Facebook users consume 100 million hours of Facebook videos per day, matched by 500 million hours of Youtube videos watched each day. Does that mean people are watch law firms' videos?
That depends on the channel and the device.
Look Who’s Watching
For law firm videos, the video click through rate (or play rate) on mobile devices is miniscule compared to desktops and tablets even though YouTube's traffic is more than 50% mobile. When Custom Legal Marketing reviewed specific behavior reports on various law firm websites for Forbes, they discovered some interesting statistics. In one situation, a video that enjoyed a 5% play rate from 1,000 desktop site visitors had absolutely no plays with 1,000 phone visitors. But tablets are different.
Tablet views are paramount. From CLM's review, about 75% of law firm websites had higher click through rates from tablet users compared to desktop visitors.
This information can be scrutinized with three separate categories of legal videos.
1. Introduction videos explain the firm and its background, similar to a television commercial.
2. Testimonial videos star a real client who shares their experience through the video.
3. Explanation videos tend to answer a question about a topic such as what to do in a workplace accident.
The play rate for personal injury introduction videos is 2.5%, the play rate for explanation is 4.4% and the testimonial play rate is 1.4%. The statistics for the most popular keyword group may not be impressive, but take a look at how the percentages translate. If a homepage video has a 3% playrate with 60,000 unique visitors in a year, 1,800 people are watching some part if not all of the video. So, yes, videos can provide content to your visitors that a portion of your audience is looking for. However, there are ways to ensure that your time and energy is spent at its full potential.
To Promote Your Video on YouTube, Look to Text
Writing powerful descriptions can help your videos rank better in YouTube and attract more viewers.
1. Description. Youtube provides enough space for 5,000 characters of description, which is around 500-700 words. It is not necessary to expand your description by maximizing every character possible; the optimal length for a video description should be around 2,000 characters with channel descriptions at around 3,000 characters. Within these characters, use the keywords that you expect users will be searching.
2. The first 150. The first 150 words of a description are what appears before you have to click “more.” In these words you should include keywords and a call to action. These words must connect with the viewer enough for them to click “more” and watch your video.
3. Title. Your title should reach out and engage with the reader, making them want to watch your video. The title should aim at about 100 characters with keywords for a high Youtube and Google rank. It should include the firm name, location and practice area.
Use Youtube and Facebook wisely. You want your firm’s marketing efforts to be catchy but professional.
1. Playlists. Playlists allow you to group videos in a continuous reel on your channel. Youtube search tends to present playlists rather than single videos at the top of the search results. Users can also search for playlists, therefore introducing them to multiple videos which heightens their experience with your firm. Playlists also give the chance to rank higher for video content with a more expansive range of phrases, bettering brand-focused results. By strengthening engagement and search rank, playlists are a must.
2. Facebook. Around 85% of videos on Facebook are viewed without any sound. Create separate Facebook-oriented videos with large subtitles highlighting important points made in the video.
To get the most out of your law firm's videos, create a plan for each video, optimize descriptions, and make the video easy to enjoy with or without sound. This will optimize the video for both website visitors, YouTube watchers, and Facebook users.