Digital Marketing, Marketing Digital, News,
How to get more clients through your veterinary practice doors using digital marketing
Digital marketing is an extremely powerful tool for building your client base and ensuring a consistent number of pet owners visit your veterinary practice each week.
The benefits of digital marketing are numerous, particularly as it is a highly cost-effective strategy that can help you to increase your reach without blowing your budget. As each strategy will also provide you with access to detailed datasets and metrics, you will be able to measure and quantify the results of your efforts, which can help you to refine your approach in order to secure even more success.
So, let’s take a look at a few specific ways in which you can use a variety of digital marketing approaches to grow your client base and build a business that is an essential part of your local community.
1. Implement a consistent social media strategy
Consistently posting engaging, informative and meaningful content to your social media platforms will help you build a strong online community of people who are interested in your services.
When creating and implementing a social media strategy, it is important to select your target social media platforms based on the demographics of your ideal audience. After all, there won’t be much point in creating TikTok content if most of your target audience prefers using Instagram or Facebook.
It is also important to ensure that what you want to achieve from your social media strategy informs the types of content you are producing and sharing. So, if you want your social media platforms to help you welcome more clients through your practice doors, it will be important to showcase the specific services you provide, tell your audience more about your team, and communicate the types of experiences you want to provide to your clients every time they step foot inside your practice.
In addition to posting content to your own social media platforms, we recommend joining relevant local Facebook Groups where you can take part in conversations and share updates about your practice directly with an audience who may be looking for the services that you provide. If, for example, you are hosting a welcome day where local people can pop in to your practice to learn more about who you are and what you do, this is a perfect example of information you should be sharing on local groups in order to spread the word.
2. Leverage paid social media and PPC advertising
Pay-per-click or PPC advertising is a form of marketing that requires you to pay a small fee every time your advertisement is clicked on.
Search engine advertising is one of the most common forms of PPC and can help you to ensure your practice is visible on important search engine results pages (SERPs) as ads are displayed at the top of the page. PPC should never be viewed as an alternative to a traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy, however it can be used effectively to complement your other digital marketing efforts.
Social media platforms also support paid advertising and can be a great way to help you to build your audience. Both social media and search engine advertising are extremely customisable, with advanced settings that will allow you to ensure your ads are displayed to people in your target demographics and location.
For example, you could run PPC ads on search engines that are designed to appeal to local pet owners who are searching for a vet nearby, and you could also run ads on Meta that address some of the unique needs of pet owners in your local community.
3. Use PR techniques to share interesting information
Although you may naturally assume that most local information is now shared on social media platforms, don’t underestimate the reach of local newspapers and blogs. Although figures vary significantly by region, statistics from the first half of 2024 show that local daily newspapers typically have a circulation of between 5,000 and 22,000 [1], with paid subscriptions to digital editions remaining steady at an average of around 11,000.
This means that it may still be advantageous to use PR techniques to share interesting case studies or good news stories with newspapers in your local area. Not only can this help you to get the name of your practice out there to a local audience, but you might even be able to establish positive relationships with local journalists and create ongoing opportunities to promote your practice.
4. Gather testimonials
Data from the VHD/VetsDigital Pet Owner Comms Survey 2023/2024 illustrates that almost 50% of all pet owners will look at online reviews and testimonials before choosing a new veterinary practice. Encouraging happy clients to review your practice on review sites and social media can boost your credibility and give local pet owners the confidence to trust that you will provide a comprehensive, compassionate and positive service.
If you’re a veterinary practice in need of more clients, we can help. Simply get in touch with our friendly team to find out more.
