“We want to drive engagement,” says every marketer in the world. This leads us to video, which brands now have the ability to produce quickly and at scale, just as consumers—with the advent of mobility and the always-on mentality—now have the ability to easily watch video messages.
Clear.md, a mobile and web application that lets healthcare providers send quick videos to patients, has found its engagement rates increase compared to text. The company’s solution is powered by technology from Vsnap, a video messaging service. Clear.md uses Vsnap’s video messaging in three ways: to communicate internally, to power its main business allowing healthcare providers to communicate with patients, and finally for lead generation.
It’s in this latter area where clear.md’s CEO John Brownlee has seen video push engagement rates, largely because video messaging is rare in the conservative healthcare industry. “We’re doing things that healthcare providers don’t normally do, so trying to get people’s attention and engage in the process is difficult,” he says. “Any tool we can adapt that can set us apart and help us engage with our client brings a lot of value.” Even compared to social, there’s nothing quite as effective as video, Brownlee says.
Part of the reason video is so effective currently, Brownlee asserts, is that often video messages come as a surprise. Currently, there’s an inherent wow factor in the medium.
“From a fundamental standpoint, if you’re trying to communicate a concise message and you communicate with [customers] right in the eye, and they know you’re not crazy or you’re a cold caller, that type of engagement is much more effective in communicating and building credibility in a short amount of time,” Brownlee adds.
Currently, clear.md doesn’t have a formal approach to its video services. When the company uses video for client services, it simply films a video and sends it off—though typically the company relies on video early in the business relationship, to build credibility—and is generally used for soft messages rather than critical business information. Afterward, Brownlee finds that email can suffice.
Brownlee admits that the enhanced engagement he sees from video messaging is more anecdotal than empirical.
“Part of the engagement feedback I use is the response I get,” he says. “I might send an email and get a response. When I send a (Vsnap video message and) I get a way more engaged response. It’s not just, ‘Hey I sent 100 emails I got X responses—it’s the kind of response you get.’”
Brownlee also sees ways clear.md can be more formal and effective—mostly by getting more structured and systematic, weaving video interactions back into its CRM system. “That would be the holy grail,” Brownlee says. The company uses small business CRM software from Insightly. “If we could send a Vsnap to a client and attach that to a record in our CRM system, that would be hugely beneficial.”
