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Orthodontics and Video Marketing by Dusty Green

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by Dusty Green

There are so many stories and studies about the mass business migration to video marketing, and its repeated resulting successes (see sidebar). We’re a video-driven society. People love video. Video increases sales. So the only headscratching question that remains is: Why aren’t you using video to market your practice?

 A Web Site’s Not Enough Anymore
Hopefully you know by now that the first place a prospective patient is going to go to find out more about you is the Internet. And we’re not just talking about kids. Their parents – the ultimate decision makers – are getting more and more Internet-savvy. They’re shopping around. They’re doing their research. And they’re making their decisions based largely on what they find online.

But simply having a Web site isn’t enough anymore, not in today’s world. Why? Because almost everyone has an attractive, informative Web site these days. And despite a few differences in design and functionality, it’s getting harder and harder for prospective patients to tell the difference from one office Web site to the next.

Think about your own Web site for a second. Do you have an “about the doctor” page? Check. Staff pictures? Check. A page talking about all of your state-ofthe- art treatment options? Check. A “contact us” page? Check. Chances are you do, because everybody’s got that stuff. So how can you set yourself apart in a uniquely valuable way? How can you rise to the top of the list and at the same time make that emotional connection – that positive, lasting first impression – with every patient that visits your site? Easy. It’s done with video.

Video: Unequalled Emotional Effectiveness
Video is without question the most powerful and effective marketing tool in our history. From the early days of the 20th century when silent film commercials (selling cigarettes, no less) made their debut at neighborhood theaters called nickelodeons, to the invention and unparalleled reach of television, to the advent of the Internet and the explosion around the globe of Internet-based video, nothing has compelled us to action as a society like the moving images of film and video.

Why? Simple: No other medium so closely reflects life. Video has color, movement, sound and, most effectively, the ability to convey and elicit emotion – all the things that fill our lives every day.

This of course should come as no surprise to anyone. We all grew up with TV and movies, and today we are by-products of the decisions (and purchases) we’ve made based on movies we’ve seen, commercials we’ve watched or stories we’ve seen on the evening news. The impact of the medium is undeniable, primarily because of its power to sway emotion. And that’s what we’re counting on here.

Building a Video Marketing Strategy
Every doctor, every office, every staff has its own distinct personality. It’s what makes you, well, you. The trick is getting that personality to come across in an accurate and effective way. And nothing – nothing – can accomplish that better than a solid video marketing strategy.

Like any good project, an effective video marketing strategy has to begin with a strong foundation, a base from which to build and maintain an ongoing effort. And when considering getting a video marketing strategy off the ground, that foundation, the launch pad, if you will, is right there in front of you every day: your Web site. Again, it is your official place of business on the Internet – your online storefront. Your Web site is the place where prospective patients and their parents are going to look first to find out who you are and what you’re all about.

So you have a great foundation from which to start. That’s the good news. The bad news is, like everything else that evolved so quickly in today’s high-tech society, video marketing has changed dramatically in the past few years. It’s grown up. It’s more mature. Meaning, if your video isn’t done right, or if you have a 15-minute video on your Web site that you produced in 2005 (that you think is still fine and dandy), you probably need to take a fresh and honest look.

Today’s Web-savvy consumers click through a zillion Web sites during the course of a day and, as days go by, they have less and less time to do it. So to do video right, first and foremost – it’s got to be easy to find and easy to play. If a viewer (a prospective patient) can’t find your video and watch it with minimal effort, it’s useless. And you’ve missed a tremendous opportunity.

When your videos are done right, meaning that they’re wellproduced, they’re placed on the site correctly and they’re easy to watch, that’s when the magic happens. Aha! You’ve got patients’ attention. They see your face. They hear your voice. They really get a feel for what your office is like. And right then and there you’ve automatically set yourself apart from every other Web site they’ve visited in a unique and highly valuable way.

Best of all, patients who view the video now see you as more than just another photograph on a page, or another name with a lot of important-sounding letters behind it. If the video is done right, they see you as a person. Someone real. Someone who has a passion for what they’re doing. Someone they feel comfortable with. Someone they could possibly get to know and like.

Bingo. You’ve got ‘em. They call, make an appointment and by the time they arrive for their initial consultation they feel as though they’ve been to the office and know everybody.

Video Marketing and Social Media
For your main Web site videos, don’t mess around. Go with a professional video production company, somebody who knows video production and knows what they’re doing. Your Web site – and everything on it – is too important to put in the hands of an amateur, especially for the sole purpose of saving a little money. Professional production is an investment, no doubt. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the second half of your video marketing strategy is, in my opinion, equally powerful, equally important and practically free. All it really requires is a little bit of time and a dose of creativity.

This is where sites like YouTube and Facebook come into play. Think of them as your own personal TV channels. You’re in control of the programming and you can advertise all you want for free! All you need to get started is a Flip camera, a computer and a staff member willing to spend an extra few minutes here and there filming and (if necessary) editing.

Through the course of business, we visit a lot of practices around the country, and we’re always sure to ask if they have a Flip camera anywhere in the office. Almost without fail, we get the same response: “Oh yeah! We’ve got one, but it mostly just sits over there on the shelf because no one knows how to use it or has the time to use it.” And invariably, when we take the camera off the shelf and show them how easy it is to use, and how easy it is to edit and upload the video, they’re at the same time amazed and excited by its potential.

Done consistently and creatively, self-produced videos can, and should, be used as an excellent complement to your professional material, and help present you and your team in a more casual, down-to-earth and comfortable light. Whereas the main Web site videos serve to grab the viewer’s attention, establish you as a professional and “draw the viewer in,” so to speak, your social media videos can be an excellent way to show the fun, excitement and all-around awesomeness of everyday life in your practice. Now, that’s not to say you can simply post your own do-ityourself videos and automatically expect to achieve video marketing greatness. After all, everything you post to the Internet is perceived by the public – fairly or not – as a reflection of you and your practice. So if your videos are fuzzy, dark, shaky, hard to hear and hard to understand, the viewer’s natural reaction isn’t going to be favorable.

To provide an easy and effective solution to that problem, our company kicked off a new program at the AAO this year called GoSocial, whereby our clients send us their own video clips – whether it be a contest announcement, a testimonial or a deband celebration – and then we professionally edit them with custom graphics and music and really make them shine! Then, we upload the finished videos to their social media sites for them a few times a month. The result? They’ve got a steady stream of professional-looking, exciting and informative videos beefing up their social media sites. Better still, when they’re done right, adding social media videos regularly can also give a big boost to your search engine rankings.

The list of opportunities to create and share your own videos is endless, limited only by your creativity. From contest announcements and winners, to holiday greetings, office tours, staff profiles, community events and patient appreciation parties, the list goes on. They’re all great ideas, great ways to promote your practice and to establish and reinforce that personal, emotional connection with current and prospective patients.

Lights! Camera! Results!
Orthodontics is, as much as anything, a business built around personal relationships. Comfort. Trust. Personality. And there’s no better time than right now to begin building relationships through the unmatched power of video. So get those cameras rolling!

Author's Bio
Dusty Green is president of OrthoMedia, a video production company specializing in video marketing for orthodontic practices and the orthodontic industry. Dusty is an award-winning television news and documentary producer with more than 20 years experience in the television and video production industries. He and his wife, Nikki, who has more than 16 years experience working in orthodontics, started OrthoMedia in 2008 and have a growing list of clients across the U.S. and Canada. They reside in Austin, Texas.
Orthotown Magazine
September 2025
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