video testimonials

Capturing Great Dental Patient Testimonials

Great video testimonials are powerful because they engender trust.  All advertising about is claims: we’ve got the best car repair place, we’ve got the best jewelry store, we’ve got the best dental practice; but is that true? If they can see you, if they can see you on video ahead of time, the credibility factor goes up tremendously.

Here is a list of some really good tips to capture those patient testimonials.

  1. Use a video camera, not your phone. It’s very tempting to use your phone. Cameras are made for this purpose and they do a much better job for you, and video cameras have dropped in price considerably.
  2. Use a tripod. You don’t have to spend a lot of money; you’re not trying to capture the wildebeest going across the plains of Africa.  You just do not want the camera moving around–you want it to be fixed when you’re talking to that patient.
  3. Use an unobtrusive background. I’ve seen so many homemade videos where plants or plaques were growing out of people’s heads. It’s distracting.  The best background for video testimonials is the one you never notice.
  4. The patient should be talking to an off-camera interviewer. If patients are told to look at the camera, they won’t do it. They not professionals, they’re not used to it, they start looking around, they look over here, they look over there. We had one lady whose eyes were darting all over the place.  I call it the ferret video. She didn’t look trustworthy. Have the patient look at you, not the camera.
  5. The next tip is good lighting. Lighting is the hardest part of video, if you’ve got a spot in your office and you have figured out that you can put some lights there and make it a well-lit scene then always use it. Be careful also not to mix temperatures of light. Sunlight, fluorescent light, incandescent light—they all have different temperatures and they do not mix well.  You want to have some consistent lighting to make the video look good.
  6. You want to have clear sound. I cannot tell you how many patient homemade testimonial videos I have watched that were hard to hear.  There’s talking in the background, doors are slamming, you hear sounds of a high-speed, sounds of suction—and it’s all so distracting.   The audio is what we call “muddy;” it’s hard to decipher. Making the audio crystal clear will really help your video.
  7. Edit the video. I don’t care how good you are, your raw footage needs editing. You don’t have to buy expensive video editing software. Just Google video editing software. There are many options and much of it is very inexpensive. And if you don’t want to do it yourself, ask any teenager because teenagers all make video projects in school and they know how to do it.  You do not need Steven Spielberg.  You’re just trying to say take this segment out, put this segment here–just to make it flow.

Video testimonials are so important to capture, and I’ve given you advice on how to do it. I go out to offices and we do welcome to the practice videos and patient testimonial videos.  Click here for more information and samples.  Call me if you want to know more; but if you want to do it yourself, these are great tips for you.

A video explaining how to create videos is available by clicking here.