Everyone who knows Adam Stock, the
Director of Marketing and Business Development at California law firm Allen Matkins, understands that he is an
early adopter of most things technology. He's a capable developer,
program and website designer and, in his spare time, he is Chair of the
upcoming 2011 Legal Marketing
Technology Conference in San Francisco - September 15, 2011.
I wanted his opinion about a new
product we are launching - a mobile app ("Velocity") that facilitates
cross-selling and relevant conversations with prospects and clients
just-in-time - in restaurants, bars, at conferences, meetings or in cabs.
Content Pilot is formally launching
Velocity at the SF LMA Tech conference - you can read our release here.
But this blog post isn't about
Velocity, it's about the extraordinary video strategy and campaign that Adam
has created and led over the last year. Allen Matkins' website is not
exemplar and Adam would be the first to admit it. (The firm is in the
middle of a redesign, which will be designed around video.) View the
videos on today's site as diamonds in the rough.
In the 2010
AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices research sponsored
by Content Pilot and conducted one year ago, 28.5% of the AmLaw 100 firms
then had video on their websites. This research didn't grade the quality
of the video, just whether firms had it - and you can see that few did.
With a handful of exceptions, the videos showed lawyers talking about a
development in the law, lawyers talking about firm culture or firm leaders
talking about their commitment to diversity, their communities or how nice
their people are. The production value ranges from quite terrible to
pretty good - but they are mostly not compelling and not differentiating. Most
of the lawyers - even those with the best and enthusiastic intentions - come
across as boring and dry. And the videos are always too long.
Adam says, "None of our videos show
attorneys speaking into the camera - no talking heads."
How does one find the time to script
and shoot one video, let alone dozens? The secret is leveraging your
content - doing video versions of work that you are already doing, material
that you are already publishing. He states that they create four categories of
videos:
- Centered around a legal alert announcing a change in
regulation or law (they do written and video alerts)
- Business tips and insight (frequently appearing in
print on a blog)
- Press releases (also found in print on the Allen
Matkins website)
- The firm's involvment in their communities (also noted
on the firm's website and on Allen Matkins community blog).
Generally, he continues, "We focus
on information that you didn't know you needed to know." Adam laughs and says,
"What I love about this is - these are my products! This is what my firm
sells." He believes (as I do) that the connection between a lawyer and a
buyer of legal services can happen so much faster in video - in video done
right. Visitors to your website get a visual/audio preview of what it's
like to do business with you.
Here are links to examples of each
of the four video types on the Allen Matkins' site.
- Legal alert: AT&T
v. Concepcion Supreme Court Decision Upholds Agreements to Arbitrate and
Avoid Class Actions
- Business tips/insight: Green
Commercial Buildings: Attracting Environmentally Conscious Tenants
- Press release: Allen
Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast California Commercial Real Estate Survey:
Light at the End of Tunnel
- Community involvement: Women's
Leadership Roundtable merges networking, charity and fashion - Allen
Matkins Women
Knowing the time and cost associated
with video scripting and production, I asked Adam about his budget. I
didn't get a number, but he said that they did an initial test with six
videos. "They performed really well. We buy them in bulk to save
time and money - we are on our third 20-video contract." Adam added,
"They don't need the highest production value." They have to be good, but
they don't have to be music-video good.
Allen Matkins hires an outside
professional who scripts and shoots the videos. Given that they have worked on
nearly 60 videos together, the process and production is extremely efficient
now - the cost is half what it would be if he were producing a single
video. Adam effectively serves as the producer and is a part of every shoot.
Other firms do it differently. Adam
is speaking on several panels in the next few months with two other in-house
marketers who are as committed to video on their websites, but where the
execution differs. Aden Dauchess, Director of Digital Media at Womble
Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, an AmLaw 100 firm, made the case for bringing
the video resources and talent in-house (Womble's YouTube Channel).
Graig Cortelyou, the CMO of Tully Rinckey PLLC (an employment firm
headquartered in Albany, New York), works with local television news media,
such as the CBS affiliate, to develop segments for the TullyLegal.com
site. There are dozens of videos on Tully's YouTube channel.
Allen Matkins also hosts their
videos on YouTube and the firm has also experimented with other distribution
channels, such as releasing them on GlobeSt.com and
sending them out as alerts. They track views, which typically range from 50
views on the low end to 500 for the most popular videos.
Law firms of all sizes can have a
video strategy, but it must be done right. Remember that bad video is worse
than no video. It might differentiate you, but not in the way you'd like.
Read
more insight at the Law Firm 4.0 Blog.
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