Apple's New iPhone 4S

Did you know you can attach a telephoto zoom lens to your iPhone? It’s true. There’s some  contraption that gets attached to be outside of your iPhone that makes it look totally bizarre. The problem? You now need a tripod to hold your camera steady.

Zoom lens contraption for iPhone

I went to the Verizon store over the weekend to play around with the new iPhone4S I wanted to see if the video capability was any different than the iPhone 4. The phone looks exactly the same, it functions exactly the same and the video quality appears to be exactly the same.

Holding the phone at arm’s length, it still gives you a fish-eye look. Your arms are only so long. The microphone is excellent but picked up a lot of echo in the nearly empty phone store. The iris and aperture setting had difficulty adjusting automatically  depending upon which way I was facing and  overcompensated or changed coloration so badly that it made the video unwatchable.

Indoor fluorescent lights and incandescent lights alter the automatic settings dramatically in a smartphone camera. The iPhone 4S is no exception. No matter how great the video processor is, the size of the lens truly does matter. There is no comparison to using a HD camcorder or a dSLR to shoot your video.

Having said that, there’s nothing like the convenience of grabbing your smart phone, pressing a button and capturing your words and images immediately. I was tempted to take my test video and put it into iMovie to edit while in the store, but my 13-year-old daughter had different ideas.

If you are going to invest the time and energy to create educational messages to market your law firm online, my best practices recommendation is to skip every smart phone and go directly to quality cameras, a quality microphone and excellent lighting. That will get you the best bang for your buck.

WHAT TO DO NEXT?

Do you want to create educational video to market your practice but don’t want the hassle of having to do it all yourself and learn how to do it? I have the ideal video marketing solution for you. To learn which of our programs is right for you, contact Kathleen at 1-800-320-4314 and leave a voicemail message or send her an e-mail: Kathleen@lawyersvideostudio.com. I welcome your call.

Gerry Oginski in the Lawyers Video Studio

That’s what a lot of lawyers want to happen when they create content and put it online. They are hoping that a viewer finds their content and calls them immediately. Lawyers are just as impatient as everybody else. They want results, and they want them now.

Many attorneys believe that the moment they create the video and put it on YouTube, that the phone will start ringing nonstop. That is wishful thinking. That’s all it is. That’s only the first step in your journey to convert an online viewer into a caller.

It is understandable that after investing time and money to create useful video content to want to see results immediately.

Let me ask you a question. When you put your website online did you honestly believe that the world would flock to your website simply because you put up words that you created?

The reality is that it takes time for the search engines to crawl your website. Then it takes time for other websites to link in to yours. It also takes time for you to create useful content that links to other websites.

In order to fully take advantage of video online, you must understand the mindset of an online viewer.

Think about why someone is searching for you online. They are looking for information about a legal problem. They don’t know you. They don’t know any lawyer. That’s why they are searching online. They are in search and find mode. They’re not sure exactly what they need to know to help solve or answer their problem. They are on the prowl looking for someone who is a good fit for them and their problem.

In all likelihood, they will use Google, YouTube, Bing or Yahoo to find an attorney who can solve their problem. Once they have identified a group of lawyers, their mind shifts into comparison mode. now they must start evaluating your website and the content you have on your website. They will be evaluating the videos you have posted on YouTube. They will look to see what type of person you are, how knowledgeable you are and how much information you have that answers their direct question.

We all know that you cannot and will not give legal advice on your website or in your videos. “Well, if I cannot give legal advice online, what the heck can I talk about?”

That’s the beauty of creating information that viewers want to know. The title of this article “Hurry up and find me,” reflects the hope and desire of a lawyer who has created content in an article or on video. However,  your mindset should not be “I hope someone finds my content and calls me,” but rather, “How much more content can I put online to make it a no-brainer for my potential client to call me as the only choice?”

If you understand the subtle difference in that mindset shift you will have that ‘aha’ moment that will set the wheels in motion and you will no longer say “Hurry up and find me.”

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Listen to what a really smart attorney had to say about my video program:

To create an entire video library of 50 videos in a one-day video shoot that will increase the chances of an online viewer picking up the phone to call you, I encourage you  to send an e-mail to my production manager kathleen@lawyersvideostudio.com with the subject heading “Video consultation” to see if we’re a good fit for you. I look forward to speaking with you.

Thank You Card

When we were younger, we were taught to be polite and say “Thank you.” It’s a kind gesture; an acknowledgment that you went out of your way to do something nice. A few years ago I saw an assistant store manager use the power of a ‘thank you’ in a remarkable way. My wife had gone into a Brighton store (handbag and accessories) and made some purchases. A few days later, upon our return from vacation, my wife was greeted with a beautiful, hand-written, detailed thank you from the assistant store manager. I was shocked.

That type of personal attention and personalized thank you typically comes from somebody who spends a ton of money in a store. I am particularly grateful that my wife did no such thing that day. Instead, she made a few ordinary purchases and was rewarded with an extraordinary response.

I got a new car this week and a few days later got in the mail a thank you from the car salesman who sold me my car. The envelope was handwritten and it had a real stamp on it. I opened the envelope and almost burst out laughing. It was a single piece of photocopy paper that had been folded in half and then folded again into quarters. It was something that my 8 year-old would print out from a 10-year-old computer program that would print out a little message on one corner of the folded paper and then again on another quarter of that paper. The quality of the paper was basic photocopy paper that was thin and flimsy.

The salesman simply scribbled his name to the preprinted message, folded the paper and shoved it into a small envelope. That was it. He was done.

Mind you, I did not expect a thank you note nor did it really matter to me whether I received one for my purchase. However, there is a big distinction between a cheesy thank you and one that takes a few moments of your time that represents a quality thank you. The difference is night and day. The thank you I received from the car salesman showed a total lack of creativity, interest and quality in the message he was portraying to a valued customer. On the other hand, the assistant manager who sent my wife a handwritten note on custom stationery created a lasting impression of someone who truly cared about her customer, even though the purchase was not that significant.

What’s the take home message that you can use when you market yourself to your potential clients? Instead of sending them a canned thank you for visiting your office, take the extra time to write out a personalized handwritten thank you showing them that you care. I think I’m going to take my own advice and get myself some new personalized stationery and make sure that every new client who walks through my door, whether I take them on as a client or not, will receive a handwritten personalized thank you from me.

To all those people who use personalized thank you’s, congratulations. It makes a difference.

Roger Dubuis Excalibur Double Tourbillion

This watch costs $136,800, used, according to Gray & Sons jewelry catalog. Want to know how much it retails for?

$273,600. That will take your breath away. Why is that important? I’ll tell you.

Think about the type of person who buys this watch. If you were the Roger Dubuis watch company, who would you market this watch to? Where would you focus your marketing dollars? Do you think your ideal customer rides public transportation and waits in line at Costco?  Or, do you think your customer is more accustomed to riding in a chauffeured driven Rolls Royce and traveling cross-country in his own private Gulfstream jet?

If you don’t know who your ideal client is, you have no idea how and where to market your message to them.

Patek Philipe Perpetual Retrograde Calendar

How about this “lesser valued” watch? Gray & Sons describes this watch as 18K white gold on leather strap. Auto with sweep seconds, date, day, month, moonphase and perpetual calendar. Complete with winding box and papers. Care to guess the price of this ‘pre-owned’ watch?

$58,990. Retail price? $69,200. As much as a very nice luxury sedan.

Again, who wears this type of watch? Someone earning a very healthy income. Imagine high 7, 8, and 9 figure income.

So what does all this have to do with marketing your law practice? The answer is…everything. I’ve written about this before, specifically how watch companies are able to distinguish their timepieces. Remember, they all tell time. Why is one watch so expensive, and another reasonably priced? It has to do with perceived value, desire and exclusivity.

If your legal clients do not recognize that you have significant perceived value over your competitors, they will view you as a commodity and will look for the lowest price attorney. You must also have something desirable that your potential clients need and want.

With regard to exclusivity, this one is trickier to demonstrate. Why? Because all attorneys have basically the same sets of laws upon which to base factual decisions and recommend action. Case law is available for anyone to read. It is the interpretation, experience and analysis which helps one attorney create one plan compared to another law firm with a different plan possibly with a different outcome.   Creative attorneys recognize why exclusivity is so important. Being able to create exclusivity for your law practice will be elusive for most.

That leads me to my final point for today’s blog post. Using video is the best way to show your value; your knowledge, expertise and experience, as well as your exclusivity.  Call me today to find out how.

516-487-8207 or by e-mail at Gerry@lawyersvideostudio.com. I welcome your call.

Gerry Oginski, Esq., Founder, Lawyers Video Studio

You’ve made the decision to jump into attorney video to market your law firm online. You think you’ve found the right video production company. How do you really know whether the video producer is right for you? Let’s look at the basics first.

Experience

Clearly you want someone who has experience creating attorney video. That goes without question.

Quality

You want somebody who can produce quality video.

Knowledge of your legal specialty

You want somebody who knows who your ideal client is without you having to tell them. You want somebody who knows how to create content that converts online viewers into callers. You want somebody who understands why online viewers are online searching for an attorney.

References: You must make sure you ask for videos they have done and then go and watch those videos. Then call those attorneys and asked them what their results have been using those videos.

Video Metrics
Ask your video producer whether they track your video metrics. If they do, ask them whether they track which videos convert viewers into callers.

Legal background

Ask your video producer whether they are a lawyer. Ask them whether they are a trial lawyer. Ask them whether they are a medical malpractice trial lawyer. Ask them how they know what content to help you create if they are not a lawyer.

How do they market your videos?

Ask them how they distribute and publish your videos. Then, ask them whether they put your brand-new videos on their own website. Ask them whether they create a blog post about each of new video you create. Ask them whether they create an article about each new video. Ask whether they use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote each of your videos. If they don’t, ask them why not?

Ask them how many videos they create just for lawyers

Many video companies create attorney videos part-time. Some are wedding videographers; some are college kids looking to make a few extra dollars; some are video companies whose entire focus is to create video for businesses, not necessarily for attorneys.

Your video producer is the most important element in helping you create and produce your online videos. In order to create good, effective and compelling video, you need a video producer who not only understands the law, but who can answer all those questions above. You need a video producer who recognizes why viewers go online searching for an attorney, and importantly how to make you stand out from the crowd.

If they only create attorney video, how do they help you distinguish yourself from other attorneys who handle the same type of law? The answers to those questions will help you make an educated decision about who your video producer should be.

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VIDEO CHANNELS FOR REALLY SMART ATTORNEYS

Want to see some of the cool video channels we create for really smart attorneys? Click here, the Lawyers Video Studio channel to see for yourself just one way we help attorneys stand out from the crowd.

1. Lawyers Video Studio New Online Newsletter-Dec. 10′

2. Want to Know What It’s Like Shooting Video in the Lawyer’s Video Studio?

3. Napoleon Hill Reveals the Secrets of Success

4. Lawyer Video Marketing: 3 Keys To Success

5. Lawyer Uses Canon T2i to Shoot 938 photos and 35 videos on Vacation

There you have it. My top 5 attorney video marketing blog posts of 2010.

Gerry Oginski, Founder of the Lawyers Video Studio

Have a great new year and I’ll be speaking with you in 2011!!

Best regards,

Gerry

Lawyers Video Studio January 2011 Newsletter

Learn how one really smart New York City Park Ave. law firm created video in the Lawyers Video Studio. Find out how many videos the Lawyers Studio put online last month alone. Learn about our lawyer referral program and how you can easily generate income with a single phone call. A quick reminder that lawyers who join our program get to take advantage of the ONLY video coaching group for lawyers in the country.

Click here for our new online newsletter!

For lawyers who worry about the number of views they get on YouTube, here is some useful information:

I don’t care about the number of views I get on any of my videos. I don’t care about the length of time a viewer watches my videos. I don’t care what webpage a viewer read that brought them to my video. Nor do I care where a viewer went after watching my video. The  the only thing I want to know is if a viewer called or e-mailed me after watching one of my videos.

Out of all the statistics  and metrics that you could possibly know about your online video, the only statistics that you absolutely, positively must know to determine if your videos are generating a good return on investment is whether they convert viewers into callers. If you don’t know those statistics, you are seriously doing something wrong.

I just finished reading the ABA ethical opinion for Lawyer Websites. You can read this fascinating opinion at 2:00 a.m. when you cannot sleep. Click here to read it. Thanks to attorney Susan Cartier-Liebel, Founder of SoloPracticeUniversity.com for pointing this out. I’ll boil it down for you in a nutshell:

1. Tell the truth on your website, and
2. Tell people who contact you through your website that your communication is not to be taken as the start of an attorney-client relationship.

Ok. I get that. It’s pretty much common sense right? I would hope so. I would hope that every attorney, in any state, would be truthful about the content they put on their website, and that they make sure they are not providing legal advice on their site or in their email communication with potential clients. The reason? You don’t want a potential client to rely on information you give to them by email or by phone since you will not know all the facts needed to give an educated legal opinion about their matter.

The ABA got into a bit of trouble when they put this opinion online. Why? They had it online for a short time and then intended to put it behind a pay-wall where it would only be available to attorneys who paid a fee to see it. Kind of defeats the entire purpose of creating these ethical opinions, doesn’t it? These opinions are designed to educate and enlighten attorneys about what is and is not appropriate ethical conduct. If the only lawyers who can see this are the ones who pay for this information, then you are leaving lots of lawyers in the dark about what the ABA considers appropriate conduct.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get right to my guidelines for creating attorney video. For those of you who regularly read my blog, you will note some similarity to a blog post I did on December 9, 2009 titled

The 10 Commandments For Lawyers Who Use Video

Here now, not behind a pay-wall, are my guidelines for making ethical, educational, and informative video:

7 RULES YOU MUST FOLLOW

1. You shall speak nicely of all people in your video. You will disparage no one. There are NO exceptions to this rule. Violate it and you shall suffer a slander or libel lawsuit by the offended party. Guaranteed.
2. You shall provide only educational information that helps your online viewer. You would think this would be a given. It’s not. Many attorneys still think viewers want to hear where you graduated law school and whether you were on law review. They don’t. Get over it.
3. You shall make your video interesting. 99% of attorney video is boring. It’s a fact. Much of the law is dull and boring. There are endless rules and regulations and case law that set parameters for what we and our clients can and cannot do. Most lawyers don’t know how to make the law exciting. Exceptional lawyers learn how to make it interesting and come to life.
4. You shall NEVER provide legal advice in your video. You do not want anyone who watches your video to rely on the information you provide. Your content may be out of date by the time they watch it and if it is outdated and they act on that information to their detriment, you have guaranteed a legal malpractice lawsuit against you. If you must give legal advice, make sure to pepper your entire video with disclaimers, both verbally and in the video graphics.
5. You shall know the ethical rules and regulations for your own state inside and out. Do not create any video until you are confident you know all the rules for attorney advertising. Compile all the relevant ethics opinions for your state and keep them in a folder for easy reference any time you have a question. This will be the best “insurance” you can obtain if anyone ever questions a video that you created. If in doubt about whether a particular topic is off limits, use your common sense and do NOT create that video. Find a different topic. This will save you heartache for many years to come.
6. Along the lines of Rule #2, you shall not be a salesman. You are not online to sell your services, no matter what the marketing rep for your website tells you. You are not selling used cars. You are the keeper of the rules and you can disclose your legal secrets to potential clients only if they retain you. If you act as a salesman, then you are viewed as just another commodity to be bargained with. As the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield used to say “I get no respect.” Stop selling and start educating.
7. Unless you are a game-show host in your day job, don’t act like one in your video. Instead, use video to talk to your online viewers. Show them you’re real; that you’re approachable; that you have information they need and want to know. Importantly, be yourself. Most good trial attorneys know this well. It does no good to emulate a trial attorney’s tactic that’s just not right for you. You have to be yourself, otherwise your viewers will see right through you and click over to another video.

Follow these rules and you’ll lead a path that is ethical, righteous, honest and sincere. Your online viewers will appreciate these qualities and thank you for them. Guaranteed.

If you have your own rules for lawyer video, let me know below; I’d love to hear them.

Give the information away for free in order to get a viewer to ask for more information. You are viewed as the wise man on the totem pole because you’re giving away information when nobody else is.

Does this work for attorneys who charge a fee for their initial consultations? Definitely.

“How?”

Most lawyers who charge a fee for an initial consultation are very reluctant to give any information on the phone or by email. They rely on that initial consult fee to generate revenue. However, what they don’t realize is that they’ve created an obstacle to getting that person in their door to become a client. They’ve put up a hefty roadblock that can only be unlocked by paying a large fee. Here’s the problem with buying something sight unseen: You don’t know what you’re getting; you don’t know if you can trust that person; you don’t know if it will be worth your money. These are all valid concerns and you cannot allay any of them with your current model of charging a fee for an initial consultation.

For those lawyers I strongly suggest creating video that gives information away. Describe the process of the initial interview; why you charge a fee for the initial meeting; what a consumer can expect; what guarantees you can make or cannot make. Even if you don’t offer any real substantive information, a viewer will get to hear you, see you and judge for themselves whether you are the type of attorney they want to meet. Don’t hide behind your door. Open the door and welcome your prospects in.

Give information away, and viewers will want more. That’s what will make you stand out from the crowd and make you the logical choice for a prospective client searching for an attorney.

Testimonial:

Susan Cartier Liebel, creator of Solo Practice University says, “Gerry has the aptitude and technical savvy to create compelling, engaging and highly-professional videos to get potential clients to pick up the phone. Educational marketing through video is the future. Gerry is your teacher.”

Susan Cartier Liebel, Esq.

Creator of Solo Practice University, Solopracticeuniversity.com

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About Gerry

Gerry Oginski is a New York medical malpractice trial lawyer who created The Total Online Video Solution for Lawyers to help lawyers get onto video.

We make it so simple, fun and easy for you to create your attorney video. We shoot your video, create a custom video channel for you and we give you the equipment we just shot your video with. This way you can create video any time you like. You just turn on your equipment, create your video and then send us the memory card and we do the rest. My team of post-production specialists edit your video and before uploading it, I personally review each one. Then, before you know it, your videos are online. The hardest thing you had to do was drop that memory card in our pre-paid Fedex mailer. That’s it.

There is no other video production company that offers this much value for the money. None. That’s how I stand out. I’m different and it shows.

So what are you going to spend your marketing dollars on this year? The same old tired way of hoping to get new clients, or a proven way that is the best return on your investment? How do I know it’s the best ROI? Because I’m living proof it works.

I encourage you to call me at 516-487-8208 or send me an email at Gerry@lawyersvideostudio.com. I welcome your call. To learn more, go to The Total Online Video Solution for Lawyers.