In the highly competitive veterinary service world, attracting modern and tech-savvy clients is challenging. Regardless of the current shortage of registered veterinarians and qualified workers, many veterinary practices struggle to fill their schedules with new patients.
Thankfully, there are many ways to attract new prospects to your veterinary clinic. To do this, you could learn the ropes and implement lead generation tactics on your own. Alternatively, you could collaborate with an agency specializing in digital healthcare marketing.
In this article, you’ll find out:
- How to attract more veterinary clients
- How much veterinary marketing costs
- Which digital marketing tactics work for veterinary clinics
- How a patient acquisition platform can help streamline your practice
How can veterinarians get more clients?
More than 65% of pet owners say they take better care of their pets than themselves. While this makes your target audience huge, finding and attracting it online requires a comprehensive marketing strategy.
1. Invest in Web Design
When pet owners need veterinary services, the internet is the first place many of them visit. If your veterinary practice doesn’t have a stellar website, the prospect may never get an opportunity to see it.
A high-quality website is the backbone of any digital marketing strategy. You need it to:
- Gain online visibility
- Implement SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts
- Improve your paid search marketing
- Educate clients
- Convert visitors into loyal clients
- Practice successful retention
Designing an excellent website can cost several thousand dollars. You would also need to pay a monthly website management fee. While the upfront amount may seem hefty, it’s a substantial investment in the success of your veterinary clinic.
The quality of your website is a major determinant of whether your marketing efforts will have a positive or negative ROI (Return on Investment).
2. Optimize for Search Engines
By making your website appealing to the search engines, you are bringing it closer to the first pages of search results. Moving just one step up the search results can increase your click-through rate (number of users who end up visiting your website) by over 30%.
Traditional SEO practices make your practice visible nationwide. Meanwhile, local SEO helps you attract local pet owners. Since 97% of users go online to find a local business, this marketing tactic can be highly effective.
Local SEO strategy includes:
- Claiming, managing, and optimizing Google Business Profile (Google uses this profile when ranking veterinary clinics in organic local search)
- Sourcing, managing, and implementing reviews
- Local link building
- Listing your clinic in local directories
- Ensuring NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency across all platforms and websites.
A dedicated SEO agency can charge anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000 per month.
3. Use Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating, using, and sharing content to attract, convert, and retain clients. A smart approach to content marketing can help you:
- Build brand awareness by putting high-quality content out there for potential clients to see.
- Improve SEO efforts by enriching content with the right keywords.
- Convert website visitors into clients while building credibility.
- Make it easy for your clients to become brand ambassadors by providing shareable content.
By leveraging high-quality content, you aren’t just improving your marketing strategy. You are increasing your chances of becoming one of the veterinary industry leaders.
A dedicated content marketing agency will charge between $800 and $2,000 for three pieces of content per month.
4. Add Real-Time Appointment Scheduling
Extended waiting time, overbooking, and burnout are three negative consequences of poor appointment scheduling tactics. Meanwhile, many visitors needing pet care are likelier to click a button to schedule an appointment than dial a phone number.
A real-time appointment scheduling option is a highly useful client conversion tool. Besides making it easy to visit your clinic, a real-time scheduling feature eliminates double booking and improves client satisfaction.
5. Leverage Social Media
Pet owners are avid social media users. They love posting photos of their pets and dogs while reading up on the latest grooming trends. Meanwhile, farm pet owners join communities and follow influencers.
A veterinary hospital can leverage social media marketing (SMM) tactics to find information about the target audience and attract it to their doorstep.
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have excellent paid marketing options that target particular audiences. You can make sure that your potential clients see your posts and ads in the right place and at the right time.
Over the past few years, organic SMM has been taking a serious dive. Fierce competition makes it nearly impossible to achieve the desired results with organic marketing only. That’s why veterinary hospitals can benefit from paid post-boosting tactics.
Pro tip: To promote your practice on Facebook, consider using Facebook dark posts.
6. Convert Visitors with 24/7 Managed Chat
When a potential client visits your website, they may have questions. Providing quick answers is the key to landing a conversion. Since many people are pressed for time, they are unlikely to start sifting through a FAQ section. That’s where a 24/7 managed chat comes in.
This option allows you to delegate answers and client intake to trained specialists available on your website round-the-clock.
Did you know that 40% of appointments are booked after business hours? A 24/7 managed chat makes sure that 40% of potential clients don’t slip through the cracks.
7. Incentivize Word-of-Mouth Referrals
Word-of-mouth marketing is a highly effective way to attract new clients. While many clients may be delighted with your services, only a few are likely to make an extra effort to bring new people to your clinic.
You could create a referral program to help your existing clients become brand ambassadors. For example, you can incentivize referrals by:
- Offering discounts
- Giving early access to new veterinary medicine content
- Creating a “client of the year” section on your website or social media
While you may need incentives to encourage word-of-mouth referrals at first, eventually, they will start coming organically.
8. Experiment with PPC Ads
When done professionally, paid advertising is a fast and effective way to attract and convert new clients. The common types of PPC ads for vet clinics are:
- Paid search ads: pay for pushing your website to the top part of the first search engine result page.
- Display ads: pay for displaying your ads on websites (apps, social media) that your potential clients visit.
The success of your PPC ad strategy depends on many factors including:
- Quality of your landing pages
- Effective keyword research
- The amount you are willing to spend
- The relevance of your content
To consistently generate veterinary leads from Google Ads, you would need to spend between $1,000 and $2,000 per month. The amount includes the ad manager’s fee. With the right approach, paid advertising can have an impressive 200% ROI.
9. Partner with Animal Groomers
Cross-promoting other businesses is a highly effective marketing tactic. For example, you can collaborate with the local animal groomers and cross-refer each other’s clients.
Since you are both working with the same audience without competing, it’s an excellent way to expand your reach without inflating your marketing budget.
Consolidate Vendors with a Patient Acquisition Platform
Hiring a web designer, SEO agency, social media marketing experts, content marketing agency, and ad manager can be costly. To streamline the process and save money, you can consider working with a comprehensive marketing agency that leverages a patient acquisition platform.
To see DoctorLogic’s platform in action, request a free demo.