Internal marketing is the first place to start
Delegates to the VPMA/SPVS Congress were treated to an excellent lecture by Bas Halow, a practice manager and management consultant from New York.
He opened the session by saying “Great marketing is getting people to see who you are and what you do,” and then went on to describe the five steps to marketing:
1. Identity
2. Goals
3. Planning
4. Tracking
5. Improving
It is important to know just who you are before you can progress any further in marketing your practice and to make sure that your staff also understand the practice mission and what the practice stands for. Once this is established, goals can be set and plans can be made on how to achieve them.
All important is the tracking of marketing efforts using such tools as KPIs and Google analytics. Without this tracking you are never going to know how successful the marketing has been and what you have actually achieved.
Finally there is always room for improvement so marketing strategies and activities should never stand still but be continually assessed and improved when necessary.
Bas went on to talk about the three important ways to market - internally, externally and online.
Internal marketing is the first place to start, your team must be on board and happy to comply with rules, standards and procedures. They need to be well trained in how to deal with telephone shoppers, gathering client information and operating reminder systems. Bas advised taking your team throughout the client journey so that they could appreciated the journey from a client's point of view.
One good way of marketing outside the practice is to reward referrals given by existing clients and to carry out surveys of clients who have just visited the practice. This can be achieved by asking questions which directly relate to the practice mission statement rather than asking specific questions which relate to procedures which the practice may not actually be able to do anything about.
Providing client seminars and forming partnerships with other animal related businesses and having excellent prominent signage were also recommended by Bas.
The internet is now a massive part of any business marketing policy and as well as making sure the practice has a useable up-to-date website, ideas such as educational videos put onto practice websites for clients to watch at home or in the practice and puppy and kitten packs in digital format can be embraced.
Bas also advocated nurses playing a much greater part in the promotion of practice products and services.
Two independent vets have launched a podcast to help owners strengthen their bond with pets. Dr Maggie Roberts and Dr Vanessa Howie, who have worked in both veterinary practice and major charities, are keen to use their experience to enable people to give pets a better life.
