Local accounting and law firms are using online video as a powerful tool for marketing and training, while some are even selling online content itself as a product offering.

“We have internal and external uses for webinars,” said Samantha Deeder, communications director for Moss Adams, LLP, an accounting firm with offices up and down the West Coast, including one downtown and one in Woodland Hills.

“They are a good way to save clients money, because they cut down on travel expenditures,” she said. “Plus they’re almost zero dollars to produce, aside from the soft dollars in time putting presentations together.”

Deeder also likes the fact that the use of webinars (online seminars), allows for enhanced tracking of attendance and effectiveness of the material being presented.

“The webinars we produce are extremely client focused with timely and important information relevant to our role as their accountants and consultants,” she said. “They’re part and parcel of client service.”

According to Deeder, webinars are also tools for enhancing her firm’s visibility and branding efforts.

But, according to another CPA, firms accounting firms, such as Moss Adams, that employ the use of video as brand-enhancers are still the exception.

“A lot of accountants don’t think they need to be involved with marketing or advertising at all,” said Michael Rozbruch, founder and CEO of Tax Resolution Services (TRS) in Encino.

Rozbruch, who is a CPA, but is quick to point out that his is a tax-resolution firm – not an accountancy, believes professional service providers who rely solely on word-of-mouth and traditional advertising methods are at a growing disadvantage.

“The train has already left the station,” he said. “I’m spending 25 percent of my day doing online business, on things like webinars, and it’s still growing.”

If the online video train has already left the station, accounting and law firms (or any type of business for that matter) need not panic; there’s always another train coming down the line.

Using YouTube

After all, YouTube is still a growing phenomenon through which companies continue to invent new ways to reach markets every day. In fact, Google, YouTube’s parent, recently reached a deal with major studios to offer full-length features via the video-content venue. That move and others is predicted to continue pulling eyes away from television screens and the pages of newspapers in the years ahead.