If you work in a veterinary practice or in the pet industry or in a business that supplies goods or services to the industry and you have something to say - why not become a 'Guest Blogger'?
For more information click here to read our: Guidelines for Guest Bloggers
There’s an old saying that goes something like this;
Q: How do you eat a whale?
A: In many small bites!
In retrospect, this is not the best adage for veterinarians, but we highly doubt many of you are treating whales on the regular! But the saying stands, especially when applied to the marketing of your veterinary clinic.
The thought of marketing your clinic or drafting regular communications to your clients seems like a mammoth task. And, of course, vets are some of the busiest professionals we know. So, it becomes habitual to do nothing because it feels like an all-or-nothing proposition. You can either throw all your resources and energy at marketing and become exhausted, or you can save yourself some headaches and do nothing, but reap none of the benefits for your business.
But honestly, it doesn’t have to be that way. If you want to start improving your marketing and communications, there are many simple ways to enhance what you’re already doing – and they won’t take up much of your time.
A best practice way to do this is to include your clinic booking link or a phone number in your website’s header. Your phone number should be clickable – this not only makes it easier for users on their phone to contact you (over 60% of website traffic comes from mobiles), but it allows Google to recognise you as a reputable site and helps in getting your website to appear higher when people are searching for a vet. Making a phone number clickable can be as simple as adding tel: in the website code before the phone number. It’s also a good idea to put this in the footer of your website should people browse your site before deciding to call you.
You may not want to give airtime to people who have left you a cruel review, but engaging with them and encouraging them to contact you via email or phone to resolve their issue will go a long way toward showing the professional nature of your clinic and may help them calm down.
Asking clients for new reviews is also crucial, as good reviews will help boost your ranking on Google and will appear when users search for your practice. One way to make it easy for your clients to leave a Google review is to provide a QR Code in your clinic, which is simple to do by following these steps:
Introducing your team on social media or via your newsletter helps to recognise your brilliant team. It also creates a relationship where clients can trust you more once they learn about your team and what skills they bring. It also has the bonus of providing extra content for your social or email schedule when it feels hard to fill in gaps.
These are, of course, very simple methods, and there is certainly a lot more to the marketing pie! But they are easy ways to get you started on breaking that whale up into bite-size pieces.
And if you decide to invest more resources in your marketing…
PetPack can help with websites, Google, Facebook, newsletters, and more. Just ask us!
Dr James Ramsden is a vet with over 15 years of mass media and online marketing experience. James founded Petpack - Australasia's only digital marketing agency run by vets, for vets, after recognising the need for effective and regular communication to pet owners to increase animal health outcomes. James, and the Petpack team of both marketing and veterinary experts, use digital marketing to help vet clinics in two main ways: 1) Growth - using websites, Google Ads and other professional tools for clinics that are just starting out or simply want to grow or enhance their practice traffic, and; 2) Bringing pet owners back - using regular, vet-curated content to educate pet owners and keep them returning regularly, rather than waiting for the next emergency. James and the team (including veteran office dogs Poppy and Griff) are always happy to have an informal chat about how they can help your vet clinic thrive.
Connect with Dr James:
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