Do you want to be the leading face behind your business and be seen as an expert on the subject of patient health and physical therapy? Get your YouTube Channel up and running. One great way to place yourself ahead of your competition is to start a YouTube channel, answering questions that your Perfect Patient wants to know.
Did you know that behind Google, YouTube is the second most used source to gather information? As a leading PT, you would be crazy not to put your name and clinic out there for potential patients to find. Here are some of the best practices for YouTube optimization and how to grow your channel to attract your perfect patients.
1. Answering a Question That Your Current Patients Are Asking You
Make it easy for yourself. If you want to attract a certain type of patient to your clinic, answer the questions that your current patients are already asking you. As a physical therapist you know what types of pain your patients are frequently experiencing and the type of care that they typically seek from your treatment plans.
You should also know (from talking to them and your front desk) what sort of questions they ask on a regular basis. Try making a list of these common questions and set a goal to create one YouTube video per month, each answering a different question that your patient brings up. Answering these questions will help you in growing your YouTube channel.
2. Set Up Your Filming Location For Success
You don’t need to have a professional movie set. While having a good camera and clip on microphone with a standing light are ideal, you can also record from your iPhone or computer camera. The most important thing to remember is to be in a quiet space, that is well lit. Try not to have any background noise and make sure that you have overhead lighting or natural light, so that you aren’t shadowed out for the video. You should also be filming the video horizontally in landscape form, as this is optimal for YouTube.
3. Focus On Their Problem, Not You
A common mistake a lot of PTs make is focusing on themselves or their clinic (like an advertisement), rather than the informational video a patient is looking for. It doesn’t hurt to have a call to action and direct viewers to go to your website, or suggest they give your clinic a phone call.
However, this should be done at the right time and in the proper way. The right time is not at the beginning of your video.
People are generally on YouTube searching for a solution to their problem if they click on your video and all they hear for the first 30 seconds is you introducing yourself, talking about your education, and the location of your clinic and more, they will click out and find a new video.
Instead, start the video by directly addressing the question you were talking about and get right into the answer. Yes, go ahead and introduce yourself, but avoid saying more than a short, “Hi, my name is Dr. Smith and I work at Smith Physical Therapy.” The end of the video is where you can add a call to action to direct them to your clinic or other offer.
Most importantly, make sure that you are engaged and enthusiastic about what you are talking about. If you were bored by your topic, why would viewers be excited about wanting to watch more, let alone come and visit you in your clinic?
4. Optimize Your Description
The copy for a good description should include a brief overview of what you will be discussing in the video. Perhaps even consider adding a call to action at the end with your clinic website and phone number for people to book a discovery call.
However, there are a few additional things that not many people know about that you can do to further optimize your videos to help make them more viewer friendly and easier to find in the YouTube search. Add hashtags to the end of your description to help viewers find your content. Consider the hashtags you are already using for Instagram and use something similar.
When you add the hashtags to your description, YouTube will be able to find them and place them above your title in blue text when you click on one of your videos to watch. This helps the YouTube algorithm categorize your content and have a better idea of what to show viewers like your patience when they search certain keywords or phrases in the search bar. Try to add 2-3 relevant hashtags per video.
5. The More Tags You Add, The Better Chance Your Video Will Be Found
Tags are descriptive keywords you can add to your video to help viewers find your content. YouTube says that the video title, custom thumbnail and description are the most important elements to help your video be discovered, but tags can still help categorize your content in YouTube’s algorithm. When you are in the edit screen for your video, make sure to click the blue button that says show more at the bottom of the screen. This is where you can access the section to add tags.
It is important when you are adding tags that you add words and phrases that you think your Perfect Patient might type into the search bar to find a video like yours. These words could include the tags physical therapy.
6. Use Of YouTube Cards To Keep Viewers In A Constant Loop Of Your Content
YouTube cards are interactive elements that pop up in the top right corner of a video as you are watching. There are four types of cards that you can add…
- A card referencing a specific video on your channel or another channel.
- A card referencing a certain playlist on your channel or another channel.
- A card referencing another channel on YouTube.
- A card directing viewers to an outside link, such as your clinic website.
When your viewers see the card pop up in the corner of the video, they have the option to click on the video to view whatever content is being suggested. This is a great way to keep your viewers in a constant loop of your content. The more they are in that loop you will be getting more views on YouTube.
Try adding cards that are related to the content of your video, that might be of interest to your viewers. You could even reference the card when you record the video and tell your viewers to click on the top right corner if they want more information on a certain topic.
7. Repurpose Your Content Across All Your Spokes
After you went through the trouble of recording and uploading a video, make sure you are sharing your new content! Here are some ideas…
- Share your videos across Facebook and Instagram, other forms of social media
- Reference your video in your latest clinic newsletter
- Cut your video into smaller sections that can be used as reels on Instagram
- Use a call to action on YouTube to visit offices or see other videos
- Offer a drawing in your clinic where everyone will get an entry if they show that they’ve subscribed to your YouTube channel
Hopefully these ideas inspired you to start posting regularly on YouTube and establish your authority as a physical therapist. The most important thing to remember is to start – not to be perfect. Posting something is always better than doing nothing at all!
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