Attorney Marketing Blog

Establishing a presence for a law firm YouTube channel can feel daunting compared to other social media platforms.

YouTube is the second most visited website with an average of 1.7 billion unique monthly visits and 14.3 billion monthly visits total. The opportunity to reach your audience and grow your brand is limitless. It’s a big blue ocean that your firm can thrive and be successful in- with the right application!

You may already have a YouTube account for your law firm or are thinking of creating one. This guide will prepare you with the basics of creating your channel, filming content, identifying metrics, and implementing best SEO practices on YouTube.

Ready? Let’s dive in.

Should Your Law Firm Have a YouTube Channel?

Before your law firm makes it official on YouTube, you need to know your purpose. 

It’s important for your channel to align with your firm and have predetermined goals. Creating content without knowing your niche or objectives will not make it easy.

Take a few moments to think about or write down goals you want to achieve. Are you looking to reach more prospective clients or employees? Are you aiming to make some profit? Is this channel another addition to your marketing strategy? What kind of content will it provide?

These are all valid questions to ask yourself before clicking that “Sign Up” button.

 

Getting Your YouTube Channel on Its Feet

There’s good news here- it’s very easy to set up your YouTube channel.

Follow these steps:

1. Click the “Sign In” button in the top right corner of YouTube’s site. Use your Google email to sign in (Or, if you don’t have on, choose the option to create an account)
2. Go to settings, click on your profile icon, and select “Create a channel”
3. Use the name on your selected account or a custom name (We recommend using custom)
4. Name your channel
5. Verify your account

Pretty simple, right?

Other important elements to establish are a profile picture, description of your law firm, and links to your website and other social media platforms.

Channel art is also essential in looking professional and credible to viewers. Like a cover photo on other social media apps on LinkedIn or Facebook, YouTube gives everyone a banner for the background of your page. You can create channel art using software to show off your firm’s brand and personality. Canva and Photoshop are great choices.

Another fun fact about channel art: Links to your website and/or social media platforms can overlay on the bottom right corner of your banner!

Filming Content

The best advice you can get when making video content is to press record. It’s easy to critique and nitpick your easy work, but practice will help you develop your filming skills.

But before you decide to record, think about what kind of content you want to make. Don’t post content that only appeals to you. Post videos that your ideal client wants to watch. You should also use video scripts- There’s no pressure to memorize every sentence for your videos.

When making videos, play around and have fun with it. There’s nothing wrong with learning! Try different camera shots and lighting, play around with background, choose an editing software, and start filming. Be sure to have energy, gestures, and hand movements in your videos. Show your personality!

Be mindful that audio quality comes before video quality. You will find that people have more to say about not being able to hear you talk than the way it looks.

If you aren’t satisfied with the way a video comes out, you can always use shorter clips from it in an Instagram reel or YouTube short. Or you could transcribe the ideas into an article.

Gerry Oginski, a member we have worked closely with, has produced successful YouTube videos for over a decade. His channel, Gerry Oginski, creates videos to help the public understand how lawsuits work in New York. He has 10.5k subscribers and accumulated over 3.5 million views on videos!

Oginski decided to make videos because “there was nobody else anywhere who was educating the public online and teaching viewers the step-by-step process that occurs in these cases.” Instead of focusing on legal advice, they explain how lawsuits work and provide information.

Each video on his channel introduces himself at the beginning, includes his name and number at the bottom, and is only a few minutes long. He posts weekly and additionally uses batch video making. This is the process of recording multiple videos in one day to save time. Check out his channel and great example of law firm YouTube videos!

Keeping An Eye on Analytics

Some relevant metrics to look for on YouTube include watch time, average view duration, and average percentage viewed.

Watch time describes the total time viewers have spent watching your content. YouTube rewards this by recommending videos with higher watch times.

Average view duration translates to the total watch time of your video divided by the total number of video plays (which includes replays). This metric measures your ability to engage viewers with your videos. If viewers don’t find you engaging, they will bounce. If you can engage, your watch time and duration will both increase.

Average percentage viewed is the percentage of each video the average viewer watched. This measures your video’s ability to hold viewer attention. If you can do this, YouTube will recommend your content.

To track the progress of your goals, keep track of your video performance.

Implementing SEO With YouTube

Like other sites, search engine optimization applies to YouTube. To grow your channel and attract more viewers, it’s a good idea to optimize your channel and your content.

There are many places on your channel to incorporate best SEO practices. When posting videos, put target videos or phrases relevant to your audience in the video file, title, and description. You can tag videos with keywords, as well.

Shoot for keywords and phrases that have less competition, but still each your niche.

You can also install SEO in your channel description, which has a 1,000-word limit. In the first 100-150 characters, focus on using your key phrases.

More Tips on Marketing Your Law Firm YouTube Channel

It’s important to also be mindful of the little things!

Use compelling titles and descriptions that attract people to click on your videos. Take time to create closed captioning for your videos instead of YouTube doing it. Viewers care about accuracy, and it shows your professionalism.

Promote your videos on other platforms! Videos are good to include in e-newletters, social media posts, or your site. Not only will this make it easier to reach more of your audience, but it’s good to share information to others who may not stumble across it otherwise.

Last, consistency is key. To grow your channel successfully and steadily, you’ll need to post on a regular basis and use SEO for every video.

A lot of work can go into your YouTube channel, but the results will speak for themselves.