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Earlier in the year I attended a 3 day workshop that was part of Dr Diederik Gelderman 6 month course ‘Veterinary Practice Marketing Made Easy’. One of the sections I really enjoyed was near the end when the attendees displayed all of their veterinary practice marketing materials on a big cardboard sheet and we all got to check out everyone’s great ideas.
It was interesting to see the range of brands people had put together for their practice and I know it was helpful for the attendees to have multiple fresh sets of eyes perusing their branding and offering suggestions for improvement.
To undertake a marketing refresh for your veterinary business, Ingrid’s post suggests you follow a process similar to the attendees at the ‘Veterinary Practice Marketing Made Easy’ workshop:
1. Collect all of your marketing materials including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, ‘With Comp’ slips, brochures, signs, invoices
2. Take photos of your building – inside and out (from your client’s perspective); uniforms, outdoor signage, etc.
3. Get copies of answering machine messages, on hold messages
4. Take screen shots of all of your website pages, social media accounts, blog – your complete online presence
5. Stick your collection on a big cardboard sheet (or a few if necessary) and put them up on the wall
6. Now stand back and look, look and then look again
Does everything look like it belongs together? Have you used the same colours or at least the same colour palette?
Does it all look like it comes from the same company?
Is the message you want to communicate to your clients and potential clients consistent throughout everything?
What makes you different from your competitors down the road?
Is your ‘brand’ unique? Is your message unique?
Are you proud of everything in front of you?
Is it the best it can be?
Is it a true indication of the quality of veterinary care you provide to your patients and clients?
What do your clients see?
Remember your clients generally can’t judge the quality of your veterinary expertise – they can only judge you on all of the external ‘branding’ that they can see.
If the answer is “No” then it’s time to do something about it.
If you think you need help tidying a few of your marketing materials or you think it’s time for a complete re-brand, unless you have knowledge and experience in graphic design or marketing I’d strongly suggest you seek expert advice. It may cost more than doing it yourself but you’ll end up saving in the long run in time and frustration AND you’ll end up with a great looking product. You can check out Veterinary Branding – they’re expects in…well…veterinary branding!
What questions do you have about your veterinary branding? Ask them in the comments section below.
After a career in HR working in a range of service industries and teaching at TAFE for several years, I then (somewhat accidentally) found myself in the veterinary industry and here I’ve stayed because I love the people and what they do. I created the Vetanswers Community to provide the support, resources and solutions to help our members build happy, successful, profitable businesses and careers.
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