Healthcare marketer - don't be camera shy: make compelling videos for your brand

Video grabs attention, and online consumers are hungry for useful content. Healthcare marketers have an opportunity to provide video content that consumers, patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) can trust, knowing it's scientifically evidence-based and has undergone a stringent medical and regulatory approval process.
Healthcare marketer - don't be camera shy: make compelling videos for your brand

In Cingulate Marketing and Advertising’s February article “Don’t Be Anti-Social: Make Social Media Work For Your Brand”, we explored the benefits of social media for healthcare marketing. Now we focus on video and how you can optimally use it as part of your brand marketing campaign.

Video: The big picture

  • Almost five billion videos are watched on YouTube every day*
  • In South Africa, 98.4% of Internet users aged 16 to 64 watch online videos**
  • Locally, YouTube is the second most used social media platform and it’s growing (101 million visits recorded).**

Statistics like these prove that video is here to stay. Healthcare marketers can use online video to provide credible content for consumers, patients and HCPs alike. Here’s how:

Strategy before storyboard

Before producing any video, you should have a sound strategy in place, following guidelines like:

Identifying your business objectives. All content needs to drive clearly defined objectives. What goals are you looking to achieve with video and which KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) can be used to measure success? How is your video going to support this specific business objective? As an example, brand awareness can be tracked via targeted impressions.

Who’s your ideal target market? Decide whether it’s an internal (for company use) or external video. Always create video content with the target market in mind. Having a clearly defined customer avatar is important to ensure that the content speaks directly to the needs, desires and pain points of your target audiences. HCPs and patients will have different communication needs; thus, content needs to be tailored to each specific audience.

It’s also important to take into consideration the sales cycle and how the video messaging will support the overall customer journey. Different parts of the marketing funnel will require different types of communication.

Having a comprehensive profile of your target market will also allow you to select the right social media platform for your video where your desired audience can see it. Different audiences may have varied platform preferences and it’s important to identify which platforms your target audience prefers to create content for that platform.

  • Think about your creative approach (type of video) before you brief your Agency. Identify which type of video would best support your specific objectives, KPIs, audience and social media platform, for example, explainer video, testimonial, product video, live video or unboxing.
  • Provide the creative specifications for specific platforms. How video content is consumed differs between the various social media platforms. It’s therefore important that the content is created for the specific platform you wish to use. Duration and size spec of the video are also key considerations. It should add value to both end-user and the brand.

The way in which people consume content differs across platforms. This will impact how you structure your video, the duration and the messaging.

Measure your results

The beauty of digital marketing is that you can measure your performance:

  • Develop KPIs for your video which align with your business objectives. If you consider your KPIs before producing your video, it’s easier to measure them. Setting KPIs will allow you to measure your ROI.
  • As well as tracking how many people view your video, measure how much of the video they watch. Those who view 75% or more of your video are hot prospects and you can re-target them with a further campaign, as they’ve already shown an interest in your brand.

Ideally partner with an experienced Agency to take out the guess work when it comes to video production, allowing you to benefit from their experience.

More bang for your marketing buck

Technological developments such as DSLR cameras and online editing packages (rendering hours in editing suites unnecessary), allow you to produce videos more cost effectively than before. Depending on your requirements, you could shoot a video in a day.

A video, or snippets of a video, can be multi-functional. Creating video should be seen as an investment. The same video can be edited and packaged to serve different audiences, platforms and objectives.

Your goal should be to produce a professional, purpose driven video which provides your viewer with a memorable experience and valuable information. View your video as part of your holistic marketing campaign mix.

Should you and your brand need social media guidance or wish to produce a video, please contact Sabine or Angela on (011) 467 3645 or complete our contact page on www.cingulate.co.za.

*fortunelords.com/youtube
**#Digital 2021 report for S.A.

Cingulate
At Cingulate, as a full-service, cross-marketing and advertising agency we offer you a 360° spectrum of agency services from strategy and concept development, to creative design, advertising (traditional and digital), media planning and buying, promotional material and event management.
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