As lawyers, we often rely on other lawyers to send us cases. We build our ‘referral network’ with lawyers who handle cases that are different from and complement our specialties. After encountering a few lawyers who lack “seychel” (a Yiddish term that means ‘common sense’) I thought I’d post the four easy ways to lose your lawyer referral base. See if these apply to you.
Category Archives: seo
“Your Video Production Sucks”
That’s how a guy who wanted my business, approached me in an e-mail. After spouting the great benefits of using him and his company he then proceeded to rag about some of my videos and their production quality. He even went so far to say he could not imagine that any viewer would not hit the “close” button once they started watching my video.
What do you think of someone who tries to get your business by criticizing something you are actually very proud of?
Free Attorney Video Marketing Webinar
FREE WEBINAR: Putting videos on your law firm websites can result in dramatic traffic increases for your firm website. Learn how and why video is so important. Learn Gerry’s 10 Commandments for Using Attorney Video; Find out why creating video is expensive and what you can do to minimize your cost. Importantly find out what ethical considerations you need to consider along with how to actually create those great looking videos.
Your host will be New York Attorney Gerry Oginski
The 10 Commandments For Lawyers Who Use Video
Here are my rules for attorneys who advertise and market themselves using video; they apply to every lawyer who creates attorney video and they’re mostly common sense, but because we’re attorneys, nothing is ever as it seems.
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF LAWYER VIDEO
1. Thou shall not disparage another lawyer in your video
2. Thou shall not puff yourself up
3. Thou shall not criticize another lawyer
Lawyers: Can You Ethically Guarantee a Client Anything?
The answer: Nothing.
If I am a client, that would not be a very satisfying answer no matter what legal issue or problem I had. Obviously, no lawyer can guarantee a particular outcome even with a good case. But think about how an online viewer searching for an attorney would love to hear about guarantees that you can make to reassure them that you are confident and capable of guiding them through the legal minefield known as litigation.
Want To Be Popular? Get Busy with YouTube Channels
You think that all you need to do to make your video go viral and be watched hundreds of thousands of times is simply upload it to YouTube?
If you think that, you’re (mostly) wrong.
You have to search optimize your video. What does that mean? It means you must give it a title; preferably one that’s interesting and makes a viewer want to click ‘play’. You also have to give a description (Don’t forget to do this). You must also add keywords that describe your video.
Video Marketing for Lawyers: “Change Your Clothes!”
The emperor had a change of clothes and so should you.
When you arrive in court for trial each day, you have changed your clothes, right? (At least I hope so.)
When you watch the evening news (does anybody still watch the evening news?) you notice the newscasters with different clothes each night.
“Why does this matter and what the heck am I talking about?”
Mid-Size Law Firm Videos-Why Online Video Will Convert Visitors
Lawyers who work in a law firm with 5-20 lawyers may think video should not be part of their marketing plan to gain new clients. They’d be 100% wrong. Lawyers fail to look at marketing from a potential client’s eyes.
Think about why you even have a website: To provide information to online viewers.
How do you distinguish yourself from other mid-size lawfirms? With pictures? With flash animation? With your credentials? With your results? With the articles you and other lawyers in your firm have written?
Most mid-sized law firms have pictures of their office building; a photo of generic, well-dressed people in a waiting room; photos of their law library; a photo of a senior partner standing lawyerly and formal while looking at a law book. Here’s my question: “So what?” What good does any of that do to help you distinguish yourself to your online viewer? The answer is likely nothing.
Does Your Video Company Brand Your Video With Their Name?
If they do, ask “Why?”
Why should they get free advertising off your video that you are using to promote your legal services; not theirs. Why don’t you make them pay to advertise on your video? That’s only fair. As a trade-off, maybe they’ll reduce your fee in order to put their name, website and contact info right on your opening sequence, so your online viewer sees your video production company info, and not yours.
Hello…lawyers. Attention all lawyers…WAKE UP! “I said HELLO!”
Video Advertising for Lawyers: Do You Let Your Video Autoplay?
When you have video on your website or blog, you usually have the option of having it play immediately anytime someone opens that web page. The other option is that someone needs to actually click on the “Play” button to start your video.
Let’s say you’re sitting in a quiet room in the library searching online; or maybe you’re in a quiet bookstore browsing online and all of a sudden you come to an interesting-looking website and “BOOM!” music is blasting and someone’s voice comes on with a video, without ever touching the “Play” button. Shocked you, didn’t it? Glaring. Loud. An obnoxious intrusion into an otherwise quiet moment of your time. What do you think of ‘autoplay’ on a video?
