Video production is an intimidating yet rewarding process for attorneys. No other medium can better convey your message, or gain the interest of your prospective clients. Furthermore, when named and linked correctly, attorney marketing videos can display prominently on Google search results.

Step by Step Process

Step 1) Select A Topic- Topics should be questions or issues that crop up repeatedly in your practice, and answerable within a minute. Be careful not to answer any legal questions or disclose any information regarding any of your clients. Some excellent topics may include: “What Should I Do After A Car Accident?” or “Why Is It Important To Have A Will?”

Step 2) Set Up Your Shoot- Here is where many attorneys initially get overwhelmed. However, the process doesn’t have to be difficult. You can use the webcam built into your laptop to film a semi-professional looking video. Make sure to illuminate your face, the background, and if you can, the top of your head. If you have access to an external microphone, use it! Videos that fail to impress usually lack quality audio.

Step 3) Shoot Your Video- Due to their many hours of practice in the courtroom, some attorneys are skilled in shooting a video without a script. They can speak effortlessly and intelligently about any subject. The rest of us should first prepare a script or at least a few bullets. The scripts should address the question posed in the video title, as well as your opinion of the matter. All videos should be concluded with a call to action – something like “For more information, call my offices at ###-#### for a free consultation.”

Step 4) Edit Your Video- Both PCs and Macs come with software pre-installed that is capable of fairly sophisticated video editing. Using Windows Movie Maker^® or Apple’s iMovie^® cut your video into a short 30 to 90 second clip. During your video, make sure to display contact information as a banner along the bottom of the screen. Finish your video with a five second graphic that displays your firm logo and contact information.

Step 5) Upload your Video- Your videos should be displayed prominently on your website and uploaded to various video hosting sites like YouTube^® and Vimeo^®. The following information deals with how to properly name and describe your video so that it ranks well on the search engines.

Optimized Naming and Description:

Title (name of video= title tag)- Most important piece of video. Name video using keywords and think like a Google search user. Test using word ‘video’. Name video ‘How-To ….’ when applicable

Description (meta description tag)- Use full 27 characters. Keyword Rich. Clickable URL in the first line of description tag. Test- include full transcript in description.

Tags (meta keywords tag)- 5-10 keyword rich phrases, key terms

Tracking Results

Over time, videos uploaded to YouTube will appear on Google search results for the terms and keywords used in your video. If you optimize videos for your firm name then videos will appear in search results when someone searches for your firm. This is an excellent form of reputation management because it allows you to control what people see when they search for you. For example, searching for “Attorney Sophia C. Martinez” brings up:

Notice, Ms. Martinez dominates the top half of her Google search results with her YouTube Videos. Each YouTube video links back to her website, and also provides the user or potential client with additional contact details.