Finding out what pet owners want and working to give it to them is an essential part of marketing. Both internal and external marketing strategies can be used to attract new customers. External marketing typically entails some form of paid advertising, making it more expensive than internal marketing.
Components of a Successful Marketing Strategy
Each and every one of your veterinarian marketing plans have to have the following elements laid out in writing. Putting your plans down on paper helps you zero in on what has to be accomplished, makes it easier for everyone to understand and assess the plan, increases the likelihood that it will be carried out, and engages the whole team.
In this case, let's say you want to increase your number of dental cleanings. Because your staff is handling every facet of this marketing strategy, we can safely call it an internal strategy. However, the goals you choose for your hospital's marketing plan are irrelevant because the strategies shown here will get you there.
Objective
One must have a definite and quantifiable goal in mind when pursuing marketing. Not all goals can be quantified, and "performing more dental cleanings" is not one of them. Here, increasing cleaning by one each day is a quantifiable and doable target.
Intended listeners
Depending on your goals, your marketing messages will be aimed at either current or prospective customers. As such, it makes the most sense to focus on our current clientele whose pets are suffering from periodontal disease. A different external marketing strategy is required to target potential customers.
Competition
You should consider the other veterinary hospitals within a five- to ten-mile radius to be your primary competition. Dedicated clients of your business are reluctant to turn elsewhere, even if other practices in the area offer lower dental fees and it may seem like pet owners may "shop" for nearly any procedure or service.
Budget
An important consideration when choosing a marketing approach is the available funds or the cost of putting the plan into action. Budgeting a certain amount each year for marketing allows you to put that money to good use. Here, let's say you want to print 100 customer handouts but you only have $10. Remember that this total does not account for the money spent on paying employees to create and manage the programme.
The three pillars of success: planning, timing, and carrying out the plan
Your marketing strategy is your plan of action to bring about the desired results. To illustrate the importance of veterinary dental care, your practice manager and/or an associate veterinarian will draft a one-page handout like the one seen below. During routine wellness examinations, technicians will examine the oral health of each pet and provide owners with the handout based on their findings.
The duration of your strategy's implementation, as well as the specifics of who will be in charge of its implementation and how it will be carried out, are both aspects of the strategy's timing. In this case, the plan will kick in one week after the first aid payments are made. Technicians at the office may suggest scheduling future dental procedures during the preventative checkup. If a dental appointment is not scheduled within one week, a follow-up contact (phone, text, or email) will be made a second time three weeks later.
Over the course of three months, we will put our marketing strategy to the test. The timeframe is flexible for some strategies. If this method works and you meet or exceed your objective, for instance, you may decide to employ it indefinitely.
Quantifying efficiency and ROI
The practice manager will monitor the number of dental cleanings performed over the course of three months to determine if there has been an increase in demand for these services as a result of the advertising campaign.
The ROI, or financial gain, of an undertaking is calculated by taking the net return from that endeavor and dividing it by the initial investment.. The timeframe for calculating return on investment depends on the scope of your plan and how much work you're willing to put in. Return on investment should be tracked on a monthly basis in this situation.
The success of this marketing strategy may be easily evaluated by gauging how well it achieves the stated purpose. If you fail to accomplish something, examine whether or not it was a realistic objective. If the objective is worthwhile, you may need to adjust the budget or the approach, the timing, or the method of achieving the objective.
Even if you only increase bookings by one dental cleaning in the next three months (a clear failure given the stated target), you will still make an additional $390 ($400 for the one extra cleaning less the $10 for handout printing, again not considering staff time to create and administer the strategy). Despite the unfavorable response, the practice still turns a profit thanks to the low overhead of the new strategy.
Final Note
Develop a strategy to promote a service your clinic offers within the next week. Because marketing is a team activity that will most likely need more effort on the part of your personnel than on your own, discussing potential marketing activities with them is crucial. However, the quality of care provided to patients and customers can be improved and profits increased by focusing on their needs and developing a plan that takes advantage of the benefits.
