Video is making inroads with the business crowd — including buyers of professional services — as a medium best known for cat videos and TikTok dance trends extends its reach into B2B marketing. With online video increasingly influencing purchase decisions, including it in your marketing plan can reap big dividends, boosting user engagement and providing an opportunity to resurface and spotlight existing content.

After two-plus years on Zoom, in-house counsel and other executive decision makers are warming up to the benefits of visual content, from online meetings and webinars to video clips they can watch quickly and then share to their networks.

And while B2B audiences don’t necessarily prefer videos over other content types, almost half of marketers say interviews with subject matter experts and influencers produce the best video results.  Videos performed better than other types of B2B content assets such as in-person events and long articles or posts over the past 12 months, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

Law firms and professional services organizations are sitting on a trove of written content that can be efficiently transferred into video soundbites to re-ignite conversations and interest in key topics and issues. Video can underscore your firm’s distinct positions of authority and even help you win the war for talent by showcasing your organization’s culture, vision, and values in a way that feels personal and welcoming.

The good news is that video is much easier to do than you might think, and the expectation for quality isn’t high. Clips ranging in length from a few seconds to two minutes don’t cost much to produce, and have a high engagement rate on social media, according to Gartner.

Here’s what you stand to gain by incorporating video into your firm’s communication strategy. 

Videos Help Authorities Build Trust and Establish Credibility

Today’s smart conversations are increasingly shared, promoted, and consumed through video. If you want to position your firm’s authorities as relevant, savvy experts in a digital-first world, video is an important element in your communications toolbox. 

Video mimics the look and feel of in-person communication, offering another way to build trust with your audience. It can also humanize your spokespeople and allow their personalities and style to shine through.

Of course, communicating effectively in any medium requires practice and preparation. For video, your authorities must learn how to:

• Distill complex topics into 30, 60, or 90 second soundbites
• Maintain eye contact with the camera to make the audience feel they are being spoken to directly
• Speak clearly without verbal fillers like “um,” “like,” and “uh”
• Convey enthusiasm and warmth without sounding overly excitable
• Reinforce key points using presentation slides or other demo tools

Video Guides Your Audience to Your Thought Leadership Content

Search algorithms tend to favor web pages with video content, so embedding video can also help you attract more visitors to your site via organic search.  Consider video a value-add to your existing content and editorial strategy. It should pull from — and point to — the wealth of useful, authoritative content you’ve amassed. 

Comb through your existing content library and create videos that highlight key points from high-performing assets. Email videos to your audience and promote them via social media channels to drive traffic back to these pieces.

Repurposing key pieces of content using video will spark fresh conversations around salient issues and lead your audience to dive deeper into topics that are pertinent to them. 

Video Elevates Your PR Communications

Video can also be an effective way to make your internal and external communications more engaging. For example, employees and stakeholders, including busy executives who don’t have time to read an in-depth report or whitepaper or engage with a lengthy presentation, can benefit from watching a short video outlining the key takeaways.

Here are some ideas to help you think through video’s PR possibilities.

• Annual Reports and updates. Have your organization’s leadership share highlights from your annual report and provide regular updates, perhaps on a quarterly or bi-annual basis. 
• Recruiting. Give prospective employees a sense of your firm’s culture by interviewing members of your team or showcasing unique aspects of your work environment.
• Partner/new hire introductions. Send clients a short video introducing new members of your team and let them know of any opportunities to meet the team in person.
• Mergers and acquisitions. Entering into an M&A deal requires thoughtful communication, especially for professional services firms that may have hundreds of partners, shareholders or principals spread across multiple locations. Filming leaders from each firm together can be a powerful way to show a sense of unity and shared vision. 
• Emotionally charged situations. In difficult situations such as a reputational crisis or a tragic event, consider using video to convey your CEO or firm leader’s authenticity and vulnerability. This can help your audience understand and process your message more readily.
• Leadership transitions. These scenarios present an “all eyes on you” moment. You’ll need to craft a compelling organizational narrative to communicate effectively with stakeholders and the public during a change of this magnitude. Video can be a powerful way to do so.

 A word to the wise: make sure PR videos are tightly scripted and well-contextualized so there’s no risk of viewers misinterpreting your message now or down the road.

You Don’t Need a Film Crew to Reach Your Audience Through Video

To reach your audience, it’s crucial to communicate with them in the channels and methods they’re most comfortable with. Fortunately, the barrier to entry for creating video has gotten much lower.

Professional services firms often hesitate to add video to their communication strategy because they lack professional equipment. But in today’s world, it’s common for videographers to shoot beautiful, crisp videos using an iPhone, a ring light, and a free video editing app. Modern technology has made it possible for anyone to create engaging, high-quality videos from anywhere. 

So don’t delay. Use video to establish and strengthen your firm’s authority. Repurpose high-value evergreen content. And communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders about the issues that matter to your firm.