TRP 306: [Legal] Build Authority and Win Clients with Video with Robert Weiss

[00:00:10] You're listening to The Rainmaking Podcast, hosted by high-stakes headhunter, author, and professional speaker, Scott Love. You're listening to The Rainmaking Podcast, and my name is Scott Love. Thank you for joining me on the show today. This is part of our series of legal-specific content, things that are going to help you within your law firm.

[00:00:34] Several months ago, I spoke at the Northeast Chapter for the Legal Marketing Association's conference, and while I was there, I met Robert Weiss. He's the executive director and producer of Multi-Vision Creative. It's a creative video agency, and his niche is within the legal industry. We got to talking, and I learned some things from him, and I decided to have him on the show. And today, we're talking about how you can build authority and win clients with video.

[00:01:01] He's going to share some tips and ideas that I think will help you, regardless of your role within a law firm. If you're in marketing, this is going to be good for you. If you're a partner in a firm, this is going to be good for you as well. We put Robert's contact information, as well as a link to some tips that he has, on the show notes, so make sure you check that out. Also, as I mentioned in previous episodes, the Managing Partner Lab is May 14th and 15th in New York City.

[00:01:24] It's a collaborative two-day in-person workshop designed exclusively for managing partners and executive directors of law firms. The agenda and all the sign-up information is on the show notes, as well. I'll be speaking there if you attend. I'd love to meet you. Please say hello. As always, this podcast is sponsored by SurePoint Legal Insights, formerly known as Leopard Solutions, turning legal intelligence into opportunity.

[00:01:48] And the show is also sponsored by The Rainmaking Magazine. Don't lose business to the competition. Read this publication and keep business development top of mind. Visit therainmakingmagazine.com today to chart your course to greater rainmaking success. Thanks for listening, and I hope you get some great ideas from my interview with Robert Weiss today.

[00:02:11] Hey, this is Scott Love with The Rainmaking Podcast. Our guest today is Robert Weiss, and we're talking about building authority and winning clients with video. Robert, thank you for joining me on the show. Thank you very much. Excited to be here. Me too. For everybody that's listening. And I'm glad we got to meet at the Legal Marketing Association Northeast Chapter Conference in New York City this past fall. It was nice to see that someone like you, a real professional, is plugged into that community.

[00:02:38] And obviously, your expertise is why. And I want to kind of dig into that and pull out ideas that can really help our listeners. And so let me ask you this question, the why of video. Why do you think that helps build authority? Oh my gosh. Let's think about the ways that firms, attorneys build authority today. Right. They get in front of people at conferences. They blog. They do webinars. They meet people. They go networking.

[00:03:09] Okay. They're people to people. Interactions. And they inform and educate. And they act like who they are as a professional. They have no scripts. They answer questions. They provide information in a human way. That's exactly what video does. Extremely well and better than any other digital marketing mechanism out there. Yeah, yeah. And thus, it builds the know, like and trust factor.

[00:03:39] Even when somebody gets a referral, that referral is still going to vet you out. Them out. So it helps the person that is the ultimate buyer say, yeah, I trust this person. Or at least I trust this person enough to make a phone call or send an email to them to start the process. I agree with you 100%. I've seen that in my own life. I just don't see it as much in the legal community. And I know you work with other types of professional services organizations too. Yeah.

[00:04:08] But why do you think, and maybe you might see it more prevalently than I do, but do you think this is something that has really caught on to professional services, especially law firms? It has not. It has not. The overall space with video on a scale of one to 10 of companies that are doing it strategically, meaning they have a thoughtful and deliberate approach with the cadence is a two, which represents who's ever listening. The opportunity to understand video.

[00:04:38] It will take you about two years to get video down. And we'll talk about that later as to why. Right. But yeah, there's not a lot of companies out there that are really, that really understand that video does plug into many different business objectives. And one video is not a video marketing strategy. Yeah, that's right. I liked what you mentioned and I want to highlight this thoughtful and deliberate approach with thoughtful. Yes.

[00:05:08] Yep. What does that mean? Kind of break that down for me, please. Well, just jump back. That means, you know, one video is not a video marketing strategy. Okay. So you buy into that check. Where do you get started? Right. You know, you have got multiple practice areas, multiple offices or just one, but many practice areas, many lawyers.

[00:05:30] You have your website, email marketing, PR communications, social media, events, webinars. You got all this stuff to do recruiting. You know, there's so many things that you need to do. SEO. Those are all business objectives. So where do you get started? Right. So we have a saying, when you first start thinking about video, the first thing to do is to forget about video. Right.

[00:05:57] If you are focused on your healthcare practice and you have a big event coming, don't do videos for your firm overview or for your bankruptcy practice. Right. Or maybe you've gotten some laterals. Or if there's a practice area that you want to develop or SEO is important to you, you are going to create content for that specific initiative. So video should flow, should push.

[00:06:26] Cause what video does is up KPIs of every single metric out there from awareness to conversion to sales productivity, social media, email, click through rates, SEO dwell time. So when you have video that compliments what you have planned from a business perspective, you can create that. So that's the, the planned and the, the thoughtful and then the cadence.

[00:06:53] Well, the thoughtful is actually how you're going to use that video in the different areas. I hear a lot. Well, we'll just create snippets and we'll put in social media. Like, no, like, you know, be deliberate about what you create in the production. So you have that correct content. Many times you can get the content, but sometimes you can't. So let's be thoughtful about that deliberate. And then the cadence is okay, great. We just did the healthcare practice.

[00:07:21] Oh, but now we have recruiting is important because we're going to be in front of, you know, colleges in the next, you know, three months. Well, let's do recruiting videos. And then we're going to be in the bankruptcy area and let's do bankruptcy videos. So that's the cadence that you have of doing video and aligning it with your, your business plans and going through that cycle of creating video.

[00:07:47] Cause the healthcare practice partners are different than the bankruptcy practice partners. They both need to learn how to be in front of the camera. And that takes time. So that's what I'm saying is it takes you about two years to go through that planning, shooting, marketing, planning, shooting, marketing, and understand how video gets distributed and how people use it and how to do it right. You know, many times you're just not going to do stuff right the first time.

[00:08:16] And this is, that's, it's a reality. So let's say there's a firm listening to this and they're thinking, you know, we've been wanting to do this. We know it works. We're just so busy. We've got our CMO. We're going to work with you. They're going to hire you. And they're going to say, Robert, help us, help us with our bankruptcy practice. First, we want to highlight laterals. And by the way, I've seen some firms that have amazing YouTube channels with just video testimonials from laterals, you know?

[00:08:43] And so I know it works and I've actually sent those to people I've tried to recruit because it's a good story and they see these human beings talking about that. And there's, there's other things I can kind of input into that. But where do you think they should start first? Let's say there's one project. Should they come up with storyboards? Should they have a plan for each video? What do you, what do you think they should really get their arms around that? So they have a strategy bankruptcy, for example, right?

[00:09:12] I would say storyboards, no. That's old school storyboards. If you're going to do a big movie, motion graphics animation, sure. If you're going to go and shoot and there's a hundred people that need to know what it looks like, you do storyboards. That's a lot of budget to do storyboards. Yeah. Most law firms don't have that. What I would do if they came to us, I would say, okay, what's your content plan over the next three months? Can you tell me the top five questions that your attorneys got asked over the last three

[00:09:42] months? Oh, wow. Do you have a webinar that you've done? Send me the PowerPoint deck. You've got the content. The content's there. So that becomes your storyboard. And they write down the answers to their questions. They write down their content plan. And then, you know, they put a couple of bullet points below each one, kind of like an outline,

[00:10:07] you know, index kind of format on a Microsoft Word document. Great. That's your plan. Yeah. Now that, that particular project is more for like brand, like partner authority, subject matter, expertise, content marketing. If they wanted to do like a practice area overview, or if they wanted to recruit for that practice area, it would be a similar process. Right? Why should somebody work here? You know? Oh, because we've got so many offices.

[00:10:36] We have like good movement. We have snacks, you know, like you have all these different bullet points as to why. Okay. So then that becomes your messaging. Yeah. But again, we don't need a script. We don't need to storyboard that. That's the stuff that the professionals do, us, that kind of has nothing to do with the cameras and equipment. The cameras and equipment, how we execute that. But it's, video is a big professional service of getting people aligned with the content,

[00:11:06] you know, planning for coaching them on camera. And of course, you know, the editing process. Now you mentioned, give me a PowerPoint of a recent webinar. What would you do with that in a video, in a video context? Well, if somebody is doing webinars already, they already have checked the box that thought leadership is important. Okay. But most of the time you'll see a webinar where you have the big screen and then like the little partner up at the top. That's right. Yep.

[00:11:35] It's like lots of words, lots of words, lots of words. I can take that webinar and break it up into five videos, 10 videos, but I'm going to, I'm going to make it like me. Like I am full screen right now. And yeah, we might take some of the assets from that, that webinar and then pop them on screen. You know, maybe like, you know, like full screen like that with text, right? Or maybe like a sidebar like that with text at times.

[00:12:04] So I'm using all of the information, the assets, the creative, the insights from that webinar, but I'm putting the partner full screen. So people can get to see the partner and their mannerisms and how they talk, but still get the information. And what I'm also doing is I'm taking that one 45 minute webinar and breaking it up into a two minute here, three minute here, one minute here, four minute here.

[00:12:31] So now the marketing team has many doorways versus just one. And there might be, there might be a salient point at 27 minutes in that webinar that will never get watched, never get heard because people are not going to watch that very few anyway. And they take that excerpt out and they push it out through social media. And well, it's, it's not an excerpt. All right. So again, plan thoughtful and deliberate.

[00:12:59] We are, we're taking that PowerPoint and then we're putting an outline together. So we know what we'll just say five, five videos are. Okay. So we'll know which five videos. We'll know some of the talking points of each of those videos and the reasons why those five are being made. All right. And yeah. So it's thoughtful and deliberate. All right. And then we have something called a video first marketing strategy.

[00:13:25] So I'll come out show right here, which is basically taking that video and using that across blog posts, websites, email nurturing campaigns. Maybe there's a follow-up email. You know, those videos are sitting somewhere and somebody gets a referral and say, Hey, Scott, you know, I, I heard that you do a bankruptcy law and I have a blah, blah, blah problem.

[00:13:50] And you're like, Oh, I have a series of videos for you to, to, to look at as well, to get to know us, understand how we think. Let me send that to you. And let's talk next Thursday. So you want to use those videos across all the different channels. And when you have five versus one, you have more pieces of content to do that. That goes into the first thing that we talked about, which is the know, like and trust factor

[00:14:16] and being human and getting people to, to, to see you and get to know you and like you. These are great ideas. Let's say somebody listening to this is in a very large firm and the marketing team just doesn't believe in this. Yeah. We tried that once and it didn't work out. Do you think they can do something on their own similar to what you talk about? Maybe. I don't know that.

[00:14:41] I would say probably the likelihood would be lower of it being quality and professionals because part of video is actually telling partners what to do. And most marketing teams at law firms with the, maybe the exception of the CMO or some high level director, just sorry, don't have the, don't have the con is to tell partners what to do. Yeah. I get that. You know? And that's part of what I do. My job is to make sure that partner looks and sounds great.

[00:15:11] And I have had to say some hard things to say to people. Right. But they're thankful for it because they're, they're not going to like that video when it gets done. And if they don't like that video, then, then I haven't done my job. Right. So I need to be able to tell people sometimes hard stuff. And I don't think a marketing person can do that. And the other thing is that they just, you know, it comes down to experience and we are all experienced in what we do.

[00:15:40] There's things that I'm going to pick up that they won't unless they've done, you know, hundreds of videos. I've done 1700 videos. Wow. So I've worked with a lot of people. That's amazing. That's amazing. And let me, let me also say that if that law firm has done video and it hasn't worked before, then do it again until they get it right. Yeah. Right. Cause sometimes you just, you do something once and you don't get it right.

[00:16:08] Think about the first website you had, or you had an email marketing campaign. It was just crap, right? You're still going to have a website. You're still going to do email marketing. So you're going to do that. So what do you think the people that you've worked with where you work with them and it works and they get the results, they're building their authority. They're converting clients. What are the common characteristics of those firms? Number one, they've been open to our ideas.

[00:16:37] A lot of people come to us with, oh, I want a video and I see this, this does this. I'm like, okay, great. Can you tell me about the business objective? And we slightly change the deliverables or the approach to it. Mm-hmm. So that, that's been a common thread to a lot of our successes over the years, both with law firms and without. And then they have a, they have a marketing plan.

[00:17:06] They actually, you know, have thought about, and there's very few that have this, but I could name probably more than five. And again, I'm going to law firms and over law firms that either a, they, they heeded some of our advice about a video first marketing strategy. Cause we always talk about that's part of our services, right? So we always want to try to, you know, have that service included. And we're happy to consult with somebody on a short term to help them at least do that

[00:17:35] themselves because it's not rocket science. It's just, you need to know it. So I think those are the two things that, that are germane to having a successful program. And I guess the third is just doing video again, not having it be a one-off understand that it does take a little bit of time for those videos to resonate in most cases. But when you build video over video, it's just going to compound. That's fantastic.

[00:18:03] You've probably worked with firms where they hired you and they didn't get the results for whatever reason, or they weren't committed to it for whatever reason. What, what do you think those pitfalls are that really keep this project from being successful? I think it comes down to the marketing strategy. I really do. And, and not every video is going to be successful, even though you want it to be. Cause it maybe just doesn't land with the audience, right? Maybe it doesn't.

[00:18:31] So I think that's the biggest thing. If they're working with us, the assumption is that they've spent enough to make a quality production. That doesn't mean underspend or overspend. That means the right value for, for what they need. And then I think it comes down to the execution in terms of getting it out there. Cause I've had clients come to me like, oh, we want a video to help us build our awareness of our, our company product, whatever it might be. And I'm like, well, video is not going to do that. Like what?

[00:19:01] I'm like, you need to use that video. You need to spend money to get that video out there for people to see it, for it to do what you want to do, but to do. You know? So that, that's the key thing. That's the answer to the question right there. This is great, Robert. You've shared some insights for us that I think a lot of people know makes sense. They just haven't done it before. Is there an inflection point in the development of an organization to where now they say, this is what we need?

[00:19:30] Are there common themes that you've seen with those organizations, especially law firms, where now we need to do this? No. Mm-hmm. I think video is a personality trait. The people who understand that video is important, either they've done it before without a lot of success or they understand it's important. They want some help. So, literally, I speak to law firms or I try to speak to law firms all the time. And there's some out there doing it, doing it well. Some okay.

[00:19:59] Most of them are ignoring video. It's crazy. I don't get it. Yeah. But it's the, right now it's the personality. I think in five years they're all going to do it because now they've seen everybody else do it, right? Think websites, email marketing, SEO. No, these are digital marketing technologies that took about 10 years to germinate and to seed before every firm was like, yeah, I need to do that now.

[00:20:26] Or I got a website in 2008, but now 2015 is like, and I need a good one. Right? And that's the trajectory of video. So, right now, I know you're going to ask this probably later, one of the action items is get started today. Because in five years you're going to be doing it anyway because everybody else is. And it'll take two years to really get your mojo down. Get started today. You know, you can invest a little, you can invest a medium, you can invest a lot.

[00:20:56] It's up to you. But the investment is independent of getting started. Because you can make very, very different levels of investment to get started. Do you think that this might be perceived as something risky? Law firms in particular, they're not innovative. They don't even like to be innovative. They just want to keep their head down, grind it out and not change. Do you think that could be a reason why? Do they just see it as risky?

[00:21:25] Do they, do they think that video might be showing that we're trying too hard or maybe it's lowbrow or something like that? Do you think those might be reasons why a lot of it, a lot of the firms haven't done it? Yep. Thousand percent. Thousand percent. And we actually have, somebody is listening to this. They might even get this, this email because we just queued off a sequence, an email marketing sequence today to the lawyers, to the silk. And I can't remember if it's the second or third, it's the first one.

[00:21:54] And it's actually, it's a blooper reel. So we're saying, hey, check out this blooper reel of 13 attorneys having fun on camera. And we're saying, you know, that we understand that most people think it's risky or it's a high risk, but we have a remote solution to make it low risk and still high quality for you. Yeah. And this blooper reel is all shot remotely.

[00:22:18] It's like 13 attorneys at maybe 10 different locations, you know, and it's all like high quality content, but all done remotely, which means you don't need an all location crew, which lowers the investment, still gives high quality content and lowers the risk. So absolutely. So absolutely. I think they think it's risky, but also because I think they don't understand what they could do with it.

[00:22:46] And they are used to spending 30, 50, $80,000 on one video. And that's just old school thinking. Yeah. You've really given us some fantastic ideas today, Robert. I'm going to, I want to bring our, we've had to bring our conversation to a conclusion. And I always like to summarize things in three action steps. You mentioned one of those earlier, but if you could kind of encapsulate this into three action steps people can take to really get started with this, what would those be? So I said before, get started today.

[00:23:16] Number two, focus on your, your business objectives to decide where, and then focus on the things that you're hearing. What are questions that your clients are asking? What's going on in the news that people care about? What are you saying to people at your next conference as terms of content? And then third, make sure you have an action plan, whatever that is.

[00:23:44] Now it doesn't need to be the best, but have an action plan that you can at least execute. And then when you do it a second time, you can build on that action plan. Yeah. So those are the three things. That's so good. That's so good. I know you've talked a little bit about what you do, but just give us a full overview, Robert. What does your company do? What would you like our listeners to know about you and your offerings? Well, it's a company that's Multivision Digital.

[00:24:11] You go to multivisyondigital.com and we're all about video, video, video, video, video, video, video, video. Good. We're going to put all of your links in the show notes. And thank you for being here. This is insightful. Like I said, I've heard a lot of people talk about business development, thought leadership. This is the first we've done really with video with this type of perspective. So thanks for being here. Thank you for listening to the Rainmaking Podcast.

[00:24:40] For more information about our recruiting services for international law firms, visit our website at attorneysearchgroup.com. To inquire about having Scott speak at your next convention, conference, sales meeting, or executive retreat, visit theraanmakingpodcast.com.