‘Marketing’ and ‘healthcare’ might not be two words you’d commonly put together. From eye doctors to dermatologists, healthcare providers differ from for-profit businesses, so the idea of marketing their services might come as a surprise. That is why with Render Perfect Productions, video marketing experts in Baltimore, Maryland and beyond, we are looking at the importance of video in healthcare marketing.
But marketing can do so much more than just push sales. Great marketing strategy also educates, informs, and entertains its audience. And what could be a more important topic to educate people on than their health?
That’s why healthcare organizations need to embrace the power of digital marketing. And a huge part of that is working with video!
Video has become a dominant force in content marketing for a reason — it’s how people prefer to entertain and educate themselves. On average, consumers watch 16 hours of online video a week, and 84% said that watching a brand video had convinced them to buy a service or product!
Also, video is also a crucial part of helping prospective patients find you. In fact, did you know YouTube is the web’s second-largest search engine, processing over 3 billion searches every month?!
Picture this — instead of scrolling through a wall of text when they visit your clinic’s website, patients are greeted with a colorful, animated video that walks them through the services you offer and how to access them.
Doesn’t that sound like a more enjoyable experience? That’s why smart healthcare practitioners, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations are getting ahead of the game and harnessing the power of video in their marketing tactics.
Here’s your ultimate guide on how to join them.
How Video is Changing Healthcare
Healthcare marketing needs to grow, because healthcare itself is changing more quickly than ever before. This sector has been just as transformed by technology as the rest of society, and the COVID-19 pandemic sped up those changes drastically.
Whether it’s smartphone apps, or wearable sensors, technology is a more and more important part of how we access healthcare. Telehealth, or virtual physician visits, is one trend that’s risen dramatically over the last couple years — these services are 38 times more popular than they were before COVID-19!
All this progress means that healthcare marketing needs to come into the 21st century, too. Not only do we need to meet the needs of today’s consumers, who prefer video, but some of this tech requires serious explaining! Video (like tutorials and demos) is one of the best ways we can teach people how to make the most of these exciting new healthcare options.
Basically, times are changing in the health sector (in a good way). Your healthcare marketing plan needs to catch up and showcase all the exciting, lifesaving innovations happening in healthcare today. Video is the obvious way to get there, whether you’re inbound or outbound, B2B or B2C, or focusing on email marketing or more on social media marketing.
The Challenges of Video Marketing in Healthcare
Today, healthcare professionals are waking up to how valuable modern marketing techniques can be to connect with patients and help them make informed decisions about their health.
But plenty of people in the health care sector, including marketers, still have concerns about trying out new things — including video marketing.
Lack of resources and lack of ideas are the two most common barriers that hold marketers back from trying out video for healthcare.
Lack of Resources
Healthcare workers are some of the most overworked, stressed-out people on the planet. Often, the idea of trying to learn an entirely new marketing technique like video can feel like just one more thing to worry about.
Marketing budgets at many health organizations are already stretched thin, not to mention that doctors aren’t (usually) worried about lead generation or building a funnel the way most businesses might be. In this kind of situation, allocating money and energy to a new video marketing campaign might feel difficult to justify.
Some of your colleagues might even be worried that using video could make them seem overly trendy or frivolous. But don’t forget that not too long ago, having a social media presence at all was uncommon for healthcare organizations!
To overcome this challenge, you don’t need an enormous budget — just be sure to choose your tools carefully. The right video creation tool will make the process easy, with features like built-in templates, stock media libraries, and automatic subtitling.
Lack of Ideas
Especially if you aren’t already familiar with the language of video marketing, you might feel you’re staring at a blank slate when you try to come up with ideas for new marketing videos.
As a healthcare organization, you might feel this especially strongly, since so much of your work centers on stories and information that are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality.
Luckily, there’s no need to go it alone on your video marketing efforts. Ideas are everywhere, both within your own company and outside of it. Try proposing a brainstorming session with your customer support or sales teams. They’ll have real-life insight into your patients’ or clients’ burning questions, and the common struggles that lead them to seek your service. How can you address those concerns through video?
Another great place to start is your competition. What organizations do you think are doing amazing work in your niche or specialty around targeting the same audience as you? What are they doing with video marketing? Do some research, collect a few good ideas, and see how you could adapt them to your organization.
About Render Perfect Productions:
Render Perfect has been built from the ground up to service growing businesses and help them realize their full visual storytelling and digital marketing potential. We’ve created a service offering and skill-set that spans video production, post-production, motion graphic design, 3D animation, web development, and video marketing strategy. Our insight and experience allow us to help clients make better planning decisions and get more out of their video production effort.
604 E Joppa Road