7 Best Video Marketing Ideas for Healthcare

Marketing videos and healthcare might not be two words you’d commonly put together. From eye doctors to dermatologists, healthcare providers are very different from for-profit businesses, so the idea of marketing their medical services might come as a surprise.

But marketing can do so much more than just push sales. Effective marketing strategy also educates, informs, entertains and takes care of its audience. And what could be a more important topic to educate people on than their own health ?

Today, healthcare professionals are waking up to how valuable modern digital marketing techniques can be to connect with patients, and help them make informed decisions about their health with the good content. It's all about trust.

But plenty of people in the medical sector, including marketers, still have concerns about trying out new things, including viral marketing video content.

So, here is a selection of the best healthcare marketing videos sorted by type of content. After that, we will give you our favorite tips thanks to our experience.

7 great marketing video examples for your healthcare organization

The possibilities are endless with video content production. But there’s still some go-to categories that are a good place to start. Let’s dig into it.

Here is a selection of the best healthcare digital marketing videos sorted by type of content.

1. Explainer and awareness videos: Mayo Clinic

These videos aim to inform or educate their viewer. If your clinic is working on a hot-button or topical issue, or wants to share information on how individuals can improve their health, explainer videos are a great way to do that.

Think of explainer or awareness videos as educating people on a useful topic you’re knowledgeable about, rather than explicitly promoting you and your clinic. Not only does that help your viewers, but it establishes your expertise and builds trust with your company.

2. How-to videos and demos: St Elizabeth Healthcare & SalesForce

These videos teach your viewers how to do something that’s related to healthcare, whether closely or not!

In the above example, St. Elizabeth Healthcare thought outside the box by walking their audience through healthy, nutritious video recipes content.

You can also make a demo to show off the value of your healthcare related products or services, like Salesforce did with their physician-specific product Health Cloud in the example above. Using the case study video format is also a good way to convert more.

In either case, video makes the experience of learning something new more memorable and interesting for your audience.

3. Facility tour: UCLA Health

Let’s be real. For many people, healthcare facilities are places of stress and anxiety. That’s why it can be so powerful to demystify them through video. Then sharing them on your social media channels for more engagement, or as a way to drive traffic to your website!

In the example above, UCLA production walks us through their Mattel Children’s Hospital facility — and makes a place for sick kids seem a whole lot less scary!

4. Interview with staff: St Luke's Health

When patients can get to know your staff before visiting, it humanizes your whole organization and can soothe a lot of those pre-appointment nerves.

Video interviews can be super-short, or a little bit longer. They’ll give your staff and physicians a chance to share about their education, experience, and expertise. That helps them build trust with patients, and rapport with their professional colleagues — both important business goals in the medical industry. Taking care of your patients is your main objective if you want to build trust for your brand.

5. Patient testimonials: Chester County Hospital

Some of the most powerful stories a future patient can hear are from other people who’ve gone through what they have. That’s why patient testimonials can be a source of reassurance, guidance, and valuable connection for anyone who’s preparing to become a patient of your clinic, no matter how big or small the procedure they need.

These videos are perfect for sharing on your social media channels, with potential customers, or on your website’s landing page.

Of course, you’ll only tell patients’ stories with permission. In fact, you’ll seek out patients who are happy and excited to share. These video testimonials can help future patients, show off your expertise, and provide real-life examples of what it’s like to be cared for by your organization — truly a win-win both for doctors, and the client they serve. Testimonials are clearly a good marketing video content for the healthcare and medical industry. 

6. FAQs and AMAs with a healthcare practitioner: Vogue India

Who hasn’t come up with a dozen random, burning questions that they’d love to ask a healthcare professional. Maybe at night, while you’re trying to sleep? 

That’s exactly why this video strategy is such an effective idea.

It’s a particularly good fit for social media live streaming, since your doctor can answer audience questions in real time. But it can also work on other platforms — just collect your audience’s questions ahead of time! You might have a good level of engagement with FAQs.

In this example, dermatologist Dr. Shereene Idriss answers some of the Internet’s most-Googled skincare questions. But Dr. Idriss has already made a name for herself answering health questions online — followers love her IG Live Q&A sessions, and she also has an active YouTube account.

7. Tutorial videos: Alabama extension

Actionable, promotional video tutorials are the perfect way to guide your audience through it.

Quick, clear tutorial videos get your audience comfortable with the basics of a telehealth platform. So they can start making healthcare fit into their schedule!

Now let’s move to the 11 secret tips you need to include for your healthcare video production.

Best practices for your healthcare marketing videos

Video marketing comes with a few ‘golden rules.’ These apply to all kinds of videos, healthcare or not.

Follow these guidelines to make sure your video is clear, informative, and even a little bit fun! That way, you’ll have the best chance of getting a good return on investment (ROI) and creating a video that has the impact you want.

Here’s what you need to know about making videos that are entertaining, professional-looking, and easy to understand for that specific market.

1. Keep it short and simple

Internet attention spans are shorter than ever. People expect your video to deliver what they need right away — if it doesn’t, they’re going to close your website or scroll on by.

In general, videos for the Internet should never be longer than 5 or 10 minutes. In fact, mMany of the videos you make will be just one minute or less, especially if they’re part of your social media marketing plan. So keep your video succinct, informative, and to-the-point, especially during its opening moments!

2. Tell a story

No matter how short or long it is, effective digital marketing needs to tell a story — and that includes your video.

Video storytelling is what keeps your audience focused and engaged. Otherwise, your video can start to feel like a dry school lecture, and who’s going to stick around for that?

Whether you’re telling the story of a mom who beat breast cancer, or how a new telehealth platform will make our lives easier, find the narrative thread that will keep viewers on board the entire time.

With healthcare, you have the ability to share strong emotions with your audience, related to family for instance.

3. Focus on useful medical information and education

Even if your goal is entertainment, make sure your viewers get something out of the experience.

We all want to learn more about how to take better care of our health and our bodies, and healthcare marketers have a unique opportunity to provide that through engaging video. Learn more on how to make engaging videos!

Not sure what to share? Be guided by what your viewers — and patients — are looking for. Are your doctors always being asked about post-procedure aftercare? Is your reception team bombarded with questions about your online booking system?

This is your chance to answer those patient questions and solve their problems before they even need to ask.

4. Write a good script

A good script will help you accomplish many of the other points on this list. Scripting helps you share a strong message, tell a story, and keep things simple and clear.

Write a script even if you think you don’t need one. It will be invaluable, even for surprising formats like 10-second welcome videos and Instagram Livestreams. On video, every second counts. You can’t waste a single on-screen moment searching for the right words to say.

5. Nail the tone

Healthcare is a sensitive topic, so you’ll want to approach your video with plenty of compassion and care.

The ideal tone for a healthcare video is clear, but positive. Don’t beat around the bush when sharing the information your viewers need, but never, ever make things seem negative, dramatic, or scary.

Think of your video as an extension of how your doctors interact with patients in real life — reassuring, calm, and empathetic.

6. Get the right gear

No one’s expecting you to build a Hollywood-style production studio. But to turn out high-quality footage that lives up to your brand standards, you’re going to need some basic equipment.

At a minimum, you’ll need a camera (smartphone is fine), a microphone, and some lighting. This is how you keep your video consistent and high-quality, both in terms of image and audio. Without these three key pieces of equipment, you’re at the mercy of the ambient lights wherever you’re filming, and your phone’s built-in microphone.

There’s no need to splurge and get the most expensive option for any of these must-haves. Just pull together a dedicated kit so you know you can produce a video that’s actually worth using.

7. Use high quality stock media

It’s likely that you won’t be working only with original footage you’ve shot yourself. Even if you do produce some original content, like patient and video interviews, you’ll want to edit it together with great-quality stock media, to help you illustrate the story you’re trying to tell.

Some of the video editors like PlayPlay come with an included library of stock images and video footage. Since good-quality stock media can be expensive, this is a good way to save your team some money, not to mention headaches and time. There are a lot of medical pictures.

8. Always add subtitles

In the age of social media, most individuals are going to watch your video on mobile — and a lot of the time, they’ll have their device on mute.

That means your video needs to be able to communicate just as well without sound. Without subtitles, the script you worked so hard on will get completely lost if anyone has their volume turned down while watching.

Subtitles also mean hearing-impaired people can enjoy your video too. That’s a very important consideration for healthcare providers.

9. Choose the music wisely

Music is one of those things that can either amp up the impact and punch of a video, or cause it to fall completely flat.

Experiment with different royalty-free soundtracks to see which ones work the best with your video. A tool like PlayPlay, which comes with a library of music clips included, makes this stage easy and effortless.

You can play on strong emotions with music like piano, especially in the healthcare area.

10. Use a video creator with good motion graphics

Animations are a simple way to make your video more dynamic, entertaining, and attention-getting. If you can, choose a video creator that makes it easy to add in motion graphics like animated title cards or moving text and graphics that illustrate your video’s message.

In combination with great footage and crystal-clear sound, an animation with motion design gives you one more way to drive your story home.

11. Optimize for your platform

Don’t think you can just create one video, then post it everywhere. Videos for LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, or any other video-centric platform will look very different in terms of length, file type, dimensions, and more.

Do your research, and make sure that you’re publishing the kind of animated video that users are used to seeing.

The challenges of marketing video for healthcare

Lack of resources and lack of creative video presentation ideas are the two most common barriers that hold marketers back from trying out video for healthcare. With our best tips, learn how to make a presentation and start creating videos quickly !

Lack of resources

Healthcare professionals are often overwhelmed, and learning video marketing can seem like just another task. Marketing budgets are limited, with little focus on lead generation. Investing in videos may seem superfluous or inappropriate. 

However, a good video creation tool, equipped with templates and automatic subtitles, can simplify this new approach without requiring a large investment..

Lack of ideas

In the healthcare industry, creating marketing videos can seem daunting, especially with the constraints of confidentiality. 

However, you don't have to innovate on your side. Hold a brainstorming session with your customer support or sales teams to identify common patient concerns and questions, then address these topics in your videos with the good animation...

Another great place to start is your competition. What organizations do you think are doing amazing work in your niche or specialty around targeting the same audience as you? What are they doing in terms of marketing video strategy? Do some research, collect a few good video content ideas, and see how you could adapt them for your organization.

Here are some video content ideas in the Pharmaceutical industry.

Time to practice and create!

As you can see, the marketing video options for healthcare are endless. Everyone in the medical field, from administrators to marketers to actual physicians, wants to educate patients so they can make informed choices and avoid health-related stress and anxiety.

Video is a natural way to do that. Patients respond to video — it might be the most human, relatable way to communicate online. And what’s more, with tools like PlayPlay, creating online videos can be intuitive, affordable, and even fun.

So don’t wait around. Get out there and start connecting with your patients today.

Video is the obvious way to get there, whether you’re inbound or outbound, B2B or B2C, or focusing on video email marketing or more into social media marketing.

Unlock your creativity with PlayPlay's innovative video maker, enabling you to easily create marketing videos that leave a lasting impact on your target audience.