Social Media Strategy for April 2014: Focus on Flea, Tick & Heartworm

For my veterinary practice, April has traditionally brought the biggest sales numbers for heartworm, flea & tick preventative products. Not only that, but April is National Heartworm Awareness Month.

With these facts in mind, we can set some specific social media goals:

1) Increase client education and awareness surrounding heartworm, flea & tick prevention.

2) Boost sales by getting more compliance on recommendations surrounding heartworm, flea & tick prevention.

These specific goals will work with our constant social media goal: Entertain, retain & obtain clients through communication, education & connection.

But it’s not all just about social media… Social media is just part of the equation when it comes to succeeding with these goals. To get the most benefit to your veterinary business, I highly suggest doing a few things in your practice at the start of April.

1) Have a staff meeting.

The owners, veterinarians, managers and staff need to be on the same page about which heartworm, flea and tick preventatives your practice recommends. So many new products have come on the market recently – Seresto, Sentinel Spectrum, Nexgard – and you want to make sure your message is clear. At my practice, we have a hierarchy of recommended products – from our favorite combinations to the ones we suggest to cash-strapped clients. We don’t carry every option, so we have an online pharmacy for pet owners looking for a product we don’t have in the office.

You want to make sure the whole staff both understands the products and the overall recommendations the practice believes in. There is nothing worse than a staff member feeling lost or uneducated in front of a client, so help them prepare! I know that “selling” isn’t really something many veterinary professionals like to do, but what you’re selling is protection.

I highly recommend watching this short video on selling and persuasion tips with your team:

Use the staff meeting to identify the team members who are going to help create the 2 blogs I suggest for April. Ideally, find someone who knows the product well – perhaps a front desk team member – and then someone who would be dealing directly with cases – maybe a vet tech.

Based on the numbers your practice is used to getting, you can also use this time to set goals for your heartworm, flea & tick product sales throughout April. If you really want this to succeed, I highly recommend doing a staff rewards program. Each member of the staff plays a role in ensuring pet owners leave the practice with the products they need to keep their pet healthy. If you meet your goals for April, reward everyone with a $20 gift card. (Double check with your CPA, but $20 is generally a safe, non-taxable amount to “gift.”)

2) Make pricing easy.

There are so many different rebates that go along with flea, tick and heartworm products. I suggest making charts that will display the savings to customers. Use the spreadsheets in Google Drive to do this. That way, if changes occur or rebates end, you’ll be able to change everything easily and keep the team on the same page.

This is important to do because, with certain products, your pricing can even be competitive with big box stores. A 6 pack of K9 Advantix II at my practice costs exactly what it does on Petco.com. That’s something I want to clearly communicate to staff and clients!

3) Stock up on swag.

When you tell your sales reps from Bayer, Merial, Elanco, etc that you’re focusing on using social media to boost your product sales, their ears should perk up. My reps consistently give me free product for giveaways on Facebook.

In a time where Facebook is really trying to get us businesses to spend more money on ads, you can “boost” your posts with giveaways. In a lot of cases, it can work almost as well as paying Facebook. Even better? It’s actually directly connected to your veterinary business. A good chunk of the posts I suggest your practice makes this month involve giving away product in return for comments and interaction. Get those freebies ready!

4) Promote outside of social.

Use posters in your practice to communicate that you’ll be doing product giveaways on social media this month. Additionally, you could send out an email to your list to let them know. No matter what you do, make sure the whole staff know what you’re up to with giveaways. That way, they’ll be able to chat up your social media too! I get asked a lot about tips to communicate with clients about social media. Trust me – “we’re giving away free stuff there” is a pretty good conversation starter.

With the basic structures in place, we can now talk about how this plays into your social media strategy for the month.

Blogs

I strongly believe that blogs provide substance behind social. They are a critical part of any social media strategy, as they are going to drive traffic to your website. This helps to establish you as a resource within your local community, plus can boost business. After all – I REALLY HOPE clients can book appointments & request refills on your hospital’s website.

I highly recommend watching the webinar Basics of Blogging before you get started.

I know that coming up with blog topics can be tricky, so I have two suggestions for the month. Remember: you want to focus on what a CLIENT would find useful/interesting. This isn’t a veterinary journal!

Facebook

Your social media calendar details several specific posts to make on Facebook throughout the month. In between these posts, I suggest peppering in 1-2 patient welcome posts per day. So although the calendar might not look like it, you are posting at least once a day on Facebook.

POST 1 – The Reminder: For the majority of practices – mine included – Facebook is your social media home page. Start the month of April off with a bang by reminding pet owners to give their pet’s month pet preventatives.