Using Video for Healthcare Education

Healthcare marketing genius Dan Dunlop is always sharing valuable insights on his blog and providing us with ideas for how to better engage with patients online, but he’s outdone himself this week. He shared a couple of videos from his daughter’s school administrators delivering an awareness message to the students’ families about head lice.

They were able to turn a seemingly mundane and boring topic into something, dare we say… magical?

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKCHS8UP8Mg&feature=player_embedded

The "Lice, Lice Baby" spinoff was created following their original, wildly successful video announcing school closings due to ice. We have to give these guys kudos for pulling inspiration from Vanilla Ice and daring to improve their messaging by stepping out of the box a little.

Simple messages, no matter how important can easily get skimmed over in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Sometimes we forget that using video to do a little something different can make all the difference.  Working in radiology, we are always trying to find unique ways to express to patients and referring offices what makes our centers the better option.  We rely on “crutch-terms” like ACR accredited, 24-hour turn around time and same day appointments to convince people of our expertise, but they end up falling on deaf ears regardless of the importance.

Consider how you could use video to put a new spin on the components of your care and service you are regularly marketing to your community. Don’t just rely on the same flyers, tri-fold brochures or conversations to reignite interest in your center. 

12 Tips for Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

Points for you for exploring video marketing!  You have scripted, filmed and edited your video, now all you have to do is get it out to the world. Beyond sharing your new video on your organization’s Facebook page, website and blog- you should also be sure to optimize your video on YouTube so that others on the interwebs can find your video.

Here are some tricks for making sure each YouTube video you upload is optimized:

1. Key terms should be included in the video’s title. Focus on terms that patients would be using to search for your services on Google.
2. Any branding terms should be at the end of the video’s title.
3. Your video’s title should be under 66 characters so that it can be properly viewed in search results.
4. Sometimes it helps if the word “video” is in the title.
5. In the video description area, write a one to two sentence description of what the video is about.
6. In those one to two sentences, be sure to include appropriate and relevant search terms along with branded key terms, i.e.: your practice name.
7. Makes sure to include a URL linking to your website at the beginning of the description. This way, even if they only read the first line, they will see the CTA to explore more on your website.
8. Tag your video so that search engines, YouTube and viewers know what the video is about.
9. Key phrases should go in quotes, ex: Tampa vs. “Tampa radiology center” when using tags.
10. Transcribe your videos with the script. It helps with SEO and gives your video the ability to include closed captioning. If you don’t want to show the script, simply disable the feature.
11. Annotations can also be used for calls-to-action, ex: "Learn more about MRI’s" or “Read our spotlight on Dr. Smith.”
12. Don’t over do it on the annotations.

Now, every video can’t have as much viral success as the classics, but if you have valuable and engaging content there is nothing stopping you!