{"id":11251,"date":"2021-12-01T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T00:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/todaysveterinarybusiness.com\/?p=11251"},"modified":"2022-06-15T17:48:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T17:48:14","slug":"how-to-streamline-your-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navc.sitepreview.app\/todaysveterinarybusiness.com\/how-to-streamline-your-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Streamline Your Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marketing is one of the last things that team members want to do when a veterinary practice is stretched thin. But remember that marketing allows you to provide clients with the information they need, facilitate online or asynchronous actions like booking an appointment or processing an online pharmacy request, and, best of all, reach a targeted audience. All that means fewer phone calls and calendars full of appointments you want and clients you treasure. You can\u2019t ignore marketing, but you can make it more efficient.<\/p>\n

Here are my top 10 tips for improving your clinic\u2019s marketing.<\/p>\n

1. Know Your Why<\/h3>\n

Why are you marketing to pet owners? If it\u2019s not to fill appointment slots, is it to bond the client and team? Promote your mobile app\u2019s telemedicine feature? Send clients to your online pharmacy? All those can relieve some of the pressure in your clinic. Whatever the answer, make sure the content and effort meet your goals.<\/p>\n

2. Use the Right Channels<\/h3>\n

You might be surprised to hear a social media lover like me recommend using fewer social channels, but here we are. Practices without a full-time social media employee can\u2019t possibly manage lots of channels well. Moreover, do you need all of them? Look at last quarter\u2019s analytics. What was the e-newsletter click-through rate? How many clients listed Instagram as their referral source? Did the Facebook ad generate appointments? If a marketing channel isn\u2019t delivering the results \u2014 again, return to your \u201cwhy\u201d \u2014 consider cutting it, at least temporarily. If you\u2019re on the fence, email a quick one-question survey to clients and find out how they\u2019d most like to interact.<\/p>\n

3. Schedule Time to Plan<\/h3>\n

You can\u2019t be strategic if you don\u2019t have time to sit down, think and map out a marketing strategy. Spend 30 minutes plotting one month\u2019s content.<\/p>\n

4. Schedule With Intention<\/h3>\n

A content calendar can help place your content strategically. Start by filling in any holidays, clinic closures or animal health awareness events. Next, look at your \u201cwhy\u201d and develop one post idea a week tied to your goals. Sprinkle in a team member spotlight and parasite prevention reminder, promote your convenience offerings, such as an online pharmacy, telemedicine service<\/a> or client portal, and finish by sharing a recent five-star review and linking to the site. Quickly, the month is nearly full of content. You\u2019ll have room for patient photos and candid, behind-the-scenes images as they occur, but your content is now meeting the goals of the practice and the needs of pet owners.<\/p>\n

5. Schedule Time to\u00a0Create and Deploy<\/h3>\n

Now that you have a plan in place, creating photo-rich posts takes time. Block off a few hours a month to assemble and schedule the content on your platforms.<\/p>\n

6. Use Marketing Tools<\/h3>\n

See the sidebar below.<\/p>\n

7. Don\u2019t Reinvent the Wheel<\/h3>\n

Save time by reusing and repurposing content. That \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d graphic worked last year and will do well this year. For any given post, an estimated 30% of your social followers will see it when it\u2019s not paid advertising. The odds that they\u2019ll remember it are slim. Repeat evergreen content, such as convenience offerings and services highlights, at least two or three times. While I\u2019ll always vote for original content, some older pieces are just better, particularly when your time and resources are limited. Also, check out social media toolkits from organizations such as the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association, Fear Free and the American Heartworm Society. Diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies whose products you use could provide usable content, too. Take advantage of their graphics, videos and online links, and be sure to put your spin on why what you\u2019re sharing matters to your audience.<\/p>\n

8. Outsource When Needed<\/h3>\n

We\u2019re veterinary professionals, not graphic geniuses. We do diagnostics, not video editing<\/a>. Capturing awesome content unique to your practice is essential and relatively easy when you carry a smartphone in your scrub pocket. But many times, transferring the content from the phone to a social media platform in a polished way is a significant roadblock. I will always advocate for a practice employee being the source of the material, but if you need someone else to edit a video, design a flier or publish a podcast, don\u2019t be afraid to outsource the work. Look for nearby freelance marketers, work with a veterinary marketing company, or even try online resources like Upwork to move a half-done marketing project to your done list.<\/p>\n

9. Use a Style Guide<\/h3>\n

Whether you\u2019re designing marketing material or working with an outside source, a brand style guide and assets will speed the process. When you use a consistent font, color scheme, logo and messaging, your decisions on the design, look and feel of marketing material are easy. Store all your commonly used digital assets in a cloud-based folder so that anyone on the marketing team has access from anywhere.<\/p>\n

10. Systematize\u00a0Your Workflow<\/h3>\n

Before my practice organized our patient photos, social media ideas<\/a> and articles, trying to find the content was a mess. We\u2019d scroll through smartphone camera rolls, search texts from one team member while hunting down an email from another, and then decipher sloppy notes from our last marketing meeting. We finally developed a process for:<\/p>\n