Healthcare may be one of the trickiest marketing industries to entertain an audience to the point of retention. Taking the educational and informative elements and spicing it up into enticing creative is a common challenge that many healthcare providers face. While visual content is proving to be indispensable in the healthcare space, there is one visual marketing tool that outperforms the rest—video.

Video marketing reigns as one of the most effective strategies in today’s era. Why? For a start, YouTube is the second most popular website after Google, and viewers tend to retain 95% of a message from a video opposed to 10% if reading it in text.

But when it comes to healthcare, what exactly are your patients searching for in a video? Approximately 1 in 8 patients use online video to research hospitals, health insurance and health information. Here are a few ways you can incorporate video into your marketing strategy, all while tastefully answering the questions of your current and prospective patients.

Educate Your Audience

As healthcare professionals, your goal is to educate your patients. Whether it’s raising awareness through local events or informing patients about illness symptoms through posters in waiting rooms, your patients are eager to learn how to maintain a balanced and healthy life.

While this sounds like a simple task, it’s easier said than done. After weaving through technical jargon, and abiding by compliance requirements and privacy laws, you may feel like you’re left with the scraps of a remarkable campaign idea. But educational videos can help you find a happy medium between taking a complicated subject matter and making it easily digestible.

Take Dr. Sandra Lee, for example, otherwise known as Dr. Pimple Popper. This famed dermatologist earned her way to over 5.6 million YouTube subscribers through raw, yet compelling, video segments used to educate viewers on skincare.

Patient Testimonials

 A potential patient might discover your healthcare institution through a local search or a social media post, but patient reviews are what will determine whether they’re willing to take the plunge and put their trust in your brand’s hands. In fact, 72% of patients say positive reviews make them trust a practice more. That’s why patient testimonials cut through any unreliable review sites and give your prospective patients an authentic viewpoint of your clinic.

Testimonial videos give a glimpse into the experience and impact your brand brings to its patients. These videos allow viewers to see, feel and relate to others enduring similar situations and how your healthcare institution impacted them along their journey. Video patient testimonials not only prove credibility, but they are one of the most cost-effective video campaigns to produce.

Narrate a Story

Storytelling may be one of the most powerful approaches to building trust in the healthcare space. The integration of visuals from infographics, images and social posts can leave a lasting impression on patients, but nothing provokes emotion quite like the way video can. This patient-centered marketing strategy is one to captivate an audience through heartfelt, inspiring stories.

Empathy and authenticity allow your patients to feel closer to your brand on a personal level and introduces a relationship that surpasses the levels they’d expect from a provider. When you trigger emotion in your audience, you’re creating a touchpoint between your brand and patient. And as these touchpoints build upon one another, you’re establishing a lasting relationship upon positive connotations.

Dr. Hawa Abdi, for example, took a storytelling approach in her video “Vital Voices” when she was honored with the 2013 Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards’ Fern Holland Award. This short, animated film uniquely portrays the story of her journey as she fought for the women, children and the elderly people of Hawa Abdi Village during a time of crisis.

Get to Know the Team

It’s hard enough for patients to put their trust in the hands of a stranger—especially when it comes to their health. Many patients find themselves researching physicians and their backgrounds before scheduling an appointment, but a physician on paper doesn’t always depict how one will be in person. Introducing your staff members through profile videos give patients a soft welcome to your team before even stepping foot in your office.

Profile videos don’t just get patients familiar with your brand, it gets them closer to the people behind the brand. These videos can come in the form of a Q&A style or something a little less formal to spotlight the personalities of staff and their passion for healthcare.

Centria Healthcare takes a passion approach by giving a behind-the-scenes look at the team and what drives their brand to impact as many lives as possible. So instead of replacing your doctor profiles on your website, add a visual component to it. Staff profile videos are a small touch that makes a big difference.

Video Marketing is Here to Stay

A subject as vast as healthcare makes it nearly impossible to run dry of video marketing ideas. From introducing your staff to simplifying complex data, video marketing has proven its worth and effectiveness in the healthcare space. And with a steady 100% increase in video use each year, it’s becoming more than just a trend. Video marketing is here to stay, and it can put you one step ahead in building trust while attracting new patients and maintaining current ones.