Videos made its way into the world of dentistry only recently, and it wasn’t by accident. Doctors realized the power of video as a new medium to connect with patients who, in a Covid era, are more connected to their screens than ever. It was only logical for doctors to embrace video and make it the centerpiece of their marketing strategies, and claim their digital real estate.
Most dental practice websites are full of text and generic stock imagery. Having a lot of text copy is good for SEO efforts but it’s not enough. In the Katy TX area, for example, there are around 220 dental practices, according to Yelp. How can you make sure you stand out from the crowd?
How Videos Shape Purchasing Decisions
Videos have the power to leave a lasting impression on a patient. If you were in the market for a house, would you rather visit a property that has a 3D virtual tour or one with amateur pictures? Let’s say you’re buying an appliance online and you found 20 different products, one of which had a video explaining how it works, how would it make you feel? It’s not a secret that 80% of shoppers prefer to watch a video before making purchasing decisions.
Dental videos have the same effect. If you were a patient looking at 10 different clinics, would you rather visit one that has a Welcome To Our Practice video or one that doesn’t? Wouldn’t you want to see how patients felt about their transformation in a short 2min video, before putting the financial and emotional investment?
3 Ways Dental Videos Enhance Your Brand
1- Videos build your brand presence
Once you have a sizable video database it becomes easier to deploy these videos on a variety of channels to get the most impact.
These can be your website, social media channels, your entrance lobby, YouTube ads, billboards, internal onboarding/training, television/broadcast media, and a variety of dental focused listing websites.
Using your videos everywhere you can guarantees the most exposure for your brand. After all even if you produce a professional video, no matter how good it is, it will not be beneficial if it’s not shown to the right audience. With time, people will slowly associate their dental needs and expectations with your practice.
People remember the last testimonial about dental anxiety better than a web page full of dental jargon.
2- Videos help you stay top of mind
When you post your videos regularly on social media, you’re keeping existing and new patients informed, engaged and interested at all times whenever they’re logged into their feeds.
This slow and steady drip of dental information will have a long lasting effect in people’s minds. The next time someone needs an urgent dental implant or needs to deal with a sudden pain, they will remember the way you made them feel when they watched your video.
3- Videos establish you as the expert in your field
A dental video, in and of itself, doesn’t make you an expert, although I would wage there are many who would love that to be the case, however videos offer the best platform for you to shine. This is your moment, the time to make your definitive statement of who you are and what you do, to share your strengths, experiences, your specialty and what makes you unique.
The more videos you put out, the more trust you’re building, and because humans connect with their senses, (compared to text, videos engage two of them: vision and hearing), after seeing and hearing you talk about your specialty, they will associate that service with you the next time they need that service.
How can videos help grow your dental practice
Simply, videos bring in more traffic, that turn into leads, who turn into patients. Let’s break down this simple concept and see exactly how this happens.
1- Dental videos bring more traffic to your dental practice
Traffic can be both online to your website, and in-person through walk-ins. When someone searches for “best cosmetic dentist in my area” search engines return websites that match the search criteria, but most importantly it seems to prioritize websites and YouTube channels that have videos.
Videos tell search engines that the website is most relevant to the user’s search. There are other criteria search engines algorithms use to decide who to show first (like domain age, uniqueness of content, length of copy, keywords, domain authority etc.) but consider websites with videos first. Google and others are interested in their users’ experience and will recommend your content if it offers valuable, visual information.
The second way dental videos can drive traffic is by increasing walk-ins. This is much harder to quantify and evaluate, but the more your brand is reputable and well known, the more you’ll see people mentioning your videos when they sign in.
They might have seen your video on a billboard while driving to work, then saw your Facebook video about same day implants while having lunch, and finally saw that same video when they searched for an emergency implant doctor in their area later at night.
A well strategized video deployment maximizes your exposure and marketing investment, and keeps you top of mind when that patient wakes up in the morning and decides where to go.
2- Dental videos bring in more leads
Great, so now that we got your soon-to-be patient (let’s call her Jenni) to visit your website, Facebook page, YouTube channel, Yelp profile or any other online channel, videos play another important role: It humanizes your brand. After watching a few other videos, Jenni feels connected to her doctor and decides to send you a message through your website chat to book an appointment. Jenni became a hot lead.
From a random online search, to now a lead you can pursue, videos helped Jenni through her journey of sifting through hundreds of search results and made you stand out.
3- Dental videos turn leads into patients
There are many ways a great video can turn a lead into a patient, but the decision ultimately is emotional. That is why advertising agencies spend millions of dollars researching how people perceive their brand. It all goes back to a basic instinct we all have: Feelings. How did the TV ad make you feel? Did it make you feel happy? comforted? informed? Major brands know this and they target their visual message around triggering that feeling in the viewer. Videos allow patients to hear you, see you, connect with you on an emotional level. It allows them to get a feel of your practice, how friendly your staff is, how sedation works and help ease dental anxiety. Once in your dental chair, Jenni is created by that same doctor she watched online, she feels she knows him already. Her doctor pulls up his iPad and shows her a video about how easy her procedure will be, and how her payment schedule looks like, all visually. Videos break down so many barriers and objection points, and makes it easier for the doctor and his patient to connect.
4- Videos Encourage Word-Of-Mouth
Jenni became a patient, and with more dental videos that speak to her, answering her questions, entertaining her and educating her, she becomes immersed in your brand and becomes a brand advocate. She speaks highly of her experience with you to her friends and family, creating organic word-of-mouth marketing that generates more and more leads to your practice.
5- Videos As An After-Sales Tool
The purpose of having videos doesn’t end with a patient conversion. In fact, it’s just the beginning. Dental videos can take patient engagement to the next level, especially when it comes to patient education, safety protocols and followups. This is after-sales marketing 101. A great brand takes care of their clients well after they purchased a product or a service, and a smart dental practice can use videos to deploy these same strategies.
Creative Ways To Use Videos In Your Practice
1- Have them signup to a patient education series on YouTube that teach them how to floss their teeth properly.
2- Send them email campaigns showing FAQ videos answering common questions like does Implant procedures hurt? What can I eat after my surgery? and so on.
3- Videos plug into your existing marketing campaigns and provide the best ROI (after word-of-mouth) that keeps generating more and more leads. An experienced marketing manager will use your video database to create drip campaigns and non-skippable video ads on YouTube. Then they recommend viewers to watch certain videos after they’ve watched a specific amount of time of another video, etc.
4- You can use looped videos to keep patients in your lobby entertained, or use them as a website banner on your homepage.
Remember every touch point is important and every wasted chance you have to connect is a missed opportunity. The sky is the limit and the possibilities are endless.
What You’ve Learned
Video is the king of online marketing, and in this digital era you cannot afford not having dental videos.
We showed you how effective videos are in attracting traffic, turning visitors into leads, and nurturing your relationships with your patients. You also learned the main three ways videos can boost your brand and cements your image as the expert in your field. We also shared many ideas on how you can use videos in creative ways that help indirectly create a brand image that screams success.
Now is the time to take action. A well executed dental video plan can transform your practice into the go-to resource for your community, the one-stop-shop for all dental care, and your website from OH to WOW! Your patients want more answers, expect more information and need more connections, and videos can do it all.
Time To Take Action
Memory Mill Media has helped doctors nationwide supercharge their practices with powerful videos that not only look great but also convert. Let us craft a unique video plan that meets your goals and vision, centers your message on your unique value, and puts more patients in your dental chair.