How can your practice use digital marketing to help improve the welfare of animals?
March 4, 2025
Veterinary professionals and pet owners have many things in common, including a deep desire to ensure that the welfare of their animals is always a top priority.
Now, as digital marketing is a valuable tool that your practice can use to connect directly with your audience, it provides you with the opportunity to help improve the welfare of animals in your local community and beyond. Let’s look at a few ways you can achieve this.
Social media platforms support text, images and video content, so it presents you with the chance to experiment and connect with different segments of your audience.
So, for example, you could create a carousel of still images to be shared on your Instagram page which explain several reasons why maintaining a regular flea and worming routine is important for cat owners. And you could also create a series of short videos for your Facebook page which explain the signs and symptoms of common health issues experienced by different breeds of dog.
When it comes to capturing the attention of your audience on social media, brevity is key. So, while you may not be able to go into a great deal of depth on a particular comment on your Instagram or Facebook page, these social networks do provide countless opportunities to increase your reach and really get your key messages out to a wide audience.
We also recommend sharing a variety of content, as this will help you to ensure your socials don’t start to feel too repetitive. There are a number of ways to achieve this, including creating seasonal content, directly addressing some of the questions you are asked most commonly, and looking to the news for topical inspiration that will ensure your online presence remains relevant.
- Blogs
While social media is great for sharing bitesize pieces of information, your blog is an ideal place to go into more detail on particular topics you know your audience will be interested in learning more about. In fact, you can even create a blog post to support a social media post and drive content to your website by including a link for those who want some more detail.
But at a time when every veterinary practice has a blog, what can you do to ensure that your online content stands out for the right reasons and actually contributes to the improved welfare and well-being of animals?
Firstly, it’s important to understand your audience, as this will help you to focus on the creation of content that will resonate with the right people. We also recommend engaging with your audience and ensuring that you aren’t using a tone that reads as though you intentionally want anyone to feel terrible about the things they are or aren’t doing for their pets.
Don’t forget, pet owners are turning to your practice for support and guidance specifically because they want to ensure they are doing the best they possibly can for their animals. So, try to focus on presenting valuable information in a way that communicates that your team is compassionate, approachable and understanding.
As well as promoting new products, services and special offers, a well-rounded email marketing strategy should also highlight the high value content you have been sharing on your website.
It is particularly important to use a data-driven strategy here, which will allow you to utilise user journeys and serve segments of your audience with content that is most relevant to them. For example, new customers who have recently registered their new puppy or kitten with your practice will gain a lot of value from receiving email marketing that presents them with information about things like training and vaccinations. Conversely, customers who own elderly pets may benefit from learning more about supplements that could support their pets’ joints.
There are many other ways you could choose to segment your audience in order to support certain pets with certain health conditions like diabetes or osteoarthritis, or to help pets who are on a weight loss journey. However, you could also create much broader segments, such as dog owners, cat owners and small animal owners, as this will allow you to share more generalised tips to improve animal welfare and wellbeing, perhaps surrounding bonding and enrichment ideas that will be rewarding for both pets and their owners.
- Advertise the benefits of your preventative health plan
As you know, preventative healthcare plans are designed to help pet owners to support the well-being of their pets whilst also spreading the costs associated with this essential care. We highly recommend using your digital platforms to highlight your preventative health plan, including setting out precisely what is included and the benefits both pet owners and their pets will experience.
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