Got YouTube?

This is the text from my September article in the Louisville Bar Association’s Bar Briefs (page 9).  I recently gave up an hour of my life for the sake of my clients and this article. Google’s CFO and Chief Business Officer hosted their 2015 second-quarter earnings call, in July.   I listened in to see what they were reporting. If there’s one thing that came through clearly, it’s the way YouTube is contributing to Google’s overall growth and profitability.

Google’s Earnings Report Emphasized the Growth of YouTube

The growth of YouTube (acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65B) translates into some interesting opportunities for law firms. If you read my May 2015 Bar Briefs article, you learned how video marketing in rural areas offers your firm a competitive advantage.

Take a look at some of the results from Google’s earnings call:

• Google confirmed that YouTube has +1 billion active users
• YouTube watch time increased by 60% year over year
• On mobile, YouTube attracted more viewers aged 18-49 than any US cable network
• The average YouTube session on mobile is now 40 minutes (a 50% year over year increase)
• Searches starting at YouTube.com are up 300% year over year

The consumption of video content continues to grow at an astounding pace. Even more importantly, consumers show a strong preference for video-based content vs. text-based.

I’ve spent much of 2015 working with law firms to develop video-marketing strategies. The initial objective is to augment tools they currently use such as websites, blogs and social media. However, it’s important to remember the secondary objective – helping them to get videos into Google search results to increase new business inquiries. As this is happening, we’re also seeing these videos begin to dominate in YouTube search results. Remember, searches starting at YouTube.com are up 300%.

As indicated in the above Google statistics, people are rapidly adopting YouTube as a legitimate, information resource. This can be an advantage for firms who want to incorporate some type of video, but shy away from TV advertising.

Law firms are electing to allocate marketing dollars to the production of online videos. These marketing assets can easily be distributed via the firm’s website, blog posts and social media properties. For solo and smaller firms, online videos offer a way to compete with more aggressive advertisers. Read more →