<b><i>Leadership:</i></b> Why Are So Many Law Firm Videos So Bad?

I have heard it said many times that one of lawyers' foibles is their love of “shiny new toys” At the moment, it looks like video is the “shiny new toy” — everybody is trying it and everybody wants to use it — but few are doing it successfully. One might ask, why then are too many law firm videos so bad? Here are a few of the issues faced by many of the current batch of bad law firm videos.

Talking Heads

Many law firm videos feature either one attorney (or maybe two) discussing a legal issue. (Yawn, yawn. Bore, bore.) No one wants to watch five minutes (or even two minutes …) of someone droning on about a dry legal subject. Instead of just talking into the camera, think about the best presentation you ever heard. The speaker probably had some (not a ton of) great slides that illustrated the point she was trying to make. Consider interspersing your comments with visuals (like slides) or imagery of some kind. Also, consider other visual ways you can communicate your message.

Believe it or not, animation can work very well to explain certain legal processes. For example, check out Perkins Coie's Inter Partes Review video or Reed Smith's Every Company Is a Media Company video.

Home Movies

Why would you have someone in your IT department — or worse yet, someone in HR — try to shoot your video? IT and HR professionals are great at what they do and provide significant value to the firm, but their videography skills are not part of what they bring to the party. Having someone who is not trained shoot your video will result in your video presenting like a bad home movie — and not the kind that ends up winning a million dollars on America's Funniest Home Videos. If you are going to go to the trouble to produce a video, hire a professional to shoot and edit it.

There are a number of companies springing up (Reel Lawyers; Feast Studios; and Crisp Video: or The Unicorn Continuum, for example) that cater specifically to law firms. The good thing about working with a video production company that has worked with law firms and lawyers is that they can take a lot of raw footage and assemble it into a focused, coherent video. Further, they understand how lawyers think and understand the best way to help package the message for client consumption. Warning: it will cost you more to have a professional videographer shoot and edit your video, but the result will be more professional and you will receive a better response from viewers.

Kitchen-Sink Scripts

For some reason (and maybe it is a leftover from law school days), lawyers want to include every single solitary fact, note, idea, etc. in a video. They want to pack in so much information and analysis that the viewer will either nod off or click off.

Two words for aspiring video stars: crisp script (and try saying that 10 times quickly). A few focused words on a topic are much more likely to translate well to video and keep the viewer's attention. Besides, you do not want to give away everything in a video. Ideally, you want to communicate that you understand/know about a particular subject and that you can successfully help a client.

'Please, Sir, I Want Some More'

Following on the idea of not including an exhaustive commentary in one video: Leave them wanting more. Don't try to compact everything you know about a particular subject or issue into one video. Attention spans are phenomenally short these days; best practices dictate that you keep video clips to under four minutes (or even under three minutes). Even if you have to produce several video clips to cover the topic you want to cover, that is a better approach. It is wiser to invest more time (and maybe more of your budget) or tell your story in digestible chunks than overwhelm the viewer and lose him or her.

Animated Brochures

Video is a completely different communication vehicle from printed marketing materials. Don't try to just replicate a written piece into a video format. Video, by its nature, is a very visual medium, which requires you to consider how to best use visuals to communicate your message.

Also, don't just use the text from a promotional brochure as the script for a video clip. The printed word and the spoken word are quite different, so you need to develop a script focusing on not only the message, but how the words sound when spoken aloud. In addition, given how often videos are now accessed on mobile devices, consider including captions or on-screen messaging, as not all viewers listen to the audio, especially when viewing on mobile devices.

Think Before You Shoot

It is all great and wonderful to have a terrific concept for a video, to have a compelling, succinct script (see reference to “crisp script”), etc. — but if you haven't considered how the clip will be used, then it may well be forgotten on your YouTube channel (if you have one).

Prior to the cameras rolling, invest some time strategizing how the video clips will be distributed. Who is your audience? What is the greatest objective for providing certain information? What is the CTA — the call to action? Why should your viewers care? Beyond posting the clip on the firm's website or on YouTube, what else can you/should you do?

Consider These Ideas:

• Send a link to clients with a short, “Thought you might find this short video interesting/useful” note.
• Include a link in your email signature.
• Send to the media (a number of online publications or blogs may post a link to the video).
• Post it on LinkedIn; more and more video content is being posted here.
• Tweet it using a bit.ly link.
• If you have a blog focused on the subject matter of the video, upload a short post and link to the video.
• Send the link to an industry blogger to see if he or she will do a post on it.

Funny — NOT!

Comedy is an art form — so amateurs should be very careful about trying to use humor to sell legal services. It's one thing to shoot a funny video for use internally, say at a retreat, for example, but trying to use humor in a client marketing video can backfire. It's OK to take a light approach to a serious subject matter, but using humor to sell legal services may not be in keeping with the image you want to project, or communicate the kind of firm you are to a potential client.

Tell the Story

Before you move too far into planning your video, make sure you do what every seasoned producer and director does: Storyboard your video. While you don't need to develop a final script before you start shooting (although that can be beneficial), you should know exactly what “scenes” you want to include. Not only will it make the shooting time more economical, you will get a real sense of the flow of the story to make sure you are varying the visuals. For a great overview of storyboarding, check out this video: How to Create a Storyboard for Your Video Shoot from ReelSEO.

Look, Ma! I'm a Star!

Video profiles of attorneys can be a great way to showcase some of your best lawyers — but there are some rules of thumb about attorney profiles: 1) Not all attorneys are “camera ready.” They don't need to be members of SAG or Actors Equity, but you need to have a personality that shines through on video; 2) For an attorney profile to be engaging, there must be a story. The attorney cannot simply describe her practice — thousands of attorneys can say the exact same thing. What an attorney can do that is differentiating and engaging is to tell a story about how she solved a client's problem.

Here are a few additional tips for on-camera work:

• Wear pastel colors, nothing black or white, no plaids or busy patterns, no dangling jewelry: earrings or bracelets.
• Tell the attorney to speak slowly.
• Make sure the attorney knows where to look: directly at the camera or to whomever may be asking questions.
• Have a glass of water handy. Being nervous can give even the most confident attorney “cottonmouth.”
• Have the attorney use mouthwash right before the interview. It will help him or her feel better and their mouth will be less likely to get dry.

*****
A 16-year veteran of law firm marketing (and three law firm rebrands), John J. Buchanan, Director of Corporate Communications at Reed Smith LLP and a member of Marketing the Law Firm's Board of Editors, has more than 25 years of strategic branding, marketing, communications and business development experience. Reach him at [email protected] or 415-659-4812.

I have heard it said many times that one of lawyers' foibles is their love of “shiny new toys” At the moment, it looks like video is the “shiny new toy” — everybody is trying it and everybody wants to use it — but few are doing it successfully. One might ask, why then are too many law firm videos so bad? Here are a few of the issues faced by many of the current batch of bad law firm videos.

Talking Heads

Many law firm videos feature either one attorney (or maybe two) discussing a legal issue. (Yawn, yawn. Bore, bore.) No one wants to watch five minutes (or even two minutes …) of someone droning on about a dry legal subject. Instead of just talking into the camera, think about the best presentation you ever heard. The speaker probably had some (not a ton of) great slides that illustrated the point she was trying to make. Consider interspersing your comments with visuals (like slides) or imagery of some kind. Also, consider other visual ways you can communicate your message.

Believe it or not, animation can work very well to explain certain legal processes. For example, check out Perkins Coie's Inter Partes Review video or Reed Smith's Every Company Is a Media Company video.

Home Movies

Why would you have someone in your IT department — or worse yet, someone in HR — try to shoot your video? IT and HR professionals are great at what they do and provide significant value to the firm, but their videography skills are not part of what they bring to the party. Having someone who is not trained shoot your video will result in your video presenting like a bad home movie — and not the kind that ends up winning a million dollars on America's Funniest Home Videos. If you are going to go to the trouble to produce a video, hire a professional to shoot and edit it.

There are a number of companies springing up (Reel Lawyers; Feast Studios; and Crisp Video: or The Unicorn Continuum, for example) that cater specifically to law firms. The good thing about working with a video production company that has worked with law firms and lawyers is that they can take a lot of raw footage and assemble it into a focused, coherent video. Further, they understand how lawyers think and understand the best way to help package the message for client consumption. Warning: it will cost you more to have a professional videographer shoot and edit your video, but the result will be more professional and you will receive a better response from viewers.

Kitchen-Sink Scripts

For some reason (and maybe it is a leftover from law school days), lawyers want to include every single solitary fact, note, idea, etc. in a video. They want to pack in so much information and analysis that the viewer will either nod off or click off.

Two words for aspiring video stars: crisp script (and try saying that 10 times quickly). A few focused words on a topic are much more likely to translate well to video and keep the viewer's attention. Besides, you do not want to give away everything in a video. Ideally, you want to communicate that you understand/know about a particular subject and that you can successfully help a client.

'Please, Sir, I Want Some More'

Following on the idea of not including an exhaustive commentary in one video: Leave them wanting more. Don't try to compact everything you know about a particular subject or issue into one video. Attention spans are phenomenally short these days; best practices dictate that you keep video clips to under four minutes (or even under three minutes). Even if you have to produce several video clips to cover the topic you want to cover, that is a better approach. It is wiser to invest more time (and maybe more of your budget) or tell your story in digestible chunks than overwhelm the viewer and lose him or her.

Animated Brochures

Video is a completely different communication vehicle from printed marketing materials. Don't try to just replicate a written piece into a video format. Video, by its nature, is a very visual medium, which requires you to consider how to best use visuals to communicate your message.

Also, don't just use the text from a promotional brochure as the script for a video clip. The printed word and the spoken word are quite different, so you need to develop a script focusing on not only the message, but how the words sound when spoken aloud. In addition, given how often videos are now accessed on mobile devices, consider including captions or on-screen messaging, as not all viewers listen to the audio, especially when viewing on mobile devices.

Think Before You Shoot

It is all great and wonderful to have a terrific concept for a video, to have a compelling, succinct script (see reference to “crisp script”), etc. — but if you haven't considered how the clip will be used, then it may well be forgotten on your YouTube channel (if you have one).

Prior to the cameras rolling, invest some time strategizing how the video clips will be distributed. Who is your audience? What is the greatest objective for providing certain information? What is the CTA — the call to action? Why should your viewers care? Beyond posting the clip on the firm's website or on YouTube, what else can you/should you do?

Consider These Ideas:

• Send a link to clients with a short, “Thought you might find this short video interesting/useful” note.
• Include a link in your email signature.
• Send to the media (a number of online publications or blogs may post a link to the video).
• Post it on LinkedIn; more and more video content is being posted here.
• Tweet it using a bit.ly link.
• If you have a blog focused on the subject matter of the video, upload a short post and link to the video.
• Send the link to an industry blogger to see if he or she will do a post on it.

Funny — NOT!

Comedy is an art form — so amateurs should be very careful about trying to use humor to sell legal services. It's one thing to shoot a funny video for use internally, say at a retreat, for example, but trying to use humor in a client marketing video can backfire. It's OK to take a light approach to a serious subject matter, but using humor to sell legal services may not be in keeping with the image you want to project, or communicate the kind of firm you are to a potential client.

Tell the Story

Before you move too far into planning your video, make sure you do what every seasoned producer and director does: Storyboard your video. While you don't need to develop a final script before you start shooting (although that can be beneficial), you should know exactly what “scenes” you want to include. Not only will it make the shooting time more economical, you will get a real sense of the flow of the story to make sure you are varying the visuals. For a great overview of storyboarding, check out this video: How to Create a Storyboard for Your Video Shoot from ReelSEO.

Look, Ma! I'm a Star!

Video profiles of attorneys can be a great way to showcase some of your best lawyers — but there are some rules of thumb about attorney profiles: 1) Not all attorneys are “camera ready.” They don't need to be members of SAG or Actors Equity, but you need to have a personality that shines through on video; 2) For an attorney profile to be engaging, there must be a story. The attorney cannot simply describe her practice — thousands of attorneys can say the exact same thing. What an attorney can do that is differentiating and engaging is to tell a story about how she solved a client's problem.

Here are a few additional tips for on-camera work:

• Wear pastel colors, nothing black or white, no plaids or busy patterns, no dangling jewelry: earrings or bracelets.
• Tell the attorney to speak slowly.
• Make sure the attorney knows where to look: directly at the camera or to whomever may be asking questions.
• Have a glass of water handy. Being nervous can give even the most confident attorney “cottonmouth.”
• Have the attorney use mouthwash right before the interview. It will help him or her feel better and their mouth will be less likely to get dry.

*****
A 16-year veteran of law firm marketing (and three law firm rebrands), John J. Buchanan, Director of Corporate Communications at Reed Smith LLP and a member of Marketing the Law Firm's Board of Editors, has more than 25 years of strategic branding, marketing, communications and business development experience. Reach him at [email protected] or 415-659-4812.