The social media guide for vets

How vets communicate and advertise animal care to their clients is changing. For many veterinary practices, the main means of advertising has been business cards and posters pinned onto community billboards, or by handing out flyers. But in a digital age of social media and mobile technology, these methods of marketing have become outdated and largely defunct. Most people now walk past community billboards without a passing glance. Time to adapt?

The role of social media and online communication

There are many ways of advertising online. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are some of the most well known and easy to setup platforms available. These have become the go-to places when it comes to marketing your veterinary practice and spreading awareness. Although an occasional phone call may suffice for some clients, others may want to have a more interactive role in their animal’s health care. It’s an excellent way of building strong relationships with your clients.

1. SMS: Text messages are a great way of drawing a client’s attention. Once a text is received it’s opened within 3 minutes, in most cases. It’s an effective way of sending simple messages, reminders and links to your clients. Pet owners often receive a booklet from their veterinarian for storing healthcare history and appointments, but these often end up misplaced causing undue stress. Text message reminders are perfect for resolving this.  
2. Email: Great for sending links, personalised messages and attracting pet lovers on to your site. However, people have a tendency to brush over their emails unless they’re expecting it. This means you have make your emails as eye catching as possible.
3. Social media: Excellent for sharing news, articles, organising events and keeping pet lovers involved in their animal’s health care. It’s also great for spreading awareness of diseases, identifying symptoms, general maintenance tips, promotions, advertising new services. What’s great about social media is that it has the potential to combine SMS and email services, giving your clients alerts on their mobile devices as soon as you make a new post.

How vets benefit from online communications

Posters and business cards pinned onto community billboards are now overlooked and ignored. Flyers and pamphlets often make it into the bin as soon as a passerby receives them. You need to embrace online technology if your practice is going to get noticed.

Online advertising has vastly increased the reach of veterinarians. It has promoted the services and benefits of veterinary care more effectively building up many profitable practices. Animals are receiving ever more innovative healthcare and are much healthier as a result of better client relations. Even additional products and services like dietary food sell more widely among practices that advertised online. Social media and online communication tools are essential tools to growth and every vet should be making use of the opportunities available. 

If you need help with funding to move your practice forward in the way it needs, or even to source start-up finance for your veterinary practice, find out what options are available - ask one of our Veterinary Finance Team.