Posted by Ben Harris, marketing director at Legal Futures Associate tmgroup [1]
Harris: managing a successful YouTube channel doesn’t have to be time-consuming
Some are firms beginning to take advantage of YouTube as a means to communicate with their clients and prospects.
Your firm could also benefit from having a YouTube channel. Here are some pointers on where to start if you are thinking about setting one up.
Why should my firm have a YouTube channel?
YouTube is now one of the first places people turn to if they are looking for an answer to a question, whether they are trying to fix their dishwasher or fill out their tax returns. Buying a house is no exception.
By building up a collection of useful YouTube videos, your firm can become a first point of call for people setting out on their house-buying journey and put you on their radar before they even begin to think about selecting a conveyancer. These videos can also help to liven up your firm’s website and social media output, and subsequently attract new clients.
Such videos can also help to save you time, as you will be able to direct clients to these informative videos early on in the process, once again highlighting your firm’s expertise and positioning you as educators.
Where do I start in setting up my own YouTube channel?
A good starting point is to talk to all of your fee-earners about your clients’ frequently asked questions, and areas where they feel a video could help to clarify a situation.
You should quickly be able to spot some common trends, and write a list of high-priority content to work on.
Look at other firm’s YouTube channels
There are a number of firms already using YouTube channels to communicate useful information to their clients.
Set aside time in your day to do some research. Watching relevant YouTube videos, and looking at the number of views each video has had, should give you a good idea of what works well and what doesn’t.
We really like this ‘Guide to buying and selling a house’ video [2] from Gotelee Solicitors –
Decide how you are going to film your videos – and what your budget is
You can start a YouTube channel with as much or as little budget as you would like, from employing a professional team to create the videos on your behalf, to filming the content in your office on a smartphone.
Once you have settled on an approach, the important thing is to maintain some degree of consistency so all of your videos reflect your firm’s branding and look like part of the same series.
Share your content and start raising your profile
After you have created your first videos, you need to start placing them where they can be seen:
- Add links from your website through to your YouTube channel;
- Embed relevant videos on the different pages of your website;
- Embed videos in email campaign mailings;
- Share videos on Twitter and other social media channels; and
- Invite your clients to subscribe to your YouTube channel.
Don’t forget to regularly review all of your content
It is equally important to regularly review all of the content you have posted on your YouTube channel to make sure all of the information is accurate and up-to-date.
Remember, these videos will have your firm’s name on them and be seen by your clients. Displaying out-of-date information could undermine your firm’s credibility.
Just a handful of targeted videos can make all the difference
Managing a successful YouTube channel doesn’t have to be a time-consuming endeavour, as you don’t need to create hundreds of videos to make an impact. You just need to focus on answering your FAQs.
If you are really stretch for time, you could even consider bringing in an intern to get the project up and running. What are you waiting for?