Many attorneys invest heavily in law firm video marketing only to find their content isn’t actually bringing in new clients. Here’s how to tell if your video strategy is broken, and questions to ask before recording the next one.
Table of contents
- Here’s What the Good Law Firm Videos Do Differently
- The Biggest Mistake in Law Firm Video Marketing
- The Real Work Happens Before the Camera Rolls
- Integrating Video into Your Law Firm’s Marketing Strategy
- How to Tell If Your Video Is Broken (and What to Ask Before Shooting Your Next One)
- Creating a Video Strategy That Actually Works
Here’s What the Good Law Firm Videos Do Differently
You spent $10,000 on a video. Looks great. Lighting, audio, wardrobe, all handled. It’s sitting on your homepage, maybe YouTube too.
And nothing happened. No calls. No cases. Nobody mentioned it.
I’ve directed videos for law firms for years now. Solo practitioners all the way up to one of the largest legal video operations in the country. Same thing every time. The footage looks fine. There was just no thinking behind it.
The Biggest Mistake in Law Firm Video Marketing
Your video is about you. It should be about them.
Most law firm videos lead with credentials. Law school. Awards. Settlement numbers. “We fight for you.” “Experienced and compassionate.”
Every firm says this. It differentiates nobody.
When somebody is looking for an attorney, they’re not casually browsing. They’re in the worst moment of their life. A divorce that just ended the life they had planned out. A charge that could take away their future. That person isn’t asking, “Is this attorney impressive?” They’re asking, “Does this person understand what I’m going through?”
Your credentials aren’t useless, but they can’t lead.
Your credentials are the backup — the thing a prospect reaches for after they’ve already decided you’re their person. Wyzowl found 85% of people say a brand’s video convinced them to buy, but nobody was ever convinced by a list of qualifications. They were convinced because they felt something.
“What makes you special?” is the wrong question.
Years ago, when I worked at another agency, I remember being on shoots where the entire pre-production consisted of a few surface-level questions and a generic shot list. It was the same questions for every attorney. Same slow-motion walking shots. Same b-roll of the courthouse.
The videos come out looking professional. But swap the logo, and it could be for anybody.
The Real Work Happens Before the Camera Rolls
A good producer will push past the elevator pitch to find the story. Why did this person become a lawyer? Not the resume version. The real one.
Recently, I worked with a PI attorney who kept directing the conversation back to case results. He did not want to talk about his childhood. But I kept pushing and found out he came from a family of firemen. Generations of them. That drive to help people wasn’t something he picked up in law school. It was in his blood. “It never left my soul,” he told me.
That became the emotional center of the video, and he almost didn’t bring it up.
Attorneys are trained to talk about credentials and bury the personal stuff — 20 years of professional conditioning will do that. A producer’s job is to undo it long enough to find what’s real.
The strategy is the script.
We don’t use teleprompters when we shoot, but that doesn’t mean there’s no plan. By the time I show up, I already know who the client is, what the firm actually stands for, and how I want the story to land. All that prep work means a teleprompter would just slow things down.
I put the cameras off to the side and have a conversation. If I can tell an attorney has rehearsed their answers, I’ll throw something completely unrelated at them to knock them out of performance mode. Then I come back to the real question.
The answer usually changes. The camera catches it.
Integrating Video into Your Law Firm’s Marketing Strategy
A great video inside a broken system is invisible. I’ve seen firms put a $15,000 video on a website that gets 200 visitors a month and then wonder why the phone isn’t ringing.
The firms where video actually drives cases have a system around it. Brand video on a homepage that’s already pulling organic traffic. Shorter cuts running as paid ads. Clips on their Google Business Profile. Every piece has a job.
One attorney told me people call his firm every day and say, “I saw your video. That’s why I’m calling.” But her firm also has strong SEO and a marketing agency running campaigns alongside the videos we created for them. The videos earn the trust. The marketing system puts them in front of the right people.
Without marketing and a distribution plan, a video is just an expensive decoration.
How to Tell If Your Video Is Broken (and What to Ask Before Shooting Your Next One)
Pull up your firm’s current video. Three things separate a video that converts from one that just sits there: 1) Tension, 2) Truth and 3) Transformation.
1. Tension: Something Has to Be at Stake
A client talking about the phone call at 2 a.m. An attorney who watched a parent go through a brutal divorce as a kid. If nothing in the first 30 seconds makes you lean in, you’ve got a brochure, not a story.
2. Truth: The Camera Is a Lie Detector
Does the attorney sound like a real person or a press release? The camera is a lie detector. Audiences can always tell when someone is performing, even if they can’t put their finger on why.
3. Transformation: There Has to Be a ‘Before and After.’
A client who went from broken to whole. An attorney whose worst experience became the reason they practice law. Without that arc, you’re just listing facts.
Vetting Questions for Video Companies
If your video fails that test, here are five questions to ask potential partners before you agree to let them work for you:
1. “Take me through your discovery process.” If the answer is “we’ll send some questions over and a shot list,” that’s your first clue that it’s a content factory. Discovery should feel more like a deep conversation about why the firm exists.
2. “Will there be a script or teleprompter?” If yes, ask why. A scripted attorney reads like a scripted attorney, every single time.
3. “Where are we shooting?” If the whole video happens in the conference room, it’s going to look like everyone else’s. Get outside. Go to the courthouse. Shoot the attorney as a real person in the real world.
4. “What happens after you hand us the files?” This one matters more than people think. No deployment plan means you’re buying a product, not a strategy. (Of course, unless you buy a package that includes distribution and marketing, you may indeed just be buying the product, so check your contract.) Reminder: A great video inside a broken system is invisible.
5. “How will we know if it worked?” If nobody has an answer, the video has zero accountability. At a minimum, your marketing team or agency should be tracking whether pages with video convert any better than pages without video.
Creating a Video Strategy That Actually Works
Finally, try this: Watch your video with the sound off for 10 seconds.
Does it look like every other law firm video out there? Logo animation, a desk, a bookshelf, a suit? Now turn the sound on. Are the first words about your credentials or about what the client is going through?
If it opens with a graphic, you’re done. And if the first thing out of the attorney’s mouth is a credential, you’ve already lost the viewer.
The reason videos fail to convert is never production quality. It’s the story.
Image © iStockPhoto.com.
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