By Austin Armstrong
To help you better reach and attract more clients, we’ve outlined 9 Vertical Video Marketing Steps to Grow Your Behavioral Health Practice based on our digital marketing experience and expertise in this industry. Video on social media has become the norm, so if you are not doing video marketing, these tips can help you. There is a huge marketing opportunity right now for therapists, doctors, medical professionals, addiction treatment centers, interventionists, podiatrists, lawyers, and service based industries to create content and address problems to reach their target audience.
People don't buy from brands; they buy from other people. The core elements of video marketing are “know, like and trust”. If you post videos on a regularly basis, viewers will start to know you, like you, trust you, and are much more likely to contact you.
To help you succeed, here’s our recommended vertical video marketing process:
- Make Video a Top Priority for Your Social- Video on social media has become the norm, so if you are not doing video marketing, it’s time to get started. For example, Instagram let us know about a year ago that they're no longer a photo app. They are a video app first. Most social platforms are playing catch up with TikTok that burst onto the scene about three years ago. And now all of these platforms, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, are prioritizing video to maintain and gain more attention of viewers.
- Post Vertical versus Horizontal Videos- Vertical videos are now more popular than horizontal videos. Our television screens and movie theater screens are horizontal. And so up until the last couple of years, that was just considered the norm. However, vertical videos started becoming more popular with the launch of TikTok and mobile marketing. A vertical video is a video that's viewed vertically up and down on your phone. It is a more natural way that we hold our phone, and reduces steps to view a video. The vast majority don’t watch videos on their computer. Instead, they watch videos on a phone that is with them 24x7.
- Build Trust with Video as a Behavioral Healthcare Professional- When you're reaching out to a healthcare professional or whatever your industry is, trust is the most important thing. Whether you are seeking support or help for a loved one, a spouse, a son, a daughter, anybody that you care about, finding the right expert is the most important thing. Before video and social media, there were large client patient drop rates because it wasn’t the right fit. Video has completely transformed this landscape so someone can get a sense of the professional’s personality, expertise and communication style before reaching out.
- Use a Variety of Video Platforms to Maximize Results- You want to post vertical videos on multiple platforms. TikTok and YouTube are not just social media platforms, they are search engines. YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world next to Google. TikTok is becoming a search engine. Last year, TikTok was the most visited website in the world, even ahead of Google. And with short attention spans, people are now looking for short bite size pieces of information to address something that they're struggling with versus read a 3000 word article.
- Define and Connect with Your Target Audience- To use video effectively, it begins by knowing exactly who is your target audience. Start by building out a buyer persona that describes their age range, gender, demographic, interests and hobbies. Think about what are their emotional needs and desires? What are all of the reasons why they would come to you in the first place? And what are all of the things that your service helps them overcome?
- Define Your Video Content Strategy- When you define the topics you want to discuss, start by outlining different categories. All of the services that you offer could be one category, and your FAQ topics are another. And then leverage a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keyword research tool to find out what topics people are searching for most online. Study competitors online to see which of their videos are performing well. And then make a plan to post consistently. For example, post a video on Monday from category A, and post a video from category B on Tuesday. And just keep going down your list. This consistency can help you create content that resonates with exactly who you're trying to reach.
- Offer Benefits Immediately in Short Videos- By answering questions in 60 seconds or less in a vertical video, it can really resonate with potential clients. Because the attention span of viewers is terrible, there's no time to introduce yourself or give a lengthy backstory. Nobody cares. Instead, share benefits for who you're trying to reach. Start a video by immediately addressing a question or pain point. This is your opening hook that will get their attention. For example, you could offer three tips to help someone overcome depression. Get to the point quickly, and then list your top three tips. This offers value based on your opening hook.
- Film and Edit Video Easily on Your Phone– It has never been easier to film and edits video right on your mobile phone. You don't need fancy lights, audio equipment or the perfect background. All of that can happen later. Just focus on creating good content. If you're creating a video for TikTok, simply open the app and hold the red button down to record. Record your opening hook, release your finger. That's going to cause a video cut right in there. Press it down again, say a new line, then release the button so you're actually cutting in real time as you're talking. And then you can adjust clips right in the TikTok app or the CapCut app. When you edit, you can cut out ums, fluff and mistakes. You can add background music, filters, text on the screen, stickers and emojis. There are also easy-to-use video editing apps for all other social media platforms.
- Include a Call-to-Action to Generate Leads at End of Videos– To help you generate sales leads, make sure to add a clear Call-to-Action at the end of your videos. Tell viewers what to do next by saying something specific like, “Contact me if I can help you overcome depression.” Focus on one action versus telling them to do a million things. The easiest way to generate leads from your social media is through the link in your bio. Include a link to your website or send them to a single landing page. You can then provide a calendar booking software link to schedule a call, have a button to call your office, email you or use a Contact Form to connect.
On a personal note, I got started in marketing in the behavioral health space because my sister is in recovery. This resulted in me doing a free internship and eventually getting a full-time job at a treatment center, where one of the partners had a video marketing agency that specialized in behavioral health and video marketing. This experience gave me a much better understanding and appreciation of mental health and addiction professionals.
Austin Armstrong is SocialtyPro CEO and a Vertical Video Marketing Expert. As CEO of SocialtyPro now, our team works with behavioral health experts, organizations and business professionals to help them share their message with the world. We’re a full service digital marketing agency that offers everything from one-on-one coaching to consulting if you want to do everything yourself. And if you just want to be the expert and let us handle the rest, we can develop your content strategy, coach you how to be better on camera, do the video editing, post for you, maximize your SEO and provide account management. To schedule a quick call, contact Austin Armstrong at socialtypro.com or use our Calendly link: https://calendly.com/socialtypro/15min
Austin Armstrong will be speaking at the Mental Health Marketing Conference - Nov 15-16, 2022 in Nashville