Communication is becoming more digital, and more visual, every day. Video is rapidly becoming the preferred way for brands and businesses — including medical practices — to increase online visibility, convey expertise, and engage and educate potential customers and patients. According to data from Shutterstock and comScore:
- 190 million Americans (60 percent of the U.S. population) watched an average of 397 online videos in January 2014.
- If you link to a video in an email, the recipient is 96 percent more likely to click through than to ignore or delete it.
- And if someone looks you up online, they’re more likely to click on a video than a text result.
Video can also improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and rankings if you take the time to plan a solid strategy for your online video content. Statistics show that more people respond to video than other types of marketing, and that websites containing video consistently have a lower bounce rate and increased time-on-site versus sites without video content.
Medical practices can use video in a variety of ways. Here are seven ideas and examples to get you started.
1. Educational videos
Providing patient education videos on your website can help educate current and prospective patients about common eye conditions and procedures, from explaining cataracts and dry eye to showing how digital lenses are created and how the iStent implant works. You will probably want to create a separate page on your site for these videos, titled something like “Video Library” or “Eye Care Videos,” like this practice does. For the best SEO results, use a specific title for your video and include keywords in the title and description. For example, “An Overview of Wavefront LASIK” is better than “Eye Surgery.”
2. Pre- and post-op instructions
Instead of giving patients a paper handout with instructions — or worse, only verbal instructions — provide video that includes this information along with frequently asked questions about their surgical procedure. You can make the video available on your website or patient portal, or email it directly to patients.
3. A facility tour
Consider putting together a slideshow of still photographs or filming a short video showcasing your facility and amenities to let patients know what they can expect, as this practice has done. This is especially important for medical practices that focus primarily on elective procedures.
4. Doctor presentations and TV appearances
If you or any of your partners have appeared on the news or given a talk or presentation, consider including a video clip on your website, social media pages, or even on a TV in your waiting room. Here’s an example of one doctor who does this.
5. Patient testimonials
Personal stories from satisfied patients are one of the best ways to promote your practice. Here’s an example of one practice that showcases video testimonials from LASIK patients on their website. For best results, keep videos short (two minutes or less).
6. To enhance social media pages
You can leverage the same video content you use on your practice’s website for use on your social media channels. You can link to them on Twitter, and include them in status updates on LinkedIn and Google+, for example. If you have a practice Facebook page, there is a videos tab where you can store these videos permanently.
7. To promote services to patients in your waiting room
Research on how different generations make health care decisions shows that Generation-X (born in the mid-1960s to the early 1980s) and Millennials (born in the early 1980s to the early 2000s) respond better to TV and in-office messages above other forms of health care advertising. This makes your waiting room the perfect place to show vignettes or advertisements of products and services that patients may not be aware you offer. You can include this content mixed in with patient education videos and other video content.
For more ways to leverage technology to improve your patient interactions, sign up for a free two-week trial of Rendia.
You can use the high-quality content Rendia provides to engage patients throughout your practice, via email, and on social media.