Animoto: An Inexpensive Way To Create Professional Looking Videos For The Web

Jeff Berman
March 24, 2011

I created the video above using Animoto, a service I recommend and discuss below.

The Difficulty In Creating Online Video

Incorporating online video into your law firm's web marketing strategy is a great way to connect with potential clients. Videos can be a very effective part of a good web marketing strategy. However, it is often expensive, time consuming, and difficult to create professional looking videos. The barriers to create a video, that you are actually comfortable putting on the face of your marketing, causes many law firms to avoid producing videos entirely.

To be honest with you, we face the same hurdles here at AttorneySync. In the past, we have produced short, educational videos utilizing screen capture services such as Jing(free service) and Camtasia (paid software). Recently, we have been searching for an alternative way to create professional looking videos that wouldn't break the bank. Specifically, we wanted to create a video for our homepage that quickly described the types of services AttorneySync performs. However, we didn't want to spend thousands or even hundreds of dollars to do it.

Introducing Animoto

Animoto is an engine that takes photos, video clips, music, audio, and text and mashes them into a very professional looking compilation. In their own words:

Animoto automatically produces beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces from your photos, video clips, and music.

The thing I like most about Animoto is the simplicity. It is extremely easy to use even for those of you that are not technically inclined.

The Process

When you first visit Animoto, you are able to create free videos, up to 30 seconds in length, that you can use for non-commercial purposes. This is a great way to test out how the service works and see the results before committing to any type of a paid package. If you do decide you want to use the service for your business, there is a subscription option for $39 a month which gives you access to create an unlimited amount of videos, use licensed music, a call to action button after the video ends, commercial license, HD quality video, and exclusive video styles not available with the free version.

The first step in the process is to select a video style you want to use. This will determine the look and feel of your video.

Next you will upload photos, screen shots, video clips (which are limited to 10 seconds in length to keep the flow of the video), and any text you want to appear. Once uploaded, you can easily sort the various components in whatever order you choose simply by dragging and dropping each selection.

The next step is choosing the music you would like to accompany the video. With the paid version, you can choose from a large catalog of licensed music or use your own audio files. The cool aspect with the music is that Animoto actually builds your videos around the tempo of the music you choose.

In the last step, you review the selections you made and choose a destination url and call to action to appear after your video (assuming you are using the paid version). After that, the video is rendered and you are sent an email upon completion to view your new video. From there you can share the video, embed it into your website or blog, etc.

I found the software simple and easy to use and actually had a good time with it. While not every style of video will fit into the mold of what Animoto offers (ie: if you want to do longer screen captures or interviews) it is absolutely a tool to use in your arsenal for creating professional looking videos.

youtube guide

Free Guide: How To Get Your Law Firm Videos Found In YouTube

Want to learn how to get your law firm videos in front of more potential clients?

Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Getting Your Law Firm Videos Found On YouTube.

Jeff Berman
Jeff Berman, is co-founder of AttorneySync. "Properly marketing a law firm online is about producing relevant content that helps a prospective client understand your expertise and how you are able to help them. Finally, it’s about getting that content found by the people you are trying to help."
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Let's Discuss Your Growth

Helping law firms grow profitably with digital marketing and can prove it.

Barry Conybeare

We are so impressed with AttorneySync and their digital marketing services. We started with an audit of our digital presence and hired them thereafter. Fixes to the website and other platforms quickly followed and we have seen a substantial increase in online traffic, new client calls, and new client contracts. Strongly recommend AttorneySync!

Let's Talk

How can we help?

More From Our Blog

March 13, 2025
Lawyerist + Lunch Hour Legal Marketing Collaboration

Conrad and I recently joined Zack at Lawyerist to record a conversation about AI and marketing. You might think that we spend the whole time on how lawyers can use AI to publish content. You'd be wrong. While AI can certainly support publishing, there are many more interesting ways to use it in legal marketing. […]

Read More
March 11, 2025
ChatGPT Legal Services Consumer Journeys and Marketing Attribution

As more legal services consumers turn to ChatGPT for local law firm recommendations, a fascinating intersection between AI, search, and maps unfolds. While Google remains the undisputed leader in local business data, ChatGPT is increasingly becoming an entry point for searchers seeking legal representation. But here’s the kicker: instead of keeping users within its ecosystem, […]

Read More
March 10, 2025
Law Firm Brand Amplifies All Marketing

When law firms contact us, they usually want to talk: • PPC Ads • SEO Rankings • Lead Generation Very few want to talk: • Brand • Trust & Recognition • Emotional Connection Admittedly, much of this concerns that AttorneySync is known for lead generation across those common digital channels. But even when we start […]

Read More
March 6, 2025
Artificial Intelligence Overviews (AIO) in Legal SEO

According to an October 2024 study by SE Ranking: "The legal niche triggers the highest percentage of AIOs (77.67%). The average number of links matched between the AI Overview resources and the top 20 search results was 6.49 for legal topics. AI Overviews for legal topics most frequently link to NYCourts.gov (114 links), YouTube.com (48 […]

Read More
February 27, 2025
You Can’t Hire for Law Firm SEO If You Don’t Understand It

I'm grateful for my friend, Charley Mann of Law firm Alchemy. If you're a lawyer, subscribe to his Free Email List. In a recent email, Charley calls out bad guru advice on hiring: "Trying to execute a major SEO improvement? You need to find people who will help you, instead of trying to DIY it […]

Read More
February 26, 2025
Law Firm SEO Success Isn't What You Think It Is

If you’ve spent any time on LinkedIn, you’ve likely seen posts from law firm SEO experts showing off charts with an “up and to the right” trajectory. These screenshots, often pulled from tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, are meant to signal SEO success. And it’s not just the agencies celebrating—𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 […]

Read More
February 15, 2025
What "Meh, Links" Means

Meh, links! All things being equal, links still tend to move the dial more than any other factor in legal SERPs. Maybe links are having a diminishing impact internet-wide. But in my experience, quality links, especially relevant links (both topically and geographically), tend to improve law firm visibility in search more than most everything else. […]

Read More
February 11, 2025
Law Firm Community Leadership: Do Well by Doing Good

When you think of "marketing," what's the first thing that comes to mind? Ads? SEO? Social Media? What about: Helping others?Taking the lead? Rallying around your community? Need an example? Learn from Bart Siniard at Siniard Law Injury Attorneys efforts to help rebuild Mary's Pit BBQ. These efforts aren't about marketing. They're about supporting a […]

Read More
February 7, 2025
Small Law Firms Are Beautiful

The Beauty of Small Law Firms: Why "Small Is Beautiful" in Legal Practice As you may (or may not) have seen on LinkedIn, 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀. 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱. I recently received an email from a real practicing lawyer requesting the following: "Somebody on Linkedin […]

Read More

Let's Discuss

Questions or comments? Let's discuss on social!
Testimonials on this site are from examples of real client results. The results you see are not typical. They do not guarantee similar results. Individual results may vary based on a variety of factors. Your results may vary.
envelope
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram