When you think about “content marketing”, what specifically comes to mind? Chances are you are thinking about blogs, infographics, or articles. Perhaps you are thinking about social media and online posts? While those are all extremely useful and important weapons in your “Content Marketing” arsenal, there is still one glaring omission you should be considering; videos.
Video Marketing is arguably one of the most underutilized strategies in most healthcare practices; though it really is a shame given the significant benefits videos provide. For example, studies have shown that 74% of users who watched an explainer video for a product or service resulted in a purchase. Furthermore, 80% of marketers noted an increased dwell time on their website due to videos and on social media, videos tend to generate 1,200% more shares than text & image content combined. These are just a few of the incredible stats all reiterating the undeniable positive impact video has in marketing. But how do healthcare providers successfully utilize video in their marketing strategy you might ask? It may actually be easier than you think!
It’s easy to assume that creating videos requires a Hollywood budget with professional lights, cameras, and effects, but that’s just not true. While a little production value can certainly go a long way to helping your videos look more professional, you can still create captivating footage with your smartphone. Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh proves this very point by filming a feature-length film on an iPhone which you can watch on Netflix. So to help start your journey of incorporating videos into your practice marketing, we have outlined a few suggestions for the types of video content you can consider making.
“About the Team” Videos
This is perhaps the simplest place to start. Record a short video introducing your team to visitors of your website. This goes a long way in familiarizing any potential new patients with your practice and really helps build trust in the process. Just find a nice backdrop like your office or waiting room and start introducing yourself genuinely like you would if you were meeting in person. This video does not need to be long or even scripted, as long as you keep your introduction warm, inviting, and professional you have hit the mark.
Treatment Videos
When a patient views your website, specifically the ‘services’ section of your site, they are often looking for answers. They want to learn a variety of things such as the cost, will the treatment cause pain, or what the recovery time looks like. They are curious to learn these things and though you may do a fine job explaining a lot of this in text form through your blogs or website, a video is another simple and effective way to help share this information in an easily digestible way. This may be something you consider for some of your more common treatments or procedures, especially if you are routinely getting these types of questions from your patients. These videos can also be shown to patients who are seeking treatment, and possibly help improve case acceptance.
Educational Videos
You already know that as a healthcare professional, the general public trusts you as a reliable source of information pertaining to their overall health & wellness. As such, feel free to use your website or social media as a platform to educate the public on a variety of healthcare-related topics you know they are curious about. Sharing useful information about current events in healthcare, new studies or treatments being offered, or combatting common misconceptions in medicine are all great ways to help your patients learn something new while also building trust as a healthcare professional and thought leader in the process.
Culture Videos
This is not too dissimilar to the “About the Team” video we discussed earlier as it also grants your current and prospective patients alike the opportunity to learn a little about your team. And in this case, you might find yourself having a little more fun with the process! There are many doctors who have really embraced the opportunity to showcase their practice’s culture through video, and they’re often very entertaining, fun, and memorable. Whether you and your staff are celebrating a birthday, holiday, or just the end of a long week - you can use these videos to help capture the culture of your practice and make its viewers feel like they know you a little better.
Publishing Your Videos
Once you recorded your first video, the next step is to show it off to the world. One of the easiest, and most effective, ways to do this is by uploading your video to YouTube. Did you know that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world (after Google)? And since Google purchased YouTube in 2006, embedding YouTube videos on your site is an extremely effective way to improve your search engine rank as Google algorithms love to see this fresh, new content living on your site. That’s why at DoctorLogic, we make it super simple for our clients to add YouTube videos to their site and take full advantage of all the SEO benefits these videos have to offer.
In Conclusion
We’re confident that once you have made your first few videos to showcase on your website, you will see the impact on the positive exposure it has on your practice and you will want to make more. Videos are such a great way to engage your website visitors with meaningful content, and they can be great fun to make if you are willing to make the effort. With that being said, if you find your practice struggling to incorporate videos into your overall content marketing strategy, please feel free to reach out to us. We have multiple video packages we can recommend which will help you gain all the benefits of video without breaking the bank.