For healthcare practices with a practice growth strategy, now is not the time to be camera shy. With 2.3 billion active users, YouTube has taken the world by storm. But the massive video platform offers more than trick basketball shots, adorable pets, and handy home fix-it hacks. YouTube offers a power that lies far beyond entertainment.
If your healthcare practice doesn’t have a YouTube strategy, you may be missing out on a sizable audience of prospective patients. That’s because YouTube is actually the second most popular search engine behind Google, processing more than 3 billion searches per month. Today’s savvy healthcare consumers turn to YouTube for answers to common health problems, to learn about conditions and procedures, and to connect with doctors and medical experts. If you’re not there when they search, you could be losing out on a valuable
The power of video for healthcare practices
Video is a powerful communications medium that’s gained incredible momentum over the past decade, especially for brands and marketers, and particularly in the world of healthcare. There are thousands of doctors on YouTube, and many use the platform to make a powerful impression.
According to the American Hospital Association, more than 700 hospitals are engaging healthcare consumers on YouTube. For independent practices competing with large health system-owned practices, establishing a presence on YouTube can help you maintain your competitive advantage.
Video stats for practices to know
Independent physician practice marketers can make a real impact with video. In the world of social media, the use of video generally correlates with a number of higher impressions, more engagement from viewers, and better customer retention. If you’re not convinced, here are some powerful statistics that should inspire you to get camera-ready:
- According to Pew Research, 74 percent of Americans use YouTube, which is more than Facebook’s 68 percent reach.
- The average adult spends nearly 42 minutes watching YouTube videos per day, or 4.9 hours per week, according to eMarketer.
- Google claims that, in an average week, YouTube reaches more 18-to-49 year-olds than all cable TV networks combined.
- According to HubSpot research, 54 percent of consumers look for more video content from the businesses and brands they support. For example, tweets that feature video have 10x higher engagement than those without it.
- While the overall engagement rate for Facebook posts in 2018 fell to 3.91 percent, the average engagement rate for those with video jumped to 6.01 percent.
4 ways physicians and healthcare practices can use YouTube
If you’re ready to take advantage of the power of YouTube and video for healthcare practice marketing, where do you begin? There are numerous YouTube video formats and topics that work well for physicians and healthcare practices, including promotional and educational videos.
Promotional videos such as those that showcase your practice with physicians or patient testimonials can help prospective patients get a look inside your practice and feel like they’re getting to know the team and the facility.
Educational videos are a great way to showcase your practice’s unique expertise, perspective, skills or approach to patient care. They can also serve as an effective way to engage with your current patients, while saving you and your staff time answering frequently asked questions. For instance, a YouTube video can respond to patients’ concerns or curiosity about what to expect after surgery, or how a certain procedure is performed.
You can also use YouTube videos to engage patients and help them adhere to their plan of care, which can lead to better outcomes. Consider a video series to help educate patients with diabetes on strategies for better controlling their A1C. For patients with hypertension, you can create videos with information on helpful diet and lifestyle changes — details many providers just don’t have time to communicate meaningfully during a brief encounter, and usually end up on an uninspiring sheet of paper. As healthcare practices continue transitioning to a value-based model of care, the power of patient engagement and education can’t be underestimated. The possibilities are virtually limitless.
Finally, if you’re a specialist or surgeon with a truly unique niche, YouTube is a critical place to be active. Consider a patient researching heart surgery for their child, or a terminally ill cancer patient searching for emerging treatments. Chances are one of their first stops will be YouTube to hear directly from the world’s most experienced doctors in these specialty areas.
Physicians with expertise performing unique procedures, or those with highly specialized training or skills, can establish themselves as leading national experts on YouTube with minimal effort. Remember, YouTube also acts as a search engine While your video traffic may not be high, you’ll likely be connecting with precisely the right patients looking for the services and skills you have to offer — from within your local area and all over the world.
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