If you are a medical practitioner, who has not included YouTube into your marketing strategy, you may miss out on opportunities that might have come your way. Today, videos happen to be the most preferred type of content among the online audience.
And with the growth of streaming technologies, access to the video has become easier. Besides this, unlike text-based content, a video can talk to the audience to make a lasting impact.
YouTube is not only one of the most visited websites in the world after Facebook, it also happens to be the second-largest search engine after Google. Hence, a healthcare brand must be conscious of the marketing potential of a video on YouTube.
If done with the right intent, strategy, and tactics, it is bound to bring in more awareness to your brand and more appointments to your medical facility. Youtube intros have become a popular way of promoting one’s brand as well. You can learn about it by clicking here.
This write-up seeks to address medical practitioners who need to include YouTube into their overall online marketing strategy. Before we delve into the ‘How,’ let’s just understand the benefits of YouTube for healthcare professionals.
Benefits of Video Marketing on YouTube
Video marketing is not a new avenue, people have been using it, but the combination of video over the internet has been a game-changer, with easy access being the most notable attributes. Here we look at the other attributes:
- Improved online visibility: By now, we all are aware of the fact that Google owns YouTube, and the trends that run Google search engines are also applicable to YouTube. This makes SEO strategies on YouTube effective in getting video ranked high on search results for corresponding search queries.
Besides, search results on Google are known to show YouTube video results. This makes it apparent that strategically made videos have good chances of being visible on both Google & YouTube, adding to a healthcare brand’s visibility. - Improves Engagement: When it comes to choosing a medical practitioner, people often find it difficult to arrive at a choice. Websites certainly do not showcase the entire picture in terms of the value the healthcare facility and medical practitioner has to offer.
Video helps a great deal in bridging the gap between the patient and the doctor through video content that can inform and educate better than any other medium. It brings in a whole new level of clarity to the patient requiring medical attention. - Cost-Effective Marketing: YouTube is unlike any traditional form of marketing. It stays away from the trappings of media and print. This kind of video marketing is far less expensive than traditional advertising and gives you good value for money.
Paying for video ads on the platform is based on conditionalities like video watch time above certain time-limit or even pre-defined engagement actions. Moreover, the reach and impact of the video ads can be measured and tracked as per requirements. This makes it a platform ideal for healthcare brands conservative about costs and ROI. - Targeted Advertising: Just like Pay-Per-Click advertising, YouTube allows you to choose locations you want to target. Also, you have the option of choosing the channels and the type of content you want your healthcare brand to associate with based on user preferences. This makes it a tremendously effective advertising platform.
Types of Videos for Healthcare Brands
Promotional Videos
- Patient Testimonials: Written testimonials are great, but video testimonials take it to a different level. Showcasing video testimonials can establish trust and add to the credibility of the institution and the medical practitioner. When you show a cured patient, you are providing hope for the patients-in-waiting through the video.
- Staff Introduction: Choosing a healthcare facility does not mean only a doctor, but it also includes medical support staff that performs an integral function. It is a good idea to showcase them in videos to put future patients at ease about people who are expected to look after them.
- Office Tour: This might not receive many viewers but it would certainly help patients get an idea about the facility where they are going to spend some time. This would be the waiting room or the exam room. You could begin the video with a nice intro to get more views.
- Special Offer: Most often, you might be providing a service at a discounted rate. It may be a good idea to get it across to patients in an articulate manner without room for any ambiguity.
Educational Videos
- Procedure Videos: Certain medical procedures can be quite intimidating to a patient. With a video, it will help the patient be at ease with a better understanding of the procedure.
- Pre & Post Treatment Videos: Such videos are extremely helpful in propagating treatment efficacy by a medical practitioner. This can establish faith and a genuine sense of trust towards a doctor and his treatment approach.
- Patient FAQs: Many a time, patients can be hesitant about asking questions frankly to the doctor. In such situations, replacing the doctor with a video consisting of possible questions and answers will do the job better than any written word.
- Specialty Videos: The focus here is to alleviate or prevent a specific health concern. It could be as simple as a video on flossing by a dentist or summertime skincare by a dermatologist.
Conclusion
You can be misled about the fact that it takes a lot of investment to produce a good video. It may be partially true, but on YouTube – videos made from regular smartphones have gone viral. If a brand starts small and remains true to the content being produced, it will find an audience motivated enough to consume it.
Over time, as you gain traction, you can invest in high-end equipment to offer better production values. You could start with a decent phone camera and a microphone and edit video online on available tools. Above all, the crux here is to broadcast a well-intentioned message about a noble profession effectively. If that gets done, the results are bound to follow. Editing will be easy if you click here.