Dental Video Marketing Secrets Every Dentist Needs to Build Their Brand

Arron: Did you know that most patients these days watch a video to learn about their dentist? In fact, 91 percent of consumers say they’ve watched a videoThis link opens a new tab to the Wyzowl website to learn about a product or service. So, in the dentist industry today, we know it’s a super important thing to be on video, and dental practices need to know how to do it.

So today, we’re going to break down some of the secrets about video content.

Mel: I’m excited about this one because it’s very, very important and for those of you that don’t know it, know us. I’m Mel. I’m the marketing director for Marketly.

Arron: And I’m Arron, and I’m the COO. And also for the last 15 years, I’ve been working on websites with dentists as well.

So, I’ve seen the evolution of how websites have had to start using video content in order to improve. So super excited to chat with you today.

Mel: Usually we see about a 50 percent increase in conversion rates when our doctors are using videos on their websites. And it’s basically demanded. A demand from the markets that you have to use videos.

Arron: Yeah, 100%. We’re seeing this even more and more because, as you know, within marketing, it’s all about making that emotional connection.

So, how can you make that connection online? It can be quite difficult. When you’re looking at video, that’s how you do it. You have a face-to-face interaction with someone, they get to know you a little bit better, and, as you said, we’re seeing the stats really improve it.

So, obviously, from a website point of view, that’s a great place to put it. But I don’t know from your standpoint, when it’s in marketing, how videos are being most effectively used, what types of videos are important these days?

Mel: Well, obviously, the websites are also very important for ads and organic content just for us.

We really focused in 2024 on videos. I was demanding it from the team, and it worked because we released consistent videos, three a month, and we got way more leads. We saw a 50 percent increase in new sales, and they would all say I’ve been watching your videos for the last few months. And so we’ve tried it on our clients to do a little beta testing for doctors who are all in with video. And, my first golden child is Hylan Dental Care, Dr. Brad Hylan.

He went all in, and he’s seeing a 10X ROI. He’s talking about how people are coming into his office and saying, “I see your face everywhere. I see you on my TV and my phone,” and it’s because he’s using video. It’s how it was used on the website and then the videos were used on his paid ads.

So he was just everywhere. And because of it, he’s talking about opening a new location sooner than he expected. So that’s, that’s how important videos are.

Arron: Absolutely. Especially when you combine it with a rockstar like Brad. So, when we’re talking about the value of videos, one thing that really stood out to me with the videos that we created, but also for our clients, was it creates that authentic connection.

That is super important because people like to buy from those who they know, like, and trust. And so creating these videos, you’re able to build trust, one-on-one with the floating head videos, you know, where you’re talking directly at the camera. But talk a little bit more about the social proof, because that’s something you always ask of our team.

So why is that so important for dental practices, do you think?

Mel: Well, because social proof, or in another word, patient testimonials: the before-and-after photos, how a smile was transformed, is marketing psychology. That was social proof because people are more likely to buy from a brand when they see a bunch of people say, “Yeah, this brand is the best.” Because people are followers, that’s the whole point of social proof.

So, the more you have of those patient testimonials that tell their stories—it’s a no-brainer for them. Okay, well, over 1,000 people have chosen this doctor, so I’m just going to be 1001. And, when you have patients tell the story of how this doctor improved their lives, stories are 22 times more retainable than facts alone.

[Compared to] saying, “Well, you need to take care of your teeth because it will take care of your life.” If you hear someone else actually telling the story and why it changed their life through a video, that emotion will resonate with them and they’re like, “Okay, yeah, I’m ready to take action for myself.”

Arron: I love that.

Websites, not just websites but brands, through their websites, have seen a 63 percent increase in trust and credibility with those types of videos. So, from a marketing point of view, it’s probably the best place for a dental practice to start. Because it can be quite intimidating for them to get in front of the camera.

So, put your patients in front of the camera. That’s the key: get them to do the hard work for you. So, would you agree? Would you say that it’s the starting point for a dental practice when it comes to videos, the patient testimonials? Or what other videos do you think we could get in place for a practice?

Mel: A thought leader video. I think you would agree with this, right, for websites? What’s huge is telling your story, your why, because then it’s just talking about how you help patients, how you overcome those barriers. For thought leader videos, if you just talk about that, people will love you.

And another key is also high energy, just being high energy on video. Then that high energy is attractive, and you’re going to attract those like-minded people. What do we usually tell doctors who are just like, “I’m a little camera-shy?”

Arron: That’s a great question because I’m a little camera-shy. I’ve also got to come over my Britishisms, the introverted Britishisms as well.

So, the biggest thing is preparation. It’s like with anything in life: if you feel prepared, you’re ready to go. If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. So, the biggest thing is to have a little bit of an outline. You don’t really want to script it word for word because you’ll probably stumble a little bit.

You can sometimes see when people are thinking; they’re looking up to remember what to say.

Mel: Yeah.

Arron: So, it’s just preparing what you want the video to be about; The main things you want to cover, just some bullet points. And then just practice it. Yeah, practicing in the mirror, getting someone to record you so you can kind of look back.

It could be on a smartphone. You don’t have to be in a nice, beautiful studio like we are today. It can be as simple as doing it in the office or at home and just getting used to being on camera smiling. Something that I always have to work on is, before you start, just smile, take a nice deep breath.

Then, just kind of go in, getting ready to be you on camera. The more you do it, the better you get. If you think that the first video is going to be amazing, it’s not. When you hear of different thought leaders, they always look back at their first video—there’s someone who we follow at Marketly called Alex Hormozi, and he actually just put out an email about this—that when he looks back at his first video in 2012, it’s so bad. He laughs at it, but he got himself out there, and that video got traction for him, even though it wasn’t the best thing.

It doesn’t have to be professional. So, it is just practice, just putting yourself out there.

Mel: Yeah. And just to add, it doesn’t matter how bad you are. You kind of want to make mistakes because then people relate to that, and it just shows that you’re a human being.

Arron: Absolutely. Yeah.

Mel: It doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to be authentic.

Arron: I think that’s the biggest thing in the social media world, isn’t it? It’s about making connections. Someone who’s picture-perfect is not; they’re not really approachable. And as you said earlier, the whole point of the video is to be you.

And allow people to make a connection with you. If you’re a certain way on camera and then they meet you in person, you’re completely different, it’s not really an authentic connection, right? It is just being yourself, not being perfect. You can ‘um’ and ‘ah,’ don’t worry about that. It’s absolutely fine.

[It’s about] just getting out there and getting people to know you. Whether you believe it or not, everyone has something unique to offer, and video is such a great way to capture that as well. I think that’s the best way to overcome that camera shyness as well. Another thing though that video can produce is, “When do I have time?”

Like, “How can I do it?” Because obviously running a really busy dental practice is a difficult thing to do as it is. So when do you find time to record these videos? And if you have any tips,

Mel: One thing is to content batch. That’s kind of what we are doing right now. We’re just spending a whole day recording videos.

But I know for doctors, that’s really hard. So, I would dedicate maybe half your day to say, “I’m going to record some videos and have those videos together.” Then, you send them off to your marketing agency to edit them for you and post them on your behalf. So, if you just focus on dedicating half your day, maybe a Friday, I know most dental offices are closed on Fridays. Then say, “Okay, this is my marketing day this morning,” and record videos.

It can start small, just FAQs that patients are asking and you’re sick of answering. Make a video of it. For services you want to be known for, you can do a video about that or just talk about the benefits. Dental implants are the first one that comes to mind benefits of dental implants.

‘What to expect with dental implants. I’m going to walk you through it.’ And that will be very helpful. Then, you can record it and pass it off to your marketing agency, and they will take care of the rest for you.

Arron: Yeah, I love it.

Mel: So, that’s how I would recommend it.

Arron: And do you think it’s essential to purchase all the big equipment and have a professional videographer come in? How can a practice get started?

Mel: You can just purchase a ring light and a microphone off of Amazon. Honestly, that’s what we did at first. It still worked for us, and now, because it’s taken off so much, we want to go bigger. So when you’re ready to go bigger, you can go to the professional studios. Hire someone like 44 Studios for your content creation and really get those high-end videos.

But you can start small and spend like, I think it’s $60, $50 bucks to buy a ring light and a microphone, and that’s good enough. You just do your thing. And you can use a teleprompter app for free on your smartphone to help if you want to write scripts out. If you prefer that, you can just read it there, and it still looks more authentic.

Arron: Yeah, perfect. Like that,

Mel: Yeah, it’s all very … it’s not high-end, but it works. It still works.

Arron: Absolutely. I mean, the return on investment is crazy in videos. We talked about some of the stats before, but I’ve got a couple from clients we’ve worked with. Asha Manhaven, who we love working with.

They put videos on their new website. They did work with our partner 44 Studios, and they had a 35% increase in phone calls, which is great. A 45% increase in boosted engagement as well, all within their first year. And so for dental practices to be able to see that ROI from when you start out, if you are just buying that ring light and those videos, you’re getting a huge investment.

But then, when you do go with the professionals, that’s where you can see things take off. That’s something that Dr. Koogler at Cascade Integrative DentistryThis link opens a new tab to the Cascade Integrative Dentistry website did. I remember he literally called us up and said, “Our phones are ringing off the hook since we’ve put our videos out there.” What’s really cool about him was he had a really clear vision for his videos.

I know you worked with him a little. What do you think he did particularly well that other practices could perhaps replicate in their videos?

Mel: Yes, he had a clear vision, a clear brand message about what makes him unique. And he is polarizing in saying, “Traditional dentistry is cheating you,” basically.

“This is dentistry of the future.” He called it Dentistry 2.0, and he’s all about health. [His message says] It’s all about your health. It’s not about your teeth. So I’m going to focus on making sure you stay healthy, not fill and drill a cavity.

That was very clear and bold; he was very clear and bold on that.

[You can do that] when you have that type, when you know what you want to say to people, and it resonates with people. It works for his audience because he’s in Seattle, Washington, and they’re all about health and wellness. And if you just say that loudly, that translates well into video. That’s a whole separate conversation, brand messaging, but that’s why his [videos] were so successful.

Arron: Absolutely, and I think a point that you talked about was it allowed him to reach his audience. I know dental practices are sometimes concerned, “I’m not getting the right type of patients,” or “How do I get the right type of patients?” Video has that power
because you’re able to connect directly to them.

You can also use their language. You can resonate, share stories. You know, as a marketing director, storytelling is king, right? It’s a great thing for dental practices to start doing in 2025.

Which leads me to getting your opinion on what you think the next five years holds for video marketing—especially with dental.

I don’t know; what do you think will be coming up in the next five years that dentists can benefit from when it comes to video?

Mel: I think videos are going to get more interactive, where you choose the journey that you want your patient to go on. I’ll be cool with that because you can list the pain points, and they’ll [be able to] select it. You can have videos that resonate with that. I feel live video will be very, very popular in the future.

It’s popular now, but I have a feeling it’s really going to take off. [It will] kind of be the new virtual onstage, in a way. Those are the two that popped into my mind. What do you think?

Arron: I would jump on the bandwagon with live video. We see when it comes to the people that are making the biggest in-roads in their industries; they do things like Facebook lives, they go on Instagram. They have live FAQs where they’re able to answer questions, and it builds that trust because you’re putting yourself out there. It’s not even necessarily as scripted as videos are, but people can just ask you questions they’ve always wanted to know [the answers to].

And the cool thing with that is you can repurpose that video for a future day, as well. Again, there’s the return on investment that we’ve been talking about. Live video is great for that. I think AI.

Mel: Oh, yes, AI.

Arron: It’s a huge, huge thing. The exciting part is that it will allow you to hyper-focus your video experiences.

Like you said, you can lead people down certain avenues so they can learn more about you. But also, I think it will help produce more videos. There are different tools already out there that allow you to use AI features. HeyGen is one that comes to mind where you can actually write out your script, and it will pick up your facial expressions.

It’s you talking, but you don’t necessarily have to be constantly on video. You can get it to represent you, which is really cool. And then, from an SEO point of view, which, as a marketing agency, we obviously care about, it’s going to be dominating the space when it comes to video and content.

Yeah, the big dogs, Google, Bing, are all going down the path of voice search, video. YouTube is a huge search engine, so being on those video platforms, being in those video searches, will be a huge thing that will be taking off in the next five years,

Mel: Yeah, absolutely.

Arron: It’s super, super exciting.

So, to stay ahead of the curve … That’s something we try to do it Marketly all the time. Luckily, we have you.

Mel: Industry disruptors.

Arron: Yeah, exactly. We have Mel to help us to do that. How do you think dental practices can stay ahead of the curve when it comes to video marketing?

Mel: Well, honestly, just start today.

That’s all you need to do is just start and try. Start small and be consistent about it; the more you do it, the more confident you’ll be, the more you can grow from it. Then, you can just listen to how people are responding to it, and you can adjust that way.

Honestly, if you just start today. That’s how you’re going to stay ahead; because I bet your competition isn’t doing it.

Arron: Absolutely.

Mel: Because that’s the biggest barrier in the dental field is making videos. But the sooner you get on it, the faster you’ll see growth. And the faster you’ll find those right patient because you’ll be speaking to their questions, to their needs and desires, and that’s how they’re going to come to you.

Arron: I absolutely agree.

Mel: Yeah?

Arron: One hundred percent of what you do now gets done. So, just getting started is the biggest thing. I agree with you. Staying ahead of the curve and looking for different ways and avenues to record video.

Maybe we can just talk about this real quick; the difference between long and short forms.

Mel: Mm-hm.

Arron: And how to get started? What’s the best way to get started? Do you need to be recording a 15-minute video, or is it YouTube shorts or TikTok? What’s the best?

Mel: The beauty of starting with long form, and that’s usually like a 5-, 10-minute video, and it needs to be as long as it needs to be, as long as it’s valuable information.

Five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, as long as you’re providing value, it doesn’t matter how long it is. But the beauty of it is that if you have that recorded you can have your agency grab clips from it to make short-form videos out of it. That’s a lot of what content creators are doing.

Then, the other types of short forms are the trendy ones. If you have very high-energy people, have them do the trendy ones if you’re not into that, but that’s how you can get started. Just record your long form and have your marketing agency grab clips from it for your short-form videos so they can go on YouTube shorts, reels, and Facebook.

Those are everywhere!

Arron: Everywhere.

Mel: Everywhere, omnipresent.

Arron: Omnipresent.

Mel: Exactly.

Arron: I love it. Well, I think this has been a fantastic conversation. I appreciate you chatting with me about it today. So, as our marketing director, if people want to learn more about how to get started, how we can help them, or what to do in video, where can they find that information?

Mel: You can always subscribe to our YouTube channelThis link opens a new tab to YouTube because we’re always doing video tips every week and we always talk about video, and we always talk about how you can take advantage of videos. We try to release a video every single week. So, if you subscribe to our channel, you’ll get alerted.

You can also go on our newsletterThis link opens a new tab to our newsletter list because we’ll always be promoting video, video tips, and all the fun things when it comes to dental marketing.

Arron: One hundred percent! I mean, we are here to help. We’re here to remind you, to educate you, and to support you when it comes to getting started in videos.

Know the exact strategies to scale your dental practices. Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly actionable tips.

Join the marketing newsletter 6000+ dental pros trust