While many products can be sold on impulse, veterinary services are sold as they're needed. To be effective at marketing, you need to find ways to get pet owners to think about your practice when they need help with their pets, whether they're looking for a new vet or are already established clients. Here are a few ways you can market your practice to better acquire and retain your clientele.

Know Your Customers

Not all pet owners are identical - and this factor strongly influences the veterinary advertisement campaigns you create. Based on where you are and who you serve, you might manage a standard brick-and-mortar practice or a mobile clinic to cover a broader area. You -may have a small animal practice, you may treat livestock, or your practice may specialize in exotic, avian, or equine services. Some clinics and hospitals provide preventative and emergency care, while others have the equipment for imaging and more invasive procedures.

So, from scheduling social media posts to ordering customizable products, take the following into account:

• Why will clients be requesting your services?
• Which services are the most requested?
• How many competing veterinary practices does your region have - and what are their business models?
• What support will clients need to stay on top of their animals' care?

The World Wide Web Can Be Local

Does the scope of the veterinary advertisement you're considering cover an area that includes people who are likely to be customers? Is there a way you can focus on pet owners? If it doesn't, you're likely wasting your money.

While opportunities for highly focused advertising in local media may be limited, your website, plus your social media presence, can rein in customers. Having pages that explain your services and highlight your staff does more than show possible customers why they should choose your clinic - it also helps them find your practice when they're looking for something specific for their pet, from tick protection to emergency care.

To create this connection, add your website to your business cards, appointment cards and other customizable products you hand out to customers. From here, they can get more in-depth information than you can fit on paper.

Connect to the Community

Marketing doesn't always have to be straight advertising. Being active in the community can help put your clinic in a positive light, whether that means helping with adoption events, hosting photo competitions in local papers, magazines and websites, or serving as a drop-off spot for donations to animal shelters.

Market Inside Your Clinic

First impressions start when clients enter your clinic. Doing what you can to make the waiting room comfortable for people and their pets can go a long way toward their overall attitude toward your practice. Do they feel welcome, and are they able to get their questions answered?

While they're there, you can use that space to promote services and events with brochures and fliers. When they leave, make sure they have some way to contact you in their hands. This can go beyond business cards, including items like tote bags, prescription bags for medicine, magnets to post on a refrigerator, and even colorful invoices.

In addition to the patient area, offer giveaways incorporating customizable products with your clinic's logo at your check out station. Hold contests through your social channels, or celebrate milestones with a related thank-you gift.

Focus on Current Clients

Retaining your current clients is far easier and less expensive than finding new ones. While some turnover is normal, making a concerted effort to keep your current clientele helps build a relationship that can lead to better word-of-mouth advertising and increased spending per visit on side items like toys, food and other pet care products.

Even if the client had a great experience, it may be months before they need your services again. Appointment reminder cards, birthday cards, branded bags and calendars can help you keep your clinic's contact information at hand when the client needs your services again.

Develop Partnerships

A client who needs a dog walker or groomer will also need more comprehensive care at some point. Considering how quickly word gets around your local pet community, establish or strengthen your relationships with other area businesses specializing in pets. Ask related businesses to display your flier or contact information in their physical location, and do the same for that business in your practice, either with direct recommendations or a community bulletin board.

Your clinic may also support their content and promote their businesses on your social channels to highlight their services to your audience.

Promote Other Services

Once you've established a relationship with a client, they're likely to turn to you first for services outside of regular medical care, such as grooming and boarding or similar services you may offer. Make sure they know you offer these services by listing them with your information, whether it's on a reminder card, business card or promotional item.

Order Veterinary Supplies Online to Start Improving Your Marketing Strategy Today

Positive Impressions can help you market to your clients through our range of standard and customizable veterinary products, from reminder cards to memorial products. Using these items will help you keep in contact with your customers and show that you care about their pets.