By Cheyanne Flerx and Janel Hutton

There are no major national holidays for the US in August. However, that doesn’t mean your clinic’s content has to take a holiday! August gives us an opportunity to educate clients on the importance of vaccines and why pets need them.

Check out our ideas on how to boost client education (and compliance) with vaccinations during National Immunization Awareness Month.

For the Clinic Blog:

Here are some ideas of titles for blog posts for your website.

• Vaccine 101 for (Your Town) Pet Owners
• Which Vaccines Does My Pet Really Need?
• Which Vaccines Does Your New Puppy or Kitten Really Need?
• Protecting Your Pets Against Common Viruses in (Your Town)

Video:

• Do a live Q&A to educate your audience and veterinary clients on one vaccine. Ask true or false or trivia questions to get the audience engaged. Then link to a blog post from your website to drive conversion.
• National Tell A Joke Day is August 16th! Take a video of your staff and veterinarians telling pet jokes. Host a contest on who told the best joke.
• National Dog Day is August 26th, so have fun with dogs in your clinic and show off their special tricks. Before National Dog Day, ask your clients if their dog has a special trick or talent while they are in for a wellness check. Then take a video of them performing their trick and put together all the videos together.

Facebook Ideas

• Post trivia questions about different diseases and include a CTA (call-to-action) prompting people to update their pet’s vaccines. Offer a small prize and run a mini-contest to encourage engagement.
• Universal Birthday for Shelter Dogs is August 1st. Host a fundraiser for your local shelter. This is a great opportunity to cross-promote with a shelter.
• Highlight when a dog gets their bordetella vaccination. This is a great time to remind clients to update their pet’s bordetella vaccine for boarding facilities and grooming.
• World Cat Day – Cat owners LOVE their cats! Ask followers to show off the “feline love of their life” by sharing pictures of their cats.
• Take Your Cat To The Vet Day – Perfect opportunity to highlight all the vaccinations kitties need in the form of an infographic or video slideshow.

• Get your canine owners engaged with a post on National Dog Day. Ask your audience to comment with a picture of their pups.

• National Senior Citizens’ Day is August 21st! Remind your clients of your senior discount with an interactive slide show and CTA to your appointment request page.

Instagram Ideas:

• Take a picture of a patient with back-to-school supplies. In the caption focus on preparing for back-to-school with updating their pet’s vaccines.
• When a new puppy or kitten comes in, dedicate a post about them getting their first set of vaccines and education on the importance of boostering vaccines.
• August 1st is Universal Birthday for Shelter Dogs. Throw a party and show your staff dressed in birthday hats or enjoying a birthday cake in honor of shelter dogs/rescued dogs. Great time to support your local shelter, by partnering up and running a small giveaway on Instagram.
• Check the Chip is August 15th. Focus your Instagram story on a patient getting a microchip or getting scanned. On a couple of story slides, share some facts about lost pets and how they increase the chances of pets returning home.
• Instagram Story Ideas – Each day, share a photo of a patient who had their vaccinations updated. Maybe even hold a fun frame around them or a sign next to them “I got my vaccinations today!”

Cheyanne’s Bonus Biscuit of the Month

If you are like me, you like to write your captions for your posts on your desktop. The downfall is you can’t always use emojis in your caption this way. Well, I have a tool that allows you to add emojis right from your computer! Introducing EmojiCopy! On EmojiCopy, you can search and select your desired emoji, then copy and paste it to your caption. EmojiCopy works for all social media platforms.

Janel’s Bonus Biscuit of the Month

Are your social media pages up to date? This is a great time to do some “spring cleaning!” Settings on social media, especially Facebook, because this past year there have been many changes to settings you can update. Start small with the little details and check your pages for:

● Check your address and see if the map shows the correct location of your clinic. This is how clients find where you are.
● Check your phone number.
● Check your hours.
● Check your website address.

Have you added on services like boarding or grooming? Is that in your business categories? When someone searches services on Google or Facebook, this is how they can find you.

Update your clinic’s description. Make an emotional connection with clients and show them why they should pick your clinic. Update your clinic’s story option on your Facebook Page often to stay in front of your audience. Pick a picture of your staff or a picture that represents your clinic, then write a description of the story/branding of your clinic.

Another way to help followers and clients find your page is to set a “username.” Find your username under the setting by clicking “About” on your Facebook Page and under “General” change your “username”. This will also give you your own Facebook page url.

Are you looking for more post ideas and resources to help you speed up your content creation? Cheyanne offers Canva templates and post ideas in her monthly membership, Vet Social Hub! 

About The Authors