For the last few years, everyone and their mother has been screeching about the importance of video as marketing content. Too many articles to count have been written about how no one reads anything anymore (Hello? Can anybody hear me?). Along with just about everything else, however, it is important to look at different industries and their trends. After all, there truly is no “one size fits all” approach to marketing. Until very recently, we were severely lacking in data pertaining to video and legal marketing. Fortunately, the Forbes Agency Council noticed this gap and conducted some valuable research. Let’s dig in.
Types of Video
For their study, Forbes classified videos on law firm websites as commercial/intro, testimonial, and explanation. Commercial/intro videos introduce your firm and serve as a traditional commercial for your services. Testimonial videos overwhelmingly feature one or more clients singing your praises and explanation videos delve deeper into practice area- or law-specific topics. Unsurprisingly, some of these types perform better than others. Furthermore, the practice area influences the success of these videos as well.
Decoding the Data
Forbes studied 53 websites until unique visitors reached 3,000 — 1,000. Each of these visitors accessed the site via desktop, mobile, and tablet, and each website featured one or more videos. They determined the click-through (or play) rate and collated the data.
Across the board, explanation videos performed the best. Within specific practice areas, however, the results varied more. For example, they found that personal injury videos garnered click-through rates of 2.5% for the commercial/intro video, 1.4% for testimonials, and 4.4% for explanations.
Estate planning and family law websites were nearly exact in their metrics, coming in at 3.1% for commercial/intro videos, 2.1% for testimonials, and 6% for explanations. The results were comparable on criminal defense websites.
Takeaway: If you’re going to put effort (and dollars) toward just one type of video, focus on producing explanation videos that offer further insight into a specific topic than can be read on your website.
Device & Website Placement Matter
The study also revealed some surprising information regarding video playback on different devices. Contrary to our intuition, it seems that no one is watching your law firm’s video on their phone. The vast majority of video-watchers are using tablets. In fact, some of the websites studied had click-through rates near 9% among tablet users.
Where you embed your videos on your website is important, too. For example, explanation videos on practice area-specific pages outperformed homepage videos every time.
Takeaway: Practice area explanation videos on practice area pages that are optimized for tablets offer the most bang for your buck.
Short, Sweet, & Friendly
While Forbes didn’t share any insights relative to quality or quantity of videos, we’re confident in our own assessment that quality trumps quantity all the way. If you are interested in producing videos for your law firm’s website or social media page, keep it short and of high-quality. Your video should last between 30 seconds and three minutes — trust us when we tell you no one will sit through a ten-minute legal video. Use a trip-pod to avoid that distracting shaking video effect, enunciate clearly, and remember to smile!
