Web Video Will Transform Your Practice in Many Ways
2008 was predicted to be The Year of Video. So was 2010, 2011, and 2013. The reality is that internet video took longer to go mainstream than most prognosticators thought. But at the same time, the switch from an internet focused on text and images to one where video runs the day was kind of inevitable, once bandwidth caught up and made video viewing effortless.
Now that video is increasingly dominating the web, let’s look at some ways it’s likely to transform not only your online marketing efforts, but the way in which you practice medicine in the coming years.
Telehealth
Many big players in healthcare are competing for a seat at the telehealth table. It’s difficult to predict winners and losers just yet, but services like Clocktree are making it exceptionally easy for patients to connect with medical providers in real time over the web. As much as providers may resist, it seems hard to imagine that telehealth will not become a primary way patients seek treatment.
Of course, telehealth is about more than just video consultations, though those are a big draw. Patients will be able to transmit vitals and other real-time health info via smartphone, making it seem less and less necessary for in-person diagnosis.
In the cosmetic surgery space, virtual consultations could take over as the dominant method of seeing new patients and recommending procedure options. It might be hard to imagine that the first time you see a patient in person is on the day of surgery, but that sounds very likely to us at some point in the near future.
Virtual Reality
Devices like Vectra 3D imaging and services like New Look Now have taken a step toward a “try before you buy” experience that allows patients to see what they might look like after a procedure. Artificial intelligence may be able to guide apps that make a virtual reality cosmetic surgery experience even more convenient. This presents new challenges and an even higher bar in terms of satisfying patient expectations, but there’s no escaping that people want more visual, personal examples of the results they can expect.
Digital Video Advertising
Because people on the web are exposed to countless video ads every day, it takes something truly special to make an impression. Marketers will continue to change up video creative and placement in an attempt to break through the clutter. Let’s take a quick look at a couple current paid media tactics to get a sense of where things might be heading.
Microvideo
As the name suggests, microvideos are short, usually 10 seconds or less. The philosophy behind them is no surprise – people’s attention spans get shorter every day, and research has shown that consumers need multiple interactions with a brand before they take action.
These snackable segments can show up in many places, touting only a single aspect or benefit of your business at a time. Microvideos are connecting particularly well with Millennial buyers, whose attention spans have been shaped by using the web for most of their lives.
Outstream Video
Also known as native video, outstream videos are integrated within a webpage and auto-show/auto-play once a user scrolls near one. If a user scrolls past and onto something else on the page, the video automatically pauses.
As you can see in this example of an outstream video ad, the video initially gets your attention because you weren’t expecting it to be there. No one would call it a game changer, but placements like these can shake things up and attract user interest at least for a while. Where’s the next place digital video ads will show? The sky’s the limit.
Social Media and User-Generated Content
People already create about a gazillion hours of video content every day, and that’s only going to increase as video replaces text and voice as a dominant method of communication. For example, it’s not hard to imagine all those written reviews on Yelp and Google turning into video reviews, and your practice might need to be ready to produce high quality video responses too. (With HIPAA always top of mind of course.)
Facebook users already have their feeds filled with autoplay videos from various sources. Instagram and Snapchat too make it easy to spend hours scrolling through live video stories. An increasing number of brands are attempting to tailor video ads so that they look a lot like content from a user’s followers. How soon until an AI bot can scan posts and automatically create a custom video advertisement calculated to appeal most to a particular user? It’s not that far out, folks.
In fact, it’s pretty easy to see how interactive, visual content shared in social spaces will be the main way the internet works in the near future. Forget typing. Forget reading. Heck, forget websites for that matter. Online video is going to create a whole new way for us all to interact on the web, and your business better be ready.