The Veterinary Marketing Podcast

Email is so important for your veterinary practice because it is a list that you actually own, and in this episode we'll be going over 3 major email marketing service providers and then some tips and tricks as to how you can build your email list faster. This is becoming increasingly important because social media, organic traffic and other sources of traffic and ways to connect with your clients can be changed based on the platform that you are using . When things like algorithm changes the ways clients can find and interact with your practice that could mean trouble! I know practices who have become increasingly frustrated with their inability to reach their clients on Facebook because their organic reach has dropped a ton in the past year. I think Facebook provides some pretty big insight into what the new normal will look like for social media platforms. When social media platforms begin to acquire users on a mass scale, in most cases that is what they are most interested in, building as many users as possible. Once these platforms mature however, they also begin to develop their ad platforms as well, and when this happens I think it will be inevitable for organic reach to drop pretty severely pretty quickly. Why is this all really important to a practice and their email list though? Well, when you own your list, and can communicate whenever you would like, then you have the ability to be in control. Not only will building a solid email list give you better control, but it also allows you to build marketing lists for sites like Linkedin and Facebook. This means that email could be a really consistent source of business for your veterinary practice and one of the first steps to building a healthy email list is figuring out how to build the list and which email service provider to use.

In this episode we talk all about Google Analytics for your veterinary practice. Everything from how to install it to what data you should be looking at, how often and how to look at it. Measuring your marketing is one of the most important  things you can do and I would go so far as to say that if you can’t measure your marketing you’re just guessing and that it probably. Without proper measurement, your marketing is just guessing, and not even educated guessing. The truth is, that most marketing results in failure (leasons) and because of this, when you end up with a winner, you'll want to know it! I’ll also be showing you how to automate this as much as possible so that you don’t have to think about it. One of the things Google Analytics does really well is it shows you if there are any serious problems or opportunities that you wouldn't have know about otherwise. You'll also be able to see if certain types of traffic are doing better than others, like mobile vs tablet vs desk top or if social media traffic converts better than SEO Traffic. I also talk about how automate Analytics report by email so that you don't have to spend time constantly logging in to check.

In this episode I interview Dr. Braden Collins, from Bunbury Veterinary Clinic in Western Australia about his social media and content marketing. I initially met Dr. Collins from the podcast, when I mentioned I was doing a Facebook case study to get new clients. Dr. Collins was kind enough to let me try some new client acquisition strategies and we've been keeping in touch ever since. Since I was able to run tests in his market I discovered a few things, first his target market on Facebook was around 30,000 people, which isn't that large of an area, and he is consistently reaching a large number of those people and has around 1,500 likes on his page. That is impressive, 5% of his market likes his page! Each post he gets out reaches between 5-10% of his market consistently with a small marketing budget as we discuss on this episode. We talk about everything from content creation, to contests at holidays to reaching out and get his stories covered by local news. Dr. Collins shares a bunch of really great and practical insights that will absolutely help you market your veterinary practice. Be sure to listen to this entire episode!

One of the most important questions you can ask yourself for your veterinary practice is, "What does my ideal client look like?". Finding common elements between your best clients can really help you to grow and build your practice. Most businesses don't have a way to track this, but almost every veterinary practice is building a database that is a goldmine inside their practice software. Don't overlook how important and powerful this can be for you. The data that you already have could translate into better demographic targeting on your facebook advertising to knowing where to send direct mail campaigns.

Your domain name is like the real estate that your website sits on and it is extremely important for both search engine traffic as well as type in traffic. In this episode I show you how to potentially find new domain names that you can use to forward passive traffic and generate steady streams of new potential clients. Not only that I go over if you should ever buy a domain name, what I think about extensions other than .com like .net .org .info .blog and on. Some people think that the .com isn't that imporant but I know that it absolutely is! You're missing out on traffic if you aren't using a .com. One thing I will say is that I can't comment on extensions in other countries like the .com.au. I haven't had enough first hand experience to comment. I have been getting questions about what do do if you are rebranding a practice, like in instances of practices being sold and then the name changed, so I go over that.

You've probably heard about Snapchat, and unless you're under 25 chances are you aren't using it, not yet anyways. As is with most mobile apps or social networks younger demographics tend to flock to places before they become mainstream. What I think sets Snapchat apart from other apps and social media platforms is that large sized companies like CNN, Discovery Channel, VICE, ESPN and others are all creating native content and paying lots of money to show up in the discover section. Dr. Cody Creelman is a beef cattle veterinarian and practice owner of  Veterinary Agri-Health Services in Alberta, Canada. His veterinary interests include bovine pathology, large animal surgery, cow/calf and feedlot production medicine. Cody is also very passionate about veterinary mobile technology. This includes consulting on veterinary application design projects, as well as digital marketing and social media platforms. Check him out on his website, Twitter, Instagram,  Snapchat (creelmancody), Vine, or YouTube…… he is active on them all! We go over Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter's new native video platform.

Want to make email easier, less annoying and a tool to help you grow your veterinary practice? In this episode I go over 3 email marketing tools that help you do just that. This episode we talk about ways to better engage and communicate with clients while taking less time to do it. Want to know how to schedule emails so that you can set it and forget it with personalized emails, or how about see what your clients are up to on their social media accounts without having to go into a new tab and search. I discuss all this and more so be sure to listen!

Amazon is a monster. You're probably frustrated if you've ever tried to sell anything to compete with Amazon, but they don't have to be competition. In this episode I go over three ways to use Amazon to help attract, engage and retain your clients. I'll show you how to self publish a book using Createspace.com, Amazon's self publishing platform, as well as Amazon Giveaways and lastly fulfillment by Amazon or their FBA program.

Search engine optimization is definitely an important way to generate traffic to your website, but it can seem like a mystery. In today's episode we talk SEO and copywriting with Pam Foster. The biggest bang for your buck with your veterinary  practice will be local seo, where you try and target people in your local area who are using search terms that are relevant to your practice. Pam Foster is Managing Editor, Community Content & Media for the NAVC  and is the Marketing Faculty Advisor on the CE website VetFolio.com . Pam is a Certified SEO Copywriter and the co-author of Wildly Profitable Marketing for the PetIndustry. She's also a regular columnist for Veterinary Advantage magazine. She specializes in helping veterinary practices and other industry organizations thrive through strategic marketing content, online and offline -- and can be reached at PetCopywriter.com.

Almost all large sized companies have apps, but if you don't have a huge marketing budget or don't know how to code a mobile app creating a mobile app for your veterinary practice has probably been out of your reach. Several listeners suggested that I interview Mary Shields at In Touch Mobile CEO and Founder of The Vet App. In this episode I go over many of the features that The Vet App offers and talk about cool ways to market your practice by creating a mobile app for your veterinary practice. The Vet App does tons of cool things, from interacting with your clients on social media to allowing you to do push notifications to drive clients who have downloaded your app. To find out more about the vet app visit www.PetVetApp.com This week's episode is sponsored by Danielle Lambert at SnoutSchool.com visit www.SnoutSchool.com/Brandon to get a free social media training course.