Why your vet practice is not growing and what to do about it

It’s a competitive world out there.

The days of simply doing the right thing for your patients and enjoying a full appointment book are well and truly over.

However good your service is, your vet clinic will not grow without the right branding and marketing.

Brand is not just a logo and website design. Your veterinary clinic’s brand is the overall perception of your business. It’s what people can find out about you by searching online and what people think and say about you.

Marketing, on the other hand, is the engine that builds awareness, keeps your practice top of mind, and consistently brings in ideal new clients.

And just to be clear, you need both – no point in marketing a poor brand and no point in having a great brand with no marketing.

If your brand and marketing are on point, you’ll regularly attract great new clients.

If they are not, you won’t.

In this article, we’ll take you through the steps to assessing your vet clinic’s brand and marketing so you can identify the issues and find growth solutions.

Let’s start with brand identity.

Pet owners have a choice – if you look and sound like everyone else, you’ll struggle to stand out from the competition.

Take an objective look at your website, socials, and Google profile.

Here are some questions that will help this diagnostic process:

• Does our practice have a distinctive and memorable brand name and logo?
• Do we use consistent brand colours, fonts, and imagery across all platforms?
• Do we clearly communicate our mission and values?
• Do we have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that sets us apart?
• Does all our messaging (website, social media, ads) clearly convey our expertise and approach?
• Do our team embody our brand and values in their interactions with clients?

Compare with your competitors and ask for opinions from pet owners who will give you honest feedback.

If you’ve answered no to a lot of these questions, or your brand feels generic, you’ll need help from a professional and experienced veterinary branding agency – your brand’s health is too important to risk with amateurs. 

When you’re growing a veterinary business, keeping existing clients engaged is just as important as attracting new ones.

Obviously, great customer service from your team is vital.

In addition to great pet and owner care, sending great educational material regularly to existing clients keeps your clinic top of mind.

When I was a vet in practice, we were one of the first to start emailing our newsletters to clients in the early 2000’s. It worked well then, and it still works well 20+ years later.

It’s also important to actively manage your online reputation.

What your clients are saying about you in Google reviews is super important and something you must be across.

Again, here are some diagnostic questions:

• In addition to reminders, do we send interesting newsletters full of useful educational material to our client base?
• Does our team provide excellent customer service always?
• Do our clients feel valued and appreciated?
• Do we get lots of new clients saying they have been recommended to us?
• Do we have a strategy to increase the number of positive online reviews we receive?
• Do we closely monitor online reviews?
• Do we respond professionally to both positive and negative reviews?

For more reading, here’s some information about veterinary content writing and newsletters