If you were to ask me the ONE thing that will compel a viewer to pick up the phone to ask you questions, it would be this: TRUST.
That’s it. Trust. They have to trust you. If they don’t trust you, they will never pick up the phone to call you. They will never become a client of yours. They will never step foot in your office.
Why not?
Because they don’t trust you. You won’t realize they don’t trust you till later. You won’t realize your videos aren’t generating the calls you expected. You won’t understand why your viewers are not calling you.
I can pretty much assure you that if I watch your videos, there’s a good chance you haven’t generated trust with your viewer.
How Do You Generate Trust?
If you ask five different legal marketing ‘experts’ how to generate trust, you’ll get five different answers. “Objection!” I yell. “That’s answer fails to answer the question!” That’s true. So let me turn the question around and answer it with another question. When a new client comes into your office and you sit with them, how do you generate trust? Think about that. When you meet someone new for the very first time, what makes you trust them? When you go into a store to purchase a big-ticket item like a car or a watch or jewelry, what makes you trust the salesperson?
Lawyer 1 says: “When a new client comes into my office, I razzle them with my great knowledge of the law.”
Lawyer 2 says: “When a new client asks about our communication policy, I explain how we send update letters to them every month.”
Lawyer 3 says: “That’s nonsense. When a new client comes into my office, they’ve already received my book that explains how the lawsuit process works. They’ve already gotten a link to watch my three intro videos explaining how my office works. By the time my new prospective client comes into my office, they are so well informed, they usually have no questions and my conversation with them is so much shorter than if I don’t send them this stuff.”
I ask each lawyer how many of their new clients sign up with them using their methods of generating trust.
Lawyer 1: “Many clients. I don’t know the number. I don’t really keep track,” he says.
Lawyer 2: “A lot of them do. It’s not a metric I really pay attention to,” he answers.
Lawyer 3: 100% of the new clients who show up in my office sign up with me,” he says. “That’s be-cause they already trust me before they ever come into my office.”
Your goal when creating a video is to generate trust with your viewer before they ever pick up the phone to ask you questions. Before they ever step foot in your office.
Let’s go back again to my question I asked earlier…
How Do You Generate Trust With Someone You’ve Never Met Before?
The answer is simple. You teach them something they didn’t know. You explain how their legal process works. To really understand the answer to this question, you must also understand the mindset of your viewer. Failure to do this exercise will result in you creating video without the key element needed to generate trust.
Let’s go to the timeline of when your viewer realized he needed legal help; maybe after it was the death of his spouse. Maybe it was after he was home recuperating from his car accident. Maybe it was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital after falling down an elevator shaft. There has to be some triggering event that prompts an injured victim to realize he needs an attorney. Remember, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “Gee, I wonder which attorney I’m going to call if I fall down an elevator shaft today!”
Understand that a percentage of injured victims will know an attorney or know someone who can recommend a trusted attorney. Those are direct referrals, and your videos are not designed to attract those people.
Your focus is on those people who don’t know an attorney. Those who don’t know a friend or relative who can recommend a good attorney. Your videos are designed to attract those people.
Out of all the different types of advertising and marketing media available, many will still go online to start their search. But keep this in the back of your mind. Most people who go online are not searching for [Your town & the type of law you handle]. Not many type in “New York Medical Malpractice Attorney” when they think their doctor caused them harm.
Instead, they oft en have questions about whether they have a case. “Do I have a valid case?” “How much does it cost to hire an attorney?” “Do lawyers get paid aft er the case is over?” “What if I sue and lose?” “How do depositions work?”
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These injured victims have questions. Lots of them. Questions about THEIR problem. Questions about how their type of case works. That’s what they’re typing into Google and YouTube. They don’t want to scour page after page of lawyer websites after typing in “Medical Malpractice Lawyer in New York.” Besides, there’s no objective way for anyone to compare and contrast which is the best lawyer for their legal problem just by looking at individual lawyer websites. They start to watch one video that partially answers how their case works.
That leads them to a related video by the same attorney talking about how an attorney evaluates a case to determine if they have a valid case. That leads to another related video by the same attorney, who explains how much time they have to start a lawsuit against their careless doctor.
Not surprisingly, they continue to watch one video after the next.
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They’re learning. From you. From your expertise and knowledge. You’re teaching them something they didn’t know. You’re explaining how their type of case works. Next thing you know, you get a call saying “Hi Mr. Medical Malpractice Lawyer, I just watched ten of your videos explaining how medical malpractice cases work. I have a similar problem and wanted to know if you could answer my questions…”
What have you done to generate that call? You’ve generated trust. You’ve created a bond with your viewer. Remarkably, you’ve never met your viewer. You’ve never spoken with your viewer. Yet when they call you, your viewer feels as if they already know you. They feel they can already trust you. They feel comfortable with you. Why? Because you took the time to answer the questions going on in their head. You anticipated the questions they had about their legal problem. You were there when they went searching online for answers to their legal questions.
Astonishingly, without having met you or spoken to you, they want to hire you for their legal problem. That’s what happens when you create trust the right way.
Notice that not once did you tell your viewer how long you’ve been in practice. Not once did you tell your viewer what prompted you to become an attorney. Not once did you tell your viewer what kind of results you achieved for other clients. Not once did you tell your viewer where you went to law school. Not once did you mention whether you were on moot court or clerked for a judge. Not once did you tell your viewer how many years of combined experience the lawyers in your office have. Nor did you mention your relationship with adjusters and insurance companies. Nor how hard you fight for your clients’ rights. Nor how aggressive you are. Why not? Because your viewer doesn’t care about those things. Those ‘things’ don’t generate trust. It’s true. I’ve said it and I’m sure many legal marketers and vendors will not appreciate me saying that. But it’s a fact.
The only thing your viewer wants to know is how you can help solve their legal problem.
The moment you begin to answer the questions swirling in their head, you’ve now calmed their fears of the unknown. You became the wise man at the top of the totem pole. Who do you think is more likely to get a call asking for help? You or your competitor who talks about all those other nonsense ‘things’ in his videos?
The answer is you. Why? Because you were able to generate trust. Your only goal when creating a marketing message on video is to get a viewer to call. The way to get a viewer to call is to generate trust. Failure to generate trust is a surefire way to make sure your viewer never calls. By the way… Hopefully, you see how today’s topic applies to every form of marketing and advertising you do as an attorney. Whether in person talking to a new client or in a magazine ad or even (dare I say it) a yellow pages ad. You should be doing this in every single video you create. In every advertisement you publish. Not only will this help you stand out from your competitors, but you become the only logical choice when your viewer is deciding who to call for more information.
Need help generating trust in your videos? Call me. I can help.
Till next time, see you on video! ◆
