Are Plastic Surgery Patients Really Going To YouTube?
If you are marketing your practice on the Internet, chances are you have been approached about adding a video element to your strategy. However, many doctors that come to me for advice are still unsure as to whether video is just a fad or a viable way to increase their leads. Sound like you? Then keep reading.
The Common Questions:
- How can I measure the benefits? (i.e. Video productions are not cheap; is the investment worth the return?)
- Are people really going to YouTube to watch plastic surgery videos?
The Answers:
Question 1: In order to measure the effectiveness of video on your website, we must focus on two distinct areas: Website Statistics and Website Conversion. The key to tracking any web promotions strategy is a reliable and accurate website statistics program. In addition, you must be diligent about analyzing the data gathered so that you can make adjustments to your web marketing strategy over time. I would recommend installing Google analytics, which is a free third party application that offers very robust reporting. Once you have a tracking program installed, you will be able to benchmark your site visitors average time duration. Make note of this data point before you add video and watch to see if that time increases after the addition of video to your site.The second area of focus is your overall website visitor to lead conversion. This can be established by measuring the total amount of unique visitors divided by the total amount of phone calls and emails (leads) generated in a month’s time. If you are not measuring phone calls from your website then just establish your email conversion level. Again benchmark your conversion level before adding video and then calculate the results after adding video. Obviously the quality of video plays an important role, but I have yet to come across a site that did not have more visitors and more leads after adding video.
Question 2: Perhaps you are skeptical about the demographic of users on YouTube. You are probably thinking that people are not really going to YouTube to watch plastic surgery videos. In your mind they go there to watch hamsters water ski or Mentos being dropped into Pepsi. That is certainly a valid point and for discussion sake let’s say it is true. The reality is that Google is bringing the video results to you so that you do not have to be on YouTube to find a video. Let me demonstrate by showing below a Google search for “Breast Augmentation Charlotte”. In this example, Google has displayed a video result on the front page of the “regular” web results section. So even if users are not going to YouTube to watch plastic surgery videos, they are certainly searching online for plastic surgery information.
In closing, the bottom line is that integrating video into your online marketing plan allows you to stay diversified in a highly competitive market place. The Internet is evolving at an exponential rate and everyday it expands and becomes a larger place. Your marketing efforts need to adapt with the times.