What makes pet owners choose one veterinary practice in preference to another? There can be many reasons, including the proximity of the clinic, the recommendation of a friend or relative, or the opening hours. However, good veterinary practice marketing on the part of one clinic may also play a part in the decision of the pet owner.
So what constitutes effective veterinary practice marketing? Can a veterinary practice be marketed in the same ways as any other business? In practice, there is no one size fits all marketing strategy. Successfully marketing any kind of business requires thought and careful planning and veterinary practice marketing is no exception to this rule. Before planning the veterinary practice marketing strategy, however, it is important to consider what the practice has to offer and whether it is reasonable to believe that existing and potential clients, in this case pet owners, would be interested. Keep in mind that it is often easier to retain a relationship with existing clients than it is to attract new ones, so it may be profitable to devote much of a veterinary practice marketing strategy simply to encouraging those pet owners who already visit the clinic to come in more often.
You can nurture an existing relationship with them by keeping pet owners informed with the latest news and updates about the practice. This could include, for example, introducing new members of staff, informing people of price changes and announcing any charitable activities that the clinic may be involved in or supporting. Keeping pet owners informed can be done easily with an email or paper newsletter. Existing clients are also a valuable source of feedback. One possibly illuminating research tactic for veterinary practice marketing may be to ask people who bring their pets to the practice what changes, if any, they would make to the way the practice is run. For example, they may suggest that longer or different opening hours would be more convenient for them. Their feedback could provide the practice with ways of both retaining old clients and attracting new ones.