With so many of your patients using social media websites and sharing videos, your practice has a unique opportunity to share the benefits of chiropractic care using your own video marketing.
Video production does not have to be intimidating or complicated. You can create educational videos, advertising, shareable testimonials from patients, and much more.
With basic digital equipment and production techniques, you can make your own videos and post them online on your website, social media pages, and on video-sharing websites such as YouTube or Vimeo.
Health marketing and planning
Health marketing is different from traditional marketing. Instead of simply advertising products and services, health marketing is about educating patients and informing them in addition an appeal to visit your clinic. In healthcare, marketing videos may be used to communicate messages to patients that communicate a need. Based on your own marketing plans, you may want to identify a message or a series of messages you need to communicate to your patients or potential patients. With this plan, you can choose goals for your videos and decide what you want to accomplish with your marketing videos and other forms of marketing.¹
Production basics: testimonial videos
From there, you may plan your topics in advance and create a consistent series or stand-alone videos. Testimonial videos are very popular among chiropractic clinics because they help patients understand the value of chiropractic care. These videos can be made simply and quickly with a little help from your patients. You could create testimonial videos and post a new video every month or every quarter, for example.
The Inception Marketing Blog recommends creating testimonial videos by asking staff members at your clinic for help. When your clinic identifies a great patient story, follow these tips from the blog to make your own testimonial video:²
The ask: Approach the patient at their appointment and ask if they are willing to share their testimonial in a video. Be sure to make this a low-pressure request and reassure them that what they have to say is significant.
Coach them: Have private area available for filming the video. Your patient may already know what they want to say, but be ready to coach them through the testimonial by asking questions. Interview-style testimonials allow you to keep the video organized, while also providing shy patients with direction and encouragement. Questions such as, “What problems were you having before you came in to see us?”, “What has your experience been like here?” and “What would you tell someone else about our office?” get patients talking and sharing strong testimonials.
Have video and audio equipment: Your equipment can be a simple video camera or smartphone and a microphone. Sound and lighting are key to a quality video, so be sure you test your equipment and know how it works.
Get help from your office: Your clinic’s office staff may be able to create these videos after a brief training. Walk them through your process for creating testimonial videos and, if applicable, show them how to upload the videos to your website and social media pages.
Editing your videos
Once the video is filmed, you should review it and decide if the video captures your message adequately. You will also want to check the lighting and sound to ensure the video is top quality. You can edit your own video or enlist outside help with this part of the process.
Editing software is available for different operating systems and skill levels. An Entrepreneur Magazine article about making marketing videos suggests that beginners start with an easy video editor such as Movie Maker, a free Windows program, or iMovie, a Mac editor. If doing your own editing sounds too intimidating or time consuming, you may want to hire a freelance editor such as a college student enrolled in a film class or a professional editor with a listing online at a freelancing website such as upwork.com.
Make Videos Part of Your Marketing Plan
With these tips, you may want to start producing your own video podcasts to share online with the world. When you post new videos, be sure to tell your patients and ask them to share each episode with family and friends. Using word of mouth, promote your videos to reach new audiences.
References
¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “How Do I Do It?”. http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/healthbasics/howtodo.html. Published May 2011. Accessed March 2016.
²Inception Marketing Blog. “Increase Your Chiropractic Video Testimonials.” http://www.inception-chiropractic-websites.com/increase-chiropractic-video-testimonials/. Accessed March 2016.
³Belicove, Mikal. “The Idiot’s Guide to Making a Video for Your Business.” Entrepreneur Magazine. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233181. Published May 2014. Accessed March 2016.