The Veterinary Marketing Podcast

In today's episode, I go over 7 important questions to help make your marketing clearer. A common problem I often see in veterinary practices is that they will talk about their practice in a way that makes sense to them but really fails to show clients what the actual benefits of their practice are. These 7 questions will help you be able to convey what really sets you apart from other practices and what benefits your clients will be gaining by coming to your practice. The first question is What does your practice stand for? Another way to look at this question is what is your practice's mission? What does your practice stand against? What are some things your practice doesn't agree with? is it a fearful environment or overcrowding in kennel spaces? be sure to make it known in a beneficial way what negative attributes your practice does not have. What is your practice purpose? What is the main purpose of your practice and what are you trying to help your clients achieve with the care of their pets What is your unique selling proposition? What makes you unique and stand out from other practices around you? Who is your ideal target or client? Take a few of your favorite clients and make some new ideal clients for your practice using a client avatar and use those ideal clients as who you are writing to in your ads. What are their pain points? What are some of the struggles your clients face day to day with the care of their pets? What is the solution to their pain points? What solutions to your client's pain point do you offer in your veterinary practice? An important element to remember while answering these questions is to focus more on sharing the beneficial aspects that your clients will be able to experience coming into your practice. Be sure to listen and let me know if you have any questions, comments or need help with anything!

In today's in-betweenisode I cover why you should be using more than one type of traffic sources in your veterinary practice's marketing. You've heard the saying don't put all your eggs in one basket, well that's how you should approach using traffic sources. You want to be able to maximize your marketing by a mix of traffic sources. I share a story of why it's important to have more than one traffic source and why only using one could be detrimental to your marketing.

Are you using Google My Business for veterinary practice? Today I go over Google My Business for the first time on the podcast and share with you 4 awesome new features Google My Business offers that can help your veterinary practice grow. Google My Business is a great tool to use in your practice's marketing to get more clients through your doors and more clicks on your google ads! Google My Business works as a business listing that shows when you search by name your practice. It gives potential clients all the important information that they need about you like where you are located, what your hours are, and how they can reach you. The first new feature they have added is a Q&A section so now customers can ask questions about what type of services you provide or days you are open. Anyone can answer these questions so it's important to frequently check and manage the answers that are being given. Descriptions are back! Descriptions on Google My Business now lets you be able to tell your customers directly what they can expect to find at your practice such as services you provide, what makes you stand out from others, and if your an emergency vet or not. The next feature to consider using is their booking feature. This booking feature would allow your clients to schedule their appointment themselves. Now with this feature, you will need a scheduling software if you don't already have one. The last feature that I'm most excited for is Google post! Google Posts lets you share a product release, blog post, upcoming events, and announcements in post similar to facebook. another great part about Google post is that you are also able to create special offers! This feature will help with your google ad words with how much space you'll be able to utilize on google. Be sure to listen and let me know if you have any questions, comments or need help with anything!

In today's in-betweenisode I cover naming conventions and why they are so helpful for your veterinary practice's digital marketing. We cover naming conventions for when you create content or posts. Creating posts that have a consistent naming convention allows you to automatically build retargeting audiences that are segmented. The whole purpose of creating content is so that you can target specific segments and re-target those segments with offers. This strategy helps you identify segments and audiences who are interested in your content.

Is your marketing successful? A common problem I face when talking with other practices is that they often say marketing isn't working for them. But the truth is that they just are not measuring their metrics correctly. Today's episode I go over how to tell if your practices digital marketing is successful or not, and how to improve your marketing. Marketing works in three steps: Awareness, Evaluation, and Conversions. One of the biggest mistake people make often in marketing is that they don't focus enough on content. Content is what will help potential customers get to know you, become aware of your practice.Once you have their attention and they are aware of you they will become more inclined to continue to be engaged with your content and offers. After your potential clients are aware of you and what you offer the next step is to continue to target that audience so they can start the process to come into your practice, the evaluation stage where they are wanting to get more information to see why you are the best choice for them. Next step is conversion. Conversion takes place when the clients make the final step to buy your product or come in for an appointment, they are now a client of yours and have fully converted. Something that I believe helps anybody with digital marketing is planning and going into to every ad and campaign with a goal that they want to reach. Reaching your goals can look different for every campaign whether it be awareness, evaluation, or conversion intended its important to go into your campaigns knowing exactly what your goals are. Be sure to listen and let me know if you have any questions, comments or need help with anything!

In today's inbetweenisode we cover paid traffic for your veterinary practice and how to optimize your ads to get them to perform the best they can. So often when I'm working with veterinary practices whether they're using adwords express, Facebook ads or Instagram ads, one thing I consistent see them do is run automatic placements. Automatic placements is great for the ad networks because they give you more impressions and usually spend your money faster. Make sure you're managing your placements and don't fall into this trap!

Happy New Year! With the new year here we can expect some changes in the digital marketing world and 2019 is going to be a great year for marketing for your veterinary practice. I go over the 3 marketing trends that will help the growth of your veterinary practice this year. I also share some predictions of what could possibly happen this year with social media platforms and how that could affect your marketing. Digital marketing is changing faster than ever before, and if last year was any indication, 2019 is going to be CRAZY! I think that there will be a massive opportunity for veterinary practices who keep up to date with the changes that come out. Privacy issues and public perception will play a huge role in how Facebook and other tech giants handle their product updates, ad guidelines and user guidelines in general. For my predictions of what we can possibly see in 2019, I think we will see an increase in the usage of Instagram for ads. Instagram will become a very popular platform to not only use as a social media platform for your veterinary practice to help build a sense of community by engaging with your followers but as a platform to use to advertise your marketing to get new clients through yoacur doors. Expect Facebook to become more competitive as Instagram starts to become more of a place to show your ads. Facebook ads will also go up and expect to see some bigger brands popping up on your newsfeeds As we talked about a little last week, Email marketing will be another great tool for you to use for your practice. Email marketing is one way you can reach even more people to get to know your practice and become more engaged with your clients. Be sure to listen and let me know if you have any questions, comments or need help with anything!

2018 was a really crazy year for marketing! There was so much volatility, loss of engagement on platforms and crazy changes that took place. In total, I managed just over 240,000 in ad spend on Facebook and just of 260,000 in ad spend on AdWords, and quite a bit of that being veterinary practice's ad budget. I share some of the most important lessons that I learned and talk about what I think you should do to improve your veterinary practice's marketing in 2019 and beyond. 2018 started off with a huge shift in Facebook distribution for business pages on January 19th 2018 algorithm change. This change really set the stage for the whole year and reminded me how important it was to be a multi-channel marketer. Changes will only continue to come down the pipeline from our big ad network providers. Social media channels are becoming increasingly more crowded as more and more advertisers fight for the same set of eyeballs. If you don't have an email list, it is time to start! Email will continue to be one of the most effective marketing tools that you get to own and control. Be sure to listen and let me know if you have any questions, comments or need help with anything!

In today's mini episode of the veterinary marketing podcast, we cover setting up standard conversions on Facebook to increase conversions. Standard conversion events are really simple to use and you benefit from Facebook's algorithms to optimize your campaigns. Smart "machine learning algorithms are becoming more and more useful in digital marketing, and because of this, it is important to use the tools that help you get more out of your marketing.

Ads are difficult for a lot of veterinary practices, and it makes sense. Ad platforms can be confusing, and often when you're working in a practice, you're really close to the offers and content, so it can be hard to figure out the best ways to reach and target your clients or prospective clients. In today's episode, I cover some really simple and practical tools to help you with your paid ads. I cover how to see if they're working and what to do if they aren't. If you've ever run ads before, then more than likely you've had some results that weren't what you were hoping for. It happens to everyone who runs paid traffic to try and get new clients, but it doesn't mean that ads don't work. Ads can be just like when a patient comes into your practice, they can't tell you what's wrong, but you take a look at the symptoms and start to diagnose what it could be. I cover a framework to help you identify the problems you're experiencing and how to turn around ad campaigns that aren't working. To begin this process it is important to break down your end goals into macro and micro conversions. Macro conversions are the big goals you have, like getting people in the practice, while micro conversions are the small steps in between first seeing an ad and then coming in. The most common micro conversion problems that we talk about today are: Getting Impressions Getting clicks getting opt-ins Getting email opens generating clear calls to action, like booking appointments or getting calls If we can identify the micro conversions that aren't working, from there we can make small changes to improve campaign performance and turn the ads around. You don't have to scrap an entire campaign just because one piece isn't working. If you have any questions or need help with anything be sure to reach out!