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Find Out MoreIn a world of mindless social media scrolling, noisy influencers and millionaire 20-something YouTubers, it’s easy to get sucked into the myth that social media marketing is the most important tool for your veterinary practice.
However, in my 20+ years of marketing vet practices online, I can tell you that for both primary care and specialist vet practices, the best return by far comes from adding information and stories to your own vet clinic website.
In the article, I’ll explain.
We can unravel the reasons why the social media giants make it so ‘easy’ for you to put your content on their platforms by following the journey to the money.
The most obvious way they make money is through selling ads on the platforms.
First step. They get people to put great content on the platforms.
Second step. This content draws people to the platforms.
Third step. Once enough people are addicted to the platforms, it’s easy to sell billions of dollars of advertising to content producers keen to reach the scrolling masses.
Fourth step. Their other agenda is to collect big data. Creating big data requires massive numbers of visitors to come regularly so their behaviour can be monitored and tracked.
For the vast majority of our primary care and specialist vet clients, free search is responsible for the vast majority of the traffic to their websites (and the vast majority of new clients).
And we go full circle. Back to step one. The engine that drives the whole machine is content.
Photos, stories and videos.
In your case, stories and pictures of cases you have treated, information about pet health care and cute puppy photos.
So what’s the alternative?
Can you retain ownership of your content and keep it on a central hub that you own?
A hub that doesn’t have your competitors on it or include information that contradicts your good advice.
Could this content hub draw pet owners and colleagues to it, educate them and turn them into clients or referrers?
Absolutely. Yes.
Your vet clinic website has the potential to be this hub. You own it, and you own the content.
If you fill it with useful information, stories and great photos (and video), it will turn into a resource that your clients, potential clients and colleagues will visit regularly.
It will build trust in you and your practice, and it will grow your brand.
And very importantly, your content will stay there for as long as you leave it there – unlike a social media post, which disappears down your feed with the mindless scroll of a thumb.
You might be wondering how you get people to visit your vet website.
You’ll see from the diagram there are a few ways and we generally suggest you invest in them all.
Search is hugely powerful, especially in the veterinary industry, where pet owners turn to Google in the face of urgent need.
Google and the emerging AI search engines look for the best content online related to any given search.
‘Vet near me’ is obviously a huge one.
But no doubt you can also see that coming up in searches when people type ‘When should I get my puppy vaccinated?’, ‘What breed of cat is best for families?’ or ‘Do I really need to de-sex my dog?’ would be very valuable.
Especially since once you have invested in the content you come up over and over again for the same terms.
For the vast majority of our primary care and specialist vet clients, free search is responsible for the vast majority of the traffic to their websites (and the vast majority of new clients).
Social media still has a valuable place in veterinary marketing. If you put a new case study on your website you can then re-use that content to add a photo and a short snippet on social media and link back to your website to read the whole article.
That way you make social media work for you.
In the same way, newsletters sent out to your clients can contain excerpts of articles that pet owners and colleagues can read on your website.
Having an excellent veterinary website is also a powerful tool that supports word-of-mouth marketing.
The first thing any potential client will do when they hear about your vet practice is to check your website. Enough said.
Deb Croucher, BVSc CertVR, enjoyed 15 wonderful years as a vet practice owner. She traded her stethoscope for a laptop in 2008, founding Brilliant Digital, now one of Australia’s leading marketing agencies.
Deb remains at the helm of Brilliant Digital founding Specialist Vet Marketing to provide an exclusive service to fellow vets. Contact Deb or email [email protected].
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