4 Tips for Veterinary Practice Growth This Year

If you’re looking to add to your client roster — and what practice isn’t — then now is an opportune time to create a detailed marketing strategy that can place your practice on the path to growth and success. Check out these four tips to help you increase referrals, gain new clients and boost client retention this year.

Tip #1:

Understand the need for a digital marketing strategy.

The initial step in developing an effective marketing plan is to understand why you need one in the first place. Any lack of clarity on your objectives will mean you’re shooting in the dark, potentially wasting time and money if your arrow doesn’t hit its target.

Your marketing initiatives should be based on goals that dovetail with the larger growth and profitability objectives of your practice. So, ensure that you analyze and determine the broad objectives of your practice before devising a digital marketing strategy. Ask yourself whether your marketing goals center on the following:

• Increasing practice awareness
• Building relationships with clients
• Increasing website visits
• Enhancing your client base
• Establishing industry leadership
• Providing better service

Tip #2: Create a marketing plan.

Frequently, veterinary practice owners view their digital marketing initiatives as independent events. They create a website, post on social media accounts, send newsletters, register for business listings and then that’s the end of it. But thinking of your digital marketing activities as independent of your overall practice marketing disrupts the creation of a cohesive marketing plan.

Rather, think of all your digital marketing initiatives as a part of a comprehensive practice promotion plan (or a marketing machine). The proper functioning of all parts is essential for the operation of a machine in its entirety. The same holds true for a marketing plan. Even if a specific part is not critical to the overall working of a machine, it certainly operates better when all parts are performing optimally.

As you develop your marketing plan, be sure to establish how your marketing initiatives will work as a whole to achieve your objectives. For instance:

• Will your social media posts increase your website visits?
• Will your landing pages manage to prove “sticky” and convert to leads?
• Will your email marketing attract more clients?

Your marketing activities will be ineffective and disorganized without clarity on your goals, so be clear about why it is important to establish goals for your online marketing strategy. As a veterinary practitioner, you do not have the time or energy to expend on futile efforts.

Rather than establishing smart conventional goals, ensure that your goals are even smarter to really climb the ladder of success.

Similar to smart goals, your “smarter” goals should include a digital marketing plan that is:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

and:

• Evaluated
• Revised

These two extra elements are vital to regularly assessing your progress and will make success more likely as you review your methods and correct them where needed.

Be sure to keep goal setting in mind. A study by CoSchedule highlights that:

• Enterprises with a documented marketing strategy are 538 percent more likely to be successful than businesses without one.
• Businesses with established goals are 429 percent more likely to succeed than those without.
• Eighty-one percent of successful businesses achieve their predetermined objectives.

Tip #4: Get on social media.

Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have millions of members who are keenly interested in the world of pets. Pet owners seek out these social media outlets when they require help or information. If you want to be at a place where current and potential clients are highlighting their veterinary needs, then these websites must form a part of your overall marketing strategy.

Developing a cohesive online marketing plan may seem time-intensive and overwhelming today, but establishing a solid plan will ensure significant returns for the long-term future of your practice.

Naren Arulrajah is president and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, a complete internet marketing company that focuses on SEO, social media, marketing education and the online reputations of veterinarians/practice owners. With a team of 180+ full-time marketers, ekwa.com helps practice owners who know where they want to go, get there by dominating their market and growing their business significantly year after year. If you have questions about marketing your practice online, call 855-598-3320 to speak one-on-one with Naren.