How Healthcare Organizations Can Benefit From Video Campaigns

One of my co-workers, Heather Evans, wrote a post a few months back on a webinar she had attended on the growth in consumption of online videos. A statistic she learned is each video viewer (of which there are over 100 million) spends about six hours per month watching video content online. Because of this, it makes sense to seriously consider incorporating a video strategy into your media plans, especially when looking at the healthcare market.

As a marketing director for a hospital or healthcare organization, you might be thinking “people aren’t going onto YouTube and searching for XYZ Hospital.” And I would second that statement. But they are going to YouTube to search for information on conditions, risks, prevention, and cures. Search “heart disease” and there are 221,000 videos to choose from. People searching for that term, and any other medical term, are hungry for credible, reliable information. As a healthcare organization, you are in a position to give it to them.

Here are some ways you can help people, while helping yourselves:

1. Create videos using your doctors. Keep the videos to a minute and a half to two minutes and make them simple to understand. Remember these are ordinary people you are talking too. Not only will the information given be valuable to the viewer, but it will also give the organization a face. It will also give the viewer an idea as to who the doctor is and a first impression on that doctor – this is your chance to control that first impression.

2. Buy keywords on YouTube. YouTube works like Google, where you can bid on keywords and get your information out there. So, if you created a video on heart disease and bid on related words, you could get your video to appear next to the proper results. In the videos description reference the doctor’s name and the organization he/she is affiliated with, along with what the video addresses.

3. Post the videos to YouTube using the same account. If the video thumbnail is clicked on it will take the viewer to the video, where it will also list all other videos submitted via the same login. Maybe there is something else the viewer wants to watch that your organization created.

4. Post the videos elsewhere. Now that you have this content, repurpose it. Use it on your Facebook page, on the company blog, on the company website, tease it with in-banner video ads on geo-targeted websites. Any place that it would make sense, use the videos.

5. Have a profile of the selected doctor on your organization’s website. Before or after viewing the video, some people may go to their favorite search engine and conduct a search on the doctor. They may want to make sure the doctor is legitimate or they may want more information on his/her background and expertise. By having the doctor’s profile on your site you are pulling them into it and giving them an experience with your brand.

Bonus Tip

6. Give contact information. This is the most important thing. Throughout every step, always include contact information. You never know what the last item the viewer will see, so make it easy for them to contact your organization or the doctor directly.

And on that note, contact us if you would like to hear other reasons and ways we could help you incorporate a video campaign into your media schedule.

Image courtesy of Ed Yourdon