Mistake 1 – Going On An Ego Trip (Talking About Yourself) Instead Of What Doctors & Patients ACTUALLY Care About

You’ve probably seen this happen before.  

With a face-to-face meeting your sales rep has the doctor somewhat cornered, but there are two reasons why these kinds of video will fail (whether you use a whiteboard video, 2D animation, live action or whatever).

How many videos or pitches do you think doctors hear about the “cutting-edge, innovative new market-leading device”?  Or dive straight into the nitty-gritty product specs.

A lot.  

It’s not that they don’t want great new devices for their patients, but they don’t think you even understand what problems they’re trying to solve when you spout off a bunch of product specs.

Patients are in the same boat.  They don’t understand the tech specs and just hear a bunch of corporate gobbledygook when you start off with how great you or the company are.

The crazy thing is, when it’s done to us we spot it instantly and our brains turn off.  I was on a call with a sponsorship company yesterday and it felt like they talked for 15-minutes straight just about how awesome the conference was going to be, which I didn’t care about at all.

What To Do Instead:

The trick is less about making better videos, and more about being sure you’re matching up with their stage of the buying process.

• Are they clueless this problem exists or feel like they don’t have a problem? You’re going to have to go with high-level education and nurture the lead.  For primary care providers in this boat a video headline might be “One Trend That Could Slash PCP Salaries By 32% In 2016”.
• Do they know they have a problem and are desperately looking for a solution?  Hook them by calling out their problem and educating them on potential solutions.  (Your product doesn’t need to even come up).
• Are they looking for a solution and comparing products?  Here’s where you can dive straight in with benefits.  Pull them in with data and benefits.

Mistake 2 – Having Too Many Buzzwords In Your Script

This is something both doctors and patients hate.

Doctors don’t like it because it tells them nothing about your actual product.  You’ll hook with facts, not fluff.

Patients hate it because they just don’t understand what you’re saying!

Here are a few buzzwords to cut from your video vocabulary:

• Disruptor
• Innovative
• Thought Leader
• Cutting-edge/Bleeding Edge
• Safe
• Visionary
• Game changer
• Revolutionary

These are great words to let other people use when describing your product, but just sound empty (and a bit like bragging) when you say it.

Cadensee also has a great list of words not to use in medical device advertising that can help you with this one too.

Mistake 3 – [Physicians] Not Having Enough References & Technical Info

Today most physicians are jaded.  They hear a lot of marketing pitches and they don’t always see the proof to back it up.

Joe Hage brought this up in his great interview with Dr. Howard Luks on the MedicalMarCom blog, but busy physicians have just a few things they want to hear.

According to Dr. Luks “reps can approach if they have something interesting to improve cost, or efficiency.”

You just have to do it the right way:

What To Do Instead:

• Lead with a peer-reviewed effectiveness study compared to current treatment options.
• Get into a bit of the nitty-gritty as to why your device is different than others on the market and has better patient outcomes.
• Confess one of the weaknesses of your product.  Physicians are inherently skeptical and need to know the limitations of your product.  Air this out early for extra trust.

Mistake #4 – Making Your Video Boring

Face it, it’s so easy to see a video and know it’s boring, but it’s so hard not to make your video boring.

And nothing is going to turn both doctors and patients off faster than a video that looks like it’s going to be a snooze-fest.

The problem is partly related to having a “boring” topic.  

Don’t get me wrong – there’re device breakthroughs happening every year that have many people on the edge of their seat…

But is a catheter video as exciting as Netflix’s Daredevil series?  Heck no.  (I’m speaking from experience – just binge-watched four Daredevil episodes).

Now that doesn’t mean you should add some fight scenes to spice things up with the catheter…

Here’re some ideas on get your viewers to hooked watching your video series though:

First off, you’ve got to forget about making your script interesting to anyone but a small target market.  

What Daredevil does with choreographed ninja tricks and story hooks you’ve got to do with problems and solutions consumers or physicians want to hear about.

It’s simple when you think about it:

If you have a diabetes product you want it to be the most exciting thing someone with diabetes has ever watched, because they clearly see how your content (not necessarily your product if it’s an educational video) can help them.

Mistake 5: Confusing Instructions At The End Of The Video

Obviously, every marketing video you produce should have some kind of call to action.  

After all, you’re spending money on these videos because you want them to do something.

Nothing is worse than watching a great video and ending it confused, so make sure your instructions for the patient or the physician are crystal-clear.

Some Useful Examples:

• High-level patient education video: an easy call to action is to watch the next video in the series or read an article.
• Technical video shown to doctors by sales reps: you want the video to spark questions for the sales rep to be able to continue the conversation.  The least useful phrasing is “Any questions?”.  It allows the doctor to end things then and there with a simple ‘no’.  Try appealing to their curiosity or ask an open-ended questions to keep them on the interest-hook.
• Device education by physicians to patients: the simplest call to action here is the opposite of what I’d say to doctors.  Here we want to make patients feel safe and welcome to ask questions.  Again you can go with “any questions?” but I’d recommend something like “that was a lot of information to take in at once.  What’s your biggest question?”

Here’s a PDF Checklist To Help Keep You From Making These Mistakes

Some of these mistakes are pretty obvious, but when you’re going through revision after revision, getting your script and creative through legal and compliance and just getting your boss’s approval it can be easy for these boring elements to sneak in.

Click here to grab this PDF checklist to make it easier for you avoid these mistakes.

If you’ve got a rush job there’re a couple tricks you can use to be sure your video is going to be finished on time.

These tips should work for you no matter which studio or freelancer you go with:

Rush Job Trick #1 – Be Sure They Understand What Your Video Is Trying To Achieve From The Beginning

Since you’re in a hurry it can be easy to go with the first person who promises they’ll deliver on time, or maybe even a more expensive company since it feels like you’ll get better service for paying extra (generally but not always true).

So here are some simple ways to be sure the company understands what you’re trying to do:

 

• Ask them to repeat back what your goals are.   This might seem simplistic, but it’s easy for a sales person to fake it by saying “this sounds like something we can help with” and harder to prove they understand the nuances of your project.

• [If they’re writing the script] ask for story ideas.  It’s a lot easier to come up with story ideas than a whole script and this way you get a sneak peak at the direction they see the video going.  If you don’t like it you can give some guidance now instead of waiting for the script to be written and having to start from scratch.

• Have a pre-video call with your whole art team:  It’s simple to get on quick call with the whole team, artist included and be sure she get’s what your video is trying to accomplish and doesn’t have to rely on the project manager’s info.

 

Rush Job Trick #2 – Block Off Time On Your Schedule For Quick Feedback

It’s going to take time to give real, well thought out feedback.  Nothing can kill a project deadline or budget quicker than making your studio wait days for feedback.

An experienced freelancer or studio will give you a deadline on when they need your feedback to keep the project on track.  Please schedule this into your calendar.

Try to give the exact time you want changes for and be as detailed as possible in your feedback.

Common Pitfall: we’ve found that conference calls to discuss changes aren’t always helpful.  Written feedback makes it easy to go down the list and also to re-read it instead of trying to make the video changes from memory or quickly jotted down notes.

It also gives you the chance to point to the numbered change – e.g. “Change #1 and #6 don’t look right because of x, y and z.”

Bonus Tip If You’re Working With A Committee

The more people who have to give their feedback on a video the more potential for delay, so it can be helpful brief the team on the need for quick feedback in order to hit the deadline.

Rush Job Trick #3 – Work With A Studio Who Has Experience In Your Industry

Each industry has a learning curve.  To cut down on that curve try to find a studio that has done a similar project in the past.  I’m not saying they have to be specialists, but the more they’ve worked in your industry, the easier it’ll be.

Oftentime a studio will have quite a few videos they can’t show in their portfolio due to NDAs, so a smart thing to do is ask whether they’ve worked with similar companies.

Bonus Tip: Avoid Outsourcers

Although it gets a bad wrap, outsourcing work is not a sure-fire way to get bad work.  In fact, I’ve seen some freelancers that were extremely talented video producers.

The main reason to avoid companies that outsource your video production on a tight deadline is response time.

You want to be able to talk to the artist and editor directly, not have to wait for the studio to relay your comments.  Not to mention it’s a lot easier to ask employees to work late than freelancers.

Rush Job Trick #4 – Be Clear on Your Feedback

There are some things a studio, no matter how good, just can’t do.  One of them is read your mind.

It’ll take more work on your part, but will make the video process go much faster:

Here’re a few examples

Bad	Good
Can you change the coloring about halfway into the intro?	Add Timestamps: Can you change the coloring at time 0:34?
Can you make it pop more?	Be specific: can we add more upbeat music to the video?
Please change the position of the man in the 3rd scene?	Show what you want: use a screenshot software with arrows to show what you want.  Jing is free.
Can you make the logo we sent you less fuzzy?	Provide high-def images: if possible send your studio Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files or high definition graphics (.jpg, .png).

Closing Tip: Don’t Be Afraid To Bug Them

The squeaky wheel really does get the oil.  You might not want to feel like you’re bugging them, but the more often and earlier you check-in with them the less stressful it is for everyone.

As you get to know the studio or freelancer the frequent check-ins aren’t such a big deal, but in the beginning I’d recommend setting very small milestones that you can check over easily to make sure you’re all on the same page.