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2010 State of the Internet – Video Marketing for Attorneys

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

I give you the State of the Union for Lawyer Video.

“My fellow attorneys,

The state of affairs for lawyers who create video to market themselves stinks. Truly awful. Video quality has improved but content has gone down the drain. Four years ago the only type of lawyer videos that video companies created were “Look at me!” videos. Those videos simply were one intro video that did nothing more than say “Come to me because I’m great.”

Fast forward to the present day and lawyers have made leaps and bounds. Now, many attorneys have gone beyond the bounds of “Ooo, pick me because I’m great” type of videos, to ones that actually inform. However, the information that most attorneys are putting out are not what online viewers want or care about. It’s true.

Lawyers still focus on the number of views that each video gets. Video companies sell their services and convince lawyers that their video metrics program is top shelf and can also predict which videos will get viewers to call. Nonsense.

The reality is that metrics don’t matter at all. Really, they don’t. I have written repeatedly that video metrics are not worth your time to invest in or learn about. The ONLY thing that matters with your online videos is whether your viewer picks up the phone to call you for an appointment. That’s it. That’s your goal. If your videos are not accomplishing that, you have big problems. The reason that most lawyer video does not work is that most videos fail to provoke a viewer to take action.

In all likelihood you’ve spent a lot of time and money creating video, either on your own or with a video production company. Have you tracked your return on your investment? That is something definitely worth calculating. You must know at all times what your ROI is.

Let’s say you spent $10,000 on 5 videos. The production team spent all day in your office and each video, after editing, came to about 1 minute to 1:30 mins. The cost per video in this instance is $2,000. The production company might say to you “If you get only one case from a video, the fee you get will have paid not only for that one video, but for all five of your videos.” That sure sounds like a line from the yellow pages rep who would visit my office on a yearly basis. She made it sound so convincing when she came in to renew my yellow pages ad that I had a hard time saying no.

For me, I recouped my yellow pages investments, but just barely. Calls were few and far between. I was on page 9 of 11 full page ads. By the time someone got to my ad, they had already been rejected by eight other lawyers.

The video production companies who help lawyers create video have changed their way of creating video. They’ve moved on from creating a single “intro” video that cost $5,000-$10,000 just a few years ago, to creating multiple videos for around that same price. I’ve seen some wedding videographers knock the price down to $2,500 for 7-10 videos. I always ask those wedding guys if they know who the lawyers’ ideal client is? They don’t and that’s a big problem. They tell me they create broadcast-quality video. I believe them. But that’s only half of the equation.

The other, more crucial part is content. It’s knowing how to get the videos found in the search engines using white label strategies that are proven and tested. It’s not just about creating good technically proficient videos. It’s getting the videos recognized; getting a viewer to have enough curiosity and interest to click on your title; getting them to watch your video in its entirety and most importantly, getting that viewer to call or email you after watching that video. If your video production company can’t show you, using proven tactics that they have the know-how to do this, then you’re paying for something that will look pretty but be nothing more than watching your money evaporate into the internet ether.

Let’s turn now to the other side of the coin; attorneys who create video on their own. There are lawyers who think they can master this video thing all by themselves. Some can, but most have not yet been able to do that. Some lawyers don’t want to spend the money to shoot video with an experienced video production company. Instead, they want to do it all themselves.

Those are the type of lawyers who would rather climb up a ladder to fix a leaking roof instead of calling a roofing expert. That lawyer will try to fix their broken watch by buying a do-it-yourself fixing book about watches. When the electrical system in the house breaks, that lawyer would rather spend a week learning how to fix the problem himself instead of hiring a certified and qualified professional electrician. This lawyer is the type of person who, when his car breaks down, eagerly spends two weeks fixing his car in his driveway and walking to work, instead of spending the money to bring it into a mechanic and get it done in one day.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great when someone has the ability, desire and time to learn to do things on their own. However, really smart attorneys and business owners realize that the way to make tons of money is to leverage their time with other people’s expertise. Here’s what I mean. If you are a transactional attorney and you bill at $400 per hour, and it will take you 2 days to edit two hours of video, the amount you could earn doing legal work would be conservatively $6,000. Is it worth it to you to spend that time editing your own video instead of earning $6,000?

It’s always a time/cost trade-off. What if you could hire a video editor to edit those two hours of video for only $1,000? Would that be a more cost-effective and economical use of your time? I should think so.

I know there are lawyers out there who think they can become a videographer using their iPhone4, their Flip camera or their Kodak Zi8 and that’s great. There are also lawyers out there who think they can become video editors using iMovie or Sony Vegas or Final Cut Express, and that’s great too. Then there are still others who believe they can become video distributors and publishers. Good for you. But wait…aren’t you still a practicing attorney? How do you have the time to do all that and more? Are you going to be using your skill to create a side-business or are you just going to keep all this information to yourself for your own benefit?

Most lawyers just want to practice law. They don’t want to get involved in marketing or video marketing. Rather, they want someone to do it all for them, and that’s good too.

So, Mr. or Mrs. Lawyer, where do you stand?

Are you closer to the lawyers who want to do it all themselves, or are you a little closer to the lawyers who want experienced and tested video production experts to do all the video work for them?

2011 will be a great year for those lawyers who implement their decisions to change. Video marketing should be done smarter, with more knowledge, information and content. Content will rule in 2011. If you lack content and a compelling reason to call you, you will revert back to the startup days of internet marketing. Make this year your most successful one ever.

To your success!”

Gerry

How To Choose A Collision Repair Shop After An Accident

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No one likes to be in an accident. Aside from the damage accidents do to your car and your body, the aftermath can be a hassle, as you haggle with your insurance company and find the right body shop to properly fix your car. To get the best work at the best price, what should you look when choosing a body shop?

In addition to turnaround time, affordability and quality of work, also be sure to find out the following from the shops you’re considering: how long they’ve been in business, what type of cars they specialize in repairing, what type of guarantee they have, and whether they offer supplementary services you need, such as rental cars or loners.

Referrals Are Often The Best Source For A Competent Collision Repair Shop

If possible, check among your co-workers, friends and relatives for a recommendation for a shop that has done a good job for them. Some shops, especially small family shops, don’t even have an internet presence because they have built a successful business on referrals alone. Check Google for reviews. If a shop has plenty of reviews and the majority of them are raving, there’s a good chance you’ve found a keeper.

Assessing The Price

Whether you are paying for repairs yourself or your insurance company is picking up the tab, you want to make sure that you are paying a fair price for the services you will receive. You probably don’t know what a reasonable price is, so always get several estimates before making a decision. With an estimate in hand from three or four different shops, you may find a big difference in price. How can you tell whether the shop that offers the lowest price will do quality work? How do you know that the highest priced vendor is worth it?

A low price shop may use cheap aftermarket or salvage parts and fewer coats of paint and clear coat on your vehicle than a higher priced alternative. On the other hand, the parts used might be OEM replacements and the shop just happens to have lower overhead costs so they pass the savings along to the customer. This is why it’s important to compare each section of the estimates side-by-side to see how much is allocated for parts, labor and other costs.

Be wary of any other factors that might make a “cheap” shop too good to be true. For example, a shop may not have fire and theft insurance, which works in your favor in the form of lower prices. However, this also means that if a fire or burglary should occur when your car is in the shop, the liability falls squarely on you (or your insurance company if you’re covered for those features).

Labor Cost As A Factor

The biggest line item on a collision repair estimate is labor costs. This figure not only reflects the amount the shop owner pays his workers in the shop, but also the amount of overhead he pays. If the shop is located in a pricey area or if there is a big front office staff to support, the hourly cost you pay might be higher than elsewhere.

Also, you might be charged more hours for the same job. Shops tend the use a reference manual of standard hours to estimate what a particular job should take. Some shops may add on “gray” charges by allowing for steps they might have to take in the worst case scenario or by itemizing the various components of the job. This can be confusing to the consumer, and unfortunately some unscrupulous shops will capitalize on your uncertainty. Your best protection is to carefully compare estimates, and don’t be afraid to ask very specific questions about the costs until you are satisfied with the answer.

Making Your Decision

If you don’t have recommendations to go on, take factors into account such as the length of time the shop has been in service, the way the shop looks and if they have the latest in auto body technology, how busy it is, and your gut feelings. Check with the local Better Business Bureau and look for online reviews to guide your decision, too. Quality is not cheap, and in shopping for a body shop, you want to balance paying the right price with excellent workmanship.

Employed Or Self-Employed – Getting to Grips With Employee Status

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UK employment laws are extremely complex and with the government introducing regular changes, many UK employers often struggle to keep up to date and keep their business compliant.The thought of complying with these complex UK employment laws often leaves business owners concerned and unsure about employing staff directly and so many choose instead to use self employed workers, thinking this means they won’t need to worry about typical employment related matters… but it’s not that simple!An increase of atypical contracts has effectively blurred the lines between self-employed and employed status and so employers should be very careful when entering into any sort of working relationships.Increasingly, disputes over the definition of working relationships between individuals and Employers are being referred to Employment Tribunals where preliminary hearings are being used to determine the legal definition and, in many cases, businesses who thought they were contracting self-employed individuals have found they are actually employing them and so immediately find themselves subject to the full range of UK employment law.So how can employers work out whether the working relationships they have with individuals are that of employer/employee or employer/self-employed?Over the years, various different tests have been used to determine the nature of working relationships between individuals and Employers including the ‘Control Test’, the ‘Integration Test’ and the ‘Economic Reality Test’ but these days, preliminary hearings held by Employment Tribunals use the ‘Multiple Factor Test’.The ‘Multiple Factor Test’ looks at a number of different factors opposed to just one or two. The factors normally taken into consideration include but are not limited to the following:

Does the worker receive a regular wage or a one off payment or fee?
Can the employer dictate the place of work and the way it is to be carried out, in other words what is the employers degree of control in the relationship?
Does the employer have the right of exclusive service?
Does the employer have the right discipline and the power to dismiss the worker?
Who owns the tools or other means of production?
To what extent is the employer obliged to provide work for the worker to perform and to what extent is the worker obliged to accept such offers of work? Commonly known as ‘mutual obligations’.
Recent case law suggests that the minimum criteria to establish a contract of employment is mutuality of obligations and control but this is no guarantee that the presence of these two criteria means there is definitely an employer/employee relationship. However, if either of these is missing then there won’t be an employee/employer relationship.It is critical that employers correctly determine the nature of the working relationship they have with their workers and then review their contracts to ensure they are compliant with current legislation and are what they actually were intended to be.Given the complexity of UK employment law, and the potential impact and cost that getting it wrong could have, employers should speak to qualified experts to prevent problems and protect their business.