The videos that work best for a physio clinic are short, clinician-led clips that each teach one useful thing: a readiness test people can try at home, a common myth corrected, an exercise shown properly, or a look at the physio they would see if they booked. Film them in your own clinic, with your own physios on camera.
That is how we shoot and edit video for Flow Physio, a physiotherapy and exercise physiology practice with clinics in Sutherland and Woolooware in the Sutherland Shire. In the 90 days we made their videos, Flow's account reached more than 177,000 people. Below are the six formats we come back to, and how to film them without losing a day of appointments.
Six video ideas for physios
Readiness tests people can try at home
Show a short set of tests and tell the viewer what passing looks like. People can try it on the spot, so they save it and come back to it. Charlotte's postpartum return-to-running tests are one of Flow's best-performing formats. Use it for anything with a functional test: returning to running, returning to sport, or getting ready for a new season.
Myth busts
Open with the misconception, then correct it. "Your first postnatal exercise isn't planks or crunches" stops the people who believe the myth, where "Are you ready to exercise after having a baby?" is easy to scroll past. On the same topics, Flow's myth-busting openers beat plain questions.
Exercise demos worth saving
Have one physio demonstrate three to five exercises for one problem, with the key cue for each. Doug's knee exercises for Flow use this format. People save videos they plan to use again, and at Flow the most-saved videos were checklists and exercise routines.
One condition, explained by the specialist
Take a question patients ask in the treatment room and let the clinician who treats it answer on camera. Four of Flow's nine staff specialise in women's health, so that became the backbone of their content. Our best reel for Flow, Edi on perineal massage in pregnancy, has passed 53,000 views.
Meet the physio
A short introduction to each clinician: what they treat, and one thing about them outside the clinic. People book a person as much as a service. At Flow, team introductions held viewers for longer than the education videos did.
Behind the scenes
The shoot day, the team, the principal having a go on camera. These take little planning and remind people there are real humans in the clinic. At Flow, the ones with the principal on camera performed well above what their effort suggests.
How to film them without losing a clinic day
- Batch it. Plan the list, then film several videos in one session at the clinic, so appointments only move once.
- One idea per video. If it needs two points, make two videos.
- Say the point in the first line. The opening words decide whether anyone keeps watching.
- Film vertical, in your real clinic. Your treatment rooms and gym are more convincing than a studio.
- Put the physio who treats it on camera, and name them. Viewers are choosing who to see.
For Flow, we film in the clinic with the clinicians and edit the footage into finished short videos. Reels and short video carried 86% of the impressions on Flow's socials over those 90 days.
Keep it inside Ahpra's advertising rules
Ahpra treats a clinic's social media as advertising a regulated health service, so its advertising rules apply to every video you post. Ahpra's summary of the requirements says advertising must not:
- use testimonials, meaning positive statements about the clinical side of a service
- be false, misleading or deceptive
- create an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment
- encourage people to use a service they have no clinical need for
In practice that means no patient saying your treatment fixed them, no before and after promises, and no "don't wait" urgency. Education videos sit comfortably inside these rules, which is one more reason they suit clinics. Check Ahpra's guidance directly for anything you are unsure about.
Consistency does the heavy lifting
None of these formats works as a one-off. What made the difference at Flow was the rhythm: a shoot in the clinic every second Friday, a batch of finished videos from each one, and new reels going out every week. The audience learns to expect them, the clinicians get more comfortable on camera each time, and every video builds on the last. Pick two or three of the formats above and keep them going week after week, rather than chasing a new idea each time.
What it did for Flow Physio
In the 90 days we made their videos, Flow's socials recorded more than 250,000 impressions and reached more than 177,000 people. Our best reel passed 53,000 views. Here are three of the videos from the formats above.
