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As a marketeer it’s very easy for me to tell you that when it comes to marketing your clinic, creating a strategic plan is key. The truth, however, is that without the right tools and knowledge all marketing can feel like you’re simply gazing into an abyss. And that’s where the biggest frustration lies for so many vet team members. It’s tackling the proverbial monster; the impossible struggle to juggle the layering of digital marketing tasks and the navigation of social media nuances on top of all their clinical duties. But fear not, even if the mere sound of the word ‘marketing’ sends you green, here’s 5 simple tips for marketing your veterinary clinic.
Get Good at Social Media Management
It sounds obvious, as most clinics these days have social media, but the plain truth is there’s a huge discrepancy between having it because you’ve been told you should and having the knowledge about exactly why you should. So, let’s waft away the smoke and mirrors and break it down.
In its most basic form social media allows you to free up phone lines by housing key, everyday information such as opening times and address details in an easily accessed and searchable space. It also allows you to engage with your clients away from the hustle and bustle of the clinic, establishing and elevating relationships and loyalty in a way that’s just too difficult to prioritise during check-ups and check ins. But beyond this you can use social media to set the rhythm and pace of footfall within your practice by educating your audience on the everyday care and seasonal needs of pets. This in return will not only afford you the space to add that extra layer of care and service but also means you can drive product sales and take charge of when you want to orchestrate an uplift in bookings. It’s why increasing reach and following goes far beyond vanity and high school style bravado. In fact, the resources that platforms like Facebook have to offer are so tailorable that using their free insight tools (properly), can even help you target existing and potential clients within your local area. It’s why regular audits and a holistic approach to managing your social media pages is number 1 on my tips list. You don’t just want to look at engagement, or your ‘About Us’ section; you need to be analysing your accounts as a whole and assess what is and isn’t working for you, to justify each investment of time and money you and your team make.
Master Organic Search Marketing
…Or find a woman who can! Online organic is the digital equivalent of word of mouth. Organic search marketing is a method of organically promoting – AKA Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – and can help you nurture those 3 essentials ‘R’s: Reviews, Referrals and Reputation; all vital elements needed to increase your ranking within Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The higher a website ranks in search engines, the more relevant it is in relation to questions/searches around that category. It is this key element that all great organic search marketing points towards as it is these rankings that equate to increased, relevant traffic to your website.
Unlike Pay Per Click (PPC) SEO is an organic internet marketing service that does not involve paying for your website to appear at the top of search engine pages. Not only is it a more financially viable way to drive the authority of your website, but it is also far more powerful long term than PPC. But how’s it done? My advice when marketing your veterinary clinic would be to take the same strategy whether you’re navigating things from scratch and alone or as an established team tackling SEO together, by continuously focusing on the following:
1) Key word copy
Whether you are writing product descriptions, blog posts or generic blurb for areas such as your home page; including keywords in your copy will increase its chances of coming up in searches which relate to the topics your copy covers.
2) Backlinks
Refers to links from other sites pointing towards your site. The more sites you have linking to your own, the more authoritative your site is considered by SERPs.
3) Crawlability
Crawlability describes how efficiently a search engine can crawl content on a web page. The less crawlability issues your site has, the more easily web crawlers can access your content by effortlessly following links between pages. Making sure you have strong inbound and outbound links on each piece of content you create, working on your Domain Authority (DA) and maintaining the speed and health of your site will all increase your crawlability.
Never Stop Learning
Tip 3: Knowledge is Power! …which is why subscription tools and industry specific learning hubs such as Vetti have a key role to play in empowering clinics. Offering hacks and learning resources designed specifically for veterinary PR and marketing, Vetti facilitates an easier and more efficient way to learn and power up. Sign up to the all-new, members-only learning hub with exclusive courses, guides, and free downloadable resources. Learn time-saving veterinary marketing tips for growing your clinic and take an end of module quiz (at your own pace and in your own time) to gain certificates of achievement for a proven record of knowledge in each of the topics you study, from social media management to SEO and best PR practices. You’ll be marketing your clinic from the palm of your hand in no time.
Have a Strategy
It may sound daunting but figuring out the ‘why’ will help to define and direct what you are doing. Once you’ve determined why you need to market your business, mapping out content, defining key words and scheduling those regular audits will all become a lot easier to do.
Know when to ask for help
Outsourcing is inevitable, whether that is to budget for tools such as scheduling systems or enrolling in the services of an agency with a strong digital marketing team. At some point you’re going to need to ask for help. Tackling the PR, communications and digital marketing needs of a clinic takes up a whole lot of mental real estate. Outsourcing isn’t a sign of weakness or inability and quite often is the most time-efficient action you can make to increase the rate in which your marketing activities give your clinic a return on the investments you make.
Writer’s bio:
Vetti’s Course Coordinator and Companion Consultancy’s Head of Digital Marketing, Naomi Oikonomou joined the specialist veterinary PR, digital and marketing agency mid-2021. naomi@companionconsultancy.com