Patient Video Testimonial Setup Guide
How to gather Quick Testimonial Videos on a budget
As one of the most important marketing tactics for your dental practice, acquiring testimonials can help you to significantly improve trust amongst yourself and your patients.
In general, testimonials and reviews will increase your chances of obtaining new patients by a large percentage, as they give the reader an insight into your treatment, and more importantly, the results expected. The problem is that it is possible to falsify these textual reviews quite easily. This is where the power of video testimonials comes in, as they are almost impossible to falsify, and the viewer can see the expression, the genuineness of the patient and the physical results of the dental treatment. The video gives the patient a sense of connection and bond with the patient, which in turn creates trust.
In recent years, video content marketing increased by 73% as professionals realized that visual assets are phenomenal for marketing purposes. Not to mention that 92% of consumers find themselves watching testimonials prior to considering a purchase.
When it comes to testimonials, potential clients are able to put a face to a name and see proof of happy patients that have visited your practice. Approximately 72% of respondents stated positive testimonials help them to better trust businesses.
To get high-quality professional testimonials, follow these 5 easy steps below.
Step 1: Find a suitable Location
Your first task is to find a place in your dental clinic that can be dedicated to recording the testimonials. Ideally, it should be in an unused corner or a vacant office where you can comfortably record your patients. Providing testimonials can make people feel awkward and the last thing you’ll want is to put them in a position to where they’re being filmed in front of the entire office. Neither does this area need to take up much space, a very minimal setup can produce perfect results.
You’ll also want to consider placing the proposed location somewhere your patients will be able to see it as they’re walking into their appointment, so they can see that you are actively seeking testimonials.
Step 2: Create the Setting
Creating the setting for the testimonials is one of the most important parts of the project as it will be where the majority of your branding is placed. This is unless you have access to a professional video editor that can implement your logo and branding in post-production. You can easily find customisable backdrops to order with your company logo printed on the background. Wall stickers are another option which look great, and are quite inexpensive. The main thing is to make sure that the logo will be visible while being filmed as consumers only take 10 seconds to form an impression of your brand’s logo. It’s important that all the videos are uniform, so they are in the same location, same background, without too many distractions behind the patient, to keep the viewer focused on what the patient is saying.
You’ll need to set up a background/backdrop and ensure that there is enough lighting to make the videos clear and visible to viewers. Ideally, opt for natural lighting, though if there aren’t many windows in your office you can always purchase umbrella lights and other professional lighting equipment. Most Dental clinics will have a well lit, unused corner of the office that will work perfectly.
Step 3: Purchase and Set Up Filming Equipment
This sounds expensive, but really you need very little to produce great videos. Years ago to produce great videos you would need to invest a lot of money, but thankfully there isn’t a need to purchase a professional camera such as a DSLR because you can just use your smartphone.
For example, the iPhone 8’s camera offers just as high-quality filming as a traditional digital camera. With 1080p HD video recording, auto image stabilization, and Retina flash, you’ll have everything you could need to get a clear and crisp video. Also, most modern smartphones have great cameras, Android and Apple alike.
The issue with using a smartphone is the movement of the camera during the filming process, this is something that will make the end product look very cheap and unprofessional if not addressed. This is why you should consider purchasing is a tripod or camera stand that is compatible with your smartphone. There are a lot of reasonable products on Amazon or online. Although the majority of phones offer built-in image stabilisation, you’ll want to make sure that the camera is held as steadily as possible and to ensure that each of the videos is uniform, from the same angle, position and distance away from the patient.
I want to stress that setting this up is very very easy, and you don’t need special skills or knowledge at all to achieve amazing results. A few dental clinics we have worked with make it a regular process to ask a patient for a quick video, and the reception staff do the recording without needed to take the Dentist away from his/her work.
Step 4: Structured Questions
Aside from your backdrop and filming equipment, it’s important to establish a set of questions and comments you’ll want your patients to say. If you leave the script up to the person being filmed, you might not be able to get all of the answers you need or the videos will not be clear and precise. You’ll certainly want to tap into the 88% of consumers that trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Also, ensure that each patient follows the same script so in the event you want to make a testimonial compilation it will be easier to edit the video.
A few examples of great questions and comments include:
- Name and reason for their visit to the clinic
- Information about the treatments used to resolve their dental concerns
- What they enjoyed about their treatment and the clinic
- How they feel about the results, after the treatment
- Would they recommend the clinic to family and friends?
- Anything that stood out about their visit versus other dental visits to competing practices
Your best option is to print the questions on large pieces of presentation paper in a large readable font. This allows your patients to easily read what you want them to answer as you hold them up behind the camera.
Step 5: Filming and Uploading
Once you’ve completed all of the necessary preparations it’s now time to film the video and start uploading it to all of your marketing channels.
The easiest method for acquiring a testimonial is to assign one or two of your staff members to spearhead the project. Once you’ve set up the filming space taking the time to record the testimonials should only take a few minutes at most. If you find that your customers are slightly hesitant about being filmed, consider offering an incentive for each testimonial such as a discount off of their next treatment. According to Software Advice, over 50% of customers will be more likely to give a referral if they’re offered an incentive.
Its a good idea to have one good testimonial video at hand to show the patient, so they have an idea how the questions will go, and what they could potentially say.
It’s also important to ask the patient if they mind being tagged in the video, as visual content is 40x more likely to be shared than other types of content. This can help to spread awareness of your dental practice amongst their circle of friends and acquaintances.
When uploading your video make sure that it is posted to all online venues including your website, Facebook page, Twitter page, YouTube page, etc. A testimonial is a phenomenal marketing tool that you should be sure to take advantage of. YouTube will allow you to upload the video to your Dental Clinic’s YouTube channel, afterwhich you will have a simple link to share on your website, emails and other social media platforms.
Setting up a space for testimonials in your office is easier than you could imagine and you’d be surprised to find that the majority of your patients would be more than willing to give your company a positive review at the end of every visit. As a diverse marketing tool that is easily applied to any online page related to your business, it’s one of the most versatile things to have at your disposal.
Get in touch
If you are thinking of doing something similar, and need advice, or want to edit the videos to make them more attractive, please get in touch, we have a wide arsenal of marketing techniques which are proven to work and grow your Clinic. [email protected]