With 1.3 million attorneys in the U.S. today, one of the biggest problems many lawyers face is simply getting noticed. It’s a hard fight to grow your firm if you don’t stand out among the competition.
Solo and small firms can rarely compete with large firm marketing budgets, so how can you stand out in the crowded legal landscape? The solution: brand your firm and send the right message to the right audience.
Meet Tacoma, Washington attorney, Jocelyn Stewart. A 7-year veteran of the Army JAG Corps, Jocelyn (Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart) specializes in Military Court-Martial Defense.
After branching out into private practice, she was looking for ways to attract new clients and cases. After debating different marketing options for her firm, Jocelyn decided to make a substantial investment in video marketing with Crisp Video Group.
The Challenge
Jocelyn’s challenges were multi-faceted. She was looking to grow her web presence, differentiate her practice, improve search rankings, and attract consistent quality cases.
In addition to attracting new high-value cases, Jocelyn also wanted to branch out from her regional Washington-based practice to take more cases on a national level. Here’s how she did it.
The Strategy
Jocelyn partnered with Crisp Video Group to produce a high-quality brand video and a series of high-quality FAQ/educational videos to brand her firm and grow her online presence.
For her legal brand video, the goals were:
- Establish trust and expertise by communicating her Court-Martial Prosecution and Defense experience in the military
- Build rapport with viewers by demonstrating results from past cases through client testimonials
- Communicate firm excellence by branding through high-quality video content that stands well above the competition
For the legal FAQ and educational content, we conducted keyword research to determine what Jocelyn’s ideal clients were searching for online. After determining what keywords potential clients were searching and the corresponding monthly search volumes, we narrowed the list down to 26 highly-targeted long-tail keywords that would provide the most benefit to her firm.
Some example search strings are:
- “How long does a court-martial stay on your record?”
- “What are the consequences of a letter of reprimand?”
- “How can I win at a court-martial?”
- “How do I respond to a letter of reprimand?”
- “How long does a misconduct investigation last?”
The 26 FAQ and educational videos were then scheduled for release on a bi-weekly schedule for the duration of a year to provide a steady stream of valuable content.
In addition to hosting video content via streaming services like YouTube, we created blog posts to repurpose this valuable video content and strengthen Jocelyn’s website SEO.
The Results
Of the 24 currently released video topics:
- 4 rank #1 nationally
- 10 rank within the top 3 nationally
- 16 rank within the top 6 nationally
- 20 rank within the top 10 nationally
Here’s what Jocelyn says about her initial results:
“During initial consultations conducted since the release of the videos [nearing 100 consultations, and in my highly specialized field, this number is huge given the target market I seek out and am finding] over half comment unsolicited on the video’s impact on them.
I get calls from people who are moved after having seen the brand video and others who are impressed by my evident mastery of the subjects in my FAQ videos.”
– Attorney Jocelyn Stewart, Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart
Not only are her videos attracting new consultations, they are driving qualified leads that quickly turn into new clients and cases,
“Prospective clients are impressed! I can say my videos have assisted me in securing several new clients already. They have been instrumental in generating new business.
People constantly provide positive feedback about the videos and that they were a positive influence on their decision to hire me.”
– Jocelyn Stewart
In addition to attracting new cases, the SEO-based video strategy has had a major impact on her online presence, a paramount goal for her nationally-focused law firm.
Here are Jocelyn’s website metrics before and after the release of her video campaign:
Watch time increased from 89 to 1,029 minutes, video views increased ten-fold from 61 to 662 views, referral traffic increased from 1,533 to 3,099 visitors, and organic search traffic increased from 942 to 1,836 visitors.
As a long-term SEO-based strategy, Jocelyn’s FAQ videos continue to rank higher and drive new clients and cases.
With all metrics pointing to a successful campaign, the biggest achievement lies in the overall growth of Jocelyn’s law firm. Initially a solo practice, the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart grew to a 3-attorney firm in the short year after the video campaign’s release.
With the goal of expanding her firm and attracting new national cases, Jocelyn Stewart’s video strategy promises to drive results as the firm continues to grow.
