David's fastball is his "Hook." Very intense and fascinating to watch.

A hook is something that pulls a viewer in.

It’s something that makes you stand out.

99.9% of lawyers don’t have a hook.

I’m not talking about a catchphrase or a slogan. I’m talking about what’s compelling about you or your content. Most lawyers never even consider hooks. Yet hooks are key to drawing a viewer into your video; it’s key to getting them interested in your content and it’s key to converting them into a caller.

Your hook is not “We care…”

It’s not “We’ve been in business for 35 years…” or “We have free parking…”

It is “Here are 3 things to know if you’re in this situation…”

It is teaching them about their legal problem.

The hook gets them to realize that you have specialized knowledge.

The hook gets them to recognize you’re the expert and they need more of your information.

So counselor, what’s your hook? I’d love to know. Tell me below.

At the end of every YouTube video, you are presented with a 12 video grid of related videos. The idea behind this is to offer the viewer multiple options to watch similarly related videos. Naturally, you can always click away to similar videos that appear on the right-hand side of the YouTube video page. That is always an option.

However, for a viewer who has stuck around and watched your entire video and is interested in learning more, YouTube presents 12 other, related videos in an attempt to get you to watch one of those as well.

Gerry Oginski's New York Medical Malpractice YouTube Channel Statistics

The statistics you see here in this photograph taken only days ago, reveal an incredibly startling statistic for my own YouTube Channel. This is highly instructive and you should pay close attention. The majority of people who are coming to watch my videos are coming from related YouTube videos. That piece of information is vital to understand how people find my content.

So what does this have to do with spotlight annotations? The answer is, everything.

What if you could create a video that preempts a viewer from ever getting to the 12 video related grid? What if you could create a way that asks viewers if they want to watch more videos of you rather than leaving it up to YouTube to decide what they believe is related video?

The reality is that YouTube will only put up a few truly related videos. Many times the other videos in the 12 panel grid have nothing to do with the type of content you talk about. That means that you are losing an opportunity to keep your viewer interested in your content.

By creating Spotlight annotations you now present your viewer with options to continue to watch your YouTube videos that they can click on while watching your existing video before they are ever presented with the 12 panel related video grid.

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW

You have to watch my video below to see exactly what I mean. Make sure you watch it till the end, otherwise you won’t understand what I’m talking about. Then make sure to continue reading below.

You’ve Settled Your Accident Lawsuit in New York; Should You Use a Structured Settlement?

Why do I share this information with you?

Because one of the brand-new features we have created in the Lawyer’s Video Studio for you takes advantage of this great technology.

We’ve now created a great and easy solution for lawyers who have already created their own videos by creating supplemental blog posts, interactive transcripts and spotlight annotations to maximize your exposure and increase your chances that your viewers will find, see and want your video content.

Want to learn more about it? Send an email to: Kathleen@lawyersvideostudio.com and put in the subject line:

Spotlight annotations-I’d like more info.

1. 

   Google video migration to YouTube

   Your old Google videos stink

2. You shot them in standard definition video
3. Your audio also stinks

If you created any video and had them on Google video, you probably got a message from Google recently telling you that you can simply and easily transfer those videos over to YouTube. You can. They’ve made the process really simple and easy.

The more important question is, why would you want to?

Back when Google video had their own video distribution channel, separate and apart from YouTube, this was an excellent place to gain traction and visibility for your videos. However, after Google bought YouTube they began to transition all of their existing video content over to the YouTube platform. After that was completed, they shut down Google video.

I actually went to my old account to see which videos I still had there. I laughed when I watched the videos that I created in 2008 and 2009. The content was great. The video quality was not. I had shot all those videos using a standard definition camera. The audio was not that great and some of those videos look grainy and pixelated.

The best thing you can do if Google asks you to migrate your old videos on YouTube, is to say “no thanks,” and delete those videos. Then, take out your high-definition video camera, lights and wireless microphone and create great new content to put up on YouTube. Believe me, the video you put up today will be 1000 times better than whatever masterpiece you created a few years ago.

There are a number of websites and companies that go around giving awards to people who create great videos.

That’s nice.

Those websites promote the videos and drive traffic to their own websites. They encourage the “Winnees” (that’s not a real word, btw) to also promote the fact that their videos have won an award or two.

That’s also nice.

Here’s what these awards DON’T do:

• They don’t convert a viewer into a caller
• They don’t improve your ROI (return on your investment)
• They don’t challenge you to create compelling content
• They don’t identify the content a viewer wants to know and learn about
• They don’t directly improve your revenue and your bottom line

If these video awards don’t do any of that, why would you care if you won an award or not?

The same reason everyone likes to win an award…ego.

Here’s my take on video awards…(not that you asked, but I’m going to tell you anyway)

They’re meaningless. Totally, absolutely meaningless. I say that from a video marketing perspective and nothing more. Ego should play no part in your initiative to educate and teach your online consumer or potential client.

You wouldn’t boast in your marketing materials that your videos have won 12 awards for blah, blah, blah.

The more important questions for me are:

• Of those great videos, how many have generated calls to your office?
• How many of those calls were good valid cases?
• Of those good cases, what types of results were you able to achieve for those clients?

Then, you can track your ROI and determine if those “Award-winning” videos truly were effective.

Don’t worry about the awards, and focus on the bottom line. Make great quality video with excellent content your viewers want and need to know. That’s the winning formula.

Special to the Lawyers Video Studio

Johnny B. Goode, Reporter

In my last post, I was listening to Dave talk about the days leading up to his video shoot.

Today, we’re going to explore the day when Dave shot more than 50 videos.

“So Dave, your video shoot day has arrived, tell me what happened,” I inquired.

“The guy showed up at 7:30 a.m. Right on time. He looks exactly like he does on his videos. He sounds exactly like he does in his videos and on the phone. He’s about 5″10″, thin, short cropped hair, glasses and he’s brought with him a lot of video equipment. His cameraman immediately gets to work setting up the light stands and lights. They both take a walk through the entire office pointing out different locations in which to shoot.”

“Our video guide/coach/motivator is really pumped up. His energy level is contagious. I’m kind of nervous. Then he starts going through my content with me while his cameraman is busy setting the equipment up. He’s asking me to start. Ok, I thought, here I go…”

“How did that go?” I asked.

“Terrible. Even though I wasn’t yet on camera, just being in front of him was somewhat intimidating. I mean, here’s a guy who has done over 600 videos and he’s the expert. I’m starting to talk and already fumbling my words.”

“What did he do to help you?”

“First thing he did was made me feel good about myself. He calmed me down immediately. Ironically, I knew my content, but as soon as he showed up with his cameraman and the equipment and now I had an audience, that threw me off track.”

“He then took me through the first few videos I was planning to do. After each one, he made suggestions to make it even better. He suggested I change my titles. He pointed out how to improve my presentation. This was all done on the fly as I was going through the initial videos.”

“What happened then?” I asked.

“Once that was done, the camera guy was busy making adjustments on the camera and doing a few tests to make sure everything was working well. Then our coach made me feel great. Lots of encouragement. The energy level was high. My confidence level was high.”

“My first video almost went off without a hitch. Until I stumbled half-way through. That shook my confidence momentarily. He got me back on track and I finished up the video in about 2 minutes. With each video after that, I felt more confident and self-assured.”

“How did you feel by mid-morning?”

“My partners were watching me from the beginning. They wanted to see how I’d do. Remember, now I had an audience. It’s weird having an audience watching and listening at first, but then I got so into talking about my content I totally forgot about everyone watching. I was in the zone. By mid-morning I had a groove. I figured out how to present my content, my intro, the substance, my close and my call to action that it actually felt comfortable.”

“How many videos did you get done that day?” I asked.

“I did 20. My partners did 18 and 22. That’s a total of 60. I couldn’t believe we did that many.”

“How did you feel by the end of the day?” I wanted to know.

“We actually felt really good. Tired but good. Pleased with ourselves for having accomplished our goal. Really pleased that we had signed up for his total online video program. There’s no way we ever could have done this ourselves. There was no way we would have motivated ourselves to get this done if he hadn’t been part of the process and pushed us, motivated us and shown up on the day of our shoot to help us.”

“By the way…who is this guy you’ve been referring to? Let’s give him a proper name,” I said.

“What, you don’t know him? He’s all over the internet. He dominates his online marketing in the most competitive place in the country. If you search for lawyer video marketing online, you will find his content, articles, blog posts, videos and more. He’s Gerry Oginski. A lawyer, just like me.”

“Thanks Dave. Join me next time when we talk to Alex, the Do-It-Yourself Attorney in my continuing series of A Tale of Two Lawyers.”

Special to the Lawyers Video Studio

Johnny B. Goode, Reporter

“Practice makes perfect, is what he said,” remarked Dave.

“He told us that the more we practice for our upcoming video shoot the better we would feel. The more comfortable we would be; the more fun we’d have. Imagine that…actually having fun while marketing. I didn’t believe it. I mean, come on, a lawyer having fun while doing marketing stuff? I was critical of this point but I kept it to myself.”

“He gave us some homework to do. We had to create the content. We had to create outlines based on what he explained. We had to practice. Over and over. Then we had to submit the outlines to him each week. We brainstormed. We talked about how we would divvy up the topics.”

“Did that help?”

“You bet it did. Not only did it help with our confidence level, but we soon realized that he was absolutely on target with generating new ideas that we could talk about in the future. We also realized that this new content could be used for other areas of our marketing. At one brainstorming meeting with my partners, we started making lists of topics to talk about after our video shoot was done. By the time we were done with our meeting we had so much content, it would keep us busy for the next year and a half.”

“Tell me why you and your partners opted not to learn how to create video on your own,” I asked.

“Because I didn’t want to learn how to do this by myself. My partners didn’t want to become video experts. I think I told you earlier, none of us like the idea of marketing ourselves and our law firm. However, the reality of staying in business kicks in. The reality of decreasing caseloads kick in. You sit around and wonder why lawyers who are nowhere near as good as you are doing remarkably well and you’re struggling to bring in new cases.”

“We recognized that marketing is a necessary evil. What we didn’t know at that time was that we wanted a total done-for-you solution so we could devote all of our time to practicing. We knew there were some lawyers who were trying this video thing on their own. They didn’t want to pay someone to do this knowing they could probably learn it on their own and save themselves a lot of money doing so.”

“For us, we knew that in order for us to get this accomplished, we needed someone to guide us; to show us what to do and how to do it. We wanted someone to motivate us and make sure it got done. It’s almost like hiring a coach when you want to lose weight. He motivates you and pushes you to accomplish your goals. That’s what this guy does. He’s a fellow lawyer and speaks our language. He knows our weaknesses, exposes them and makes us realize we can overcome them. Importantly, he shows us how.”

“That’s what we needed. That’s why our decision was simple when we decided on the strategy call to become members of the Lawyers Video Studio.”

Join me next time when I take you through Dave’s video shoot.

Special to the Lawyers Video Studio

Johnny B. Goode, Reporter

“That mastermind call with him was so helpful and informative. The ideas he gave us started us thinking about the different ways we could use this content. In the middle of the call, I was furiously writing down an entire list of things to talk about in my videos.

Then he said something that made me smile. He said we could use this content not just for our videos but for all the other marketing we do as well.”

“Why did it make you smile?” I asked.

“Because I had never thought about using content from one form of marketing and then use it in another. I smiled because it was so simple and obvious and being a thick-headed attorney focusing on the practice of law, never even thought about that concept.”

“Can you give me a concrete example, without giving away any secrets?” I wanted to know.

“Sure. Let’s say my topic was about who gets custody in a divorce case here in Denver. I could create my content for my video. Then I can use similar content in a blog post. Then I can re-purpose that content and turn it into a full-length article. Then I can chop up that content and use it on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. So with one idea, I will now have multiple sources of content all leading back into my main website.”

“What else did you learn on this mastermind call?”

“I learned how to introduce myself. I had no idea there was a reason behind the method. This guy made it look so easy and smooth in his videos. He explained the psychology behind his methods. He taught us what worked and importantly, what didn’t. You know, I have to tell you that learning about what doesn’t work is often more important than knowing what does.”

“Do you think you received good value from your investment with this mastermind call?”

“Definitely. My partners and I learned things we never knew before. That learning experience was worth the entire investment. But this was just the beginning. We knew that this lawyer was going to be flying out to our office and spend the entire day with us shooting our videos. If we got stuck, he’d be there to help us. If we couldn’t come up with a topic, he would suggest one.”

“Did you think you’d be able to do all 50 videos in one day?” I asked.

“We didn’t know. Since the three of us would be splitting the number of videos we did, it wasn’t that big of a challenge. The biggest issue for us was finding the time to practice our content before the video shoot. In the weeks leading up to the shoot, the attorney required that we send him our outlines to make sure we were creating our content. He told us during our mastermind call that if we did not prepare our content and did not practice, he would cancel our video shoot.”

“He said that if we didn’t send the outlines and practice he would cancel the shoot and we’d be responsible for all of his travel expenses and three days of shutting down his law office to travel here and shoot video with us. This was not an idle threat. We knew that since we were making a significant investment we didn’t want to waste his time or ours. This actually motivated us to create those outlines and practice.”

Find out what Dave meant when he said he’d practice…in my next post.

Special to the Lawyers Video Studio

Johnny B. Goode, Reporter

“The day after my law firm became a member of the Lawyers Video Studio I got a huge congratulatory banner delivered to my office. I mean huge,” Dave said.

“How did that make you feel?” I asked.

“Really good. It reaffirmed our decision to sign up for his total online video marketing program,” Dave answered.

“Let me ask you about your investment in this video marketing program. Can I ask you how much it cost?” I asked gingerly.

“I want to share something with you. Again, this is something remarkable I learned on the call. A cost is like a disbursement. It’s an expense. Once you spend it, it’s gone. An investment on the other hand is taking money with the intention that you are using it to generate even more income. You can see your return on your investment, your ROI. With a fixed cost, there’s no ROI.”

“For us, the question was not what it was going to cost us to join this program. Rather, it was ‘What is it going to cost us NOT to join this program’. You see, we knew we would never do this ourselves. We knew we needed to create video. We knew that our potential clients wanted to see us on video and we wanted an entire video library. We wanted to look good on video and sound intelligent. We wanted to dominate our niche in the video marketing space online.”

“We knew that if we didn’t have someone like this trial lawyer who helps fellow lawyers create video we would NEVER do this on our own. We didn’t want to hire someone who wasn’t an attorney. We wanted someone like us, who knew and understood us. We didn’t want just some camera guy and someone who would just upload videos to YouTube. We wanted more,” Dave replied.

“Dave, you still haven’t told me what your investment was to join,” I said.

“You know Johnny, it’s not really polite to ask what someone paid. I will tell you that he has different programs for different levels of involvement. He has a program to create 50 videos. He has another program where you create 100 videos over the course of an entire year. He then has custom-designed programs that will create so much video content it will make your head spin.

Did you know that there is no other video company that offers a mastermind call to teach you what you need to know and do on video?”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“That’s where my partners and I spent an hour on a call with him. He explained to us the type of content we needed to create. He told us how to create a compelling headline. How to use outlines, and how to present our content in a creative way. He told us what to wear. How to open our videos, how to create a call to action and how we are never to talk about ourselves or our credentials in our videos. That was another eye-opener for us. That’s the only thing we used to talk about in our prior marketing.”

Learn about the rest of Dave’s mastermind call and his video shoot in the next installment.

Special to the Lawyers Video Studio

Johnny B. Goode, Reporter

We left off last time where Dave was explaining why he got more useful information on the strategy call than he had in years.

I asked Dave “Did you know any of this marketing stuff before you got on the phone for your call?”

His answer surprised me. “Not really. I had never paid attention to this marketing stuff. Now, all of a sudden, this guy is opening my eyes to things we never even considered and showing us what we’re missing.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, when my partners and I came to the realization that we needed his help and there was no way we were going to do this ourselves we jumped at the chance to ask him to help us. I have to tell you something else that surprised me. Just because we realized we needed his help, he still wasn’t convinced that he could help us yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“He came right out and asked us ‘What do you think I’ll be able to do for you that some video production company couldn’t do?’ He asked us why we need his help when we’re capable lawyers and we could try and figure this out on our own.”

“During our call it seemed as if we had to prove that we were eager and motivated to create video to market our law firm. He only wanted to work with attorneys who understood the benefits of creating educational video. He came right out and said he does not work with lawyers who are lazy or lawyers who cannot make a decision. Honestly, it seemed as if he was interviewing us to see if we were right for him.”

“Wait a second…you’re telling me that you’re on this call with him, getting some great marketing information…he’s not trying to sell you anything and he’s trying to determine if you’re the right law firm for him?” I inquired.

“Yes. That was the amazing thing,” Dave answered.

“Well…did you sign up with him?”

“Remember, before getting on the call, my partners and I had decided to gather more information and then later sit down and decide what we were going to do. While we were on the call we all realized that this is exactly the type of program we wanted; a done-for-you program where we only had to show up and start talking. A video marketing program where we’d be able to create 50 videos in one day. Our content would be dripped out over the course of six months and then if we wanted, we could do another video shoot consisting of at least 50 videos for the next six months.”

“For us, this call was a life-saver. It solved our problem of how do we get this done without all the hassle of learning to do this ourselves.”

“Did the fact that he’s a practicing trial lawyer affect your decision?” I asked.

“That was a big factor. He was speaking our language. He knew who our clients were. He explained why our viewers needed specific information beyond just a few FAQ’s. We actually felt like he was one of us. We felt very comfortable talking to him. A colleague.”

“Oh yeah…a few other things you should know. Well, I told you how I don’t really like to do marketing, right? Turns out that this guy also does this…wait, let me get the list I made. Here it is. Ok. We create at least 50 videos. He drips them out each month. They do all the editing, uploading and publishing. They create word-for-word transcripts to use in YouTube. They do something called spotlight annotations. They optimize the videos and they also write the supplemental blog posts to go with our videos.”

Find out what Dave got in the mail as soon as he became a member of the Lawyers Video Studio.

Special to the Lawyers Video Studio

Johnny B. Goode, Reporter

Picking up from where we last left off, Dave, the Done-For-You lawyer was explaining the best marketing strategy call he had ever had.

“While on this call, I quickly realized that there is no way I’m going to spend my time and energy to learn a new trade. I don’t want to be a video expert. I want to practice law. I don’t want to waste my time buying a video camera and figuring out the hundreds of steps necessary to put together a really good video that someone will watch. It’s just not my thing.”

“Why don’t you just use your iPhone to shoot video?” I asked.

“Are you kidding? Hold it in my hand, freestyle? Shoot a video in a room without lights? Not use the proper microphone to get good audio? Sorry, that’s just not going to work for me. I mean, we’re lawyers! We’re professionals. We have an image to keep. Do you think my clients want to see me using my iPhone to tell them about their divorce proceedings and custody battle while I’m sitting in a noisy Starbucks? I don’t.”

“My kids use their iPhone to take ridiculous video of their friends. That’s not the impression I want to make with video. I need something professional with great production value.

“What happened next?” I gently asked.

“I asked this fellow attorney what we need to talk about in our videos. He laughed. He said we know exactly what to talk about. In fact, he said we talk about it every day to every new client and existing client. I asked him how do we package it together in a way that’s concise, interesting, compelling and makes a viewer want to watch and then call us?”

“What did he say to that?” I asked.

“He said that’s exactly what he teaches lawyers in his Video Marketing program. He shows us what to talk about; what our clients need to know. He tells us how to create a great introduction and video close. He explains what we should wear and why we need a call to action. He helps us how to talk. Can you believe it? One lawyer helping another lawyer teach us how to talk on camera? Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, when I heard him explain it, there was nothing ridiculous about it.”

“In fact, when he described the process of teaching us all these things, I immediately realized he knew a ton of stuff that we didn’t. So get this…here’s this successful trial lawyer in New York who has used video to market his solo law firm. He’s now on the phone with me teaching me things I had no idea about. He’s honestly trying to help me and my partners learn to market ourselves better than we ever had before.”

“He’s still not trying to sell you anything?” I asked incredulously.

“Nothing. He’s helping us. This strategy call alone is worth thousands of dollars, and the best part is, it didn’t cost me a dime. I’m learning all this information. This guy has opened my eyes to marketing opportunities we just had not seen. I didn’t even realize it, but my partners and I were looking at each other. Each of us came to the obvious realization that we needed his help.”

Find out what happened next in my continuing series of “A Tale of Two Lawyers.”