5 Ways Attorneys Turn More Leads Into Cases With Storytelling
In this 60-minute Webinar, hosted by Tanner Jones of Consultwebs, Michael Mogill, President of Crisp Video Group, delivers a jam-packed Webinar for attorneys looking to take their business growth to the next level with legal video marketing.
Transcription:
Tanner: I’d like to personally welcome everyone to another Consultweb’s webinar. We appreciate everyone taking some time to dig in today to the Five Ways Attorneys are Turning More Leads into Cases through the use of storytelling. Video has been a really, really instrumental way for firms, businesses across this country to be able to really tell their story, showcase their brand and we’re excited to have Michael Mogill here from Crisp video to be able to educate myself as well as you all on some really intriguing ways to tell better stories through the use of video.
Some of you probably know Michael very well but just as a quick introduction, Michael is the president and the CEO of Crisp video group. Crisp is a national legal video marketing company that produces high quality video, as well as engaging videos for attorneys all over the country. So Crisp legal video helps attorneys they get noticed, helps to build their brand, and attract higher value cases. And Michael and his group have also been featured in “Forbes”,” Avvo”, the “AVA”, “Huffington Post” as well as the “Wall Street Journal.” So Michael we’re excited to have you thanks for joining us.
Michael: Thank you for having me, thank you Tanner. Yeah, so let’s just get right into it. Storytelling is…I would say to a degree potentially a relatively new topic in the legal space, but if we were talking about attracting and converting more leads into cases I think everyone perks up when they hear that. So just to kinda do a quick rundown of what we’ll cover during today’s webinar. We’ll talk about how to set your firm apart from the masses with video and why that is so important. How to use storytelling in video to land better cases and increase client conversions by up to 300%. Just in terms of not just landing more cases but better cases. And what qualify clients. Four critical emotions that drive clients to make hiring decisions. How to identify those and what to do about them. And then this video quality matter this is…again inherently our company has been a bias towards this but we’ll look at this objectively. We’ll look at what the research says, what the data says and see if there’s a conversion difference.
And then finally how to leverage the power of storytelling in video to increase average case values by up to 10X. And we’ll share a couple case studies of attorneys who did just that. And then at the end of the webinar just with all the things that we’ll discuss, we’ll actually have a storytelling blueprint. That will be giving away to the attendees of the webinar and you’ll be able to fill in all the different types of items we talk about and really formulate your value proposition. What sets you apart your stories all the content, and the material that we go over today a real kind of blueprint and guide for how to best approach that after the webinar. So….
Tanner: Folks let me let me add Michael to that if anybody has any questions throughout this…I know Michael is very nuts and bolts kind of guy, there’s a lot of information he’s gonna be shared in this. If you have questions that come up feel free to use the questions box here and go to meeting. Ask those questions, I’ll gather them and we’ll make sure that we get all of them addressed.
Why Video?
Michael: Perfect and one thing I’ll say at the start really is just whether you’ve produced videos for your firm in the past or if you’re just getting started with video and you’ve never produced any videos. There’s going to be content that will talk about that’s going to be valuable and it’s gonna be applicable to really any stage you are in the process. So like I said whether you’ve done videos in the past and you’ve done several videos hundreds of videos maybe even, or if you’ve never produced a video for your firm before, there’s going to be some takeaways here for any stage in the process. And the first thing that I really want to talk about is just why video? Like why are we even talking about this and why is it important.
There’s a couple key points here in terms of video helping to build brand authority injecting personality into your website. But again our ultimately focus is converting visitors into clients. And of course video can help improve your site value and search rankings, but how does it do these things and how is this going to be applicable to you? So when we talk about SEO obviously everyone loves the sound of a SEO but high quality video has been shown to increase the chances of a first page ranking by 53 times. Now there’s a number of different ranking factors that impact that, that video helps with such as time on site, bounce rate and so on. But in general, video has been proven to have a very positive impact on improving conversion rates.
Engagement, so now we’re seeing of course with attention spans getting shorter. People would much more likely watch a video than read text than read content. And not even just engagement but also differentiation. Because if you let say you’re focusing on personal injury, you do a search and there’s a number of different personal injury attorneys in your area, the service offerings may be relatively similar. So you wanna be able to look for a prospective client. There needs to be a competitive advantage to be able to set yourself apart. So, whether it’s high quality website or quality content whatever that might be, it’s very important to be able to differentiate yourself and your firm. Trust that’s gonna be a very important factor video is able to not just humanize your firm but really introduce people to you and your practice. And we’ll talk about why this is so important.
And then finally, brand authority. Your video is going to be a reflection of your brand, which can be a good thing if you do it right, or it could be a potentially detrimental thing if you do it wrong. So we’ll talk about some best practices and things to consider when you’re producing content. But ultimately, we talk about all this because the goal is to set yourself apart to tell your story and grow your brand because the best case is do go to somebody, they’re going to some firm. How do you kind of get your firm more visible and attract those more discerning clients and those higher value cases.
And then a few more metrics just on the impact of video. So when we talk about improving website conversion rates, a website with video versus a video without, we’ve seen 300% increase with video. And we’ve seen this go even as high as 1000% increase. So implying for example, let’s say you get a 100 visitors to your website, five of those visitors fill out a contact form or book a consultation without a video. And let’s say you put a video on the website now you can improve that conversion rate let’s say by three X here. So of the same 100 now instead of five submitting a form or booking a consultation you’re seeing 15. So you can really leverage the existing traffic that’s already coming to your site and improve the conversion rate you get from that.
Of course, also improving the action being taken after viewing a video and then video is absolutely dominating right now on social. For those of us that are on Facebook. I’m sure we see videos just playing natively in our news feeds. We probably get more all our political news than any other type of content just playing already natively in the feed. So we’re seeing a tremendous amount of engagement on social.
And then finally if you use video and eblasts or email newsletters using video thumbnails, we’ve seen clicking rates for those three times higher than even a static thumbnail. So just some things to consider in terms of the impact of video. So when it really gets down to it when you’re producing legal video content, there’s really two types of goals for legal videos. The majority of legal video content will fall into one of these two buckets. First, there’s building authority so let’s say your focus is on attracting more leads driving more traffic to your website, educational FAQ videos are a great way to achieve that. So many times we see that a prospective client may not be searching for the name of your firm, in fact they may not know the name of your firm and they may not even know that they need an attorney. But they may be searching for a question they have, or a problem, or a challenge or an injury for example and then they land on your video or your content that drives them into your website.
The other types of videos are focusing more on building connections, so converting those leads into clients. This is where a brand video, a video that showcases the firm, tells your story and this is something that can really set you apart. If somebody is comparing a variety of different types of attorneys and not even just type but let’s just say they’re on a directory site or they’re viewing…we just recently saw that in New York for example we did a search the other day and there was 4400 or so personal injury attorneys just in New York. So how is a prospective client to differentiate one attorney from another. So a video can be a great tool to achieve just that.
The Impact of Video
Now in terms of what we’ll talk about primarily through when we’re talking about storytelling, it’s going to be based on the consideration stage and the decision stage. So when people are considering you and your firm, they’re trying to make a decision on which attorney they’d like to hire. So this is typically a brand video. it’s for two to four minutes, these are engaging videos that really tell your story and what sets you apart. What makes you unique, what is your unique value proposition, why should someone choose to hire you as opposed to another firm. So when you’re producing something that’s very emotional, memorable and can really build a strong connection with somebody, we see that these videos convert much higher.
And then again talking about why stories matter. So just as I just mentioned in terms of how saturated the market is, now there’s 1.3 million attorneys in United States. You break that down, that’s one attorney for every 265 people. That’s every man, woman, and child. And it’s becoming increasingly more saturated and as you can see here in “Avvo” there’s 4200 personal injury attorneys just in New York. So the challenge really is how do you stand out? And how do you differentiate your firm? And this is where storytelling really comes in and storytelling can make a strong impact.
So some of the benefits of…there’s a number of ways in which can produce a video. You can have a traditional talking head video, you’re standing against the wall, and you’re just talking about here’s who I am and here’s what I do, versus a video that’s more engaging. What is the difference and what would be the value of actually telling your story. So for one, it’s establishing an emotional connection and clearly stating your unique value proposition which we’ll actually talk about later in the webinar. If you don’t really have a strong idea of what is your value proposition or what sets you apart we’ll offer you some ways to help come up with that.
Building Connections
Then of course building trust and rapport through client testimonial, social proof is very important and that type of earned media is very valuable when it comes to conversion and then finally communicating your knowledge and expertise through results and experience. So when you take all of these things into account, you can tell a very powerful story. And it’s like Simon Sinek says if some of you have read his book in terms of really getting into that why. He says “Stories are our attempts to share our values and beliefs and storytelling is worthwhile when it tells what we stand for.” So it’s the idea that people don’t just buy what you do but why you do it.
Okay, so I’d like to show you guys an example of two different types of videos which will kind of form the basis, and kind of framework of what we’ll be talking about throughout the webinar. An example of a legal video without a story and then contrasting that with a legal video with a story. So you guys can kind of get a good frame of reference as we compare the two.
Zane: You may not…I would say over half the people that contact me, I tell them they don’t even…if you are seriously injured and you think you’re gonna have an injury, it’s gonna affect you the rest of your life or you had an injury that has affected or destroyed your life, or they’re trying to say the insurance company are trying to say it’s your fault then you need an attorney. First thing I always ask when somebody contacts me are you hurt? If it’s only you know if you’re hurt, your children don’t know, your staff doesn’t know, only you know. I’m a personal injury attorney. I represent people that are hurt. If you’re hurt give me a call. I’ll be happy to talk to you and see if I can help.
Michael: Okay so that’s an example of a video and again I found this one online on YouTube. This is a video that this firm has up online in and out to the public. But I guess just to mention a video with a lack of stories is really not a compelling reason or value propositional why one would wish to contact this attorney just based on their video alone as compared to any other firm. There’s not that key benefit or that real key conversion that benefits a potential client. So if they’re comparing let’s say they do a search and they see four different law firms they click on every website. Each website happens to have a video with a video like that there’s not…at that point the video is not offering a conversion benefit.
But let’s contrast that with another type of video, and this is actually a brand video that we produced for an attorney in Maine Bill Bly, and this is something that Bill really wanted to tell his story and what sets him apart. So let’s take a look at this video and see what kind of impact storytelling makes.
Bill: When you first been charged with a crime, you’re facing the weight of the government, whether it’s a state charge or a federal charge. They have all of the money, all of the resources. These charges and convictions can have life lasting impact and consequences. They can rip your entire life apart and that’s what you’re up against. It’s a very scary thing to be charged with a crime. All you have is the decision making power of finding the right attorney. We can give you information, we can guide you through the process. Most importantly we can provide strategy on how would you deal with these charges.
There’s a lot that a right attorney can do for you, and the beauty of retaining attorney is the fact you get to make that choice. Because when you’re charged with a crime you now have a scarlet letter and it’s my job to do my very best to have that stain removed from you because society will look at you differently.
Man: Bill has invested in people that he represents, you have to feel comfortable, you have to believe in the person that [inaudible 00:14:58] Bill Bly will passionately will do very best he possibly can for whoever he defends. Anybody who [inaudible 00:15:07] because you’re gonna get the very best. When I’m looking for some peace in my life the place that I could reach out and grab onto and [inaudible 00:15:18] this is it.
Bill: The law is extremely complex. I’m a big believer in specialization and long feel of the practice. If you want to defend people liberty and their lives are on the line then you need to put all your energy and focus doing criminal defense. And that’s all I do. Law enforcement is my purpose and prosecution is my purpose. But when you are facing the weight of the government with all of their resources and you have no one to turn to except the right attorney and that’s the person that will act as your shield. And I’m gonna stand between you and the government and I’m gonna make sure that you’re treated fairly and that we’re gonna defend each and every aspect you face and rigorous and aggressive manners so that we can get you the best possible outcome.
Michael: Okay so two very different videos and I think what we can see in Bill Bly’s video is that there’s such a focus on storytelling. Something where previous to this video Bill probably had his website but how could he really differentiate himself and his firm. And I think you come away from this if you’re a prospective client or even another attorney and you have a very clear idea of who Bill is, what he does, the types of clients that he works with. What makes him unique and most of all you remember him and connect with him.
Why Stories Matter
So we’ll dissect the video in a little bit but this all kind of brings us back to the prevailing theme of the logical mind versus the emotional heart. In that most decisions are more emotional than logical and if you question this…let’s take a look here, if you went to the car dealership or if you were given a vehicle to drive for the weekend the one on the left obviously this will take you from point A to Point B, it’s transportation. But if you really wanna get emotional and connect with the car, it’s the one on the right. And I think that we see this in a lot of different types of media and marketing and it’s ultimately how people are making decisions. There’s a huge emotional component.
So in fact what we’re seeing is that when evaluating brands and businesses consumers make decisions based on emotions. So the way they feel their experiences more so than logic. So just the attributes, the futures, the facts, the services. So a lot of times we see attorneys who are saying that there’s touting their grief experience and between five attorneys there’s a combined 300 years of experience and so many different attributes. But what we find a lot of times is that’s not what’s really connecting the most with prospective clients. And again it all comes back to that value proposition. And we also see that emotional response to an ad has a far greater influence on a consumer’s that report intend to buy than the actual content of the ad itself.
So this is by a factor of two one for print and three to one for video ads. So let’s talk about some of the advantages of engaging emotional over logic. For one, emotion requires less effort than logic. Logic, this is something that requires cognitive effort you really got to think about it. Whereas emotion is automatic, subconscious, you don’t know why you feel the way you do, but you’re gonna make a decision based on that emotion. And videos that are aimed at engaging your viewers. So prospective clients, their emotions are going to be much more interesting and memorable and some illogical ones.
Just think about this, if we went around the room, let’s say there’s 100 people in a room and you were to ask everyone all right mention your age and then tell an interesting story about you. I bet you to say that more than likely you probably wouldn’t remember everyone’s age but the stories would be memorable. So you really wanna be able to connect with people on an emotional level. And this even comes back to value propositions. Emotion based arguments are much easier to recall than logic based ones. And then finally emotion almost always leads more quickly to change than logic does. When we see change, we also mean decision making. People make decisions, they’re gonna be able to make quicker decisions when it’s based on emotion rather than just logic alone.
So we tie this back to the fact that you don’t really wanna tell your viewers or prospective clients what to think or what’s best. So you’re not gonna tell somebody what is best for them. The best way to really get a good conversion of someone is to be able to really connect with something is to help them discover that for themselves, and what feels right for them and what feels most advantageous for them and that their ultimate decisions based on self interest, that’s emotional. So it’s ultimately them coming to you saying I want this. This is good for me and my sides. So if they believe that they came to this conclusion it was their idea then you’re going to see much better results.
And again this is to say that without tapping into your audiences or viewers prospective clients emotions, there’s really not much strength or energy to your message. You can say you’re the best, you can say you’ve got the most experience, you can say you help people in a time of need. But if you’re not tapping into them emotionally that message isn’t going to carry the same weight. So it’s not to say that logic isn’t important, in fact logic is very important but emotion is what makes your content or message or brand more memorable. And it’s what’s more likely to drive action, and when we’re talking about converting and attracting better cases, this is the component, the emotional component that makes such a strong impact.
Attract better cases with storytelling
So let’s get into five ways…we’ll talk about ways in which you can attract better cases with storytelling and engaging prospective clients in this way. For one, starting off it’s knowing your audience. So this is such a crucial component. Before you produce any content, it’s really important to know who you’re marketing towards, what types of clients do you work with. Everything from age and gender and income demographic makeup, education all those things. And then taking that a step further to also consider their pain point. So when they’re coming to you, are they coming to you, are they distressed that they had a traumatic experience. In the case of most injury they have they’re going through a very, very difficult time in that life. They’re looking for answers on what’s their goal. They want a solution. They want essentially a savior and someone to help them through a very difficult time.
Know your audience
So this brings us to emotions that drive decisions and these are just a few of them. There’s several more but I’m sure these are all ones that we can relate with. So worry when somebody is worried, they feel anxious, they’re easy, they’re concerned that something may or will happen or if in some case it’s already happened. When they’re worried they want to…change is difficult for people. So they want to make a decision to kind of get themselves away from the state of worry. There’s also fear right. So the possibility of harm whether it’s real or imagined it actually doesn’t matter. Fear motivates and it moves us away from unpleasant circumstances. So if somebody feels that something bad can happen if they don’t take action, if they don’t make a decision then they’re going to be more likely to make a decision.
So it’s helping to educate them on what their options are. Many times people don’t understand the severity of a situation that they’re in or that they may even need an attorney who can guide them through that process because they’re just not familiar with what the situation or the process. There’s also shame, we see this a lot on the criminal defense side. Someone’s done something, it’s kind of like… good people can make mistakes too. Someone’s coming to you from a position of shame they’ve done something it’s regrettable whether it’s…whatever the behavior experience is but being able to connect with that person. Not to shame them further but more importantly helping them to understand that…coming back to the whole good people make mistakes.
And then finally sympathy and compassion. If we’ve seen all TV commercials for starving children or even abused animals where we see others who are victimized by some sort of misfortune that’s beyond their control, and we feel more sympathetic towards them and we’re more motivated to help them. That’s the reality. We see someone in a really tough position, we see someone who’s struggling, you’re going to have sympathy and compassion, many people do. So those are just four emotions that can drive decision and if we really consider these one we’re putting together any content we produce and we’re able to connect with people on the emotional level you’re going to see better results.
So when we talk about the audience…I know we’re still talking about just identifying your core audience. So consider their characteristics right. So are they searching for an attorney or are they simply searching for a solution to their problem. Sometimes it’s just a matter of messaging, it could be the same thing. Many times they don’t know that they need an attorney. So when you’re considering the content that you’re producing oftentimes realize that when they first get to you they…first and foremost they want to solve the problem. I guess it’s a matter of semantics to a degree but from a position of prospective client they’re looking at this in terms of I need a solution, I need to fix this rather than I need to find an attorney.
Then the other side of this is just cost versus value right. There are some clients that just want the cheapest solution and most affordable solution out there. And it’s just whatever the lowest price. So they’re not interested in the value that you provide. They’re not interested in…and for them it might just be a matter of just purely financial right. They can’t hire the best attorney they can’t…they’re not considering good from bad, they just need to hire an attorney, right. So they need to get the cheapest one possible. So this may not be a client that you’re marketing towards. In fact, many times that if you’re marketing at this level those aren’t the clients that you want. They’re typically not very qualified clients.
Because you want somebody who’s going to put the value that you provide first. So if you’re able to really help them and benefit them, and they wanna basically work with somebody who’s going to give the highest likelihood of a successful outcome then for them cost is secondary to the value you provide. And that’s what we mean when we say more discerning clients and higher value cases. If you can attract more of the latter then you’re not going to have to worry about more of the former. Because the ones who are essentially the low hanging fruit, we see this with a lot of volume based firms in particular and many markets it’s essentially a price war a race to the bottom, those types of clients, you’re never going to convert them based on the benefits that you provide. How much experience you have, how much value you provide because for them it’s purely a cost decision.
And then finally knowledge. Are they familiar with the process, do they know what to expect. A lot of times they don’t know a lot of like the legal terminology and some of the legal jargon. For example, we see attorneys they’re around terms like probate. And many consumers don’t know what probate is. In fact that’s oftentimes not even what they’re searching for those instances. So helping them to educate prospective clients in terms of the actual process itself, what to expect whether it’s working with you or even with their case all those types of questions being able to answer those in terms of formulating your audience and formulating your messaging.
Client testimonials
Which brings us the number two, so client testimonials. I’m sure we all have seen how important reviews are. Client testimonials are in a way the video review. In fact 89% customer testimonials, client testimonials have the highest effect in this rating for all types of content marketing. It’s social proof. The consumers trust earned media. So it’s one thing for you to say you’re the best but it’s quite another for a client to say you’re the best and speak about their experience with you. That’s how people trust, they really build that form of trust. So incorporating client testimonials into your videos is going to be something that’s very powerful in terms of improving conversion.
So here’s an example from one of our videos. It’s an excerpt. We have a client saying that “I just can’t thank him enough the things that he did for me were completely life altering. I was in a really bad place when he walked in to help possibly losing a lot of things in my life and he changed everything.” So that’s…and again these aren’t scripted responses or anything like that. These are essentially…when we’re filming these videos we’re coming up with a leading question. So we’re asking clients to speak about their experience with you and their experience with your firm. What was going on in their life at the time, what were they dealing with. And clients are saying these things.
So a few more examples here from some other videos just types of clients testimonials we’ve seen. One is this fight in our lives is no different. You have to have a team that knows what’s best in the next part of our lives. I feel like I can trust them. I can trust them with my life. Hiring Gerald is the best thing I could have done. It felt like he was a part of my family and that was so big for me because I knew I was going to be okay because up until that point I didn’t know. So, again this all ties into various states and also even emotional states from clients. But when they can mention how much that you’ve helped them a prospective client who’s watching this can really build that type of trust that connection with you.
Unique value proposition
And then this brings us to number three, your unique value proposition. So a lot of what we’ve been talking about ultimately comes down to setting yourself apart and really clearly outlining what makes you unique from any other firm in your market. Why should someone choose to work with you over any other attorney or law firm. And in this case you really wanna focus on the value that you provide. So we’re focusing on…rather than just the services alone rather than just the what, we’re talking about the why. So for one is your story that establishes trust that builds a connection, their value proposition is what can you do that other attorneys can’t or don’t. Client testimonials those provide social proof and build rapport and then results at the end of the day those communicate value.
So when we’re talking about unique value proposition, it’s more important to focus on the why and not just the what. So you really wanna be able to establish a connection through that, because attorneys can offer similar services but not for similar reasons and this is your differentiator. So when you’ve got authentic story and…again it’s a very difficult to tell a story that’s not authentic to you and have that come across compelling on video it just doesn’t work. So why you don’t need to necessarily have a story like Bill Bly every attorney and every law firm is different. So what’s going to work for one law firm maybe different from another. The most important thing is just to be authentic and genuine to who you are and why you do what you do because that’s why clients choose to work with.
And this brings us back to focusing less on services and more on benefits. And a great way to figure this out if you’re not sure what your unique value proposition is or you’re trying to formulate it and come up with it, one thing you can do is really just ask the past clients. Ask three to five clients, reach out to them, give them a call and say…just ask them why did you choose to hire me. Why did you choose to hire our firm. And what you might find is that their answers may surprise you. This is an amazing exercise we actually do this with our own business, every month I call our clients and I’m asking these things. Because what we find is that there’s value proposition that you believe is the reason why people hire you or people choose you.
We’ve seen law firms that say well they hire me because of my experience, and they hire me because our credibility and the results that we’ve gotten and the cases that we’ve won. But when they call their clients and they ask them, clients sometimes say a very different story. They say well we’ve hired this firm because of the one on one attention that they were able to offer us. Or because they prompt they were responding to us or because we just like them. And we saw their videos and we just felt an emotional connection to them. So really consider and pay attention to what you clients are saying because that at the end of the day is what your value proposition is that’s why they chose to hire you.
Emotional connection
And then finally emotional connection. So this brings us into dissecting the Bill Bly video but this will apply for any legal video that has a real compelling story. So you want to start with something that really sets the tone, something that viewers or prospective clients can relate to and everyone can agree to. When you’re charged with a crime, you’ve got the weight of the entire judicial system upon you. So that’s something that…Bly from the outset saying okay I agree. Then you’re going into increasing tension and you’re really focusing on the difficulties that characters have to overcome challenge, something that you see someone who is struggling.
And then in the final act, you’re really showing that person overcome those challenges. So how you were able to help that client overcome that and lead them to a successful outcome and then finally providing hope and a call to action. So whether it’s your logo at the end of the video with the link to your website, phone number or whatever that call to action is that you use for your firm.
So again stating the problem you really wanna do something compelling to grab people’s attention early on so cinematic images work well. Epic powerful music and powerful sound bites to really draw a viewer in. Then you wanna increase attention by presenting the problem, presenting the challenge that clients can face. And this can be really told from a perspective of either a client case study or a client kind of testimonial if you will. Finally closing out on providing a solution and then providing hope and support so that you’re really showing that resolution and how you’re able to lead that client to a successful outcome.
And in this case, when we we’re watching the Bill Bly video earlier Bly from the onset he says “When you’re charged with a crime, you’re facing the weight of the government. They have all the money, all the resources, and these charges and convictions can have life lasting consequences.” So again this is a problem that we can all agree to right, prospective clients they see this and say yeah that’s true. Then you go in and you increase the tension into the kind of the next phase of the video is that all you have is the decision making power to find the right attorney. So when you’re charged with a crime you now have scarlet letter
Again at no point to this point has Bill ever mentioned why you should hire him, the specific contact information, call now any of that stuff. He doesn’t touch on those things because you’re really trying to build trust and you’re trying to build an emotional connection. Then towards the middle of the video we’re bringing in a client and really showing how Bill was able to guide that client to a successful outcome. And then finally Bill ends by explaining how he works to give the best possible outcome for his clients. So in a way it’s a soft sell, it’s of subconscious in a way. But if you’ve connected throughout the video it’s something that’s going to drive a higher conversion rate because you’re really showing people how you can help them and what makes you unique and what sets you apart.
Because at the end of the day perception is reality, your video content just like your website and any type of online marketing that you do is a direct reflection of your brand. And when it comes to video and websites and honestly a lot of marketing as well, but we see this with video a direct correlation, low quality video deters high value clients. It’s your brand and typically what we find is that those potential clients often see brand image as a differentiator between good and bad attorneys or effective versus ineffective attorneys. You could be an outstanding attorney with a ton of experience and be the best option for them, but if they’re seeing low quality video that’s not what the perception that they’re going to get and you’re gonna have to work very hard to earn their trust. And to be honest with so many options out there and such a saturated market of attorneys, they’re long gone by that point.
Video quality, does it matter?
And this leads us into video quality, does video quality matter? This comes up quite frequently. Is it going to be a difference between what you film on your iPhone versus what you have a professional video company film. Like this is actually…obviously the video quality would be different but is it going to impact conversion, are you going to see a difference in the actual consultation, and contact forms that people fill out in your website. Is it gonna make an impact in terms of that. And Aberdeen which is an independent consulting firm they actually did the study, they were comparing these two types of mediums. And what they found was the amateur low quality video not only did not approve conversion but in extreme case it actually hurts conversions.
So like we talked about with perception is reality and some cases posting lower quality video can actually hurt conversions and actually decrease the number of people that are reaching out to you. Whether it’s to book a consult or fill out a contact form. And then the higher quality videos were showing true conversion rates by nearly 300% and we see this happen all the time. We had an attorney recently who reached out to us and is a family law firm and they produced some video content previously. And when they got the videos up on their website they saw a significant dip in phone calls and consultations it was just terrifying.
So they called us and they ask and we go in an audit and take a look at what’s going on with the videos and why they were on such a decreasing conversion. So we got a chance to check out the videos and to check out the video content. And what we found was that those videos particular…so this is an all female law firm focusing on family law and divorce but 95% of the clients were male. But the videos were very female focused and they were essentially alienating the core audience. So when we talk of video quality, there’s of course the production quality but there’s also ensuring that you’re sending the right message. The messaging is right, that the targeting is right and essentially that you’re telling the right story to engage prospective clients and the types of clients that you work with.
So all important things to consider, when we talk about low quality video Brightcove in their study they found a 60% of consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of a business that publish the poor quality video. And what we mean when we say poor quality these can be things like a dull background, green screen. Static shots, so low resolution, no music they are just not very engaging. And when we even look at that objectively, you’ll see that even as far as like how YouTube and Google sees this you’re going to see a very sharp drop off from your video content.
Now YouTube and Google they can’t view all the hundreds of millions of videos that are uploaded to their platform. So how are they to differentiate good videos from bad videos and which videos they should rank higher and which videos they should rank lower. So previously years ago, this metric was based on video views but that can be fairly manipulated. So they have shifted away from that because you can have a bunch of people in Indonesia. I’m sure watching your video. So that’s not want one of the core metrics anymore. Instead Google’s number one ranking factor now is watch time. And this makes sense essentially. So that the longer that somebody is watching your video, the higher that video is to rank.
Because they would then…Google and YouTube see that as higher quality more valuable content. If somebody is watching the video longer well then that must address their pain point or that must answer their question. And theoretically you could have two law firms in the same market produce a video on the same exact topic or educational FAQ for example and the video with the higher engagement is going to outrank the one with the lower engagement and it really comes down to watch time. So when we talk about higher quality videos, the viewership on these is much more consistent. Google sees that more people are watching these videos to the end and they want to be able to…they recognize this video is something people want to watch.
So if you were to upload a photo slideshow as a video to YouTube, that video would have relatively low watch time it wouldn’t rank very high. So you do wanna focus on engaging video content that’s providing value.
And to give you guys an example of this in practice. One of our clients the Berry Law firm, they focus on representing veterans seeking compensation and medical benefits for injuries sustained during their service. And essentially, we produce a number of videos for the Berry Law firm. But I’d like to show you guys an example of how engagement can really work well to your favor if you do this the right way. So we actually had published their video to Facebook and in one week…and again this was this was targeted but in one week they got over 37,000 views over 700 likes and over 500 shares. And then about a month later they got over 72,000 views, over 1100 likes and over 804 shares. And this was with Facebook ad targeting, I believe on a \$200 ad spend. It was relatively inexpensive and they were able to drive really, really strong traffic. And now this video still lives on their on their Facebook page has over 100,000 views.
So again if you’ve got a really compelling story to tell if you got engaging video content it’s going to perform better online as well. Now views and likes and shares and these are all cute numbers. I’m sure we all love to see them, but at the end that they were all considering does this lead to new clients and cases. Is this actually benefiting and growing my law firm. Because the metrics and stats are nice but does it translate into conversions. So you can actually look at this post is still online and what you see is in some of the comments. Some of the first comments are things like I found the Berry Law firm, a godsend, they’ve helped me with everything. I’ve tried failed. I recommend them highly, thank you the Berry Law firm.
So there’s a lot of social proof, there’s a lot of past clients who are commenting on the video and sharing it. But if you scroll down further you’ll actually see that now many people are reaching out asking if they take on cases that are at state, if they take on specific types of cases. And the Berry Law firm has done a tremendous job of responding to each and every comment. So then this continues to be something that people share and comment on and as a result in a number of phone call, and contact, form submissions and cases for the Berry Law firm.
The Challenge
So again it’s a good example of how you can really leverage compelling content. And then another example of this just in terms of telling your story and setting yourself apart is criminal defense attorney Dan Stockmann. He specializes in defending clients who’ve been targeted by law enforcement as they travel across I-80 in Nebraska. And Dan came to us wanting to grow his online presence, differentiate himself, improve his search rankings and ultimately attract more high value cases.
So I don’t know if anyone has ever had a similar challenge to Dan. But I imagine we all have so here’s an example of what we did for Dan and how video was able to really help him from the position that he was in. Because Dan at the time solo small firm. He’s got a young practice, he’s been practicing law for a while, but he started the firm and it was less than five years old. It’s got a very low inconsistent number of new cases per month. Most of the cases he’s seeing are fairly low bunch criminal cases, doesn’t have much time to work on his business or his marketing. Because again it’s just Dan and then inbound calls when people are calling them, he’s having to sell himself to prospective clients, essentially they’re vetting him. And of course he’s tried several failed marketing promises and court experience with various vendors. So he’s been burned a few times, I’m sure we all have.
On the other side Dan’s got the Goliath firm. I’m sure we all have one of these in our markets, we find it to be very consistent. There’s… on the other side of town from Dan there’s 10 attorney firm with over 50 years of experience. They’ve got over 95% of the market share, huge advertising budget. They’re taking all the high value cases. I mean they’ve got market saturation to the point of billboards, TV ads, radio, everything and an in-house marketing team. So how is somebody like Dan as a solo small firm to compete with a firm like this?
So what we ended up doing for Dan essentially is we produced a brand video like a high quality brand video to tell Dan story to really set himself apart. And a series of educational FAQ videos all data driven topics based on keyword research. And we released them on a regular schedule to both his YouTube channel and his website and blog. And when you look one year later, so just same exact situation one year later, Dan is now…he’s grown from 5% of the market share to 25%. He’s seeing a very consistent number of new cases per month. The cases that he’s seeing now are the higher value cases.
So in his case 10,000, 15,000 criminal cases and again from the criminal defense side Dan is seeing a much higher volume. So that’s again much of this is also very volume based for his specific case. On the PI side, we tend to focus on attracting high value cases. Let’s say it’s geared around trucking cases, brain injuries and so on things that are six seven eight figure cases. Dan now has more time to focus on his business and marketing and inbound calls no longer require him to sell himself to prospective clients. So by the time they call him Dan says that they’re now ready to hire him. Because they’ve seen his video content, they’ve built up rapport with Dan, they built bit of trust. And he’s been able to really humanize his firm and his website through his video content.
So again to reiterate, his average case value prior to video was in the \$1000 range and since it’s increased to 10,000 and many cases 15 to 20,000. So Dan actually saw a revenue increase in the first year to 80% and he netted just in the first month of his brand video went up that brought him over \$50,000 in sales just from the video alone in his first month. So for Dan, it was a huge impact and ultimately the payoff here is that it’s focusing on more qualified clients, better cases, and more revenue. Because if you’re just focusing on more cases and this the quantity of case you can create more work for yourself but ultimately is it going to lead to a better life.
Perhaps that’s probably discussion in terms of process and scale but I’m sure we could all appreciate the value of focusing on more high value clients, to be able to pick and choose the types of cases that you take on. And in Dan’s case, it makes him a much better attorney because he doesn’t have to worry about money. He doesn’t have not to worry about where the next case is coming from. So as we promised at the start of the webinar, we do have a free blueprint for everyone who’s attended this specific webinar. So all of the things that we just talked about in terms of storytelling and your value proposition and your why, we’ve actually put together a worksheet you guys can download. Just visit our website crispvideo.com/storyvip. And we’ll have a free download to that blueprint, and if you guys have any questions or would like to reach out to me directly all my contact info is there but thank you again for tuning in today and Consultwebs thank you for having me.
Tanner: Yeah thanks so much Michael. Wow tons, tons of great information and I personally…we’ve worked with Crisp both with our clients and ourselves and it’s been a smooth process and it really is about…it’s not just a matter of just jumping in front of a camera and start shooting and hoping for the best. There most certainly is a planning process and I think you’ve done a nice job of going through that. And I certainly would encourage everyone to take advantage of the storytelling blueprint. Just because I know there is a lot of legwork done prior to even turning on the camera. You wanna be able to really tell the story, sell the benefits I’ve heard it said sell the sizzle not the steak. And the steak and is what everyone else is trying to push.
So if you can sell the sizzle and the benefits and how it affects the clients and impacts your clients, that’s how you’re gonna make it most effective. So thanks so much Michael let’s open it up to any questions as we have a few minutes left. If we have any questions we can ask Michael while we have his attention here. And Michael while we’re waiting on that if somebody wanted to reach out to you, you have your contact information here is there a preferred way to reach out to you?
Michael: Yeah if you like to reach out to me directly you can email me Michael@crispvideo.com. And of course you can always contact us through our website and I’m sure I think my Twitter handle is there too if you wanna tweet. But email traditionally works best and Tanner you’re absolutely right so much of this goes into the pre-production and really doing the work on the front end to be able to tell a great story. Once you’re actually there and it’s the day of your shooting at that point all the legwork has been done. The real value is the more time you spend on the front end it’s kind of like planning. The more time you spend there, the more likely you are to have a video that’s going to be successful.
Tanner: Good so one question. How long is too long for a brand video?
Michael: Yeah that’s a great question. So the numbers here really depend so the short answer. I’d say traditionally over four minutes is too long for brand new, but the more engaging your content, the longer you can hold somebody’s attention. So typically, if the video’s going online if you’re going to be using on your website two to four minutes works best. In fact, it can even be shorter than that two to three minutes probably even ideal. So you don’t wanna do a video that’s 10 minutes long and we’ve certainly seen some of those. Just because you have to consider also the fact that somebody is watching this video. While it may be interesting to you and the people in your office because everybody loves watching their story, consider whether that would be interesting for a prospective client.
And then also if the video is just coming up in search. So we’re talking about even like FAQs, those 60 to 90 seconds. So if somebody has a question and they see two different videos pop up from two different law firms, one answer the question in 90 seconds then another video looks like it’s seven minutes long. Which one do you think they’ll click on?
Tanner: Any of the questions here looks like there’s a question about the slide deck. Consultwebs will be sending out the slide deck early next week. So those of you who have attended through email you can expect to receive a link to the slide deck as well as we’ll have a recording of this information. Okay Michael thanks so much, we can’t thank you enough for sharing such good information. I hope it’s been useful to everyone and I look forward to the next time around thanks everyone.
