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Short Veterinary Videos Have Long Reach For Your Veterinary Hospital

veterinary video marketing Dear Colleagues,

I love videos; don't you? We watch them, share them and are influenced by them. This is why videos turn up on page 1 whenever you do a Google search. But how can veterinary hospital videos benefit you and your veterinary practice? Videos are an incredibly effective way to engage pet owners, announce your services and keep you in front of local pet owners and your clients. They result in increased pet health awareness, and ultimately drive more business to your hospital. Veterinary videos are something you should be creating.

How do you start creating veterinary hospital videos to boost your marketing efforts? You are a veterinarian, not a film producer.

Just by using your digital camera or smartphone, you can create simple, engaging, short videos and post them on your website, mobile website, and social media. An excellent alternative is to hire a professional photographer to shoot your videos. Well worth the $400 investment, a professional photographer can shoot several good, short videos at your veterinary hospital in a half days' time.

We describe the types of veterinary hospital videos that you should be creating and provide an instructional video explaining how to upload your clips to Facebook, where it's five times more likely to get "shares and likes."

Also included is an interview with one of our clients, Dr. Martin Gilmore, who owns Mill Creek Animal Hospital in Shawnee, Kansas.

Providing valuable information to help you connect with pet owners and grow your practice is our goal at VetNetwork. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me.

And thank you for taking the time to read our veterinary marketing newsletter.

Camera... Action!

—Dr. Mark Feltz, DVM, and the Creative Team at VetNetwork

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Taking on Video Veterinary Marketing:
Hire a Professional or Self-Produce?

Once you've smartly decided to showcase your veterinary hospital with veterinary video marketing, it's time to start thinking about production. There are two distinct choices: hire a professional or self-produce. Below are benefits and considerations for both.

Take 1: Hiring a Professional

Having a local videographer shoot your veterinary videos can provide some strong advantages. Professionals have optimal camera and lighting equipment, superior editing capabilities, and basic video-making experience and knowledge. Additional upsides include:

High quality production
Minimal wasted time or effort
Editing skills and resources

Experienced video producers know what works best online. Their overall expertise translates into a superior product that promotes the high-quality services and the outstanding and compassionate care that you and your staff members provide.

Two potential drawbacks to hiring a professional include:

Expense
Lack of creative control

Hiring a professional photographer gets you the most bang for your buck. Typical minimum half day rates cost approximately $400. Editing may include an additional $50/hour. Considering that several good veterinary hospital videos can be produced in 4 hours, it's well worth the cost.

A videographer may bring strong suggestions; however, it pays to listen to their advice. You will most likely be happy with the result and proud to post it on your veterinary website and social media platforms.

Take 2: Self-Produce

If you're not sold on the idea of hiring a professional videographer, there still remains another approach to get videos up and working for you: make your own.

Three easy benefits are:

Cost control
Creative control
Acceptable production value

With a simple digital camera, video camera or even an iPhone, you can create a video that demonstrates why local pet owners should bring their animals to your hospital.

Disadvantages to homemade videos include:

Low production value
Mistakes
Wasted time from trial and error

Grab a Smartphone

Creating a video for your veterinary hospital's website or social media platforms does not have to be an overwhelming or expensive ordeal. With a little research, curiosity and patience, you or one of your employees can capture and create your hospital's essence and transform it into video. In fact, a distinct advantage to having an employee shoot the footage is that your video will inevitably project the “personal” side of your practice. The realistic and down-to-earth nature of the resulting veterinary hospital video can serve as your best marketing tool.

Things to keep in mind for the on-staff videographer:

Check (and recheck) the recording audio features to ensure quality sound.
Steady the phone or use a tripod- no one likes to watch wobbly footage.
Horizontal shots- videos looks better when recorded horizontally
Proximity- get close to the subject so that s/he/it is clearly visible
Check (and recheck) the lighting
Make room- video files take up a lot of room on your phone, check space prior to shooting.

Scrolling Credits

Why should you care about making videos for your veterinary hospital? Because pet owners can see what you do best – provide quality and compassionate care to their beloved pets. The value added benefits? Video veterinary marketing boosts your search engine rankings (more website traffic!), educates your clients, and allows you to reach more pet owners than standard marketing tools.

Short on videos ideas? Here are a few to ignite your inner Spielberg:

Videos that touch the heart (think warm and fuzzy/furry)
Pets doing tricks
Videos tracking pets' activities

The End

In the end, remember three tips: keep it short, keep it simple, and keep it fun. Now, you're ready.

Action.

Three Videos Pet Owners Want to Watch

veterinary video marketing You have spent time carefully building your practice, cultivating your veterinary expertise, and assembling a skilled and compassionate team. With videos, you have an opportunity to actually show pet owners how your outstanding staff and state-of-the-art services and technology benefit them and the health of their pet. Also, more than any other marketing tool, videos are an opportunity to make a meaningful emotional connection with pet owners. When they connect positive feelings to your hospital, you win – big.

Here are three types of veterinary hospital videos to help you get started.

Instructional videos – Consider topics that can be easily tackled in about two minutes or divided into segments. For example: How to administer oral medications; how to properly remove a tick; how to clip nails; how to clean ears

Pet owner testimonials – Is a loyal, longtime client bringing her dog in for a wellness visit or grooming appointment? Is a client with a cat you saved from kidney failure sitting in your waiting room? Ask them (and their furry companions) for a few seconds of screen time to talk about your practice.

Purely entertaining videos – Videos that don't explicitly sell your hospital are the videos most likely to be shared. They give you an opportunity to both strengthen the loyalty of your current clients and reach pet owners who may not know about your veterinary hospital. "People don't share commercials, they share emotions," according to Scott Stratten at Fast Company. If you can get pet owners to laugh, cry, or even just say aww, they are that much more likely to share your video. Perhaps ask a few clients to describe what their pet companions mean to them, or capture your cutest or most talented patients on camera, or share a story about a rescued pet who finally found their loving "forever home." End the video with a shot of your < a href="http://vetnetwork.com/veterinary-marketing-logos.php" title="Don't have a logo for your hospital? Learn more about VetNetwork veterinary logos">veterinary hospital logo, without saying anything more.

Remember to keep your videos short (two minutes or less is a good guideline), pay attention to lighting (avoid hard overhead fluorescents), and keep background noise to a minimum. And don't forget to relax and have fun!

Quick How-To: Uploading Veterinary Hospital Videos to Facebook

veterinary hospital marketing Short, fun videos are a great way to engage pet owners on Facebook and get likes, comments, and shares that expand your organic reach. In the video below, Chris, VetNetwork's Social Media Coordinator, gives a brief tutorial about how to upload your video.

Spending On Pets at All-Time High

The American Pet Products Association has reported that pet owners are spending more money on their four-legged friends than ever before. According to Bob Vetere, CEO of the association, pet owners spent over $56 billion in 2013. That number is expected to top $60 billion in 2014.

Veterinary care accounts for $14 billion of that figure. The average pet owner spends about $400 per year on pet surgery and about $200 per year on routine veterinary visits. The fastest growing sector of pet care is non-veterinary services, including grooming, boarding, training, and pet-sitting. Sales of live animals have fallen slightly, suggesting that pet owners are more interested in supporting their existing pets than adding to their families.

Client Profile: A Talk with Dr. Martin Gilmore
from Mill Creek Animal Hospital

Recently, we talked with Dr. Martin Gilmore, the owner of Mill Creek Animal Hospital in Shawnee, Kansas. In 2010, Mill Creek partnered with VetNetwork to redesign their veterinary hospital website, as well as provide a mobile veterinary website, veterinary brochure, and veterinary SEO services.

VetNetwork: What made you decide to develop a website for your veterinary hospital?

Dr. Martin Gilmore: We initially had a website dating from 2002. I believe modern business must have a website to educate clientele and reach customers.

VN: Why did you choose to partner with VetNetwork?

Dr. Gilmore: We were referred by Pfizer Animal Health. Based on their recommendation, I was confident there would be a professional relationship and quality products. I found the professional team at VetNetwork easy to communicate with and responsive to my needs. I am happy with result.

VN: Describe how having a customized website
has benefited your practice.

Dr. Gilmore: Because of website and SEO, my veterinary hospital ranks very high in my area. The modern consumer without questions goes to the internet first. If your website is poor, they may think maybe the quality of your business is poor.

VN: Do you pay attention to what your competition is doing to market their practices and how do you feel your efforts compare?

Dr. Gilmore: Occasionally I see competitors' Yellow Book ads or blanketed, non-targeted ads. Marketing must be more sophisticated to reach your target consumers. On rare occasions I peruse other web presences. I recently saw a template-driven website of a new large competitor and I wasn't that concerned.

VN: In your experience, what is the most effective way to reach pet owners in your community?

Dr. Gilmore: Every person that calls us for the first time, if they have found us on the web and tells us that they really like our website. Or if they are referred by someone, they go to our website and they like what they see and have comfort that Mill Creek Animal Hospital is a high-quality place with a high standard of care. Our website is our #1 recruitment method and client acquisition method by a long shot.

VN: What advice would you give a veterinarian who isn't sure about the value of online marketing?

Dr. Gilmore: I can't even fathom someone with a small animal practice trying to be solvent and successful without a sophisticated, robust online presence. It's like trying to practice veterinary medicine without a rabies vaccine or penicillin. It's that basic.

VetNetwork Services

VetNetwork is a full-service veterinary marketing company dedicated to the needs of veterinary hospitals. Our professional graphic designers and writers are here to help take your practice to the next level. If it's time to re-design your veterinary hospital website, or add a mobile site or get Page 1 rankings with our proven SEO services, give us a call today!