Dentist videos and patient testimonial videos can be powerful arguments that persuade your prospects to choose you to solve their dental problems. Video is a crucial part of an effective Patient Attraction System; it enhances engagement, lends credibility and provides a sense of connection that the written word can struggle to convey.
Today, 90 percent of internet traffic is video. YouTube reports that on any given day, more than 175 million Americans watch videos online, and research reports that younger people prefer watching short videos over reading articles.
Today's dental prospects expect video, but the incredible amount of video available at any given moment poses a challenge. More than 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. To garner the attention you need to help grow your practice, your videos need to be outstanding.
Based on the thousands of videos we've created for our dentist clients, here's what you need to know to produce ones that attract and help convert prospects into patients.
Quality counts
You're an advanced-degree professional offering highly technical services to improve your patients' oral health, so your doctor and testimonial videos should demonstrate the same care and quality of results that you provide for your patients.
That means you should never display the following:
- "Hallway" or treatment chair videos.
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Handheld smartphone videos.
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Videos with cluttered backgrounds or extraneous noises.
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Videos with poor lighting or sound quality.
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Videos that talk down to your prospects or over their heads.
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Badly edited videos.
- Long, boring videos that don't engage viewers.
You don't have to spend a fortune on video recording and editing equipment to produce quality videos. Something on the level of a GoPro camera with a directional microphone and a tripod will meet most dentists' needs. Select the location for your video shoots carefully, ensuring that it offers adequate lighting, a quiet environment and a background that isn't distracting.
Scripting doesn't work
For your videos to be credible, you and your patients must be authentic. Few people are naturals at reading a script or trying to recite memorized lines, and that likely includes you and your patients. It might be tempting to try to script your videos, but the result is almost always awkward, uncomfortable and unbelievable.
Rather than trying to have a predetermined script, lay out some simple talking points—reminders of the main areas to cover, and how those areas can flow from one to another. Recalling a few points while on camera is far easier than trying to recall line after line of a script, and with the freedom to speak naturally about the talking points, everyone will appear more credible to your prospects.
One other consideration: Even professional on-camera talent often requires multiple takes. Be prepared to spend some time on each video; patience is your friend when it comes to getting good results. Even so, you may not get a single take that you'd want to put online—people ramble, digress and speak in incomplete sentences far more often than you might think. Consider investing in a reasonably good editing system and putting in the time and effort to learn to use it well.
Remember your priorities (and profits)
If you have a passion for video and you've always fancied yourself as a writer, director and editor, you'll likely find a great deal of satisfaction in arranging, conducting and editing your own video shoots.
However, you won't make a single dime while indulging your Hollywood side—dentists make money by seeing patients and solving their dental problems. Your testimonial videos, if not your own videos, will almost certainly be shot during office hours, and you can't treat patients while you're directing a video shoot with multiple takes and anxious "talent."
At best, effective doctor and patient testimonial videos get you more patients to make money on. That's why this is one area where most dentists will do better to outsource their videos to professionals. The upfront cost may seem high, depending on the video production company you choose, but think about your average case value and how many new patients can help you recoup that expense and begin making more money.
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