The high impact of video content — coupled with the increasing integrality of mobile in patient decision-making — has made mobile video advertising an essential tool for every medical marketer.
As mobile technologies continue to advance at breakneck speed, consumers have become increasingly comfortable using their smartphones and tablets to conduct research and make important purchasing decisions. When it comes to healthcare, this is especially true: of Google’s 100 billion annual health-related searches, more than half take place on mobile devices.
And as mobile search begins to play a central role in the continually evolving patient path to treatment, medical marketers must adapt their digital strategies accordingly — in fact, optimizing your mobile presence is now a non-negotiable requirement for any effective marketing campaign.
Similarly, online video content has emerged in recent years as arguably the best medium through which to engage prospective customers. According to Think With Google, “as time on YouTube has risen 74% year over year, time spent watching TV has fallen 4.6% for 18- to 49-year-olds.” What’s more, 93% of marketing professionals across all industries use video content in their campaigns, and 83% of those individuals reported a positive upswing after the videos were launched.
Today, more than 50% of all online video views can be attributed to mobile devices, and experts predict that the amount of time we spend watching online videos each day will increase by approximately 19.8% this year. Importantly, Forbes reports, “There’s also mounting evidence that people who watch video on their smartphone are giving it their full attention.” According to research from Google, watching video on TV was the sole activity for Millennials just 28% of the time (often accompanied by eating, texting, etc.), while watching mobile video was the sole activity 53% of the time.
For medical marketers, these stats are significant. Not only are patients increasingly consuming video content on mobile; this audience is more engaged, presenting an unprecedented opportunity to attract new patients and separate themselves from their competitors.
So how can marketers best harness the power of video for mobile platforms? Google researchers at Unskippable Labs conducted an experiment to determine just that: they tested viewer engagement on mobile with two versions of a Mountain Dew commercial — one that took a meandering, fun route, not mentioning the brand until the very end of the spot, versus one that included an immediate hard sell. Not only was the view-through rate higher for the first commercial; the researchers found that viewers demonstrated just as much brand recall as with the second. This seems to indicate that promoting meaningful, emotionally hard-hitting, or educational content — rather than forced repetition of your practice’s branding or services — is the most effective means of engaging patients via mobile video ads.
It’s fine to repurpose your old videos for mobile — but aim to give them a new, exciting spin. Avoid typical provider/patient cliches, and instead focus on creating original content that will keep mobile viewers interested and engaged, cementing your status as a reliable source of medical expertise. The more memorable you make your brand, the more likely that patients will come to you the next time they find themselves in need of care.