Low or No-Cost Marketing Strategies for your Vet Practice

Written By:
John Donato
September 28, 2021
Every vet practice needs more customers.It's rare to see a vet practice say, "Well, we have all the patients we need let's shut the door."As a business, getting more customers is a core goal. After all, customers keep the company alive.

Every vet practice needs more customers.

It's rare to see a vet practice say, "Well, we have all the patients we need let's shut the door."

As a business, getting more customers is a core goal. After all, customers keep the company alive.

But acquiring new customers is not easy. The industry is competitive, and people are starting to get a bit picky with where they take their beloved pets. As such, the price of marketing for vet practices can get pretty steep.

But all is not lost. While there's always the paid option available, there are a few low or no-cost marketing strategies you can use for your vet practice. If you don't have a big marketing budget, you can check out these options. While these marketing strategies might not promise excellent results, they can still help you reach your customers. So if you play your cards right, these strategies might help you get more clients.

Low or No Cost Marketing Strategies For Your Veterinary Practice

Social Media

Do this quick game. Try to remember some businesses that you encounter daily. About 3-5 should be enough. After finalizing your list, please go and check their social media accounts. Find them on Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok. Chances are, the ones with an active social media presence are the ones that have a consistent flow of traffic through their front door.

This is no coincidence. According to studies, about 54% of the population uses social media to research products and services. Of this number, 71% are more likely to buy a product based on what they see on social media.

This means that if you are not on social media, then you are missing out. Social media is not all about boosting posts and creating ads. A low or zero-cost approach to social media is to cultivate a presence - a unique one at that.

Introduce your employees, showcase patients with personalities, or give away simple tips on how to take care of pets. Content of these types is always a big hit to people who have pets. You don't have to sell your practice on social media. If people like your presence, they will go and seek you out. That's how much social media can influence people.

Email Marketing

Email is another marketing channel that most businesses, including vet practices, disregard. However, it is true that compared to the other options out there, it is pretty archaic.

Fortunately, there's a reason why email is still here to stay. People still use their emails daily, and it is a communication channel that is prevalent across age groups. Millennials are more likely to check their emails than other age groups. Do you know what else Millenials are known for? Pets.

If your vet practice is not collecting emails from your customers, you are wasting precious data you can use for low-cost marketing. By collecting emails and adding them to an email list, you can plan an email marketing campaign. A lot of email marketing services such as Mailchimp are easy to use and can come cheap.

Just don't forget that your emails should not always be promotional. Send reminders, information on specials, dates of clinic events, and tips on how they can take care of their pets, so your emails don't stay unopened.

Create a Referral Program

Word of mouth marketing is still one of the best ways to gain new customers. This is because we are hard-wired to rely on a trusted person's feedback of service to form a decision.

Creating a referral program gives people an incentive to spread the good word about your veterinary practice. A basic referral program will reward a person every time they send a friend of theirs your way. They can earn discounts, points, or cash they can spend on your clinic.

Create a Rewards Program

The best customers are always the ones you already have. So why not reward them for being loyal?

A rewards program is a simple way for you to "give back" to customers that support your business. A lot of mobile apps are available out there that can help you out.

Remember that you should learn to balance the value of the rewards and the difficulty of attaining them. You may provide grand prizes, but people are less likely to participate if they seem impossible to achieve.

Learn to Upsell

You have many clients who have had the chance to avail of your services but do you even upsell other services?

Upselling is suggesting additional services on top of what they are currently availing. For example, if you have a customer who goes in for quarterly checkups, you might want to suggest adding a routine dental exam in the mix. Your front desk staff can also share your latest promotions on products you sell upon checkout.

There are a ton of opportunities for you to upsell. You have to learn to know when.

Updating Your Website

A lot of vets assume that websites are a one-and-done kind of thing. As soon as you have it set up, then it's good for the next ten years.

And no, updating your website does not mean having to go through a pricey redesign. Minor updates on images, blogs, and other content on your site should be done. Posting information about a recent event should be a good start. After all, you wouldn't want your prospective customers to see that the last promotion you have on your site ended a year ago, right?

Finding the Right Marketing Partner for Your Vet Practice?

Are you struggling to get new customers for your veterinary practice? Running out of ideas? Why don't you work with a good marketing partner that will help you generate more leads for your vet practice?

Vterinary Marketing is a one-stop shop for all your vet practice online marketing needs. Our team specializes in helping veterinarians gather more leads through online marketing efforts. Give us a call today, and let's talk about how we can get more customers to go through your front door.

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