Video has become such a major part of our online experiences that omnichannel marketing can’t really happen without it. And that goes for every industry, including health and pharma.
YouTube alone is the second most popular website and app on the planet after their parent company Google. People use it for entertainment, music and education – and in particular health.
In fact YouTube has approximately 122 million daily users as of 2024 (Wyzowl), but until recently, there were problems with regards to authority. Now the recent addition of the YouTube Health Shelf promises to be a game-changer in that regard. Read on if you want to know more.
By incorporating video, you can power your omnichannel marketing, drive engagement, and also fuel both a reach-based social media campaign and your inbound SEO. All at the same time.
Omnichannel applications
Video content is popular on all types of social media, and not just the obvious ones like Instagram and TikTok. People are twice as likely to share video content than any other type of post – and LinkedIn’s Head of Ads has said that video posts gain up to 20 times the amount of shares as other types of posts.
Being able to adapt video content to all of these platforms makes it easier to reach your audience wherever you are. And with 55% of HCPs saying that they use video as part of their CPD, make no mistake – your audience is already there.
An omnichannel approach means following and understanding your user journeys through multiple channels, putting your user at the centre. Being able to reach your audience where they’re already looking, and not just relying on one channel or format to reach them, is a powerful communication and marketing method. And video makes it easier for people to choose to engage with your content.
The enhanced metrics you can take advantage of with social media platforms also mean you can get more detail about how people are engaging with your content beyond just clicks and views. Engagement time becomes a metric which allows you to know whether your content is performing well or not.
It’s important to adapt your content to the platform – videos that perform well on YouTube might perform differently on Facebook or TikTok. This will depend on various points including whether it’s mobile-first and whether your content is aimed at discovery or outreach.
The fact that video is now that adaptable, and that it can be repurposed as well as reused makes it a powerful content style that supports an omnichannel marketing campaign.
Showing the results of video marketing
YouTube and Facebook are the most popular mainstream digital channels where HCPs claim to keep up-to-date with scientific information, according to EPG Health. Over half of HCPs use Facebook at least once a week, and around two-thirds of HCPs use YouTube at least weekly. In fact, 40% of HCPs use YouTube on at least a daily basis.
This is part of the reason why 90% of marketers say that video marketing has given them a good ROI (measured through likes, shares and reposts) (Hubspot).
Video is also useful for on-page as well, where it’s been shown to significantly increase the amount of time people spend on a page.
With the popularity of social media, video can be seen and shared by a broad demographic age, with over 90% of every age group up to 64 using social media regularly.
YouTube Health Shelf
One barrier, up until recently, to concentrating more on video has been the lack of authority. Since anyone can upload a video, it can be difficult for users to find the trustworthy health content amongst a horde of videos claiming to give advice.
This is why YouTube have brought in the ‘Health Shelf’. These are accounts that YouTube recognise as health authorities, and they have worked with NHS England and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to define content and quality standards.
To qualify accounts must have a minimum of 1,500 watched hours and a certified medical professional overseeing the content.
Overseeing the content doesn’t mean that the certified professional has to create all the content though. The approval process can be expediated by making sure content creators know the standards and regulations that have to be met. We understand this at Wallace Health and have become one of the few healthcare agencies with a PIF TICK accreditation – an independently assessed quality mark for trusted health information.
The process and oversight qualifies the account to be marked as a health authority, and also be given priority in relevant YouTube search results (which show up at the top of the results and are branded as certified – this is why it’s known as the ‘shelf’).
This is already in operation, and qualifying accounts have been added to the Health Shelf.
We believe that this is a practice that will spread to other platforms over time. So there’s a tangible benefit from engaging early and creating video that shows best practices.
Summary
It’s a hugely exciting time for video content in health and pharma. The rise of multiple platforms, and the start of authoritative and trusted health sources being recognised as such, means that it’s easier to find a relevant audience and create video content that is useful for them.
It’s also become easier to adapt and reuse video across multiple platforms and build an omnichannel approach that is more likely to attract viewers and increase reach, while also improving your SEO and brand awareness, all while multiplying ROI and powering the impact of every pound spent.
If you haven’t started to build a video strategy yet, this is the time to do so. You can find out more about our video offering here. And if you’d like to get a head start….
Talk to us today.