Dental patient testimonial videos provide powerful social proof to influence your prospects to choose you. Or, if those videos are done poorly, they can influence your potential patients to stay away in droves.
Testimonial videos vary widely in their quality. That includes quality of picture, sound, the patients’ actual testimonial delivery, and relevance to other patients.
Picture and Sound
Today, dentists can produce video testimonials of reasonable picture and sound quality by using something like a GoPro camera. Smartphone videos are barely adequate, if that; the tiny microphone rarely picks up the patient’s words clearly. But where most dental videos fall down in the setting they choose for the video.
Hallways are rarely attractive and offer the possibility of distracting noises. Lighting is questionable, and having your patient’s face heavily shadowed or looking greenish is a very bad idea.
The same objections and more apply to outdoor settings. Traffic noise, wind noise, harsh sunshine and deep shadows, and passers-by can detract from the quality of the image and sound.
Too many dentists shoot videos in their cluttered and unattractive offices. Instead, clear out a corner and stage a place to shoot. Ensure that there are minimal visual distractions, that lighting is even, and that sounds from outside are minimized.
Testimonial Delivery
There are many ways that your patients’ delivery can work against you. Very few people are comfortable speaking on camera, and that discomfort can affect their credibility. People tend to lose their train of thought when they’re under stress. They can ramble, repeat points several times, speak in incoherent sentences, and generally make a botch of things. This is not what you want in your testimonial videos.
It does little good to rehearse non-professionals on their “lines.” Instead, walk your patient through what they’d like to say, and boil it down into four or five main points. Help your patient keep those main points firmly in mind before they deliver their testimonial. It also helps to reassure them that they can have several takes. By helping them organize their thoughts before speaking, they’ll be more likely to deliver for you.
Testimonial Content
Watch enough dental testimonial videos and you’ll see a pattern. The patients talk in very general terms about how well they were treated by the staff. Those testimonials are good and necessary, but your prospects care more about other things.
People who are missing teeth want to hear how happy your patients are with their dental implants or bridges. Patients with periodontal disease want to know that treatment is relatively quick, painless, and successful. Patients who are embarrassed to smile want to know just how much happier your cosmetic dentistry patients are and how they now love to smile and laugh out loud. And patients who have felt judged by other dental practices want to know that they’ll be helped, not helped to feel even worse about themselves.
Follow these tips for dental patient testimonials that will help you attract more prospects rather than drive them away.