Your very own TV station

Lights, camera, action! Many more independent practitioners could be enjoying the business-building potential of YouTube, says surgeon Mr Dev Lall.

Marketing your private practice is really nothing more or less than communication; about getting your message across to people who could go on to become patients.

And different people prefer to receive information in different ways. Some prefer to read; others prefer something more visual.

One of the most successful ways of getting your message across to people is through tele­vision.

I mean, think about it: for the majority of people in this country the primary mode of ‘recreation’ is to curl up in front of the telly.

We’ve become very much conditioned to receiving information in this way, and there is even a suggestion that people are not only more receptive to information presented in this way but that they are also less critical of it.

In other words, they are more likely to accept what they see and hear as the truth. Being seen on TV naturally conveys authority.

Now, I’m not proposing that you splash out an eye-watering sum of money to launch a TV advertising campaign. But what I am suggesting is that you take a close look at the next best thing – launching your own TV channel on the internet via YouTube.

Who wants to be a TV star?

Some years back, Google bought YouTube, because Google recognises the importance of traffic: visitors, in other words, to websites they own.

And if there’s one other thing you, too, must understand when it comes to marketing your practice, it is the importance of traffic – visitors.

In other words, having as large a number of people as possible who encounter information about you and what you do. So if 100 people visit your website/see your advert/read your PR piece in the local paper and X per cent of them go on to become patients, you now know that all you have to do to get more patients is to increase the numbers of people seeing that piece.

Your results are scalable, in other words. Which is why promoting yourself on YouTube is such a fantastic opportunity.

People love to watch video, and it just so happens that YouTube is the third most visited website on the entire internet.

Using YouTube to grow

There are two basic ways you can use YouTube to grow your private practice.

The first is using it to advertise. We’ve all seen this before, I’m sure: you go to YouTube to watch a music video or film clip and when you click ‘play’, an advert comes on first.

These adverts are produced by companies and presented to viewers according to criteria the company chooses by YouTube.

The interesting thing is that you don’t need to be a large company to do this. Anyone can advertise in this way, and it is astonishingly cheap. So cheap, in fact, that it is free, because adverts are presented using the pay-per-click model in the same way as Google AdWords.

All you have to do is to create a snippet of video – which can be as cheap or as expensive as you like to produce – upload it and, using your AdWords account, tell the automated system how, where and when your adverts are shown.

Your adverts will be shown at no cost to you. You are only charged if someone watches them for longer than 30 seconds or clicks through to your website.

The cost of each ‘click’ depends upon many factors, but basically boils down to the competitiveness of the keyword that you want to ‘trigger’ your advert.

And in any case, the important thing to remember is that the cost per click is immaterial: what matters is your return on investment. If you’re making a decent return, then you shouldn’t be worried about the cost per click at all.

Pay-per-click is an awesome way of advertising your business. In video terms, it’s a bit like having your adverts come up on prime-time TV for free – and you are only charged if someone goes on to become a patient. How amazing would that be?

Hosting your own TV channel

The second way of using video on YouTube to grow your practice is by hosting your own information videos. You can quite easily set up your own YouTube channel – in effect your own TV station – where you can present videos that showcase and highlight your expertise.

Setting it up is pretty straightforward: it is free, will take you only a couple of hours and you don’t need to pay an expert to do it for you. You will need to set up a Google account first and then click on the menu to set up your own YouTube channel.

Think of a name you want to give the channel – obviously something relevant to your specialty would be a good idea, or perhaps the same name as your website, if that has been well chosen.

Once you have done that, you will need to upload some graphics to make it look appealing. You will need a banner graphic 2,560 x 1,440 pixels in size, which is pretty big. It needs to be so that it will display correctly no matter what device your channel is viewed on. Also, ideally, you should upload a smaller photo of yourself to put as an inset.

The screenshot pictured above shows what I mean – here you can see the large graphic at the top of the page as well as the photo insert. You can choose whatever images you like or convert text to an image format and upload that if you prefer.

Once you have set this up, I recommend you think about what content you want to put on the page, as this will help you decide how you want to structure it.

For example, if you were an orthopaedic surgeon, you might want three sections, one with videos about hip replacement surgery, one with videos about knee replacement surgery and another about knee trauma and arthroscopy. Don’t worry too much about this, as it can be changed later on.

Recording your videos

OK, so you’ve got your YouTube channel sorted, now to the bit that everyone baulks at: getting those videos recorded.

I guess the first thing to do is tackle that elephant in the room: not many people like the idea of seeing themselves on film.

I understand that completely, because it is true that film can be unforgiving in showing up our imperfections. Not only that, the unfamiliarity of the whole process adds to the anxiety.

But the good news is two-fold: firstly, you do not have to go on film yourself if you do not want to – you could easily record a video of a PowerPoint presentation with a voiceover if you wish.

And, secondly, if you do decide to go in front of the camera, while you need to look smart and professional, you do not have to seek perfection. Good enough is good enough.

Recording your videos

Probably the best sorts of videos are those where you are being interviewed by someone. This looks natural and it will reduce your stress at going on camera enormously – after all, you are simply answering the routine questions you get asked by patients on the conditions you treat, just as you do almost every other day.

The approach I recommend is to break down each clinical topic into several sections – for example, cause, diagnosis, investigations, management and so on. Then, for each topic, think of the top ten questions you are asked and answer them in the video.

Also think of the top ten questions people should ask – but don’t – and answer them too.

If you can add video clips of surgery being carried out or past patients being interviewed, then so much the better – but, obviously, don’t make them too gory or scary.

The idea is to record snippets of video, maybe two to five minutes long, looking at different aspects of the conditions you want to attract. By doing this, you could easily create 10-15 short videos on each topic.

In the case of the orthopaedic surgeon above, he or she could easily have their own video channel with 30-40 video clips on it just targeting the three conditions mentioned. This would speak volumes to visitors about his/her expertise and authority.

Huge opportunity

The reason I encourage people to do this is not only because of its power, but also because so few consultants are actually doing this.

There is a huge opportunity out there, but it won’t last forever. The problem in all your marketing efforts is cutting through the ‘noise’ to reach those people you want to reach. There are so many people clamouring for our attention that getting heard is not always easy.

But with YouTube videos and video advertising, very few people in the UK are doing this at all. That means you stand out. That means your message is so much more likely to get heard. And that, in turn, means more patients.

Mr Dev Lall (right) is an upper-GI surgeon and runs a specialist private practice consultancy www.PrivatePractice-Expert.co.uk

• See ‘Be a star of movies’
• See ‘Keeping tracks’