Branding Part 1: Building Your Veterinary Clinic Brand
Stumped trying to market your clinic? Tired of staring at a blank webpage trying to decide what articles to post or what to say on your Facebook page? Wondering how to use your online presence to distinguish yourself from the competition and drive clients to your clinic? Branding will be your answer to all these questions.
Chances are, vet school didn’t prepare you to answer questions like these. But it’s far from rocket science. You need to figure out how you want clients, colleagues, and staff to regard you and your practice. In other words, you need to build a brand.
What attributes and associations first come to clients’ minds – current and potential- when they think of your clinic, your staff, and you? These are the essence of your brand. Left to chance, others will define your branding for you–positive, negative, or meh–on social media, e-commerce site reviews, and word of mouth. But brands can and should be carefully cultivated and consciously shaped.
To do that, begin with your USP-your Unique Selling Proposition. The USP is simply what distinguishes you from your competition. What does your clinic offer that others can’t, don’t, or won’t? Do you want your clinic to be known for your staff’s special skills or the care and respect with which patients and clients are treated or fair fees or cutting-edge medicine? It takes time and thought to determine your USP. But once you do, you will have a nucleus around which you can build a brand.
Start with your assets. What resources, human and physical, does your clinic offer? What services can you provide or potentially provide? Note that USPs can, in fact, incorporate aspirational elements.
For example, if your community lacks 24-hour emergency vet services or care by a dental specialist, then adding appropriate staff might support a USP of, say, the ‘Most Comprehensive Care For Your Pet.’
Of course, the best USPs take into account not only what you can offer, but what your clients want. That means understanding whom you serve. Who is your ideal client – your target market? Are any of their needs unserved or underserved?
Your competitive differentiator – your USP – need not be tangible. How you do what you do – the compassion you show to pets, your respect for clients’ time, your fees, and payment flexibility, even the cleanliness and decor of your waiting room can help position your clinic as the top choice for pets and their owners. That could be a high powered USP for a very low cost.
Once you have identified your USP, you need to get the word out online. Your clinic’s website is where you can build your branding by ensuring that all content supports your USP and the image you wish to project. But whatever that may be, there are some common features that you should consider including in your website.
Since many clients rely on the internet to learn more about their pets’ condition and treatment options, show your expertise by including original articles, blogs, and links to other sources of information. Become a trusted authority on pet health in your community.
And since increasingly pet products, Rx and OTC, are purchased online, consider adding an e-commerce pharmacy providing the convenience of home delivery to your site’s capabilities. These pharmacy and home delivery service options can be supported by client communications that improve medication compliance, grow practice revenues, and simplify inventory management – thus providing you one more way to distinguish yourself from the competition and continue driving business to your website and, ultimately, your front door.
Once you have clients coming through your front door and visiting your website, we need to retain them. The second part of this series about branding, “Building Your Veterinary Clinic Brand.” shows you how.
