The Secret Marketing Tips Every Veterinary Practice Should Use in November

By Cheyanne Flerx and Janel Hutton

Now summer is over and everyone is settled into their new school routines, the practice may be feeling a little empty (we won’t say the “Q” word, don’t worry *wink*.) There is no need to panic! This is a great time to start preparing your clients for holiday travels and show off some holiday fun. Also, it’s a great time to highlight more of what your staff does and how the day to day is like in your clinic. Let your creativity flow! Here are some ideas to get the appointment schedule filled and keep clients engaged.

Title Ideas for the Vet Clinic Blog:

• 5 Things to Do Before Pet Owners Leave Town
• 7 Things Pets Should Never Eat in Fall
• The Pet Owner’s Survival Guide to Traveling
• My Pet Has Diabetes, Now What?
• Laser Therapy: A Therapeutic Treatment Your Pet’s Pain
• Senior Pet Care: How To Care For Your Aging Pet

Video:

• Idea #1: Help your clients understand which fall toxins and dangerous human foods pets should avoid. Take 5 items and have your staff go live to discuss the harm each of those items. Bonus points if you write a blog on the topic. You can easily use a live video to drive more traffic to your blog post by highlighting only a portion of those items on your list. Then at the end of the video, direct your clients to view the rest of the list on your blog.
• Idea #2: With November being Senior Pet Month, promote your laser therapy by recording a laser therapy session with a senior patient. Show the patient’s transformation before and after treatment and discuss how the laser benefits patients.
• Idea #3: Thanksgiving is coming up! Ask your staff what they are thankful for and put it in a video montage. Then as a call to action, ask your followers what they are thankful for.

Facebook Ideas

• Post idea #1: Publish a reminder to pet owners to begin preparing their pet’s holiday travel plans. Whether your clients are traveling with their pet, boarding, or leaving their companion with a sitter, help them prepare. Create a checklist on an infographic or slideshow and post it.
• Post idea #2: Highlight your boarding facilities and show clients the care patients receive during their stay and show how the staff interacts and cares for each patient. A great example of this comes from Healing Paws Veterinary Care and Pet Resort. This is a great time to include a call to action to book for boarding.
• Post idea #3: If your practice is privately owned, use Small Business Saturday as an opportunity to share your business’s story and about how your practice helps your local community.
• Post idea #4: Share fall safety tips! Post dangers such as human food, visitors to your home during the holidays, outdoor dangers such as mold, winter, and fall toxins, etc.

• Post idea #5: Ask your followers to share a photo of their pet enjoying their favorite fall activity.
• Post idea #6: Veterans Day is November 11th, you can post about a client who is a veteran with their pet or a canine veteran in the community. If your staff has family that is a veteran or a veteran themselves, create a post to give them recognition.

Instagram Ideas:

• Post idea #1: If your team or patients dress up in fall apparel, show it off with a post on Instagram. People love to see the holiday cheer!
• Post idea #2: Take a moment to tell a patient’s story. Tell how brave they were for their vaccine or how much a patient has improved while under the care of your team. Use this time to focus on how your team’s care has improved your patients’ life. Add a soft call to action to visit your team’s “about me” page.
• Post idea #3: Take your followers on a tour of parts of your hospital. If you have a clinic pet, take pictures of video of the hospital in their perspective. This is a great way to show off your building while giving your clinic pet time in the spotlight.
• Post idea #4: Post some quote graphics on thankfulness or quotes your staff on why they love to work at your practice. Here is an example of a quote graphic.

Cheyanne’s Bonus Biscuit of the Month

If you find your team in need of a morale boost after a chaotic summer, then it’s time to have some fun! The holiday season is a great time to have fun with your team and clients while partaking in classic holiday traditions. Here are some ideas on how your practice can celebrate in November:

• Jack-o-lantern contest: Gather your staff to carve and decorate pumpkins. Make it a harvest party with goodies and treats! Then display the staff’s jack-o-lanterns in the lobby and ask clients to vote for their favorite. Voting can happen by either submitting a written form in the hospital or posting on social media. Both the clients and staff love this interactive activity.
• Thankful for ____ Notes: At your next staff meeting ask your staff to write down things they are thankful that relate to their job. Then, post those thankful-quotes on decorative signs to display throughout the hospital. In the lobby, provide your clients with the opportunity to write down things they are thankful for by supplying writing utensils and copies of signs. Highlight your favorite quotes on social and spread gratitude online.

Janel’s Bonus Biscuit of the Month

If life in the clinic has slowed down a little bit, here is your reminder to update your website and social media’s information. Is your information on your website and social media pages current and accurate?

Here are a few things to check to make sure they are current.

Website:

• Staff Bios
       • Do you have new staff to add or old employees to remove on the website? Make sure you have current staff members represented on your website, cause, believe it or not, you have current and potential clients checking that page! They want to get to know you and who is taking care of their pets.
• Specials and Promotions
       • Do you have Pet Dental Health Month still up from last February!? It’s ok, we won’t judge you. But go through and make sure all specials and promotions are current and accurate.
  
• Product Coupons
       • If you post coupons for heartworm medication, parasite prevention, etc. on your website, make sure they are still valid. You don’t want a client trying to redeem an expired coupon at your clinic.
• Hours
       • Check your hours to see if they hold true.
• Services
       • Are you offering new services, but haven’t added them to the website? Updating this can bring in new clients when they are searching for veterinary services in their area and boost your SEO.
• Hospital Tour and Gallery
       • Do you have photos still up from the 1990s (we hope not) but if you do, UPDATE!! Even if you just want to freshen up your photos, hiring a professional photographer is a great investment that will add class to your website.

Social Media

• Check your hours
• Check the links on your website, do they work?
• Check your phone number
• Check your email contact
• Update your profile images if needed
• On Facebook, update your services provided

Having current website and social media info brings your followers closer to you as they feel you are relevant and reachable online. They want to connect with you so when they see that you are online and keeping everything updated, they feel like you want to connect with them.

REMINDER: Don’t forget to tell your clients about your Thanksgiving hours! Update your social media pages, website, and Google My Business information.

About The Authors