Marketing your veterinary practice

It’s no secret – sharing our homes and our lives with pets is good for our health. Research shows that people who own pets typically exercise more, stress less and report feeling happier.

It comes as no surprise that the COVID-19 crisis caused a surge in ‘Pandemic Pets.’ With everyone locked at home, many people suddenly had the time they needed to devote to a pet while they isolated. As a result, adoption rates of cats, kittens, dogs and puppies reached an all-time high.

To keep their furry friends happy and healthy during and after the pandemic, new pet owners searched for local Veterinary Practices they could trust.

Unfortunately, for many Veterinary Practice owners, their business may not be visible online or in their local area. If you’re a Veterinary Practice owner, it’s likely that you’re focused on giving the best care to your clients’ pets, not on taking time to build your brand online.

If this is the case, you may be missing the opportunity to take advantage of trends that will lead to more business for your practice. The good news is, local area digital marketing strategies are simple, effective and scalable to suit your budget.

When we initiate a local area digital marketing strategy for our clients, there are five elements that we focus on. These are:

1.Building an engaging website.

When looking for a vet to take care of their fur-babies, typically the first thing pet-owners do is look online. To stand out, you need to build trust with clients before they step foot (and paw!) into your practice.

To do this, you need a website that shows how much you care while also demonstrating your expertise. Your website should be easy to navigate with information that’s relevant, personal and warm. Pictures of your team and your animal clientele go a long way toward building this trust with potential clients.

2.Focusing on digital promotion.

While a functional, well written website is a great start, in today’s day and age it isn’t enough. When potential clients Google “Vet near me,” it’s likely they’ll be met with a long list of practices. The question is, how do you make sure you’re at the top of that list?

This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO for short) comes in. For local SEO, we use ‘Google My Business.’ ‘Google My Business’ reads the keywords from your website and the positive reviews on your page, while considering your businesses’ location, to make sure that your website is being shown to relevant audiences.

With regular updates to your website in the form of blogs and through interaction with your reviews, we can help you use ‘Google My Business’ to your advantage so that you’re front and center when potential clients are looking for a vet.

3.Using social media.

With 71% of all Australians on social media, it’s likely your current and potential clients are on Facebook and Instagram – this means you should be too.

Facebook has become a pivotal marketing tool that can build a strong online community, creating a conversation, while getting your messages and your business principals out to a wider audience. Facebook can be a place where your customers can share their passion for your service daily or weekly, as well as creating interest from potential new customers. But when creating a niche market for your business, you need to be much more selective about what you post. Facebook is an extremely powerful “niche advertising channel”. You can add your client list up to Facebook as a targeting list and then ask Facebook to create a similar list, giving you access to similar people, but a larger audience within the niche. You can target people by age, location or by their interests.

4.Integrating strategic marketing communications.

It’s not just what you’re doing and saying, but how you’re saying it.

Pets are members of the family, so pet owners want to trust their vet. To make sure that pet owners can trust you, we recommend developing website, newsletter and blog content that tells a unique brand story with warm, friendly and easy to understand language.

When writing for clients, we also ensure that content doesn’t just sound great but delivers results. With compelling call-to-actions and clear key messages written by communication professionals, you can achieve more conversions to grow your customer base.

5.Ensuring your business stays top of mind.

Pets are a big commitment and ideally, a friend and family member that stays with you for many years.

For this reason, it’s important you stay top-of-mind as the vet of choice for pet owners throughout their fur-baby’s life. Elevating your brand through digital marketing and public relations can progressively build trust in your brand, attract new customers and retain your existing customers. For example, keeping in contact with customers via a newsletter will ensure they bring in their pets for vaccinations and to get any health concerns checked out sooner.

How Sustainable Marketing Services can help

Sustainable Marketing Services is an award-winning Brisbane marketing and public relations company. We have a proven history of delivering better marketing and better results.

As pet owners ourselves, we understand how to communicate effectively with other pet owners. We can create and implement a digital marketing strategy to attract new clients to your business.

Book in for a free digital marketing health check to see how your marketing can be improved to deliver a better return.

Sustainable Marketing Services is an award-winning Brisbane digital marketing agency with a long history of delivering sustainable success for our clients.

Book a complimentary meeting on 07 3446 5837 or via email us here.