Below is part 5 of a multi-part series in what we will call multi-dimensional marketing, or otherwise stated, the process of looking at your overall approach to marketing through a variety of lenses. In doing so, we hope to showcase the overall concept of marketing, which is often undervalued as simply advertising.
It is Vetcelerator’s belief that marketing is more than branding and advertising; it is a philosophy to solve problems. It is creating, communicating, and capturing value. In this lens, managing phone calls is marketing as much as the name of your company.
The table of contents for what’s to come is as follows:
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- Lessons in Naming
- How do Brands Work?
- Online Reviews and Outcomes
- “Social Skills” and Cooperative Marketing
- Revisiting Competition and Purchase Consideration
In each section, we will break down definitions, conceptual and realistic strategies, and how these areas work alongside each other for a multi-dimensional interaction from the customer’s perspective.
Note from the Author
I once met the CEO / Founder of a company called Fiverr. At the time, Fiverr was a remarkably successful, publicly traded company, all based on a simple idea: Can we use the internet to connect people with jobs to be done with people who can do the job and take a fee for that intermediation? The answer was yes.
During our meeting, someone asked the CEO, Micha, what he thought about his competition as many other large platform networks like UpWork were competing for buying and selling services online. Sasha’s answer was so simple and beautiful, and it reflects a common problem in marketing.
He said, paraphrasing, “I don’t look at those companies as my competition. In fact, I try to pay no attention to them at all. That’s because I’m not competing with other online companies. I’m competing with jobs being done outside the internet, in flyers with tear-away phone numbers and the phone book. My only goal is to move more of those purchases online, not to worry about what my online competition is doing. The market for offline purchases is so much bigger than online, and there is so much more friction in those transactions that our focus is there.”
Non-Traditional Competitors in Vet and Pet Care
Oftentimes, business owners get myopic about their business, and when asked to list off competition, they forget to consider non-traditional competitors. In the second part of this series, How Do Brands Work, we spoke about cat boarding facilities being in competition with companies that make home security system cameras. Why? Because both can be used to monitor your cat while you are away on vacation.
This has to do with purchase consideration: examining your customers and determining when they think about you and, more difficult, when they don’t. It’s understanding what problem they are trying to solve and showcasing how you are going to solve it.
Customer Purchase Consideration in Animal Health
From a worker in manufacturing: “It’s amazing that compliance for flea, tick, and heartworm medication has gotten this far. I would say that it’s never been better. The only problem is that it doesn’t happen in the four walls of the clinic as much as it used to.”
This is a big deal. On one hand, business overall has never been better, but it’s declining for the doctor, writ large. The customer journey has adapted, and customers are finding new paths to purchase—whether that is going online to get medication delivered to their door or picking up the supply during their monthly Costco run.
Sure, veterinary practice owners and pet care facility managers need to worry about the brick-and-mortar competitors in the area, but they also need to broaden that approach to online competitors and competitors outside of animal care industries.
Refining your marketing message to target these purchase opportunities is critically important. Understand how you are competing online and how you are capturing the attention of the client to make them aware of your strategy so there are more opportunities for purchase consideration.
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- It’s said that only 1 out of every 2 clients of a vet practice know that they have an option for online pharmacy.
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- Average annual parasiticide purchases per practice were down 5.7%. Also, 58.2% of dog owners did not purchase parasiticide protection from their veterinarians.
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- In many facilities, practice revenue from their online pharmacy is <5%.
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- In the latest Veterinary Hospital Managers Association survey from May 2024, 27% of practices reported receiving 11 or more outside pharmacy requests daily.
Facing Inertia When No Purchase Happens at All
Much harder to measure, how do you estimate the dollars at stake from the lack of a purchase? In this way, the service wasn’t delivered elsewhere. It just simply wasn’t delivered. This could be a series of different problems that are not mutually exclusive:
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- It could be an Awareness Problem: The customer doesn’t know about the service.
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- It could be a Messaging Problem: The customer is aware but not sure why it matters or doesn’t see the urgency.
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- It could be a Price Problem: The customer is aware, wants the service, but the perceived benefit doesn’t outweigh the cost.
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- It could be a Convenience Problem: The customer is aware, wants the service, sees the benefit outweighs the cost, but simply doesn’t purchase because of some minor obstacle (think of digital carts that you personally have abandoned).
We’ve given four examples above, but regardless of which stage of the customer buying journey they find themselves in, know that you will win by being AVAILABLE. Combating inertia is being available. Available in this context does not just mean physically available; it means mentally available.
Physical Availability: Is Your Vet Clinic Really Accessible?
You likely don’t have as many veterinary practice locations or pet care facilities as CVS or Starbucks, where availability means being on every street corner. You are likely to have one practice or maybe more. What does being physically available mean then? Of course, location is the easiest answer. Unfortunately, this isn’t something you can change easily, although you could consider partnering with a company like VETLYFT that would expand your service area. Instead, you should be considering other factors.
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- Signage: Is your signage professional? Do you make an effort to draw awareness to your practice through signage? Do you use signage to showcase different reasons to visit?
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- Hours: What are your hours and when are you the busiest? How did you pick those hours, and when was the last time you changed them? Was customer feedback or appointment data used in this decision?
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- Lunch Closure: You are closed for lunch, and give the team a break together. Your message says you will return the call after lunch. What is a potential new customer likely to do over that hour?
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- Phones: How quickly do you answer the phone? What is your missed call rate? What happens on the phone when you are not open? What happens when you miss a call?
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- Contact Forms: How quickly do you respond to contact forms from your website that potential clients have submitted?
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- Texting: Do you have options to text customers, especially when a phone call is missed?
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- Scheduling: How do you schedule? Do you have space to work through appointments so you can accept potential new customers (or super loyal ones)?
Mental Availability: Winning the Mindshare Battle
This is textbook marketing. You want to be top of mind when customers are considering a purchase. Like we have discussed before, you may want to remind them that they should be considering a purchase to spur that consideration. In addition, increasing the ways and situations that a customer thinks of you is increasing the number of potential purchase considerations, and it is almost always a good thing (except if you’re Ferrari and you tell people NOT to buy you). The following five questions are a great guideline for thinking about mental availability.
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- Who is the person that should buy the product, or who are they with when they should think about the product?
Ex. a mid-30s pet owner who spends money on their dog and is about to go on vacation
- Who is the person that should buy the product, or who are they with when they should think about the product?
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- What should they buy, or what should they buy it with?
Ex. Boarding and updated vaccines
- What should they buy, or what should they buy it with?
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- Where are they when they should be thinking about the product?
Ex. Scrolling through Facebook while seated next to their pet and seeing an ad for your vet & boarding business
- Where are they when they should be thinking about the product?
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- Why should they buy the product, or what are they feeling when asking why?
Ex. Need someone to vaccinate and watch their dog and feeling worried about the dog’s safety and health while they are gone
- Why should they buy the product, or what are they feeling when asking why?
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- How should they get in touch to buy the product?
Ex. Ad says “Call Now” with a phone number.
- How should they get in touch to buy the product?
Simple, but not easy. Effective digital presence helps, and practice owners should think through how they are leveraging the three media channels (paid, earned, and owned) to stay top of mind and consider how to position themselves against not just traditional competition, but non-traditional competition and the dreaded non-purchase.
Conclusion
As we wrap up this exploration of multi-dimensional marketing with competition and purchase consideration, it’s clear that veterinary clinics and pet care brands must look beyond traditional rivals and focus on staying top of mind and easily accessible. Recognizing when clients don’t think of you is just as vital as when they do.
We hope that you have found useful insights throughout this series that will help your veterinary clinic or pet care facility find customers and grow your brand. Contact Vetcelerator today to learn how our company can boost your marketing efforts.
