Video marketing in the healthcare industry has come a long way in the past year. A vital component of every sector’s content marketing strategy, healthcare isn’t an exception when engaging an online audience. From tips about living a healthier lifestyle to sharing complex data, video is the ideal format for making information accessible. Through animation, live-action or even a combination of both, video lends you a multitude of ways to engage your audience and attract more clients.
But what is the secret behind video’s charm? Studies show that our brains process visual information 60,000 times faster than plain text. Therefore, the more creative the visuals are, the more likely you will interest your viewers.
The potential of video content is still growing. Here’s our guide on how to make the most of video marketing in the health sector.
1. Animations for the Health Sector
Let’s say you want to create a video that relays information to other healthcare professionals. Or you want to raise awareness about a complex medical condition to the public. What’s the best way to market this type of content? Animation is the answer.
Sharing new scientific findings with other healthcare professionals requires a lot of forethought. This is especially the case with connecting different medical fields and ensuring they receive the right information. Animation brings all of the complexities of your research together and presents them in an aesthetically pleasing format. As anything is possible with animation, you can devise intricate body parts, bones and cells using exciting graphics. This will thoroughly explain your information in a detailed yet simple way. Therefore, you can quickly and easily share your knowledge with other medical departments in a professional and charismatic manner.
When pitching new medical ideas to the public, you have to bear in mind that many won’t have extensive knowledge of your field of science. Stunning graphic design, charts and graphs will disarm your viewers and help them retain 15% more information than a live-action video. This is because animation condenses information into bite-size chunks, making your complex new findings tangible and accessible. Animation also makes your content more compelling, adding a more creative approach to your footage. Children will also be attracted to your video content, as they are familiar with this type of visual format. Therefore, animation will show people they are receiving accurate information from a trusted source.
Our How Blood Works video for Macmillan Cancer Support is detailed yet simple enough to explain the functions of the different cells in the bloodstream. Animation helps visualise the body’s inner workings and the impact of cancer treatment on our blood cells.
2. Sharing Healthcare Video Content
With the rise of social media, online content has become a lot more shareable. Statistics show that social media posts that include a video generate 1200% more shares than plain text or image posts. The shareability of text and image are paling in comparison to video. Although other written and visual content are crucial to your marketing strategy, you can’t ignore the potential of video.
Through social media, therefore, healthcare professionals can much more easily and effectively reach their target audience. This allows them to more widely distribute their knowledge and visual content and reach more members of the public, strengthening engagement and interest. Videos are increasingly popular because they are a short and quick visual medium. Therefore, they can compress new, complicated findings more coherently and concisely.
The shorter your video, the better viewers will engage. Due to shortening attention spans, the ideal length for Facebook videos has been drastically reduced from 3 minutes to 15 seconds. As there is a never-ending reel of video on social media, it’s important to make sure your healthcare video is informative and attractive from the very beginning. Ensuring that the narrative is also comprehensible from a non-science point of view will increase relatability and encourage viewers to share it on their platforms.
Our Health Information video for Age UK features a doctor explaining the effects of cold weather on old people in a friendly yet informative way. Clarity is very important when marketing to older generations, as they are more easily confused by complicated messaging. We have effectively summarised the risks of winter and top tips to combat such cold snaps. This video is short, snappy and educational, making it incredibly shareable and relatable, which is especially important for older people.
3. Optimistic Healthcare Adverts
Healthcare ad campaigns no longer resort to morbid truths and scare tactics to encourage people to stop bad habits. Instead, healthcare marketers have noticed the potential of incorporating a sense of togetherness through video. There has been a huge switch in tone from unappealing animations to more motivational and personable healthcare ads. Coupled with a significant increase in social media usage, we have been more exposed to positive video content from the healthcare sector.
This is especially the case with the NHS. Since the start of the pandemic, circulating accurate information about symptoms and safety requirements has been imperative in stopping the spread of Coronavirus. Short videos with direct messages about social distancing guidelines, washing hands and wearing a face-covering have been the most effective, particularly when people from different demographics have participated in this campaign. Watching regular people from all walks of life maintaining relevant safety procedures helped instigate a sense of community. This was especially important for so many feeling isolated and alone at home, away from loved ones.
Although we’ve now seen a decline in these types of adverts, the NHS Better Health Let’s Do This ad still embodies this similar feeling of togetherness and inclusivity. Rather than opting for unpleasant graphics about the risks of an unhealthy lifestyle, we see various members of the public of all physical abilities actively boosting their bodily health. Their enthusiasm emphasises the fact they won’t be stopped in their journey to achieve their fitness goals. After over a year of uncertainty, scaring people into adopting better habits isn’t the way forward. They need to feel motivated and supported in their fitness endeavours instead of being inundated with horror stories about unhealthy habits.
4. Call to Action in Healthcare Marketing
A huge bonus of using video to engage a health audience is effectively instigating a Call to Action. After all, you want to convert viewers into consumers. What’s next after watching your video content? Where can they further their understanding? How can they raise awareness?
As a video can easily summarise a concept in a matter of seconds, people will have a clearer idea of what your brand is about and what values are important to you. This simply ties into the ending of your video, where you can give viewers the final push to register for your services, donate to your charity, or share your content. Or all of them!
Good examples of a Call to Action are those for Anthony Nolan and NHS Give Blood. Both ad campaigns provide an effective and sentimental lead-up to the relevant links for viewers to sign up and become donors through emotional visual storytelling. Whilst Anthony Nolan takes the premise of a woman seemingly unlucky in love but is just waiting for a stem cell match, NHS Give Blood uses a milkman distributing bottles and quickly running out of blood. Both adverts use tear-jerking techniques and voice-over to encourage viewers to see the value of becoming either a stem cell or blood donor, therefore emphasising the importance of their Call to Action.
Our recruitment film for All Global Circle effectively instigates a Call to Action by combining live-action footage, animated text overlays, and strong voice-over to persuade healthcare professionals to partake in online medical market research. Detailing the benefits of joining this company and highlighting impressive statistics all build up to a compelling Call to Action. Including visuals of the sign-up form also contributes to convincing viewers to participate in online medical research.
Final Thoughts
It’s clear to see that video is fantastic at engaging audiences from all over the health sector. From informational animated video content to increasing shareability, healthcare professionals can easily and effectively distribute accurate information about medical research to the wider public without generating confusion. Video helps to consolidate complicated data and make your field of science appealing to the masses. It also adds a humanistic quality to your content marketing strategy, resulting in increased relatability and online recognition.
But following our tips is just the start. Through our creative, fast, focused approach, we’ll help you achieve your content marketing goals.
With over 2000 videos, both animated and live-action, we can sort all of the logistics associated with your healthcare video. We are a full-service video and animation company based in London with a great in-house team. Still interested? Give us a call to get our creative partnership started.
