There are some lawyers who still don’t get it. They still think the yellow pages is relevant today. There are other lawyers who don’t blink to pay $50,000 for TV marketing campaign. There are still some lawyers who think Craigslist is a great way to market themselves and their legal services.
All of the traditional forms of attorney advertising are becoming less and less relevant today, especially since most people go online to get information; free information.
PRODUCTION
This is it. The video shoot. A team of people come in and take over your office. They’re setting up lighting, setting up their video camera, plugging in electrical devices, setting up sound equipment and microphones. If they’re really good, it will take them about 20-30 minutes to set up their equipment. It takes me 10-15 minutes when I do my video shoots.
Then there is the calibration of lighting and sound checks to make sure everything works properly. You must do a white balance calibration in order for the camera to know what is really white. The camera then adjusts all other colors accordingly. If you do not set your white balance, I guarantee your video will come out dark and the results will be poor.
Attorney Steve Gacovino handles mass-tort, defective drug litigation and personal injury cases in New York. He and his partner Ed Lake strive to improve the lives of injured victims with their knowledge and experience. Both of these attorneys recognize that the traditional forms of attorney advertising fail to set one attorney apart from another and that it is increasingly difficult for a consumer to make an educated decision about which attorney to choose.
Michael Serres and Michael Pyrros are two of the hardest-working, New York workers-compensation attorneys I know. They spend their days helping injured workers with their claims.
Both Steve and Ed (Gacovino & Lake & Associates), and Michael and Michael (Pyrros & Serres) realize that the future of attorney marketing is with video.
That’s the total number of views that my videos have received as of today, February 16, 2010. That’s not a misprint. That’s not my mother-in-law clicking on the same video 10,000 times either.
Just imagine if that number of viewers saw your videos. Would you have more callers to your office?
When you do a YouTube search, they now offer ‘promoted’ videos in the yellow space at the very top, very bottom and right side of the page. To get those spots, you must pay to advertise your videos there. How much you pay depends on what you’re willing to pay, similar to Google’s pay-per-click campaigns.
Anytime I see a video being ‘promoted’ it tells me:
Video production for lawyers cost either time or money. Often, it costs both.
Creating a quality-driven educational message is not as simple as standing in front of your Flip video camera and simply pressing the big red “record” button. Same goes for using your Kodak Zi8 with an external microphone. Maybe you’ve had your eye on that Sony Webbie or one of the other handheld pocket-camcorders. Regardless of what camera you use, don’t just press that ‘record’ button and upload right to YouTube.
Today’s blog post is about VIDEO equipment. Notice the double entendre in the title?
Most people think that in order to create good looking video, you must have a “professional” video camera that costs over $5,000 and looks like it came from a video production studio. That type of thinking is so wrong, on so many different levels. But it’s a typical expectation.
My watch needed a new battery the other day. It’s a Seiko diving chronograph. Steel bracelet, multi-function display, with day/date/time/stopwatch/ alarm and count-down timer. Oh yes, did I mention it tells time both analog and digitally? It’s really cool.
Well, I decided to take it into a little jeweler’s shop on the same street as my office. I dropped the watch off, told them I needed a new battery, and I’d be back in 10 minutes.
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
