Short-form videos at varying lengths have been popularized across a variety of digital surfaces over the past few years. The shortest of these videos, hovering in the 15-second range, present a particularly compelling option for law firm marketing funnels because they have the potential to grab potential customers’ attention quickly and convey an impression of value founded in legal acumen within a comparably short period of time. Video content posted to social media spaces additionally tends to have a cumulative effect (thanks to the frustrating-yet-fascinating properties of the algorithms that drive these ecosystems) in which discovering any one video tends to increase that chances that a user who pauses to view that video will see more from the same law firm. When used as the basis for a marketing funnel, 15-second “micro-videos” can function as efficient tools for prompting potential clients to reach out and book their consultations.
How Do Marketing Funnels Work?
The digital marketing industry is full of “jargon” terms that serve a genuine function as a type of shorthand for those working in marketing and adjacent fields, but can easily seem opaque to individuals in other professions. Even if you already know you want to work with a digital marketing agency to develop your law firm content strategy and prepare most or all of the materials for distribution, knowing what these industry insiders mean by terms like “marketing funnel” puts you in position to ask important questions and take an active role in determining your law firm’s voice and overall marketing vision.
What Is a Marketing Funnel, Anyway?
A marketing funnel is a thought construct marketers use to conceptualize the “stages” customers go through on their way to making a purchase. The funnel represents an idealized version of this process, with the customer’s level of interest and intentionality increasing as they are guided through a series of progressively more and more focused steps, created by the marketing team (thus mimicking the narrowing of a funnel, guiding potential customers toward a transaction in a way that is intended to imitate the way a funnel ensures that liquids can be poured through the mouth of a container without spilling out over the edges).
Reality is of course much messier than this stylized representation, but many digital marketing professionals find the funnel construct a useful touchpoint as they are designing content and making strategic user experience (UX) decisions to encourage progression through the stages. The goal is to meet potential customers “where they are” at varying stages of their decision-making process, in order to more effectively engage them through targeted content. While they can be labor-intensive to produce, 15-second micro-video clips can often be a compelling tool for attracting interest and communicating value at key stages in this process.
Marketing Funnel Structure
That the funnel is a conceptual tool used for marketers’ convenience, more than a realistic description of any individual’s actual experience of gathering information and deciding to conduct a “transaction,” is demonstrated by the wide variability in the number of stages digital marketing professionals specify for their funnels. If you spend any significant time browsing content related to marketing funnels, you will see that leaders in the industry may identify as few as three stages, or as many as seven.
Generally, the greater the number of stages specified, the more precise the granularity of the conceptual model. How much precision is needed may depend on your overall marketing goal for a particular project or campaign. As a rule of thumb, in digital marketing funnel stages are understood to run in tandem with customers’ “intent,” often inferred from their search queries. The collation of funnel to search intent is imperfect because not all potential customers enter the funnel through search, but to a significant extent marketing professionals prefer more detailed funnel stages as a reference when it is strategically important to understand the stage of the funnel suggested by a particular degree of intent, or to understand the level of intent that can be expected of a potential customer engaging at a particular stage of the funnel. In other words: Starting with either model enables you to make some projections for the other.
Advantages of Micro-Video Content for Conversions
One reason to consider integrating micro-videos into a law firm marketing funnel is that short-form video content is both familiar to audiences and generally appreciated by them. These factors, taken together, position 15-second video clips to attract attention and positive engagement across multiple stages of a marketing funnel, so in many cases it may be helpful to intersperse these clips throughout the distinct conceptual stages of the customer journey. Keep in mind that potential clients are more apt to think of their own browsing and decision-making more as wandering exploration than as steps in a specific journey; it is the job of the marketing team to entice their exploration in the law firm’s direction by creating a trail of “bread crumbs,” in the form of engaging content.
Micro-Video Functions in a Marketing Funnel
Micro-videos support the “funnel” effect by:
- Creating initial brand awareness
- Providing valuable information
- Building trust
- Communicating value
There are, obviously, non-video options for addressing each of these goals, but the way social media platforms have habituated users to short-form video content tends to work in a marketing funnel’s favor, as 15-second clips encourage a familiar and therefore low-friction progression at each stage.
Thinking Small: Micro-Videos Meet Micro-Conversions
Many content marketing strategists use the concept of “micro-conversions” to track the minute details of customers’ behavior as they engage with content at each stage of a marketing funnel. Obviously the “big” conversion that affects your law firm’s bottom line will be the decision to book a consultation, by calling your office phone number (ideally in the same page they are browsing) or filling in a scheduling link (also preferentially positioned to minimize navigational steps). Realistically, however, many people are not going to skip straight from an initial encounter with your law firm’s content, regardless of format, to booking an appointment with one of the firm’s associates. Thinking about the marketing funnel in terms of micro-conversions gives marketers a way to account for, and address, the myriad smaller decisions an individual makes at each stage of their own journeys.
Getting on the Radar
Very short videos (often as little as 15 seconds) can be an ideal tool for making your law firm’s initial impression on a potential client’s awareness. YouTube Shorts and TikTok videos both show occasional “pull” in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), particularly for searches that are looking not just for “informational” content but more specifically for process demonstrations. With a marketing funnel, however, you may not necessarily want to rely on someone actively searching for what you have to offer.
Micro-Videos on Social Media
One important advantage of micro-video content is that it can easily be integrated into your content strategy across a variety of platforms, and on all of the major social media platforms it is typical eligible to be shown to users you might not even have known to target, based not on characteristics you selected but on the interests demonstrated by those users. Social media integration of your micro-video funnel content means that your law firm does not have to rely exclusively on potential clients’ active legal queries.
Getting Customers on the “Hook”
The versatility of micro-videos for driving conversions at both macro and micro levels through multiple stages of a funnel means that marketing funnels centered on video content will often emphasize social media distribution for an initial “hook” video that serves as an enticement to explore the law firm’s content further. This “hook” can come in several forms, but some of the most common include:
- “How-to” guides: Identify a common process that often frustrates lay people, and give a rapid breakdown of the key steps.
- Illuminating updates: Point out a recent change in law or court decision whose effects are likely to have implications for your law firm’s ideal clients; give an “elevator speech” explanation.
- “Meet the attorney” or “behind the scenes”: Address some aspect of the practice of law that is typically invisible to people outside the profession; aim to make the reveal informative, yet entertaining.
Each of these videos would need to be accompanied by a CTA inviting viewers to click through to additional content/information, thereby nudging them through a micro-conversion and into the next stage of the marketing funnel. Often these CTAs include the offer of a free resource, such as a downloadable e-book or an educational video series on the same topic as the short clip.
Building Trust
In a few lucky cases, you may actually net a conversion straight to your scheduling link from one of your awareness-building videos aimed at the wide mouth of the funnel. Generally, however, one of the main functions of micro-video content at those early stages is simply to get the potential client off the social media platform (where distractions abound) and into a digital environment where they will be engaged with your content exclusively (typically your law firm website or a dedicated marketing funnel landing page). Often there will be multiple pathways to this point, both as “mouths” for the funnel and to capture people who enter the funnel already well along their customer journeys.
Because trust is often one of the crucial factors in the micro-conversions that move prospective clients from general awareness and interest toward a more particular curiosity about a specific law firm or attorney’s approach, an important role of micro-video content at the middle stages of a marketing funnel is to emphasize knowledge and authority. The content needs to position you as a reliable source of information in your practice area, while remaining accessible to the general public. You only have a few seconds to capture attention, so make them count. Five-point steps for preparing your finances for a divorce, identification of the specific statute behind a recent court decision, the legal definition of a term that is more loosely used in casual conversation than in law: These all help to cement the initial impression of expertise, while demonstrating a genuine interest in connecting with clients and making complex legal issues easier for the non-specialist to grasp.
The “Big” Conversion: From Curiosity to Consult
Depending on how finely the stages of your marketing funnel are divided, you may have numerous trust-building videos, each designed to foster increased trust in your legal expertise and professional commitment to serving clients, while also nudging visitors toward additional micro-conversions and progressively tightening the association between your law firm and the topic that initially drew their interest. If the micro-videos have been effective through all these precursor stages, then at the narrow end of the funnel you have an opportunity to present them with a compelling opportunity to consult with you personally.
The twin goals of content this end of the funnel are:
- Eliminate as many sources of friction between the customer and the consult as possible
- Underscore the urgency of taking action
This end of the funnel is an excellent place to emphasize the law firm’s approachability, reducing the disincentives to make the call. At the same time, often short-form videos at this stage are tailored to create a sense of urgency centered on the advantages of legal advice that could directly address customers’ personal circumstances. If your law firm offers no-cost consultations or specific scheduling accommodations, often CTAs that underscore those options can be highly effective at this stage. Maximize your conversions by using the tools of each platform where your content is delivered to integrate “call now” buttons or scheduling links.
Be Ready To Take Those Potential Client Calls!
Because online videos can generate leads at any time, day or night, make it a point to ensure that your answering system is set up to handle calls that come through after normal business hours, or while staff are already occupied. Take steps to confirm that online contact forms and scheduling links are automatically transmitting contact information to your law firm’s CRM system and forwarding information about each query to the appropriate personnel. Assign a staff member the responsibility of checking digital accounts daily to capture any messages that may have been missed (or assign each potential contact method to a specific, separate individual on your team). Micro-videos can create momentum driving potential clients to make contact; you want to ensure that your law firm lives up to the impression your clips have created.
Annette Choti, Esq. is the founder of Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency that helps growth-minded law firms increase their online visibility and convert more clients. She is also the author of “Click Magnet: The Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide for Law Firms” and Click Magnet Academy. Annette used to do professional comedy, which is not so far from the law if we are all being honest.
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