Why Your Practice Needs Video Marketing

Lila Swiatylo is an Account Manager at Marketing4ECPs, a full-service digital marketing agency that helps specialized businesses build visibility and achieve their growth goals. With more than 14 years in marketing and customer service, she develops strategies for niche brands and helps clients build visibility. An expert in social media and video marketing, Lila also teaches eye care professionals to create engaging content for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Her creative work and contribution to company culture earned POD Marketing’s Unicorn Award.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• [02:26] Lila Swiatylo shares how coffee content became a hands-on lesson in video marketing and social media algorithms
• [08:08] What practices should weigh when deciding between Instagram, TikTok, or both
• [11:51] Why simple, low-effort videos can outperform polished, heavily edited content
• [16:18] Adapting popular social media trends creatively for an eye care practice
• [19:10] Lila explains which video metrics matter more than follower counts and likes
• [25:01] How video content builds awareness, trust, and momentum toward booking an appointment
• [29:08] Captions, short-form video, and their role in strengthening SEO and search visibility
• [40:15] Lila’s three practical steps for starting a sustainable video strategy
• [44:28] Challenging the outdated belief that social media video is unprofessional

In this episode…

Video gives optometry practices a practical way to educate patients, show personality, and stay visible online. Still, many teams assume effective content requires polished production or confident presenters. How can practices make video marketing easier without sacrificing results?

Drawing on her expertise in social media, content creation, and niche marketing, Lila Swiatylo recommends keeping video simple, authentic, and consistent. Practices can involve camera-shy employees through B-roll and voiceovers, adapt existing trends, and focus on one platform before expanding. Rather than chasing follower counts, Lila suggests tracking views, shares, watch time, and website clicks to see what drives attention and action. Captions can also support search visibility by helping Google connect videos with patient questions. A sustainable strategy comes from experimenting, learning from each post, and building trust over time.

In this episode of the Cleinman Connect Podcast, Kim Carson talks with Lila Swiatylo, Account Manager at Marketing4ECPs, about why video marketing matters for optometry practices. Lila explains how to involve camera-shy staff, choose the right platforms, and measure meaningful results. She also touches on SEO, content batching, and adapting trends without losing authenticity.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Kevin Wilhelm on LinkedIn
• Kim Carson on Linkedin
• Marketing4ECPs
• Cleinman
• POD Marketing: Website | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube
• Lila Swiatylo: LinkedIn | Instagram
• “Adding up the Pieces of Your Practice’s Financial Puzzle” with Annelies Calnan on the Cleinman Connect Podcast

Quotable Moments:

• “People connect with humans and authenticity, and so you just have to let your guard down.”
• “Follower count does not matter when it comes to what you’re doing on social media, because it’s not the point.”
• “Every video that you actually post is almost like a learning lesson as to what can do well.”
• “If you find something’s working, continue to keep doing it until it stops working.”
• “You’re filming the content; you may as well put it everywhere you can.”

Action Steps:

1. Choose a consistent video schedule: Posting regularly keeps your practice visible, builds audience familiarity, and prevents your social channels from appearing inactive.
2. Assign a dedicated content lead: Giving one person ownership helps organize ideas, coordinate staff participation, and maintain momentum.
3. Start with simple, authentic videos: Behind-the-scenes clips, voiceovers, and short staff moments can build trust without requiring polished production.
4. Track views, shares, watch time, and website clicks: These metrics reveal what resonates with viewers and whether content is driving meaningful interest.
5. Repurpose trends for your practice: Adapting relevant formats can make content easier to create, more relatable, and more likely to reach new patients.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Marketing4ECPs.

Working with them is like hiring a full-time marketing professional who knows the industry and understands your goals. Except, instead of one experienced marketer, you get a whole team in your corner.

Whether you’re an optometrist, ophthalmologist, or optician, they can help you grow your business with a plan that’s completely customized for you. Learn more here.

Powered by Rise25 Podcast Production Company

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:07

Welcome to the Cleinman Connect Podcast, where we discuss marketing, ownership, growth strategies and everything else surrounding the business of optometry. Cleinman is Optometry’s trusted business partner for over 35 years.

Hello, I’m Kim Carson, hosting account manager at Marketing4ECPs. On this episode of the podcast. Past guests of this show include Annelies Calnan, the Director of Practice Transitions at Cleinman. That was such a fun episode and a really great learning one. If you tend to run away from numbers in your practice. You can listen to that episode and so many more now at Cleinman.com or wherever you like to get podcasts.

This episode is brought to you by Marketing4ECPs. Working with them is like hiring a full time marketing professional who knows the industry and understands your goals. Except instead of one experienced marketer, you get a whole team in your corner. Whether you’re an optometrist or ophthalmologist or optician, they can help you grow your business with a plan that’s completely customized for you. Learn more at marketing, then the number 4ecps.com.

I’m joined today by Lila Swiatylo, one of the finest account managers at Marketing4ECPs. With over 14 years in marketing and customer service roles, her expertise encompasses developing and executing marketing strategies for several different brands, each catering to a niche audience, and loves marketing because it gives her a creative outlet, all while allowing her to help businesses gain exposure and reach their goals. She is a proud Unicorn Award recipient from POD Marketing, a truly coveted honor that acknowledges an individual who excels in performance while significantly enriching the company culture. And I could not agree more with that. Thank you so much for joining me today, Lila.

Lila Swiatylo: 01:57

Thank you for having me. Yeah. Of course.

Kim Carson: 02:01

You know, I, I generally do start these podcasts with a bio, but there’s only so many things, especially when my guests are, as you know, accomplished and storied as you are. There’s only so many things I can fit into a bio. You’re also a world traveler. You’re a content creator, coffee lover. We have that in common.

So please tell me and the listeners a bit more about you.

Lila Swiatylo: 02:26

Okay, amazing. Well, because we’re here to talk about video marketing, I’ll touch on the coffee content creator if you want to call me that. That’s a bit extreme, but truly, I’ve learned so much on social media and creating videos just from doing it myself. I love coffee so much, and a while ago I had started a coffee Instagram called Pretty Little Latte. And I make just fun content on there, honestly, just as a hobby.

But I’ve learned so much from both Instagram and TikTok and the algorithms over just doing it for the last eight years. I’ve also done content and video marketing for a lot of different brands. So POD Marketing, I used to run their Instagram. And it’s funny because every industry and every business that you work for has a different goal with their social media. So in POD Marketing’s case, the goal was recruitment. 

 So it wasn’t even like awareness. It was awareness for people to come work with us or with with POD Marketing. But for other businesses, obviously for a lot of eye care clients, it’s to get new patients and to get awareness of the brand. So the strategy kind of shifts a bit. But yeah, that’s me. 

 And yeah, I love to travel and love to try all the different coffees while traveling. Who doesn’t? But yeah, that’s a great intro. Thank you Kim.

Kim Carson: 03:45

Oh my gosh, of course. And yeah, I want to tell you, I actually haven’t told you this in person yet. So this is going to be news to you. When I started with POD and with Cleinman, I was like, oh, I’m going to like, look up some of my coworkers on social media. And I went to your latte page and I was already following you.

Lila Swiatylo: 04:08

Oh, I love that. Oh my gosh. She literally organically. I love that. I’m so excited. That’s such a nice compliment. Thank you.

Kim Carson: 04:18

And I was like, oh my gosh, this I was like, I work with the Lila that like I’ve heard before. Yeah.

Lila Swiatylo: 04:25

So funny, so funny, but no embarrassing. And that’s what it’s about. Like finding a community of other people who like, are obsessed over coffee like me. I’m like, that’s the goal, right?

Kim Carson: 04:39

Yeah. For real. Fun. So yes, we are here to talk about video marketing. So, you know, I think when I think about video marketing, the first step is definitely a strategy. But even before that, you might need a volunteer, someone to be on camera. So maybe if you could give some tips or just some information on how to help someone who’s maybe more introverted or camera shy find their comfort zone in front of the lens.

Lila Swiatylo: 05:12

Really great question. So I always say that if, if you aren’t wanting to do social media videos, like perhaps it’s easier to find somebody in your practice who is happy to do that, because I do truly think that there’s nothing worse than somebody trying to, to. And you could always tell if it’s authentic, if it’s disingenuous, and if you’re pushing too hard to outside of your comfort zone, honestly, it’s not for everybody. And so if you need to pull in somebody maybe younger in your practice that can help guide you and do just simple step by steps because we’ve worked with practices of doctors who I mean, number one, there’s like different categories of people. And especially in the eye care space, I find that either they believe in social media and want to be on it, they see the value or they think like, how would I ever get new patients from these platforms?

And why would I do this? And then there’s the people who actually also think that video marketing and or, you know, Instagram videos and TikTok videos can sometimes on the side of like unprofessional, which is an interesting concept because I think it depends always on who your target audience is and what you’re speaking about the way that you social media is such a platform for you to showcase your personality of each practice and even your staff. And so the people who are camera shy, I would say it’s easiest to give them a step by step if they’re okay with doing this, it’s easier to kind of plan ahead and know what you’re about to film and get them to do it step by step. It’s not always you have to come on camera and present like this. Sometimes it’s literally just B-roll footage of somebody doing their job, and then there’s audio that gets put on top or somebody speaking over it. 

 So it’s not even like a lot of the time people have to perform for the camera. It can be whatever you want it to be. Right.

Kim Carson: 07:12

Yeah. For sure. I love that advice. It actually makes me think of, you know, some guests that I’ve had on this podcast and just the different communication styles, like is, is sometimes what it comes down to as well. Someone might need more of a script. They want to know what questions are going to be asked.

They want to know, you know, in, in video marketing. They want to know what the video is. So if you can give them like even an example, you’re like, this is what I’m going for. Somebody else has made this video. And that was the inspiration for what we’re going to do today. 

 Like if you can give them something like that, that might be helpful or like you said, like, just go live your life. I’ll film you. I’m not even here. And then we’ll put a voiceover on it. You don’t have to act. 

 You don’t have to do anything. That’s very great advice for someone who’s maybe a bit more shy.

Lila Swiatylo: 07:53

Exactly.

Kim Carson: 07:55

So you have spoken at Vision Expo Social Media Bootcamp multiple times with marketing for EPS. Do you have like a number one question that has come up in those sessions and what is it?

Lila Swiatylo: 08:08

Yes. It’s funny because going and speaking in your mind, you’re like, oh my gosh, what kind of questions are people going to throw your way? And they’re always the most simple questions, such as, should I be posting on TikTok and Instagram or both? That one is a question that comes up. And the answer to that is typically people start with Instagram, and then if they’re comfortable with that, and if they want to post on TikTok as well, I always encourage it.

You’re filming the content, you may as well put it everywhere you can. However, I also do tell people typically that Instagram tends to be the kind of place and platform where people go and put more polished content, you know, more professional business style content. It doesn’t have to be this. It can be a little bit of everything. But just speaking generally, Instagram tends to have a little bit more polished content, whereas TikTok, you can have videos up to ten, even 30 minutes, I believe, these days. 

 So it’s a place where people put more raw, unedited footage and even just conversational style videos. Sometimes people like to go to TikTok for that. So honestly, again, when I get asked that question, I kind of throw it back at the individual and ask, get them to ask themselves, like, what will you commit to if you want to commit to posting to both, go for it. Be my guest. That’s amazing. 

 But if you are barely struggling to, you know, consistently post on one platform, don’t stretch yourself to two. Like make it as easy as possible for yourself to, to get, give yourself that commitment and be more consistent. Right?

Kim Carson: 09:43

So you’d say maybe consistency in this case is going to be better than just spamming everything for sure.

Lila Swiatylo: 09:50

And I think because when we think about how we use social media in terms of a business, and for simplicity, simplicity’s sake, let’s use like a restaurant example. If you and I are going to a restaurant this evening, sometimes the users like you and I would check their Instagram to see, you know, what’s happening in the restaurant. What are their new menu items? What are they featuring? Do they have any promotions, any specials, any Friday specials, whatever it might be?

So same thing for Instagram, for eye care practices. People go to your social media as kind of like your second website is what we typically tend to call social media platforms. And they want to see what’s going on in the practice. They want to kind of get a vibe of the practice, a culture of the practice, and also to see if there’s any promotions, if you’re closed on the holiday that’s coming up or things like that. So consistency can be key. 

 If it’s if you’re, keeping up with it. I think the worst thing to do is to start TikTok or Instagram, post a bunch, and then just leave for months, because then people who do come are going to see that the last post you had was maybe like six months ago. And that’s, that’s when it becomes to be a good, a not the best look, but if you’re trying to post consistently, I would say 2 to 3 times a week, if you miss a week, like it’s not the end of the world, just pick up where you left off. If some weeks you can only do one post again, do what you can. As long as you’re consistent and even on the weeks or days that you aren’t posting, like put a story up. 

 It’s not as it doesn’t require that much energy to put a story, even a video of the reception saying like, come see us today. We’re open till this day. Like it doesn’t have to be that complicated. It can be very, very simple.

Kim Carson: 11:32

Yeah, for sure. I’m thinking to like, yeah, if you have a cancellation, like put it in the story, something like you said, like the receptionist saying hello, you could just film a video walking through your front door and it’s like, practice is open today. Like, here’s our hours doesn’t need to be a full scale video shoot, right?

Lila Swiatylo: 11:51

100%. And what I think about as well, and you might ask this later, but I think it’s important to note some things that I’ve learned on social media. It seems like truly it makes no sense. It seems that the videos that you spend so much time on, and you’ve edited and pieced it all together and like, just because you’ve done that doesn’t mean that it’s going to do well. The videos that I’ve spent the least amount of time on, I spent a video the other day, I posted a video and one of it was a coffee video.

Of course, one of the drinks was kind of out of the frame. And I just was like, do I even post this? Like, I kind of slopped it together. It got over 100,000 views and that’s like one of my best performing. It makes no sense. 

 Meanwhile, the videos that I like intentionally spend and edit and whatever, like sometimes get like, it seems like negative views. So you have to just kind of go into that thinking that and expect nothing. Because at the end of the day, what you’re putting out there is what people will see. And you have to remember why you’re doing this. And it’s to attract maybe that younger patient, maybe just to get brand awareness for people in your area, to know where your practice is, what you offer, and that you just have a fun staff, you know? 

 So something not to lose sight of. It’s never that serious. Just post it and move on and don’t overthink anything.

Kim Carson: 13:09

Yeah, I think that even ties into the first question of like someone being a bit camera shy. Like I know for me personally, you know, I have a couple things in my life going on and I don’t always necessarily want to post them or I don’t want to post about them or like almost that feeling of like putting yourself out there is very scary. And it’s, it happens way before the camera even turns on that you’re like, I can’t do that. So I wonder too, if you have any like tips or advice for someone who’s feeling like, like the way you felt like, do I even post this? Like, do you have any, like, things to get over that kind of roadblock?

Lila Swiatylo: 13:46

Yes. Truthfully. And you know what? It’s always easier said than done because it takes some time to get there. You just have to not care.

Like, and again, it’s easier said than done. But even for myself, I didn’t post myself on my coffee, Instagram and TikTok for years because I just was like, oh, you know, like, what is this going to look for? Like, you know, putting your face out there? That’s kind of a big step. But honestly, people connect with humans and authenticity. 

 And so you just have to let your guard down. And again, I know it’s easier said than done, but the minute you do that, and just those are the videos that people relate to more. Even if somebody is a little bit awkward or shy, like that can come across sometimes as like a little funny or, you know, timid and cute, you know, and maybe that’s not the necessarily the way that doctors want to present themselves. But again, you have to think about like, who’s going to be seeing these videos and then coming to your practice. So if they see you on Instagram or TikTok and you are a little bit like quirky or whatnot, like that’s who they’re going to experience when they’re coming into your practice. 

 So just be yourself. Like, like I said earlier, you don’t have to perform. And again, just getting over what is the worst thing that can happen? A video gets no views and you move on and, and do another one. Like there is no negative. 

 The only thing, everything that you post can be positive because anything you post from a practice perspective is going to get views, whether it’s 10 or 10,000. And those views are brand awareness. It’s essentially free advertising on social media, right? So there’s always a plus, even if it’s not how you turned it out to be, or if you’re kind of hesitant of what you posted. Like also, and I’ll end with this for this question. 

 Think about our attention span on social media. People are scrolling through like, sometimes I’m on Instagram and I swear it’s like you’re scrolling through a video, you’re laughing one second, you’re crying the next second. Like there’s so much content to absorb at our fingertips, like nobody’s going to remember or pay attention if it’s like they’re just going to move on and never think about it again. So truly, it’s not that serious. Just put yourself out there, give yourself that commitment and let your truly guard down. 

 And it’s for the betterment of your business.

Kim Carson: 16:04

So yeah, easy, easy, easy. How can a practice that, you know, sells their products every single day get truly creative with the video?

Lila Swiatylo: 16:18

Great question. So what’s funny coming into eye care marketing is a lot of doctors also ask, how are we going to make all these trendy fun videos like eye care related? You would be so surprised. You can make any trend into any business theme, etc. like just be creative, be creative. Seems easier said.

But it’s just truly taking that trend and applying it into eye care. Even if it has nothing to do with what you’re selling, what you’re doing. It could just be your staff, you know, mimicking an audio that’s been trending and that’s kind of what you’ve posted. It doesn’t have to be, you know, the trends that you kind of see on Instagram and TikTok can be absolutely duplicated in the eye care space. It doesn’t necessarily always even have to sell anything or mention anything or never even mentioning booking an appointment, because people are going to see that.

And then organically they’re going to go to your page. And of course, your page has your website. So it’s kind of the organic, you know, buying cycle of a patient’s journey coming into your practice. So yeah, it’s, it’s, that’s, I would say any, any trend can be applied into eye care Just like any audio can be turned into an eye care theme. You know, it doesn’t always have to be necessarily eye care related because at the end of the day, it’s with your staff and it’s in your practice. 

 And even if the doctors in there, maybe they’re wearing something that kind of represents them as a doctor, you know, it’s pretty obvious that that’s done and all businesses do it in a way. So yeah.

Kim Carson: 17:55

Yeah, no, I think that’s great. And you know, you mentioned the POD Marketing Instagram off the hop and I post on it now, a lot of the content coming out now is coming from me and the department that I’m on. And yeah, a lot of it is like going through and there’s, you know, there’s like a construction company that made a video and it was very funny. So then, you know, me and the team met and we were like, how do we recreate this for us? So it can be as simple as that for sure.

Lila Swiatylo: 18:26

And even like I’ve seen and you maybe even you’ve seen it. In our city. There was a random shawarma shop that started like when you think about it, you’re like, oh, how is think about a business owner that has a shawarma shop. He. It might be so complicated to think like, how would I even cross that barrier?

Get on social media again. You just do you just take anything you see on the internet and film it in the shawarma shop, and all of a sudden your traumas are going viral. Again, easier said than done, but you just you got to let your guard down and not over complicate it because it is truly simple.

Kim Carson: 19:01

Yeah. I would I wonder like, is there a most important metric that a practice should be monitoring when they’re posting video content?

Lila Swiatylo: 19:10

Really great question as well. And I think this is where it’s actually changed over the years. Even eight years ago, it was before even videos were a thing on, on social media. It was so easy to get followers because it wasn’t as saturated. There wasn’t as much going on on these platforms.

And so I think one thing that doctors always say is, oh, I, you know, I want to grow my following and whatever. And I actually think that doesn’t matter at all. Follower count does not matter when it comes to what you’re doing on social media, because it’s not the point. You’re not trying to have your practice become an influencer and truthfully think about who you follow. Like, do you follow your dentist and optometrist and all these different things? 

 Like maybe we do because we work in this industry, but I know.

Kim Carson: 19:57

I’m like, I do. But. Right. The average Joe.

Lila Swiatylo: 20:01

You know, we follow a lot of people and we’re actually quite selective on sometimes who we follow because now with the algorithm, everything is so saturated and you want to see the people’s content that you follow. So if you see if you follow somebody a long time ago and you’re not engaging or relating to their content anymore, you might unfollow them. And so I think that’s a huge misconception that followers mean so much. And, and they don’t, that’s, that’s not necessarily the point because just because they don’t follow you doesn’t mean that what you’re not doing on social media isn’t successful. The most important metrics that I would say to focus on is the views, because you’re, you’re kind of qualifying how many people or, you know, giving yourself a quantity on how many people saw what you put out.

And then you can start to see kind of what your audience likes and what’s working for you versus what’s not. Same thing with shares. When you go on your post, you can see how many people shared your content. Again, just shows us and tells us how relatable people have related to your content. And same thing is, if you go into your Instagram analytics, you can actually see how long people have watched your videos for. 

 So once you start to post a lot more videos, you can kind of gauge and see what works best for you. Is it the short clips? Is it the snippy clips? Is it you speaking in a video? Is it you having a voice over? 

 Is it you using audio? And nobody’s speaking at all. Like there’s so many different areas that you can adjust based on how your videos have performed. So every video that you actually post is almost like a learning lesson as to what can do well. And again, back to my previous comment. 

 Sometimes it makes no sense at all. So sometimes you’ll think you have a pattern and then it changes. Like truly things change all the time on social media. So don’t ever, if you find something’s working, continue to keep doing it until it stops working. And then you might have to pivot. 

 And the last thing I’ll say about metrics is, again, same thing as followers. Likes don’t really matter as much anymore either. If you think about your yourself on social media, how many times, even if we like a video, we might share it with somebody that you know we want to laugh with. But how many times will we actually like the video or click follow? I think because our attention span has changed over the last few years, those metrics are less important. 

 Of course, there’s something to note and look at, but they aren’t as like, you know. detrimental as we would have thought so before.

Kim Carson: 22:28

Yeah. Like a share is more of a vote of confidence, of relatability than a like is.

Lila Swiatylo: 22:32

Exactly. Because also when you get a share, you’re now you’ve, you’ve related to that person and now you’re going to relate to the person that they’re sharing it to. So it’s extra like impressions. And who knows, you might have somebody who sees your video in your city and they’re sharing it to somebody else in your city. So you’re just kind of expanding your reach when you make relatable content like that. And even if it’s just funny content, you know, things like that.

So people like to share that stuff. That’s like a way that people connect on, on, on platforms, on social media. So yeah, the more relatable content, the better.

Kim Carson: 23:11

Now that you’re saying it out loud, I am, I try to think about my own habits on social media when I’m talking about this kind of stuff or like thinking about like what we should post from, you know, the Cleinman side, the POD side. And you’re right, I never realized it before, but I have like liked less posts because I’m sharing them. So it’s like instead of hitting the heart, I hit the airplane. Little paper airplane.

Lila Swiatylo: 23:35

Exactly. And it’s funny because you’re so right. It’s almost like a joke because it’s now I feel like on social media, it’s, it’s another way of texting in a way, like to my fiance, I probably sent him like 20 reels a day just because they’re funny. And I don’t even know if he watches them, but it’s just like you want to share that and have that connection. Same with your friends. You know, if you see something that you know, you’d both laugh at, you share it. And it’s just like an unspoken text texting chain of sending each other videos, right?

Like, and that’s also what social media has evolved to because before, you know, it would just be photos and likes and comments were everything. Whereas now this is our way to connect with other people and, and honestly take a step back from the real world and get lost in, you know, this device.

Kim Carson: 24:21

So. Yeah for sure. Also, you don’t like watch your partner watch the reels you sent him.

Lila Swiatylo: 24:28

I do, I do. I’m like, I’m like, you better watch it. Watch it together. And I’m laughing hysterically. Wait, this is the best part.

You got it. Wait. Don’t look away. You gotta watch this. Exactly.

Kim Carson: 24:43

Exactly. Okay, well. With that being said, how does you know the views, the shares, the impressions on a video? How would that translate for a practice owner? Like turning those into a fully booked appointment calendar? How does that turn into butts in the seats?

Lila Swiatylo: 25:01

Love it. So the more that you’re sharing content. Number one, I think social media is kind of like the hidden metric that people don’t, you know, some things that you do in marketing are very black and white. For example, you know, Google ads, you’re putting your budget into these ads, you can see exactly how many people clicked, how many appointments you got from that. It’s very black and white, whereas social media is one of those strategies and tactics where it’s a little bit more of a gray area.

Yes, you can have a bunch of people come to your social media. You can see how many people. And that’s actually another important metric I forgot to mention earlier is having your website in your bio. You can also see how many people clicked on your link to go to your website. So indicating that whatever they saw, they liked and then, you know, they either want more information about what you posted. 

 Maybe it’s a specialty eye care service or on dry eye or whatever it might be. Or maybe they do want to go and explore, you know, how to book an appointment, which obviously is ideal. So that’s an important metric to track as well. But ultimately, how it does lead to butts in seats is again, thinking about the patient journey from somebody who has no idea who your business is. And maybe they maybe they have an eye doctor, maybe they don’t think about how many eye doctors are advertising for them. 

 So we call it like the marketing funnel in a way. The awareness phase is where people don’t know who you are, and they might not even need an appointment. Maybe they have an eye issue regarding maybe like dry eye or whatever, but they don’t know that they need to action anything on it yet. Maybe it’s not an issue that they want to address yet. So at this area of the funnel, they might be getting tons of advertisements. 

 They have no idea who to even go to because they’re not looking. But if you’re putting your videos out there and you’re relating to somebody like that, when they do have an issue or when they do want to book an appointment, then you’re going to be top of mind. And that’s the same thing when it comes to like Google display ads or any other kind of digital billboard ads that you, you put out there for awareness. At the end of the day, people are gonna. Use social media as both in, in their patient journey when booking an appointment. 

 But also it’s very useful for people who do go to your social media to kind of have that double check to get that vibe. And that almost gives them the final push to book an appointment, because then they see how fun and cool the practice is and they get the vibe of the practice. Like truly, you can, you can really experience the heart and soul of a practice on social media without ever even stepping foot into the practice. And so that kind of gives people that extra relatability, relatability factor that they want to book in and that they’re excited to come in for their appointment. And same thing as well with your current patient base encouraging your current patient base for all of your current patients who have been coming to you for years. 

 Like they, they know your staff at this point, those that have been there for years and they know, you know, the doctors and the owners. And so that’s another way for them to support your business and share, you know, and those funny, relatable videos are going to be go even further for them because they know you personally and they’ve been coming to you for years. So it’s social media kind of is that place for any and all current, existing and future patients to find you and see you and eventually come through to you.

Kim Carson: 28:21

Yeah, it hits like the awareness of the funnel, like the top of it, where like 95% of people are right? Like, sure. Not everyone is looking for an eye exam today.

Lila Swiatylo: 28:32

Exactly.

Kim Carson: 28:32

So it gets those people to, to be aware of your business at least. And then like you’re saying, once they are part of the 5% who wants an eye exam, they’re coming back to see when are your hours? Are you open? Can I click a link in the bio to book something?

Lila Swiatylo: 28:46

Okay. That’s perfect. Or what are your promotions this week? Like, do you have a Memorial Day sale? You know, things like that. Those are the areas where you can quickly share that information with your patient base.

Kim Carson: 28:57

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Does okay. How and does video content translate into building a practice’s SEO?

Lila Swiatylo: 29:08

Oh great question. So when you Google things these days, you can see there’s a short video section. There used to be, I believe, just a video section. And I think depends on what you search. There is a little, you know, when you Google search something and you can go to the images tab and then by the images tab, now there’s a shopping tab.

There’s also the short videos tab as well as the videos tab. So in the last year or so, once I kind of started coming up, Google’s changed their algorithm and they always are making little improvements and adjustments. But now you can go and be found on the short videos section. And sometimes they’ll actually highlight if your video answers a very specific question that a user is searching, they’ll actually highlight you in the feed. And that actually brings it back to when you’re posting a video. 

 Don’t forget about the caption because the caption is now dare I say it’s almost like a mini blog because what you’re writing in the caption, Google can actually capture and snip it in certain areas, especially if it’s very niche content. Like if it’s something like, how often do I get an eye exam? I mean, that’s very that’s a very saturated question that people have answered through blogs multiple times. But if it’s a very specific question about an area or you know, where you’re located or something that you have in a caption, sometimes Google will pick on that and, and include it in their feed. So that’s even without going to the short video section. 

 So don’t overlook the caption. But that’s also how you can be found on SEO as well. Especially also when people are these days, again, everybody learns differently and our attention spans are so small, right? So sometimes people don’t want to read a whole blog if they’re, if they’re googling something like how to take out my contact lenses. A very simple question.

Kim Carson: 31:00

Yeah.

Lila Swiatylo: 31:01

Shocked at how many people are searching that.

Kim Carson: 31:05

So thinking, sorry, I’m just giggling. I’m giggling. Thinking about someone being like, my eyes are so dry, how do I get these out? Like they’re like hitting themselves in the back of the head. They’re like, I can’t get these out.

Lila Swiatylo: 31:15

And even us girls with these nails, which I know is a nightmare for some doctors, they’re like, oh my God, don’t do it. But you know, these are the things that people are searching because yeah, it’s part of the everyday experience. It might be obvious to literally anyone working in eye care and even us because we’re kind, you know, working in eye care through marketing. But to the average Joe, like you would be shocked at what people you know, Google just about the other day, I saw there was a somebody who googled how to clean your glasses, something so simple. But we saw that that was a very popular search term in a certain area.

So again, it just depends on the users and who, who you’re kind of speaking to. But when you have a video on that, it now gives them a more visual way to absorb that information that you’re, you want to, you know, and you want to be the one that answers their questions because that gives you kind of expertise, authority and, and trust in that patient, right. That finds you through those videos. So the caption matters. Videos matter because they show up in the video section. 

 But also there are a whole other way for your audience to absorb content that you’re trying to put out there as well.

Kim Carson: 32:24

Amazing. Do you have like a favorite video success story from a client you’ve worked with recently?

Lila Swiatylo: 32:32

Yes, actually, one of my clients, vision care centers, I don’t know if I, if I.

Kim Carson: 32:40

Can say it totally. Yeah, totally.

Lila Swiatylo: 32:42

They’re great.

Kim Carson: 32:43

Shout out.

Lila Swiatylo: 32:44

Shout out to them vision care centers. They’re amazing. What I always say about social media too is, is people are kind of shy and scared to mimic what other people have done because, you know, they kind of can kind of see it as like, oh, it wasn’t my original idea. Like we used to say steal like an artist. Like you can follow everybody, every account that gives you good inspiration, and then you can see what works for them, and you can translate it to what works well in your own practice.

And also, even if you do the exact same video that they do, it’s still going to be different. And nobody owns, you know, these creative ideas, right? So I encourage people to actually follow people and get inspiration from them because there are so many, when people get into starting with social media or maybe you, you’re already doing it and you kind of are in a rut. Follow people who inspire you because there’s hundreds, if not thousands or hundreds of thousands of practices like you who’ve already kind of carved their space on social media. And so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. 

 You just, you know, follow them and get inspiration. But vision care centers is a great example because that doctor that he, he, you know, his peers are on social media and they do a fabulous job. But he kind of was all like, you know, I know I should do it, but I, I don’t know where to start. And, you know, that’s not really me. And so what our team did is we worked with him to again, give him a step by step guide. 

 So we’ll send them videos to like film little clips of and their office manager who’s also fabulous. She does a lot of them on her own. And then she also like involves him as well. So it’s kind of like a team effort. And they’ve gotten so many views on their videos. 

 Like it’ll be the most simple video, six, 7000 views, which again, because it’s just relatable and, and they’re doing different trends that relate in a different space. And so yeah, so I think that you just kind of got to get started and, and they’re a great example. So go follow them and use them for inspiration too. Or any other eye care practice, even Marketing4ECPs. Our sponsor has a great video idea, content, video ideas that they sometimes post on their social media too. 

 But even just following anybody in your industry that inspires you, I think gives you a good head start to, you know, building up your ideas.

Kim Carson: 35:03

Yeah. Your answers made me think of a couple different questions. Yeah. First off, I’ll start with, you know, you’re saying like a 6 or 7000 views on a video. And I want to remind people that are listening, if you have 6 or 7 views on a video, that is a huge win.

If you have 300 views on a video, that is a huge win. I think that we might get lost in, oh, this person has millions of views or millions of likes or millions of impressions. But I always and especially when looking at, you know, my own metrics on social media, I think about if I was standing in a room with that many people and I had to talk to them, would it feel like a lot of people. And honestly, anything over 50, I’m like, yeah, that would probably feel like a lot of people. So I want to remind anyone who is just starting or they’re like, my content is trash. 

 I can’t keep putting it out. If, if you have ten, like imagine ten people standing in your practice right now, is that a lot? Yes. Right.

Lila Swiatylo: 36:05

Exactly. And that’s ten people that probably didn’t know who you were before. And you know what I mean? So again, you can’t get lost in the numbers. Sure.

Of course, it’s nice to have a video, you know, explode and kind of give you that validation. And the chances are that you will eventually, if you’re consistent and I’m going to tell you right now, it’s going to be the video that you would have thought no sense and you didn’t even want to post because that’s somehow how it seems to go. But you’re right, like imagine 7000. That’s a huge number, huge number that you’re exposing yourself to and your business businesses name to. So yeah, it’s huge. 

 It’s huge. That’s it. And honestly, cheapest way to get that much exposure. Like, you know, how much time and effort does it take for you to film a quick little video? Maybe like ten minutes, maybe 20? 

 Let’s stretch it to if you’re new to this and in 20 minutes time, it costs you nothing to upload the video and you’re getting thousands of people to view it. It’s an incredible way to get exposure.

Kim Carson: 37:07

Yeah, I agree. And so then I wanted to ask though, because I am not familiar with the process of you said the vision care centers, they you send them. I’m just unsure of the process. Like, so they’re a video marketing client. And are you sending them like, hey, I shot this little thing as an example for you.

I want you to do like a similar thing. And here’s what the video is going to look like. Is that the process of being a video client?

Lila Swiatylo: 37:36

Great question. So in that particular product that they’ve kind of signed on for to get help in that department. So they meet with their social media strategist every single month. And that strategist gives them a list of, let’s say, five trending videos, and they’ll send them an example of the video on, on Instagram. couldn’t.

It doesn’t have to be. I calculated it could just be any. And then they’ll give them steps. So let’s say if you want to film this video, I need Lisa to do this. I need doctor to do this. 

 I need this person to do this. And then we put it all together for them and post it. So I think there’s different options for people who want to do everything themselves. And there are some people, even in practices who, you know, a lot of the time, if you have a younger staff demographic, they do this for fun. You know, this is they know this like the back of their hand. 

 So it’s very simple for them to do. And if you have somebody in the practice that can take it on, that’s great. But I even have another client who does have that kind of younger audience, but they’re, they have a busy role in the practice and they don’t necessarily want them spending, you know, an hour every week to do that. So they also use that service with us because it’s easier for her to just us to give them direction, her to do it, and then us to edit it and post it on their behalf. So I think there are options for every entry level for every. 

 For anyone who has any every different kind of people in their practice younger, older, shyer. There’s a solution for you to, to get started as well.

Kim Carson: 39:07

Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Sorry, I just didn’t know. I was like, wait a minute.

Yeah.

Lila Swiatylo: 39:12

Yeah, it’s really yeah.

Kim Carson: 39:13

I didn’t, I didn’t realize it was so yeah, like it meets you where you’re at. Totally.

Lila Swiatylo: 39:18

And, and one more thing I will say is again, when you work with different agencies, even marketing, we have great video content that’s just more like stock image that, that we build ourselves and allow our clients to post. But it is, there is just something so special and more intimate might be the wrong word, but it’s, it’s just so much more personal when the staff of the practice is making those videos. And that’s something that nobody can duplicate because it’s, you know, it’s you and your own practice, you’re embodying your culture and everything. So it’s, it’s, it’s a great way, great way to involve everyone in your practice as well.

Kim Carson: 39:54

Yeah. Okay. If a practice listening wanted to begin creating a video marketing campaign tomorrow, maybe even today on Friday, or I guess this is gonna air on a Wednesday. But anyways, on a Wednesday or whenever you’re listening to this, is there like three steps you could offer for them to just get started?

Lila Swiatylo: 40:15

Love it. Yep. Again, I do think it would depend on how familiar they are with it. But I think step number one is get on social media and go follow and save any posts that give you inspiration like and that way anytime. And this is what I tell everybody at Vision Expos as well.

The more that you’re on your practices, social media account, liking stuff that you want to do, then eventually your algorithm is just going to be ideas because Instagram kind of morphs our algorithm based on what we interact with. And so the more that you’re sharing and liking and saving videos that maybe you want to put keep in your back pocket to do for your own practice. The more the algorithm is going to feed you different ideas. So I would say step one is get on their follow and save any videos that kind of give you an inspiration and idea. Because at the end of the day, if you, you know, on a rainy day, you have time, maybe, maybe the books aren’t full one day and you’re giving yourself the task to film a video, you can just pull one right out of the saved folder that you’ve saved, the videos that you have created. 

 Number two, I would say identify who in your practice would be best suited for maybe being the manager and somebody who spearheads this. So whether you get help from an agency like ours at Marketing4ECPs, that makes it, that’s obviously the easiest route to take. But if you. If not, who’s in charge? Because somebody needs to be making sure that there’s consistency that you’re filming. 

 And honestly, you know exactly what this is like sometimes being that person to round the troops and be like, I need you to be in this video can be painful. So I think you need to find the perfect person to do it. And it needs to be everybody kind of needs to be on board because, you know, if you’re going to have to force everybody to do the videos that they don’t want to do, it can just be like pulling teeth.

Kim Carson: 42:11

Yeah, yeah. Everyone hates to see not everyone. There’s lots of people that we work with. They hate to see me come and holding up a phone. They’re like, right. Get out of here.

Lila Swiatylo: 42:21

But you know what? They’ll also be the same people that are like, yeah, I want to do this, you know, get me on there. So you just have to kind of and every practice will be different depending on, you know, the ages of your staff and all that. And the third step would just be just to post, like, don’t overthink it, film a video, post it, learn from it, do another one. Like anytime you have a spare minute.

And even it depends on kind of how your practice is organized and how busy you are and how much staff you have. But I find that it’s very useful to even take block an hour out of your calendar, where you can have a list of ideas of what you want to film and just plow through, filling them, filming them. It’ll take you so little time and you’ll have all that content, and then the staff or whoever can edit it over the course of the week and post as they go. But it doesn’t have to be like every day. It’s like, knock, knock, I need you to film this. 

 You know, you can spend, you can go around the practice and do five videos in ten minutes if you’re prepared and you know exactly what you’re getting. So that’s another thing. And one thing that I also will say that I think is very important is what people don’t think. A little benefit of video marketing and social media is of a practice is it’s actually a great way to engage your staff, like your staff is going to, especially the ones who are engaged and want to do this and want to be part of it. Like they’re going to be so proud of the content that comes out. 

 And even the ones that don’t want to film, it’s just still an exciting atmosphere to be part of, and I think it will overall be a huge play into the culture of your practice with your employees, and it might even help retain some staff because, you know, they’re involved, they feel like they’re important. And also it’s just fun. It’s fun and light hearted, right? So that kind of gives that extra benefit of, you know, staff and retention as well.

Kim Carson: 44:07

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I have one last question for you, Lila. And before I ask it, I will point people to our sponsors website. Again, that is marketing4 as in the number ecps.com. So my final question for you is, what is the biggest myth that you have about video marketing?

Lila Swiatylo: 44:28

Oh, I would actually say that surprisingly, the biggest myth is that they think, and I mentioned this earlier, that it’s can’t be unprofessional, but I think that that’s a huge myth because social media is a way of the world these days. Also, a lot of the time practices are targeting younger people and there’s all different types of people on social media. There’s the young, young, you know, audience. There’s the moms with the families that are still on social media scrolling at night because that’s their only free time. There’s the UN mes who, who are also probably a big target audience of people because we have influence with our partners and families and all this.

Right? So the biggest myth is that it it doesn’t need to be part of your strategy and that it’s unprofessional, because I think it’s probably leaning toward one of the more important areas of your strategy, especially, you know, there’s, there’s a difference in the social medias that just do graphic posts, which are great too, but it’s just that extra elevation to really give everybody an idea of how fun your practice is and encourage them to come in a different way. It’s just going to target a different audience. And so it’s not unprofessional. And also you’re in control of the content. 

 So you can decide, you know, how silly you want it to be or if you want it to still be trending, but still, you know, toned and with your, your, your brand. So it’s really up to you. And it’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked anymore because video is the way of the world truly these days with social media and TikTok and, and all that stuff. So that would be my biggest one.

Kim Carson: 46:03

Yeah. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for a great episode today. And if, if you want to hear more of the podcast, you certainly can at Cleinman.com and wherever you like to listen. Thanks, Lila.

Lila Swiatylo: 46:17

Thank you so much.

Outro: 46:23

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