Ask Alex

“How do I get more confident on camera when making videos?”

When I spoke about video marketing for beginners last month at Aesthetic Medicine London, this question came up in the audience.

There are loads of great reasons to start putting out video content for your business, but making those videos can be daunting. I speak to a lot of practitioners at events who understand why they should be making educational content for their patients but can’t face the camera.

Here are some tips that we use at Web Marketing Clinic for video production, whether you’re doing it yourself with a phone or with a full film crew.

Feel your best: Be rested, film when you’re at your most energetic, have no distractions (some of The Content Clinic’s clients prefer to film away from clinic).

Be prepared: Having a plan of what you need to say, and what your day looks like, helps massively. There are also autocue apps for phones and tablets which let you load up a script, if you feel you need it, but be careful, you can sound robotic. I prefer to use headline bullet points.

Be practiced: You only get better by putting reps in, so practice when you can. You will undoubtedly look back at your first video and cringe. That’s ok! You’ll never make your 50th video without making your first.

Take it slow and steady: Don’t rush. Pause if you need between points, you are allowed to try again. It makes it easier for you (or a pro editor) to edit.

Tell a story: People love stories. Nothing is more captivating and sounds more authentic than storytelling. Rather than explaining the features of a treatment, discuss a case, the benefits and the feelings.

Taking this a step further, you could source some media training. Our industry loves continual development – why not extend yours to getting confident on camera?

There are some other ways to get around being camera confident, if you really don’t want to do it yourself. If you’ve got a clinic team, you could delegate to a member of staff who does – just make sure they don’t come across as pretending to be medically qualified. Aesthetic therapists are great for this. If you can get patients who are happy to supply their own treatment journey or testimonial videos, utilise these as they’re powerful social proof. There are also plenty of ways to create ‘faceless’ social video which can still get engagement (check YouTube for this!).

Have you got a question about websites, marketing, or social media for your aesthetic clinic? Get in touch with Aesthetic Medicine Magazine or Web Marketing Clinic via social media and your question will be answered in the next issue!

ALEX BUGG

Alex Bugg works for Web Marketing Clinic, a family-run digital agency, which specialises in medical aesthetics. The business builds websites and delivers marketing campaigns for doctors, nurses, dentists, distributors and brands. Contact her at: alex@webmarketingclinic.co.uk or follow her on Instagram: @webmarketingclinic