Medical Marketing Enterprises, L.L.C.

Website Optimization, SEO, Reputation Management for Medical Practices

5 Easy Steps to Optimize YouTube Video

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Optimizing Your YouTube Videos | Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing

Your YouTube videos can be optimized.  Optimization allows YouTube to rank them well.  Well ranked videos get more views.  Simple formula.

Last post we talked about making the videos attractive and viewable.  Optimum length and branding with an Intro and Outro.

Today we are going to go over the 5 simple parts of optimizing a video on YouTube:

  1. File Name
  2. Video Title
  3. Description
  4. Thumbnails
  5. Tags

The process of optimization begins just after you've completed the video but before you've uploaded your video file to YouTube.

Optimize the File Name

Before you upload your video file to your YouTube channel (aka YouTube account), rename the file using keywords.   For example, if I want to upload a video of retina surgery and optimize the file name, I might rename the file "RetinaSurgery.mp4" (or whatever filet ype you choose, e.g. .mov, etc.)

This is additional information YouTube can index for ranking purposes.

Now upload the file from your computer to YouTube.

Title of the Video

Once uploaded, you want to "edit" the YouTube, by adding additional information about your video.  Navigate to the "Info & Settings" tab.

The first space underneath your video is where you can edit your title.  Choose a combination of keywords, secondary keywords and intent modifiers.

Keywords and secondary keywords are the words or topics for which you would like to rank.  Intent modifiers are words that relate to specific intent:  how to, where to, best of, etc.  Though these are really generated on the user end, "How to fix a retinal detachment," using these same modifiers in your title will increase SEO because the intent modifiers AND keywords match.

Create a title for your video using a combination of keywords, secondary keywords and intent modifiers.

Write the Description

The description of the video allows you to associate text with your video.  Use 200-300 words to describe and summarize the video.  Use your keywords in the description to tell YouTube what your video is about (the description is read by both viewer, but indexed by YouTube).  The description is akin to writing an article for your blog/web site.  In addition to the text, add URLs of your web site and links to other videos on your channel.  You'll likely have to type out the URL as you can't add hyperlinks in the description area.

Make sure to include your name, specialty, company/hospital name and some contact information.

Thumbnails

A thumbnail is a tiny picture.  YouTube shows thumbnails when listing and suggesting videos to watch.  The thumbnail and the title of the video visually draw attention to your video allowing the viewer to decide if the video should be clicked.  Just as when selecting a "featured image" for your web site post, the thumbnail should be representative of the content of the video.  YouTube creates thumbnails for you or you may create your own and upload yourself.  Customized thumbnails can include a relevant image along a text large enough to read quickly.

Tags

These are added after the description.  Include keywords, secondary keywords, phrases (surgery for retinal detachment), your name, company, hospital, brand etc.

By following these five steps you've now done your best to optimize your YouTube videos.

Go ahead and hit "Publish."

Congratulations.

 

 

Thanks for following and reading.  You may also:

A.  Follow us on "RussandRandy" on iTunes (our podcast on medical and healthcare Internet marketing) featured on Libsyn, Stitcher, iTunes, ReachMD.com and others.
B.  Visit RussandRandy.com - the website associated with the podcast.
C.  Be on the lookout for upcoming webinars (New!!!).

To Your Success,

Randy

Happy New Year! Tips on Marketing for 2019

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Easy Marketing Strategy for 2019 | Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing

Happy New Year!

Let's set an agenda for your marketing goals for 2019.  First, let's set some ground rules.  Your marketing objectives should be:

  1. Easy to achieve
  2. Enjoyable
  3. Appreciated and understood

Remember that healthcare and medicine is not comfortable with "marketing."  The need for marketing is still poorly understood, but every year more and more of us are beginning to understand that healthcare marketing is necessary because our patients are expecting us to market.  Marketing involves teaching our patients about their health and what services we provide.

Easy to Achieve Goals

Establishing goals which are easy to attain avoids disappointment and the feeling of failure.  When I lecture, I often plead to the audience that your hope should be to implement something over the course of the next year and not everything.  Trying to achieve everything is doomed to failure.  Try to implement just one or two things learned.

Enjoyable Marketing Goals

Your goals will vary from group to group and organization to organization.

The larger your organization/group, the more complex your marketing needs and, unfortunately, the more difficulty in making every one "happy."  Keep this in mind when planning a strategy.

Choose a strategy which involves or requires skills you possess and enjoy to utilize.  For example, if you like to write, write new content.  If you do not like to write, create a video (do something you enjoy, not stress over).

Appreciate and Understand

No matter how simple or difficult, why are undertaking this task?  What is your goal?

Keeping your focus on this reasoning will keep your marketing plan streamlined and laser focused.

Ideas for 2019

Here are some really, really simple goals for 2019.  Some may be more complex and other ideas may be for the practice just starting to understand marketing.

  1. Update Your Copyright - nothing worse to me than having an outdated copyright at the bottom of your website in the footer.  An outdated copyright date warns that your practice/organization may be outdated too.  At the very least, you aren't interested in keeping an updated website.
  2. Publish New Content - publish one new article to freshen up the content of  the site.  Remember that only refreshed sites get higher SEO rankings.
  3. New Photos - consider new headshots of the docs and employees.  New office photos?  New photos can improve your brand and reader engagement.
  4. Newsletter - Consider starting an electronic newsletter.  If you are already writing content, your new content can automatically be distributed to your email list in the form of a an electronic newsletter.
  5. Market Internally - you should properly (patient's need to "opt-in") collect email addresses from everyone of your patients.  Your electronic newsletter can automatically be distributed to the entire email list to share news of the practice and your great articles.
  6. Update/Claim Review Sites - Facebook, Google Business, Healthgrades, Yelp, WebMD.com and many others already have your business listed on their database.  These are places where potential patients can find you.  What's more is that these are also places where a patient can leave a review.  (BTW - this is also a great way to improve your local SEO.)  Don't forget to add your new pics of the docs!
  7. Ask for Reviews - only do this if you are comfortable with the idea of asking your patients to give you a review.  We recommend selecting only one or two places where a patient can write a review.
  8. Social Media - start a social media platform.  Choose a platform (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) that your patients commonly use.  Most likely it's Facebook.  Start only if you are able to keep the content fresh and relevant.
  9. About You - remember that your About page is the second most important page on the website.  Rewrite your About page in the point of view of the first person and talk a little bit about who you are as a person.  Share some transparency - it's much more relevant and meaningful to your patients than a list of your academic achievements and research prowess.
  10. Answer Reviews - learn to monitor the Internet for all positive and negative reviews.  Respond to all reviews in a timely fashion, if nothing else than to thank the author for taking their precious time to recommend you and your practice.  If it's a negative review, breath deep, don't engage about right or wrong, but respond positively (better yet, give us an email or ask your partner or office manager to deal with this!)

 

 

Thanks for following and reading.  You may also:

A.  Follow us on "RussandRandy" on iTunes (our podcast on medical and healthcare Internet marketing) featured on Libsyn, Stitcher, iTunes, ReachMD.com and others.
B.  Visit RussandRandy.com - the website associated with the podcast.
C.  Be on the lookout for upcoming webinars (New!!!).

To Your Success,

Randy

AAO 2018 | Chicago Presentations

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AAO 2018 Chicago ILL | Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing

If you attended AAO 2018 in Chicago, these are the 6 different lectures I presented this year.  Please share/download these embedded presentations.  They have been uploaded to SlideShare.net.

Thanks for following and all the best.

To your marketing success,

Randy

 

 

 

 

 

Paid Advertising

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Paid Search to Grow Your Medical PracticeThere are several ways  to generate traffic to your website.  The best source of traffic is free.  The best source of traffic is organic traffic.

Organic traffic is the result of  the patience and hard work you have put in to generate rankings through content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO).

Paid traffic on the other hand may some merit, especially if your website is up and running and you are already generating your organic traffic.

SERP | Search Engine Results Page Paid Search
SERP – Search Engine Results Page

There are three types of paid traffic:

  • Pay per click
  • YouTube (video)
  • FaceBook

Pay Per Click

The image shows a typical search engine results page (SERP).   A SERP is generated when using particular keywords to generate a search.

Organic search are the webpages which appear in area C and are the result of content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO).  Results in area C are the most credible and trusted.

Pay per click advertising includes clickthrough ads (area B) and banner ads (area A).  There is no difference between ads in A or B except the price paid by the advertiser (i.e. you).

Paid ads appear based upon the original keywords used to generate this particular search.  The advertiser chooses the keywords for which the ads should be displayed.

YouTube

Using similar techniques, YouTube presents video ads to the viewer based upon the keyword used to find video content and based upon the subject of viewed videos.

Pay per click and YouTube ads use very similar methods of presenting ads.

Facebook Advertising

Facebook boosts may provide the best method for “laser targeting” an audience, that is, your ability to display your ads based upon your exact criteria (age, zip code, preferences, etc.).  Facebook uses a combination of demographic information, behaviors (what you and your contacts do on FB) and contact information (your friends) to give the best targeted attention compared to other platforms.

In short, Facebook advertising gives you better methods to target your audience.

Paid Advertising vs. Organic Search

Without out a doubt, consider paid advertising, or paid search, only after your website is already generating organic traffic (you are writing articles and using SEO).  Also, paid advertising may be better for advertising goods compared to services.

 

Using Facebook to Market Your Practice

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Facebook Marketing | Rob Melendez, MD | Healthcare and Medical Internet MarketingIf you head over to “RussandRandy.com” you’ll see that this weeks podcast episode is an interview with Dr. Rob Melendez, a comprehensive ophthalmologist and refractive surgeon at Eye Associates of New Mexico.

Rob and I have known each other for several years, crossing paths at the annual American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting as we have common interests in social media and marketing.

Rob loves Facebook and social media to promote himself, his brand and his practice.

Take Control of Internet

Rob advocates that doctors must take control of their own marketing.  If you are not actively promoting yourself and your practice, patients looking for your goods and services must rely on information for secondary and tertiary sources.

Dr. Melendez “takes charge” and contributes his own information to the Internet via his website, but especially through social media platforms such as Facebook.

He takes a multi-faceted approach.

Claim Review Sites

As an example of “taking control,” Dr. Melendez recommends you claim as many of the review sites as you can.  There are probably dozens of aggregator sites (business sites which ask for reviews of the businesses or doctors listed on the site) which list you and your practice.

Examples are Healthgrades, RateMd, Yelp, etc.

Claim these accounts and upload pertinent data and information.   What services to you provide?  What hours of operation?  What are your practice goals?

Be bold and upload a headshot!  Not only are you providing accurate information about you and your practice, but you have the opportunity to outshine your competition who likely ignore such opportunities.

Don’t be Afraid of Social Media

Patients naturally want to find out information about their doctor.  Most doctors are uncomfortable about sharing information about themselves.  Patients are interested in finding out “who you are” in addition to “what you are.”

Dr. Melendez points out that social media is simply an extension of what we are already doing face to face in the office.   How are you?  How was your vacation?  I’ve got a graduation in the family.

Improving Facebook ROI

“Facebook advertising is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Rob has 4 tips to improving your ROI with Facebook.

  1. Increase “Likes” by boosting certain (interesting) posts
  2. Increase “Likes” by paying for ads
  3. Consider using Facebook Coupons
  4. Take advantage of Lead Generation with “Lead Ads” on FB

By keeping track of money spent in the fashion outlined above, you should easily be able to track new patients to your practice…giving you your ROI (return on investment).

Ready to get started?

Let Medical Marketing Enterprises exceed your expectations and help you grow your medical practice.

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