New Vet Needs Creative Marketing Ideas

Q: Hi, I am a pharmaceutical rep for Veterinary Clinics. I met with a Vet who just opened a clinic and is struggling with advertising and marketing for the practice. I graduated with a Marketing degree and told her I would help (at no charge) get some ideas together on how she could advertise on a limited budget. She has an ad in the yellow pages, but so does EVERY other Vet. Do you have any advise or ideas?

Based on what you’ve told me I have a few more questions, and a few suggestions to get started.

A: My first question is that with 2 other vets within close proximity, is there room in the market for your client? Are there needs going un-served by the other two clinics? The answer to this question matters in so much as if there’s room in the market, then we are targeting people with no vet, if there’s not then the target is people that are currently being served by one of the other clinics as well as any new un-served population.

Has she done a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) She should do this analysis on herself and her competition this will allow her to identify marketable qualities about her practice that differentiate hers from he competition

My next question is what kind of results if any is she getting from the Yellow Pages? If she’s bringing in enough new clients from the ad in the yellow pages to offset the cost of it then keep doing it. Does your vet offer Emergency Overnight Services? The Yellow Pages sales people frequently say that it’s the medium of choice closest to the sale. That sounds good, but what it means is that it’s THE LAST place people look before making a buying decision. In other words, when consumers have had no other influence on where to buy, If they’ve not been received by any other advertising, and they’ve not been influenced by Word of Mouth recommendations from friends or Family they will use the yellow pages to fulfill their requirement. The reason I ask about the emergency services is because in an emergency situation time is of the essence and people adopt an “any port in a storm” mentality. Searching the yellow pages for a 24 hour vet for a dog you just ran over is more efficient use of the limited time.

Using my own experience as a pet owner I can tell you that there are two main criteria I used for selecting my vet. Convenience and Quality of Care. I listed convenience first because this is where the search begins. Quality of care is obviously important, but I’m going to start with the ones that are close by. If the closest location doesn’t get the job done for me I’ll look to the next closest and evaluate their quality. So when we’re looking at advertising/marketing options I’d suggest looking at dominating your local trading area, Firstly the households within a 5 min drive radius of her location and then expand into a 10 min drive.

A few strategies: Instead of running a small ad in the big regional yellow pages, run a slightly bigger ad in the smaller “town” edition if there is one.

Direct mail postcards to every household within 5-10 minute driving distance introducing the clinic. Use postcards because they don’t have to be “opened”. The percentage of people the open a piece of direct mail is pretty low so eliminate that step with a post card.

In addition to any purely advertising selections we make I am going to suggest this Vet engage in Guerilla Marketing. Buy and read Guerrilla Marketing it will give you some great ideas. One like minded Idea is to partner with the local SPCA and provided “Discount Vouchers” for Spaying/Neutering. They usually will require that the animal be spayed or neutered before someone can adopt/rescue a pet. This is the prime time to get those new pet owners through the door. Even if you only break even on the procedure. it’s likely that the new “parents” will continue to bring their pets to you for regular services as well.

Tie in the SPCA and the direct mail together with an event. Maybe have quarterly adoption days. Some SPCA Chapters have mobile adoption vehicles. Open your parking lot/building to the SPCA as an adoption center for the day, and promote it with a direct mail postcard piece. What a great way to meet new pet owners and create a “warm fuzzy” within the community.

Good Luck