Marketing Videos for Mediators

Yesterday Skillman Video group shot a legal marketing video for Massachusttes Dispute Resolution Services in Salem, MA. This is a mediation firm that arbitrates disputes between parties outside a courtroom. We redesigned the firm’s website this summer and founder Brian Jerome. wanted to create a video that would let his potential clients get to know him and his firm a little better.

This legal marketing video was unique because it was directed soley at attorneys seeking mediation, not the general public. The average joe has no real need for a mediator, but other firms use them extensively. This meant that Mr. Jerome spoke in a more business-like manner free to use terms of art. Direct, professional, and approachable was the best way to convey the message that his organization is unbiased, fair, experienced, and trustworthy. He didn’t have to be flashy or inviting or cute because he didn’t need to appeal to the masses.

MDRS reminded me most of our B2B clients: They have a small target audience, in this case only other attorneys, and are free to speak in depth without fear of alienating laymen. In B2B videos professionalism speaks for itself.

We went in and made a quick, attractive set in an otherwise dull conference room using what was available on location. One of SVG’s talents is making fast sets from nothing. For some of our best set design check out our social video on youtube.

Now that we’ve done web design and video for Massachusttes Dispute Resolution Services, they are considering doing a series of videomercials or social videos with us about more in depth, specific topics. What might you want to learn from a series of legal marketing videos? Check out some of our other work for law firms here.

Make ‘Em Laugh: Social Video Marketing Services

This summer on our blog I have written about social videos that use entertainment alongside information to market a company or organization. You can read about two of my favorites: Inspiration Studios and YouTube Show and Tell. I wanted to show how to use entertaining marketing videos to attract potential customers, B2B clients, job candidates, donors, and so on.

To demonstrate how this approach might work for your company Skillman Video Group made a 2-minute social video. The idea was to create something cinematic and entertaining while advertising our social media and marketing services to a target audience, namely organizations and companies that lack modern interactive marketing campaigns. The project was out of the scope of our usual documentary style marketing videos which usually employ a single camera angle, b-roll, graphics, and interviews. Our new Videomercial utilizes actors, set design, location shooting, wardrobe, cinematography, and multiple camera angles to tell a story. It takes careful consideration of our brand and tone and balances everything with available resources.

Check the video out. What do you think?

This is a new type of service Skillman Video Group wants to offer to certain clients who would benefit from a more lighthearted, mass-appeal approach. We’d love to collaborate with clients to produce more videos of this style.

This kind of entertaining video casts a wide net and attracts a large audience. That audience then visits the company’s website for more in-depth content and marketing videos geared at turning visitors into clients. Your social media campaign (blog, twitter, email, facebook, youtube, etc.) would spread the video to both your current and potential clients. See how all the pieces fit together? That’s why SVG offers those complete, interlocking marketing services.

Imagine you are a law firm looking for the young, ambitious, future associates. You could really distinguish your firm from all the others with a short, entertaining, well-shot videomercial. Your competitors would look dull by comparison and you would see immediate ROI with more job applications. One of our clients already does something like this with SVG. The same method should work for finding B2B partners, customers, and donors, if you are looking for a younger, more casual demographic.

If you are looking to impress people with a cinematic marketing videomercial, give SVG a call.

If you want to read more about the production of this video check out our behind-the-scenes blog and pictures.

Legal Marketing Video @ Fields and Dennis

This week we shot a legal marketing video at Fields and Dennis, a family law and estate planning firm. This was another example of our quick and easy  production approach like our work here. We shot a short one minute video in just a couple hours at the firm’s offices.

First impressions are everything in marketing, so it’s important to introduce yourself on your website. A short video gives a friendly face to your company, introduces visitors to your services and indicates that you take what you do seriously enough to invest in a video production. More and more companies are creating video content, and it is quickly becoming a standard marketing tool. If you make a short and sweet video it will entice viewers to read more about what you do and ultimately contact you.

The client had prepared a short script, but when we shot it, the video was about 2 minutes long. Over the course of several takes we worked with the client to cut the video down to one minute. That’s the perfect length for a quick introduction. We like to call these short marketing pieces Videomercials.

Check out other examples of Videomercials on SVG’s portfolio page. Here are a few more reasons you might want to invest in a Videomercial for your company.

James Brady and Associates

Last week we shot a short marketing video for James Brady & Associates, a Walpole law firm. Skillman Video Group is carving out a nice list of legal clients.

One of the challenges of shooting legal marketing videos is avoiding the typical, clichéd lawyer voice you hear in commercials. James Brady wanted to present a friendlier, more approachable face and avoid the histrionic, pushy approach seen in those  scary black-and-white commercials on daytime TV. Mr. Brady is naturally a friendly guy, so we didn’t have to coach him. We only needed a few takes and a couple hours to set up, shoot, and wrap out.

While shooting we discovered that there was a lot James wanted to talk about, but it didn’t fit into a short 1-minute marketing video. This videos might be the perfect opportunity for Skillman Video Group to produce a series of longer legal marketing videos I talked about here.

Action!

When a director says “Action” that exactly what he wants to see: Characters with an objective doing things to each other to achieve their objective. Actors think in these terms. What am I trying to do in this scene? What is my obstacle? Who am I working with or against? Why?

It works the same way in marketing. What are you trying sell? To Whom? Why?  We help answer these questions by developing your content and writing marketing copy – essentially scripting your lines. We also prepare you so that when the camera roles you sound and look confident and natural.

I talked about preparation on our blog. We had one interviewee struggling to get through her prepared lines. We suggested that she imagine that she was meeting Christina Skillman, our director, at a networking event, and that the client had to convince her to join the company in under a minute. It was a familiar scenario for the interviewee. When she thought in those objective-based terms her delivery was so natural and convincing Christina was ready to submit her resume.

That’s the kind of performance tweak we can suggest to take your video to the next level. Skillman Video Group can also develop content, allowing you to focus on your day-to-day work.

Legal Marketing Videos at Wolf Greenfield

Last week we shot a series of marketing videos for Wolf Greenfield, a prestigious intellectual property law firm in Boston. Wolf Greenfield was one of our first law firm clients, and it was great to see everyone again.

We shot simple talking head recruiting pitches for the client’s website to attract scientists to a career in IP law. Associates, shareholders, and technical specialists at the firm prepared pitches that were so convincing that the SVG crew almost applied to law school.  Luckily we think we will stay within the legal video marketing business so the court rooms and patent offices are safe for the time being.

What made the shoot so successful was that the client was very well prepared. Each interviewee prepared a short one-minute pitch which they practiced with their marketing team. Everyone knew his or her “lines” which meant that not only was the shoot fast and efficient, but it was fun even for the most screen-shy people. Preparation also allowed each participant’s personality to shine through because they didn’t stumble to find the words. A well-prepared client gets the best videos.

If you are nervous about appearing on screen or getting the best value for your video content investment, you can talk to SVG. We help prepare clients for their screen debut.

Skillman Video Group Produces Marketing Videos for Law Firm Parker|Scheer

Last week Skillman Video Group filmed a series of videos for the personal injury Law Firm, Parker|Scheer at their Charlestown office.  The videos featured co-founder and Managing Partner Eric Parker, who used the opportunity to explain several different types of legal cases commonly handled by Parker|Scheer attorneys and the success their firm has had representing clients.  These types of cases included construction-related injuries, dog bites, and automobile accidents.

Parker|Scheer decided to film a series of videos rather than one longer video to appeal to website visitors interested in specific aspects of their practice.  For example, someone looking for representation in a dog bite case would most likely not be seeking information on automobile accidents.  The more relevant a video is to what a viewer is seeking, the better the odds that they will watch the video in its entirety.  Producing multiple videos on different topics offers increased opportunities for internet marketing and search engine optimization.

Parker|Scheer has one of the best track records of any Boston area law firm, and attorneys pride themselves on their commitment to client needs.  A professional video is the best way to portray this commitment to potential clients visiting their website.  To project a professional image, a video needs to be very high quality.  The Parker|Scheer videos were shot in high definition with Broadcast quality lighting and sound equipment.

Contact Skillman Video Group today to schedule a free consultation to see what video marketing can do for your business or Law Firm.

Expert Videos Highlight a Company’s Expertise

Skillman Video Group, a Boston Video Production Company,  routinely works with clients to discover how they can grow their business or organization with video. SVG has produced many “expert videos” which work in multiple ways to benefit a company. Expert videos highlight a specific service or product in such a way as to make the seller seem an expert in their field. Expert videos can work as searchmercials, a term SVG examined in our last post, help brand a company or serve a niche.

Like other videos SVG produces, expert videos can be used on social media sites, your company website or as advertising on other sites. Expert videos focus on one idea, say social media marketing. Like a searchmercial, an expert video is founded on keywords. Searchmercials are short, specific videos designed to be found via search engines. An expert video can operate as a searchmercial. Both these forms of video can help identify and serve specific niche markets.

Expert videos, however, are less “trendy” than a searchmercial and are not necessarily a series of videos focused on different keywords. A slew of expert videos may focus on the same keyword/topic.

By centering on one topic over multiple videos, expert videos help brand a business. They show a business’ expertise and give them credibility in that field.

Expert videos are partially educational videos, informing viewers of your services. For this reason they can also be easily used on your website to explain a service or product, as well as a marketing video.

Expert videos are a simple idea that can serve many functions. If you are interested in having your own video produced, contact Skillman Video Group today!

Online Marketing Videos

At Skillman Video Group we believe, when used correctly, online marketing videos are of the most successful and cost effective way to market your company on-line. We will soon be releasing a case study on our new service, Social Video Marketing. Social Video Marketing combines the use of high quality video marketing with Internet marketing technology to convert web visitors into new leads.  As we have mentioned before, Internet Marketing works in two ways.  1) getting people to first come to your site through SEO and social media and then 2) once on your site, the content must be engaging enough to compel the casual visitors into a valuable lead.  This is what we call at Skillman Video Group the “video conversion point” .  Combining the power of the video medium with the power of the Internet gets our clients the best return on investment possible!   We focus not just on producing the highest quality video, but also  on the importance of routing as many viewers as possible to that video thereby expanding your presence in the marketplace. By using the right keywords and tags, we make sure your videos can be found on the web. Also, by incorporating a  blog posts and web announcements on your site, you can keep your content fresh and Google relevant.

We started implementing these techniques ourselves in October 2009. Google ranks website traffic and searches on a scale of zero to ten, with nines and tens being the Facebooks of the world. When our new site launched in October 2009, our website was ranked a zero by Google. Our old html site was static and we weren’t generating leads from the web. In October 2009 we started an agressive Internet marketing plan using the services outlined in our soon to be published Case Study.  By the time our case study had concluded, we were coming up as #1 in 9 targeted key words.  Within 6 months of us launching our new program, our paged jumped to a number four ranking on Google, a very impressive feat for a company of our size. The results of this online marketing effort is that our traffic is up, our content is fresh, and it’s helping our business grow. For example, our recent blog post on Video Legal Depositions was the direct source for Duane Morris LLP locating our services (please read about that job below) though a Google search and booking us just a day later. Our Social Video Marketing program is the most efficient way to market on the web. Our online efficiency techniques direct maximum traffic to your site, and our quality videos tell your story in the most effective and dynamic way possible. Call us today about your Online Marketing Video!

Legal Marketing Video Shoot at Duane Morris

Skillman Video Group recently went on a video shoot at the national law firm, Duane Morris LLP. Duane Morris hired SVG to shoot a Legal Marketing Video of their Boston office for their web site. SVG shot a series of interviews with the firm’s partners discussing their practice areas and experience for both internal….and external marketing purposes. Duane Morris will be using the videos to market their attorneys to potential clients, as well as to use for recruitment of new hires.     The partners discussed both personal and professional topics and we concentrated on their areas of expertise, their goals for the firm, and even personal interests and hobbies.

Marketing for any law firm begins and ends with their attorneys.  If your lawyers are essentially your product, then video allows a law firm  to showcase those lawyers in a personal, intimate way.  By allowing potential clients to see and hear your attorneys speak about their experience and goals  – you are allowing them to build trust and repore with a client before they pick up a phone to call!  In the legal field, where personal relationships are crucial, video marketing is the only medium that can clearly and accurately represent your services.

It is also important that your legal marketing videos look and sound professional.  Lighting and audio are key components to any video shoot.  If your attorneys look or sound unprofessional, it will do a poor job marketing their skills and abilities to the public!  Producers at Skillman Video Group are adept and not just lighting and audio, but also directing the on-screen talent.  Speaking on camera is sometimes very difficult for those who are not used to doing so in their every-day job.  Our producers will work with the on-screen talent to make them feel comfortable and help them look and feel their best.  Call today to learn more our Legal Marketing Videography and Video Production services!

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