How to set your healthcare marketing videos free

I’ve discussed why you should add your videos to YouTube (as opposed to hosting them only on your website through a custom-made player) and how to create and upload your first healthcare marketing video.

In summary YouTube provides

• video hosting for free
• a built-in audience which is massively larger than the audience that visits your website alone
• increased compatibility because they tend to be playable on almost any device (including mobile devices)
• constant uptime, if your video suddenly gets very popular
• flexibility – you can upload high definition videos that are up to 2GB in size, up to 15 minutes in length, and a wide variety of formats as long they fit YouTube’s requirements, which are quite broad. You can do this from your iPhone or web-cam enabled computer

But it’s no free lunch, consider the following:

• You are 1 in a million – but you can offset this with video SEO and paid search advertising on YouTube
• You never know what kind of “related videos” may be available next to yours… they could be your competitors even, or worse, something less than tasteful (you can disable this option)
• You may get comments on your video that you’re not happy with (but you can moderate these if you like before or after they get posted)

Make your videos findable

Search engines like Google and YouTube can’t “see” video. Instead, they scan for keywords and phrases that inform them what your video is about so it can be found when users conduct searches.

Once you upload a video, you’ll find that you’re invited to add a title and a description. Use these important attributes and the other options available on the settings page.

Ideally, your title should be an informative title that communicates what your video is about. Your description should be an honest description about what users can expect that is persuasive enough to elicit click-through as these descriptions often appear in search results. You’ll also want to include https://www.yourwebsiteaddress.com to attract users to your site in a call to action to learn more…

There are several other settings that are pretty self-explanatory

• tags (use your judgement here, and keep it relevant)
• category (again, try to be relevant)
• video thumbnail (choose an attractive screenshot that will attract a click)
• broadcast and sharing options (make it “public” when you’re ready)
• comments, comment voting, video responses, ratings, embedding, syndication (Don’t be miserly. If you want to encourage sharing amongst the community, then be as open as possible with these settings)
• date and location (set these accurately)
• there are loads of other settings and customisations that are beyond the scope of this article. I suggest you play around with them to get some exposure to some of the things you can do here, which are many)

Embed the videos in your healthcare marketing website

Did you know that you can embed just about any video on YouTube into your website? As long as the poster has enabled embedding (see broadcast and sharing options above), it’s easy to do. Here is how:

On nearly every video, you’ll notice a Share button below it. Clicking this share button will allow you to get the link to the video. That’s nice for emailing, but if you want to embed it into your website, you’ll need to click the Embed button. This will give you a load of options to choose from. Make your selections and copy/paste the code into your website. That’s it. See, told you it was easy.

Add your videos to your website, and feel free to add others that are pertinent to your audience and your offerings. Because users have enabled sharing, you needn’t worry about copyright because the videos are served from YouTube.

There is evidence to suggest that videos increase conversion rates on your website. So do it!

Share your healthcare marketing videos in social media

YouTube makes it easy to share videos on your Facebook and Twitter accounts with the click of a button (well two, if you do both). Again, just click the Share button under the video. You can’t miss them. You can also share them on LinkedIn if you want.

If your videos are relevant to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn followers, they may comment or retweet your video – which is great, because they’re sharing your content for you every time they engage with it.

Comment on videos in your healthcare marketing space

Why would you want to comment on your competitor’s videos? Users are consistently making comments and asking questions on YouTube. Often, these questions remain unanswered for weeks, months, even years! This is a great opportunity for healthcare marketers.

Say, for example, you or your competitor uploads a video about a random health test. A user sees the video and asks a question (“does that test hurt?!?!”) in the comment box. You see the same comment, and know the answer to the user’s question. Answer it! (“Sometimes, but we have a special technique that reduces any discomfort you might experience, it’s called…”. Two things happen:

1. You appear helpful (that’s good)
2. Like a breadcrumb trail, you automatically leave the link to your YouTube channel wherever you post a comment (that’s better!)

If the user is a prospective consumer of your similar health test, they’ll likely wander over to your YouTube channel, and be instantly engrossed in the absolutely fantastic video content you’ve been adding to it. This person now knows about your business and has a better chance of becoming an enquiry.

Now what?

All of this may sound like a lot of work. Well, it takes time, but it’s not rocket-science. We’d be happy to do your social media marketing for you, if you’re an appropriate client for us. Find out if you are, or have a go using the advice in these blog articles.