VMP 254: The One Secret That Makes Marketing Your Veterinary Practice Successful

Brandon (00:00:01) - Welcome to the Vendor Marketing podcast, where it's all about how to attract, engage and retain clients to your veterinary hospital using digital marketing. My name is Brandon Breshears. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about the biggest problem that I see veterinary hospitals face when it comes to marketing their practice. This is fundamental. And if you can get this one thing right, all of the marketing that you do, whether it's organic, whether it's paid, whether it's email, whether it's social, whatever it is, if you can get this right and it's so few do, you're going to be dramatically more successful. So this is really what marketing comes down to, and I think that it's going to be tremendously beneficial for you. So if you're doing any kind of marketing for your practice, I don't care if you're doing social media marketing, I don't care if you're doing making videos for YouTube, any marketing activity, this is going to have a huge impact on that. Before we begin, I want to mention a couple things and I have something that's kind of cool.

Brandon (00:00:57) - Don't fast forward here. I have something kind of cool and free for you here in just a second. So this week we are being sponsored by two websites by Brad Haven. We got used vet equipment and new vet equipment for over nine years now used vet equipment.com has been helping vets buy and sell used equipment. You can save money when you buy used equipment, everything from cages, kennels, pumps, X-ray equipment, lasers, ultrasounds, dental equipment, surgery equipment, lab equipment from ABB, Access, ideX and HESCO tables, tubs and sinks, vet trucks and vet boxes. What do you have to sell at used vet equipment? We bring the buyer and seller together. Also, if you're looking for new veterinary equipment with amazing warranties, check out new vet equipment where they show you the price up front. There's digital X-ray equipment, dental X-ray equipment, ultrasound equipment, led surgery, lighting, surgery, tables, autoclaves. When you go to new vet equipment, you'll clearly see the price on every item for sale.

Brandon (00:01:48) - And you'll also be able to check out the warranties that you can buy without regret. That new vet equipment, they show you the price and give you a great warranty. The next thing that I wanted to mention is if you go to veterinary marketing nerds, I'm testing out a new community here. So it's private community. I think at some point here in the near future I will be opening this up as a paid community. So if you want to try and check this out, go to a vendor marketing nerds comm before the there's going to be a price gate on there. I just want to make sure that people who are joining are going to be engaging and finding value here. So right now it's free. But I think in the future there will be a monthly fee associated with being in there. If you get in free now, it's going to be free forever. So head on over to vendor marketing. When you go there, it's going to be a sign in page, but it says New user, sign up, click that sign up link and you can sign up for free for a limited time.

Brandon (00:02:42) - So if you're listening to this in the far future, I'm sorry, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you get notified of things like this in the future. All right. Let's listen. Let's jump into today's episode, which we're going to be talking about. The biggest problem when it comes to veterinary marketing. And in my opinion, it is communicating value. Communicating value is everything in marketing. If you can empathize with people's problems, understand what their main concerns are and what issues they're facing, you're going to be able to communicate value in a way that is going to produce people that are clients that don't care as much about price. Every single practice I talk with, with a few exceptions, right, where there's like people that are doing low cost treatment service options as their target market, which is maybe 2 to 3% of the market. I don't know how many it is that's just off the top of my head. You know, if you talk to 100 practices, maybe 1 or 2 will be value based and value focused.

Brandon (00:03:45) - But the vast, overwhelming majority, everybody has it in their heads, which is totally okay, but everybody has it in their heads that we cannot discount. We cannot charge less for our services. We need to be premium, we need to offer premium. And I say that is awesome. I think that's fantastic. There's a few reasons why that's fantastic. Number one is if you charge more, you're able to pay more to acquire customers and the people who can pay more to acquire customers, at the end of the day, they're going to be able to win, especially if we enter into an economic downturn. So that's number one, right? Being premium. There's tons and tons of benefits. There's not any benefit to being a mid-tier priced person or like from a competitive standpoint, there's not even a benefit from being the second lowest priced person in town. So it's important that, number one, you understand where you are in terms of the market and market demand and things. But when it comes to communicating value, I think that it's incredibly, incredibly important to understand what are the things that people actually care about and then what makes us truly different, how are we overcoming those issues? And not only that, but how are we communicating that we overcome those issues because nobody is communicating how they overcome issues like.

Brandon (00:05:00) - Nobody is. I'm going to give you some examples here. They're going to make you think like, yeah, you're absolutely right. So this this episode is kind of being inspired by a video that I did on my YouTube channel, which I review a supplement company. And I actually got a couple messages from people who said, Hey, this supplement company is totally misleading in this ad, and I don't doubt that whatsoever. I wasn't in making that video. If you haven't checked it out, go to my YouTube veterinary marketing podcast. Check out that video that I posted. It's up and you can see the breakdown that I did. And I'm not endorsing the product at all. But what they did was they communicated so much value. They created an offer that made it difficult to say no, and especially for pet owners that they don't have a background in scientific stuff. Right? So just kind of what they can see, it is really effective. So if you can take that content that I broke down and apply it to different offers in your practice, you're going to be able to be way more successful.

Brandon (00:06:04) - But when it comes to value, there's really kind of only four levers that you have when it comes to value and how we communicate. That is how we're going to present it, how it's going to to show up. But number one, we have a what does the person get? What is the outcome and what is the dream outcome from this? And we need to, I think, be trying to differentiate ourselves from practices down the street so everybody says a healthy, happy life for your pet, right? That is the dream outcome. But if there's any more creative ways to say that, I think you should try to think outside of the box because everybody's that way. And then we have that dream outcome. We have the perceived likelihood of that outcome. Those are two things that anytime you're communicating value. That's really, really important. So what's going to happen if they come into your practice and then how likely is that going to happen and then the things that we have to use. To get that outcome are going to be time, effort and money, and that's essentially it.

Brandon (00:07:10) - So we have every transaction that you engage with with a brand or a company, whether you buy something or spend time watching something, anything that you're doing, you're hoping to get an outcome. There's going to be a perceived likelihood of achievement there. Then we have the time that's required, the money that's required and the effort that's required to get there. And so for thinking about this, we want to try to amplify that dream outcome. We want to try to amplify the perceived likelihood of achieving that outcome. And then we want to reduce the amount of time, the amount of money and the amount of effort that people perceive it takes to require that. Now, if something is a faster results, for example, let's say you had a therapy that took a senior pet and you gave it a shot of something and all of a sudden it was like a new puppy again. And all of its joints worked amazing and it was healthy and had a fantastic quality of life. If you had something where they come in and do that and it was some kind of magic magic pill, people would pay a lot for that because the dream outcome and the perceived likelihood for success success is so much that people are willing to give more money because it doesn't take a lot of time, it doesn't take a lot of effort.

Brandon (00:08:26) - And so as a result, it is more valuable to people. If you think about any type of result, if you have an outcome that can take place, the quicker and less work it takes to get that people are willing to pay more for those types of things. If I said to you, I have a way for you to put in $10 and I will give you ten ultimate dream clients, right? If it was immediate and it only cost $10 in ad spend to get it, you'd say, sign me up, I want this. Let's do it. So the less work that's required, the less time that's required, the more valuable things become. Also, if it takes time and effort, then the dream outcome and the likelihood of getting it has to be higher. So any way that you can, number one, really get detailed and I mean ultra detailed with how your clients are being affected, how your clients feel, the pain points that they feel and really describing and empathizing that with that, people are going to believe that you can then achieve that result.

Brandon (00:09:43) - So for example, if I said to you. You know, are you seeing a slowdown in your practice and you've been busy for the past three, four years, but now all of a sudden you're having holes in your schedule and you're trying to figure out what on earth can we do to fill these appointments? Because it really seems like it's starting to slow down and people are really starting to be worried about how much money they're spending. And so, you know, if I start describing a problem to the tee of what you're seeing, the pain points you're feeling, the uncertainty and describing all of those problems. And if I say I have a solution that helps you to fill your schedule and get your dream clients coming in the door, you're probably going to believe that. I understand because I understand the problem so well. And maybe I described your practice to a T that I'm going to have that solution because that's just how it is. If you go anything that you have, right, if you had an electrical problem in your practice or a plumbing problem and somebody described that problem.

Brandon (00:10:44) - Exactly. You just assume that that electrician or plumber knew how to fix the problem. It is the same thing with everything. So if you're able to describe the problem and empathize, people are going to believe that that perceived likelihood of achievement is high. And that is one way to increase value and communicate that value. So let's let's really break down this equation so that you can use it in your practice. And here's here's an example to when you look at your services page on your website. Most practices really have nothing that is unique, interesting, compelling whatsoever on their services pages. And I say most because there definitely are a few practices that are exceptions to this, but nearly everybody is the same. You could take your competitors practice service page copy and paste it and put it on yours and there's no difference. And so if you're not being communicated, if you're not communicating in a way that is giving the client a reason to understand why you should be a premium price product, you can't expect them to just pay you more money just because you tell them to.

Brandon (00:12:00) - And I think that you would expect the same thing. I mean, if if you went into a car dealership and somebody was charging as much for an accord as a Rolls Royce, you'd say, well, why is this more valuable? And because it's the price, you'd say, No, thanks, I'm going to go somewhere else. So same thing with your practice. If you're charging Rolls-Royce prices or you want to be charging high prices, you have to give people a legitimate reason to do that. And so if if you look at your site and this is a really quick test, go look at your services page, Go look at the about page, Go look at the mission statement on your practice. You can look at the opening paragraph that people read on your home page. If you could copy and paste that onto your competitors site, you're just in trouble because there's really no benefit that is tangible. Like we treat our pets like family. Great. Everybody that's in Vet Med is doing it because they love pets, generally speaking.

Brandon (00:12:56) - So it's nice that you communicate that, but that doesn't make you any different. You care. That's great. Everybody that I know in Vet Med and have engaged with, they care. They're fantastic people. They're really kind. They treat their employees well like people in general that are working in better medicine are great people. And it kind of comes with the territory. So to say that that's you cool, that's everybody else too. So you need to really, really think what is going to make me different? What is my unique selling proposition and how do I communicate that better? So number one, we need to really empathize with the dream outcome. So if we're talking about wellness, if we're talking about pain management, if we're talking about dental care, what is the outcome that's actually going to motivate people to take action? And you have to remember that people will typically engage with things that are fear of loss. So what are people afraid of losing? And if you think about, you know, human human behavior and not try to fight against it, everybody knows you should be working out more.

Brandon (00:14:06) - Everybody knows you should be eating better and more healthy. Everybody knows you should be drinking more water. Right. But nobody does. Very few people do, right? Most people are not in good shape. Most people don't spend the time that they they wish they could taking care of themselves. People aren't saving for retirement and all these things they know they should do, they don't do because it's not easy. Right. It takes a lot of time. And so just because somebody knows that they should do something doesn't mean that they will. So when we're framing desired outcomes, sometimes it is more effective to say, here's what you're going to avoid by doing this, especially with routine dental care, for example, people might say, Oh, I'm they're fine. We don't need to do anything. But if you can frame it in terms of if you don't do this when your dog turns eight, nine, ten, who knows? If you're not taking care of your pet's teeth, here's what the quality of life is going to look like.

Brandon (00:15:02) - And here's what what the problems that you're going to probably see are. Right. And so framing it in terms of you're going to avoid all of these things, that is a dream outcome, especially for preventative care, right? If I want my pet to be able to enjoy their life as a senior pet and not have to have teeth extracted and maybe jaws are broken and fractured or there's all kinds of complications that come from dental care in the future when they're old, right? And it's going to dramatically change their quality of life. Paint a picture for what that looks like and how they'll be avoiding that and giving their pet the best chance to avoid that. And then when you're talking about perceived likelihood of achievement, I think that things that you can do to really help people feel comfortable is making either giving testimonials, making claims that are specific, making guarantees that are specific. And I know that that's kind of like a weird thing to say in veterinary medicine, but if you can figure out ways to apply guarantees to the services that you offer, it makes people feel more comfortable and also makes them feel like they're going to have a higher chance that that you're going to confidently achieve that result.

Brandon (00:16:19) - So that's something that I think is is really, really valuable. Now, when it comes to the time required, time is really, really important for a few aspects, right? So people, especially if they have different services that they would like, time could be you're being able to be seen in a reasonable amount of time. So appointments that are convenient. You can also frame that in terms of the results that you want to be offering. So like if somebody goes in for a spay or neuter, if you're offering laparoscopic space, the time required for recovery is less because it's less invasive, right? So that's another version of the decreasing time that makes that procedure more valuable. And then finally, you have effort that's required. And so when it comes to your practice, are there things that you can do that makes it easier for the pet owners? Right. So maybe hours that are more convenient days of the week that are more convenient. If you're offering mobile services, we come to you so it's more convenient.

Brandon (00:17:27) - We have all of the diagnostics and diagnostic equipment that is here so you don't have to take them to a specialist, right? All of those kinds of things that help you to communicate that value better. So at the end of this, though, what you're really trying to do is just stand out and be different from the crowd because different is easy to identify. And it's also gives people a way to assign a value to things that is not just based on money. Because if you're not giving these elements here, the only way that your clients have to measure how valuable your services are is based on how much it costs. And so I have a client that does your space, and they're relatively expensive for the market. And people call in, they just ask for the price and then they hang up because it's higher than most places. If they don't understand these elements, they can't compare it against anything else. So if you're doing higher end surgeries, if you're doing dental procedures, if you're doing whatever kind of procedures you want to be offering in your practice, use these elements and you're going to be able to be far, far more effective.

Brandon (00:18:41) - So let's just review them really quick. Value is the dream outcome and the perceived likelihood of achieving that. And the cost there is the time that it takes to achieve that result, the time it takes to get that result, and then the effort that's required to get that result to you. So we want to increase the the value when it comes to dream outcome and the perceived likelihood of achievement. We want to decrease the time that's required and the efforts that's required. And then I would say to if you can apply your own values on top of that. Right. And the philosophy of medicine that you're trying to practice and really give people an understanding for why you're doing things, not just the what you're doing, but why are we doing these types of things? Why is this important? You're going to be attracting people to your practice that believe those same things and value those same things that you do. So give people. More about the the why and not just the what. And you're going to be able to really differentiate yourself.

Brandon (00:19:43) - And I think that's what it comes down to, because ultimately there's in my opinion, most markets have the capacity to get more clients to your practice, but you want to make sure that they're the right clients. So if you could fill up your practice and they were all perfect clients that you just loved working with, that would be much better than having clients that have. They don't believe the same things you do. They're there for different reasons. But because you didn't make that distinction of what you value, why it's valuable, you're not attracting those kinds of people to your your marketing. And that's why I said when this when you apply this, it really works towards everything, whether it's email marketing, text message marketing, social marketing, paid ads, all of that. If you can get this down, that's really, really valuable. And so I think this really just lends itself to say when I talk to practices and I say, well, what's different about your practice? If you say things that you could find on your competitor's website, it's not what's what's different about you, it's what maybe you'd like to think is different.

Brandon (00:20:45) - But I think spend some time on the competitor's websites and see what they're saying to how they're communicating their value. And you're probably honestly very similar in terms of the language and messaging that you're doing because a lot of people just kind of copy each other and say, well, here's kind of what everybody's doing. I'm going to pick something that's kind of in the middle and go from there, which in my opinion, is not a good model because most practices are not wildly profitable. Right? Or wildly successful. If the average practice owner is not, you know, raking in tons of of dream clients, you know, everybody kind of has the same problems. And in order to escape from those problems, you're going to have to think different and do things that are different in your practice. And listen, I hope that this makes sense. Again, if you need help with anything, please don't hesitate to reach out. Head on over to vendor marketing nerds. Sign up for the free community that is just launching now and let me know what you think about it too in there.

Brandon (00:21:44) - I'd love to hear what you think. If you have any questions, comments, you need help with anything, please don't hesitate to reach out. I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you on the next episode. Bye, everybody.

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