Discover how to attract more specialty patients with video marketing strategies.
The Reason
Why should you implement video marketing strategies into your eye care practice?
Marketing experts will always tell you that it’s the fastest way for someone who has never seen you to: progress from being someone that has never seen you before to someone they realize has the solution to their problem; it’s the fastest way for them to know, like, and trust you…
And why is THAT important? Because people are skeptical these days. The market has “matured” and wants to get to know the person behind the brand or company. They want to see beyond the sterile ads that pop up everywhere, and they simply want to get to know you.
Think about how you shop online or gravitate towards a particular brand. Besides looking at reviews, if two companies are very similar, do you think you might gravitate towards a company that makes you feel a certain way about their products, services, and how to best help you? Do you know the fastest way to do that? By video…
The Strategy
One of the best ways I’ve discovered over the many years of creating videos to get this content produced and promoted is to use something I call…
I learned this amazing method from a marketing genius, Peng Joon, during a world-renowned marketing conference a couple of years ago.
Here’s how it works:
STEP 1: Spend a day shooting 3-5 hours (or more) worth of 1 to 4-minute videos, but don’t edit them right away. Plan on bringing some extra clothes and props, as well as finding 3-5 locations to shoot your videos.
STEP 2: If you can, upload all the videos as one long video to a site like rev.com to get a transcript created for all the videos. By doing it this way, you’ll receive one continuous file (that’s why it works better if you sent them as one long video) – you’ll save money and time doing it this way. I recommend spending the extra money to get the timestamps added – this will also save you a TON of time when editing them.
STEP 3: Establish a filing system in Dropbox or Google Drive to make it easy to find the videos, their transcripts, and associated graphics.
STEP 4: Now edit your one long video and transcript into the individual videos with their associated transcripts.
STEP 5: Create graphics to go along with your videos. I recommend using Canva (this is an affiliate link – I use Canva almost every day!) to quickly and beautifully design these using your branded colors and fonts.
STEP 6: Upload the graphics and video links to all your social media platforms, YouTube, Blog, Google My Business, Email campaigns, DMs, and more. Make sure, of course, that if you use any PHI (patient health information) in those videos, that you have full permission to include them in the videos.
STEP 7: Find out which videos are getting the most engagement and repurpose them often (reuse them in other marketing campaigns, use different post texts when adding them to your social media platforms, etc.).
STEP 8: Create memes and other graphics that go along with the videos that are getting the most engagement and promote, promote, promote!
NOTE: You can hire a virtual assistant (VA) to accomplish steps 2-8 for you.
The Content
Here are just a few content ideas. For more ideas, click here.
- Explain your (sub)specialties in fun ways; get patients to help (just make sure to get permission so you don’t violate HIPAA compliance issues)
- Simple “how-to’s” (CL I & Rs, take care of CLs, take care of eye wear, etc.)
- “Theme of the month” – Every month has an eye-related theme (and many of them have more than one!) that makes it easy to create content for these
- Demonstrate how your (sub)specialties benefit your patients
- Take perspective of the patient through an eye exam
The Formula
Here’s a great formula for each of the videos you create…
- Start with the “hook” – just enough info to grab their attention (you want to grab their attention in the first 3 seconds!)
- Then introduce yourself quickly (no long intros or you’ll lose them! You can add more info later or include this information in your bios)
- Then tell the story about the post to bring them in deeper – keep it interesting and always know that your audience is thinking “what’s in it for me?”
- Then present the offer and the call-to-action (CTA); or, your CTA could simply be “follow me, subscribe to my channel, leave a comment, etc.”
The Challenge
I call this “the challenge” because I’m an introvert and am ALWAYS nervous about getting in front of the camera! For some of you, this may not be the case. But I find when working with my eye care consulting clients, this is one of the biggest obstacles they have to overcome. Here are some other tips…
- Have a bulleted script/outline for each video – 1 main topic and no more than 3 subtopics per video, otherwise, you’re going to overwhelm your viewers!
- Shoot video on your phone. You can ALWAYS hit “delete” – you do NOT have to go Live!
- Practice, practice, practice – set a goal for shooting 1 video per day
Other Ideas?
How can YOU use video marketing to grow your practice?
Other Notes from the Eye Care Marketing CLUB Clubhouse Room
I was thrilled to have Dr. Joseph Allen of Doctor Eye Health fame join us on stage during the discussion. Here are some tips and thoughts during our chat:
Tips on Other Platforms
- Tik Tok, IG Reels, YT “shorts” – portrait mode; try doing something “evergreen” and use it on all platforms
- Find out who is big and watch what they’re doing! Doesn’t even have to be in the eye care space… whatever
- SHOW & TELL
- Meib. Expression
- Blue-blocking lenses
- Specialties (break down the language)
Social Media Experts on Different Platforms – Follow These People
- Instagram: Sue B. Zimmerman
- YouTube: Shawn Cannel and Think Media (Dr. Allen has spoken on their yearly conference); Derral Eves
Other Tips
- On the fly (just take out your iPhone and shoot a video!) vs. studio production
- There are pros and cons of each, namely time, money, and production quality
- One big mistake
- To NOT post or practice…
- Just DO it!
- Dr. Allen has done some AWFUL videos (gave plenty of examples!) and recommends just starting where you are (so do I, by the way!)
- Ask yourself these questions: “What is my goal? What is my mission? What is the point of the specific video?”
- What metrics should you look at?
- YouTub: you need a lot of content in order for the stat.s to work and make sense; YouTube gives lots of great stat.s – look at the attention span of how long others are looking at your videos – find out when they are leaving? What’s happening there?
- One of the biggest ways YouTube helps others find you is through the “Suggested Videos” feature
- There’s a whole strategy around this (I recommend Derral Eves’ new book, The YouTube Formula – this is an affiliate link; I’m reading the book right now!)
- Dr. Allen has had patients find him through this exact feature!
- 💡Make a business card that has the name of your channel on it; he has a search bar graphic where he’ll hand a patient his card with a specific video link he wants them to watch… he also recommended adding a QR code to your channel. BRILLIANT IDEA!
- Don’t memorize the script you want to say in the video, just use bullets and the formula I listed above
- Use a teleprompter if using a script if you do better with that than using bullets
- PRO TIP: Dr. Allen will “rif it” (the hook, title, and presentation) before turning on the video! By saying it a few times in advance, he gets more comfortable with what he’s going to say
- Dr. Allen recommends 3 uses for your clinic initially
- Marketing your clinic
- Teaching patients
- Both purposes
- Feel free to reach out to Dr. Allen for his consulting services. You can send him an email here: DrEyeHealth@gmail.com.
Another eye care marketing expert, Dr. Leigh Plowman, gave us an important gem…
- Understand your ideal patient before producing the videos
- Words we use, words they use, knowing how to speak to your ideal patient and how to market to them (which can be different) – this is vital.
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Discover how to attract more specialty patients with video marketing strategies
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