no good unless enough people in your selected niche say it is. And it’s essential to gauge the pulse of your chosen niche, and this is where law practice marketing comes into play.
In the creator economy, far less brilliant videos would get far more eyeballs, embracing some legal marketing strategies. By fine tuning simple actions such as optimising its description for SEO keywords, using an attractive thumbnail and cover, beta-testing it for mobile view, pushing it across multiple spaces in LinkedIn and other social media, and heavy email marketing of it, your video can reach a broader audience.
The whole strategy around speaking about your production to enough people without coming off desperate and self-indulgent is an art form, which you better master (or hire for). Before delving into video marketing for your legal practice, it’s imperative to strategize in alignment with proven law firm marketing strategies.
The thumbnail is often a user’s first impression of your video. Ensure your thumbnail stands out. Keep the colors, font, and design elements in line with your firm branding. In the realm of marketing for lawyers, the visual appeal is paramount. Make sure to include some text to help display what the video is about. And include images that are relevant to the video and its content.
This meticulous approach ensures your video not only captures attention but also communicates the essence of your legal practice effectively.
