The simple lawyerly answer is, “As long as it needs to be. “The better answer is not to worry about how long it is. Really. Don’t sweat how long (or short) your video is.
Let me tell you why…
In the early days, legal marketing ‘experts’ claimed that you should never have a marketing video longer than one minute in length. They claimed that viewers couldn’t hold their attention beyond that of a gnat. When I started creating a video to market my solo law firm, I thought that advice was total bull. There were no studies any of these so-called experts could point to in order to support their claim that shorter videos were better than long-form style videos.
Eleven years ago, when I created my very first video, I proved that 1-minute theory wrong. My mindset at that time wasn’t focused on how long my video was. To be honest, I didn’t care how long my video was. Instead, I was focused on providing my viewer with answers to their questions. If it took me 5 minutes, great. If it took me 3 minutes, that was fine too. My objective was to provide them with the information that they were searching for.
I wasn’t sure my theory was true, as I hadn’t tested it yet.
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Before creating my first video, I had seen attorney TV commercials on YouTube that were either 30 or 60 seconds long. As I watched, I couldn’t understand why anyone would voluntarily want to watch a lawyer commercial. Conversely, I saw some enterprising marketing guys put up attorney’s horribly long and tedious CLE lectures. Neither of these styles of videos appealed to me
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I thought there was a better way to communicate to viewers. “Why can’t I teach them something they didn’t know?” Was my mantra and impetus for creating my first video. My very first YouTube video was 6 minutes long. Within days of posting my video, I started to get calls from viewers who searched for information, found my video, clicked on it, and watched it till the end. That prompted some of these viewers to call me to ask for more information. Six minutes long and Viewers were watching! At least they told me they were watching. I didn’t know how to tell for sure, but I gladly relied on their word.
Once I started getting calls, a light bulb went off in my head. If people were searching, finding, and watching my six-minute video then, “Why can’t I create more videos to help my consumers learn how lawsuits work in New York?” I thought. So, that’s what I did. I created videos explaining how cases work and I didn’t care how long my videos were. And along the way,
I found a sweet spot, though. I found that my viewers liked 2-3-minute videos. So that’s what I created hundreds and hundreds of them.
When I lectured to attorneys across the country at legal marketing seminars, I would get asked every time how long their marketing videos should be. My answer was always the same, as I pointed out above. “As long as it needs to be,” was my typical answer followed with a caveat…
“I personally like the 2-3-minute sweet-spot,” I would say.
“But my marketing guru said I should never create video longer than one minute,” they’d say. I’d often tell them to listen to their guru since that’s what they wanted to believe. Who was I to convince them otherwise? Besides, if I knew that they’d continue to pump out marketing videos under one minute, then now I knew an easy way for other attorneys to differentiate themselves from those other competing lawyers. How? Glad you asked. By creating longer education-based videos. I also explained that it was impossible to generate trust with a viewer in a 30 or 60-second video. “The best way to generate trust with a viewer who has never met me or spoken to me is to teach them something they didn’t know,” I’d tell them. The best way to do that is to take the time to explain how the legal process worked energetically.
My Mindset Has Changed
You should know that over the years, my mindset about video length has evolved.
You might be wondering if I reversed course and now believe in making shorter videos.
Actually, no, I have not reversed course—just the opposite. Now, eleven years after creating my very first YouTube video, I have created my 3000th video on my YouTube channel. My current mindset is to create longer videos than my sweet spot early on. When I say longer, I really mean longer. Now my videos are. Six minutes long Seven minutes long. Four and five minutes long. When I look at my stats to see how long my videos are watched, I notice my average watch time fluctuates between 3.5 to 4 minutes. That’s the average!
My stats reveal that many viewers are watching till the end of my lengthy videos. Obviously, some viewers are dropping off early and never get to the midway point of my video.
I have found that viewers who are interested in a particular video have a desire to learn more. That prompts them to click on another related video of mine talking about a similar topic.
One video lead to another, and another, and that often leads to viewers leaving comments on my videos. That prompts me to respond to their comments. That prompts other viewers to reply. Before you know it, there are multiple comment threads. That organically tells YouTube (as one of its signals) that this video is interesting to viewers who watch and take the time to comment.
That prompts YouTube to position this video higher when someone searches for information about that topic.
I Don’t Care if a Viewer Watches My Entire Video
To be perfectly honest, I don’t care if a viewer watches my entire video from start to finish.
Why? Because I know that viewers who have questions and are interested in learning the answers will stick around until the end, they often have more questions about their legal problem. Frankly, I more concerned with generating and establish trust with my viewer.
The best way to establish trust with someone you’ve never met before is to help them understand their legal problem. Do it in an educational, conversational, and energetic way, and the next thing you’ll know is that viewers will leave comments like “I wish you were my attorney!” “You explain things so much better than my law school professor.” “I love your videos! You make it so easy to understand how my type of case works.” When you get daily comments like that, you realize that viewers appreciate the content you’ve created. That leads you to create more videos with similar content and similar length. That leads you to more subscribers and viewers who eagerly await your next video.
Marketing expert Dan Kennedy was famously asked how long ad copy should be.
His response was, “As long as it needs to be.” The fact is that people read long ad copy.
“But I would never read such dense text in an ad,” an attorney says. “Well, you are not your ideal client or consumer,” is the appropriate response. And that’s true. Don’t think for a second that your viewers are like you or that they think like you. They don’t. Just because YOU don’t think a viewer will spend more than a minute to watch, your video doesn’t mean your viewers think the same thing. To truly know the answer, you must test it. Your analytics will tell you exactly how long viewers are watching.
If Viewers Aren’t Watching My Entire Video, What Do I Do About It?
If you find that viewers are not sticking around for your five-minute video, the question is, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to reshoot your video to make it shorter? Are you going to make it longer? Before deciding on a plan of action to address your lagging video, I need to point out the obvious. Honestly, ask yourself why viewers are not sticking around till the end of your video. Is your production quality awful? Is your content awful? Is the manner in which you present your material awful? Are you boring? Is your viewer distracted by something in the video such as poor lighting, shaky video, or poor audio?
There’s a good chance some or all of those factors are contributing to why your viewers are not sticking around. The good news is that all of those are fixable. But before you can fix the problem, you have to identify which of these factors are likely the culprit. Only then can you reshoot your video to help your viewer understand how their type of case works.
So, how long should your marketing video be? As long as it needs to be, of course!
Till next time, see you on long-form educational video!
