How to Use Videos to Promote & Grow Your Practice
Why Use Video In Your Dental Practice?
We know video marketing is important in any business, but what about dentistry? You might be asking yourself how do I market my dental practice?
When it comes to dental marketing, like other medical fields, it's highly competitive. So how can a dentist stand out in a crowded market to prospective patients? Today, standing out and gaining visibility can be achieved from strategic video marketing. We live in a digital age, where we all own smartphones and reading isn't always an option, especially for a mom looking for a dentist while driving. In fact, according to Optinmonster nearly 72 percent of consumers would rather watch a video to learn about your products and services.
How Your Dental Practice Will Benefit From a Dental Marketing Videos
So how do I get started with video? And what's the best dental marketing strategy? For most dental practices that are already doing digital marketing, the best way to start with online video would be to create a Dental Practice Video. This video is placed on the home page of your website, around 1-2 minutes in length explaining things such as your best and profitable services, where you're located and lastly a call to action to your potential patients.
Now to really take advantage of this what you will want to do is have the video properly optimized for VIDEO SEO on YouTube this adds a significant boost to your online presence and SEO strategy by having your website show up on the first page of Google, a study conducted shows that websites with video are 53x more likely to rank on the first page of Google. While increasing conversion by 80%.
Next, you will want to capture your happy patients' positive reviews for testimonials. This is key to your digital marketing strategy. Having your current patients talk about their experience at your dental office is a great way to create a human connection with your practice, helping put wary patients at ease.
Another dental marketing idea is to use video as part of your appointment reminders and online scheduling by showing patients what they can except during their visit.
Lastly, you would want to create specific videos based on the dental care that you offer in fancy marketing terms. This is what we call "content marketing" where we create content based on what potential patients are searching for online, helping drive organic traffic (just like this article). People spend a lot of time researching online. Why not give them something to see, plus you never get a second chance of making the right first impression.
Let's put it all together: a mom goes to Google Maps and looks up "dentist near me" Three dentists show up on Google Maps one practice has video the other two don't. She lands on your website and sees a video and clicks play.
After watching the video she goes into your services page and sees that you specialize in orthodontics for children and gets to hear more about how you can help and solve all her needs in one place. She continues to scroll to the bottom of your website to book an appointment where she sees a patient review from another mom in a video testimonial saying how great you're!
This is how our Dental Marketing Strategy can work for you 365 days per year 24/7 a full time sales person working for your practice on every device. Don't you want to get the most out of our marketing efforts?
What Makes A Good Dental Marketing Video?
Video has become one of the most powerful marketing tools for businesses looking to establish a social media presence and there's a reason for that - it's easy to consume! So what should you include in your Dental Office Video?
The Dental Services You Offer
Keep it short and sweet and go over dental services that you know potential patients are looking for, let me know they have come to the right place. By making a quick intro to your dental practice.
Your Personality
It's your time to shine and standout from the crowd! Include your staff and a bit of your story to help establish credibility and trust. You want to make your practice unique, friendly and approachable.
Where You're Located
This one is pretty obvious but include your city, the name of the road or a close landmark to your practice where people can visualize where to find out. This also helps with your SEO strategy as Google will pick up your location in the transcriptions.
Testimonial
Having a patient testimonial in your main Dental Practice Video is a huge plus as potential customers are still trying to decide if you're the right choice. Let someone else do the talking for you about how great your practice is.
Video Length
For most practices we recommend a video to be around 2-minutes long. This is just enough time to highlight what you offer, where you're located, a testimonial and a call to action.
For most people who are looking for a dentist they are normally in pain or in a hurry and usually watching from a mobile device. Keep your video short and sweet and wanting more is always better than a longer video leaving them feeling bored
Where Should Your Videos Live?
For most dental offices, your video should be uploaded and optimized to YouTube using the same keywords you're looking to rank for in Google.
The video should then be placed on your home page. Next, upload the video to your social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Another great strategy is to edit a shorter version of your video and upload it to your practice Google My Business page (now accessible via Google Maps) and Yelp page and finally use the video in an email marketing campaign. This allows you to maximize your dental marketing tactics across multiple social platforms and devices.
How Will Video Marketing Help My Practice? (The Nitty Gritty)
1. Google Loves Video and so do your Patients.
Websites that showcase videos are 53x more likely to rank on Google. And there’s a reason for that Google owns YouTube the world's second-largest search engine. According to Impact, 95% of users watch an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. This is where a dental practice video comes in handy, keeping website visitors longer on your website, which will reward you with better ranking in Google's search.
Dental videos should not focus on the tools or technology used on the patient. Instead, they should create an emotional connection with the viewer through the story of the patient. This isn't to say that you cannot show off your practice's cutting edge technology or procedures.
Instead, display it in a way that makes your potential clients feel at ease and comfortable. Focus on staff interacting with patients, using comfortable dental chairs, TVs playing movies or other amenities you may offer, while keeping the patient in focus. Soft lighting and positive patient testimonials are also great ways to reinforce your practice’s welcoming environment.
Finally, when filming your patients and staff remember to ask them to smile. Not just does this allow you to showcase your practice’s products, but it reinforces your practice’s warm and inviting atmosphere.
Videos are one of the most effective digital marketing assets in today’s highly competitive digital marketing environment.
Source: (mysocialpractice.com)
These videos can also live on your social media or ran as Facebook Ads, Google Ads and YouTube giving you a cost-effective marketing strategy across multiple channels.
2. Videos Help People to Convert
Dentists often struggle when trying to communicate with patients about the benefits of dental care. Many times, they feel like they need to sell themselves and their services. However, if you provide great information, patients will trust you and be willing to follow through with treatment recommendations. Videos allow you to share your expertise and explain what you do in a fun and engaging way. You can also show videos of other dentists and dental practices. Patients will see the difference and realize that you are not just another dentist.
Your patients want to know as much about their dental procedures as possible before undergoing treatment, and with video you can do just that! These videos could be about cosmetic procedures such as Invisalign, root canals or regular hygiene checkups helping them ease their dental anxiety.
Think about all the times you've watched a video online and thought "this looks great!" You probably weren't sure why until you found out that someone had made a video for you. Videos are a powerful tool to market yourself and your practice. Make sure you're using authentic testimonials to attract potential patients. Not only does it help you stand apart from other dentists, it also helps you create a personal connection with your patients. Your patients and teammates are your practice’s greatest marketing assets. You should capture genuine moments showing them what you’re about, because those moments will help them remember why they chose your practice over others. A simple smile reveal is a great example of capturing a moment. If you’re looking for ways to market your practice, consider using social media to share videos of patient stories.
Dental Marketing Tip
Video helps answer questions, build credibility, and familiarize patients with your dental business before ever leaving their home. Consider adding videos to your existing blog content or services page to boost your SEO and help educate patients faster. By having a clear call to action in your videos, this can also help generate more leads and phone calls to your practice.
3. Affordable and Enduring Media
Another significant advantage of a dental marketing videos is that it’s an affordable and enduring media that can benefit your digital marketing efforts for years to come. In many cases, it’s evergreen and won’t need updating for two to three years.
You can’t beat video content for increasing customer engagement. This is true for both your website and social media. People who find your videos useful, informative, helpful, and entertaining are likely to share and engage with your content.
Types of videos worth considering for your business include welcome videos, facility walkthrough videos, or Q&A type videos with answers to the most common questions you get during dental visits from potential new patients might have about the practice.
Another video that could prove useful during this health crisis is one that contains the steps you’re taking to ensure the safety of patients, during an in-person visit.
Patients who see a professional video on your website will know that you invested in your practice which reflects on your expertise and the high quality of care you provide. Videos are an incredible tool for marketing.
Anyone who views these videos is likely to feel more comfortable when entering your building for the first time. It’s worth the time to post up-to-date information that helps inform and guide a patient's decisions.
A great video will capture attention and inspire action. Your audience wants to see themselves represented in the best possible light. Videos also provide a unique opportunity to show the personality of your practice.
4. Lower Cost of Advertising for Dentist
Video is an effective way to engage with audiences and increase brand awareness. Videos on Facebook have a 135% greater organic reach when compared to photos according to acceleratedentalmarketing.com and let's not forget the views per pennies you can get from a successful video campaign when running Facebook Ads.
Unlike traditional dental marketing with video you can measure and see who your audience is and tailor relevant content just to them.
Brochures and pamphlets are great, but you never know who actually received or saw them. Video will allow you to speak directly to your dental patient, making an instant connection. Other options are to run local TV commercial ads in your area. These 30-sec commercials are great for a scaling practice with multiple locations looking to increase their digital presence.
5. Growing Your Practice
Let's face it. Regardless of how successful your dental practice may be, there is always room to improve.
You need to find ways to stand out from your competitors and to keep your current patients happy.
Using recruitment videos to show potential candidates what it's like to work at your practice is a great way to do that. Videos have shown to increase application rates and enhance candidate experience. Job postings that had a link to a video received 12% more views than postings without video.
Video is a great way to engage prospective employees. It allows them to see what the company does, what the culture is like, and what kind of environment they will be working in.
Another benefit of video for growing your practice is training staff on skills for patient communication. Which leads to more booking appointments, closing ratios and higher patient satisfaction.
Conclusion
Online video content is becoming a key means for consumers to satisfy their informational needs. Medical practices that fail to include online video content in their digital marketing campaigns risk losing out to competitors that do. Online video content is the future of content creation and distribution. According to Nielsen, nearly 64% of marketers expect video content to dominate their digital strategies within the next year. When it comes to reach, video content is unparalleled. For example, YouTube receives more than 1 billion unique visits per month, which is more traffic than all other social networks combined except Facebook. Video can help you engage your audience and get them to share your content with others. Viewers spend more time watching videos than reading articles, according to Pew Research Center. Also, when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), video content can rank higher than text content. In fact, Google considers the length of a video when ranking websites. If you want to attract organic traffic, then create compelling video content.
Dental video marketing works because it gives you a competitive edge over other companies. It makes you stand out from the crowd. It allows you to tell your story in a way that others cannot. And it's something that everyone loves to watch. Most importantly, it brings value to your patients. It's important to note that while video is great, it isn't enough. You need to also create a website that's optimized for mobile devices, along with an optimized Google My Business listing with the correct business category. These are just few ways to help bring more traffic to your practice. But once you start producing high quality videos, you'll see the benefits of doing so.
Hopefully this article gave you a good insight into how video can be used in your dental marketing plan. If you’re interested in learning more about dental marketing strategies, tactics and driving traffic to your practice, checkout some of our case studies from our dental marketing campaign or schedule a call to speak to a video strategist today.