Do It Yourself Video: Tempting? Yes. Good Idea? No.
Having worked in the online video business for the past three-plus years, I have heard one question a lot. "How about if I just shoot my own video and send it to you!" Can you do that? Yes. Should you do it? In most cases, absolutely not!
I know you mus be thinking, "what else is he going to say, he's pitching video!" But you have to believe me when I say, that most (99.5 percent) video that is shot by amateur videographers ends up being just that, amateurish.
The money that many people "think" they are saving by shooting their own video, more often than not, ends up costing them more money in the long run financially, and costing them big-time in the all important image department.
I've never quite understood why so many intelligent people would spend well thought out dollars on a web design or SEO strategy, but "blow it" by adding what amounts to "home video" on a YouTube link to their site! If the sleek design is effective, and the SEO draws prospective clients to a doctor's site, then why not utilize one of the best conversion tools on the market? "Professional" Medical Video. If a doctor chooses to use a flip cam video to "close" a prospective patient online, I'm guessing that patient will look across the street immediately. I know I would. Heck, there are many old school video production companies (I'm not slamming the entire video industry, but just like anything else, there are some bad ones out there!) who don't know how to customize a doctor's video website all across the country.
In many cases, you have just one shot to convert those who are looking your practice over. I believe you shouldn't waste that chance by not putting your best video foot forward.
To use a sports analogy (sorry about that, but that's what I do) that's like having your ace pitcher, pitch you into the 9th inning in a one run game, and the manager comes in and turns to the guy with the beer gut in the Lodge section to come in and "close" the game out, instead of turning to his trusted closer who does that for a living every night of the week.
Bad sports analogy aside, I believe it's always best to not take video for granted, it could be the one thing that guarantees the "big bucks" keep coming in!
