How to Hire a Best Veterinary Marketing Agency?
Veterinary Marketing Agency: The Key to Your Practice's Growth
The difference between highly successful veterinary practices and average practices is the guidance and the right marketing strategies. Running a veterinary practice is no longer an easy task. You have to manage pets, cater to pet owners, and ensure that operations are streamlined. As a practice owner, you are constantly juggling different daily tasks, and marketing is most likely the lowest priority for you.
But trust us, the veterinary niche is getting more competitive each year, and practices that are not able to innovate and market themselves will struggle to survive. In one of our webinars, when we discussed the importance of marketing and highlighted key strategies, most of the practice owners mentioned that they do everything—from posting on social media to ensuring their website is updated—but still don’t get much traction.
When we asked who is managing their marketing, the common answer was, "the practice manager." Well, it’s okay if the practice manager is updating the content, but you have to understand: to truly grow, you need experts on your side—professionals who have helped multiple other practices in their growth journey. Don’t treat marketing as an expense. With proper guidance and aligned growth strategies, you can achieve the best ROI.
Hear from some the practice owners who achieved great results with DVMelite
“Being a veterinarian wasn’t the problem; it was being a business owner... Marketing was my biggest challenge, and working with DVMelite has truly been life-changing.”
Dr. Brenda
Then there’s Dr. Diana. She went from 22 new clients a month to 100 new clients! How? A solid growth plan and our expertise made all the difference.
Want to hear more? Check out Dr. Diana’s full story
Let’s discuss the steps to find and hire the best marketing agency/company/firm for your veterinary practice.
Step 1: Define Your Marketing Goals
This is the most important step for veterinary practices looking to hire a marketing agency. As a practice owner, you will need to take your time and define your marketing goals. Every veterinary practice is unique and has its own set goals and challenges. As an example, some practices want to ensure they can engage their audience on social media, while others might have the goal to get more local leads via Google Business profile or website.
If you’re a practice owner, work with your team to identify what’s missing. Here is a list of questions to consider:
Do we want to attract more new clients?
Do we have poor client retention, and do we want to use social media to show how we’re different from others?
Is local marketing important, or do we want to focus more on e-consultations?
Will the new agency help us generate more revenue through different campaigns?
Once you finalize your goals, you’ll be in a better position to discuss them with different agencies. Giving clear goals will ensure no miscommunication and help you achieve great results.
Step 2: Industry Experience
While most reputable agencies have clear plans and strategies to grow any business, we believe working with veterinary marketing companies that have domain expertise increases the likelihood of achieving better results.
Here’s why: Marketing agencies with expertise in the veterinary field have proven experience with strategies that work for clinics, as well as insight into which marketing tactics tend to have a lower ROI. For example, at DVMelite, we understand that having a great website, an optimized Google Business Profile, focusing on upselling to existing clients since this has approximately 70% more chances of conversion compared to 5-20% of new prospects, and also active social media channels works exceptionally well for generating and converting leads Meanwhile, using YouTube or appearing on podcasts can help practices focused on building their reputation or promoting telemedicine on a national level.
When shortlisting an marketing company for your veterinary practice, ask these questions:
Do you have experience working with veterinary practices?
Do you understand pet owners and their decision-making process?
Can you provide case studies or testimonials from other veterinary clients?
When you ask these questions, you are not only ensuring that the agency is the right fit for your clinic, but you are also building trust and confidence that you are taking the right steps.
Step 3: Evaluate Their Services
Now that you have defined the goals and shortlisted a few of the agencies for your practice, the next task for you is to ensure you understand their expertise and which services are offered as part of the marketing package.
Here is the list of services a marketing agency will have:
Website Design and Optimization - With the information everywhere and the attention spans are decreasing, and people don’t have time for slow and non-responsive websites. The goal will be to ensure your website is mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, and optimized for search engines. First, check if you have an existing resource who can help you with this task and if this is a priority for you. If yes, please confirm with the agency you have shortlisted about their experience in design and optimization.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The buyer’s journey starts with Google, and practices that appear in the top 5 will be able to drive the majority of the leads. This is a must for practices looking to grow. Please ensure that the company you will be working with has a clear SEO plan and proven experience.
Social Media Management- Social media is not just about posting your services but also about showcasing your clinic, staff, and how you treat and care for pets. The agency will help you create a plan to use social media not only for lead generation but also to build trust with existing and new clients looking for services. Consistent and engaging posts can help build trust and community.
Content Marketing- Content is king, and you will need to ensure that the agencies you have shortlisted have a proven plan for how to use blogs, videos, and educational content to position your practice as a trusted authority.
Paid Advertising - This is important, and you need to ensure that the new agency understands Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other targeted campaigns to drive immediate traffic and lead
Step 4 - Communication
While having clear goals and expertise is important, communication is going to be key. You will need to ensure that the marketing agency you will be working with has a clear plan and is available for weekly or biweekly collaborations. The successful agencies will have a clear communication timeline; as an example, they will use tools like Slack to communicate, ClickUp to add the tasks so that you can review them, weekly or biweekly Zoom meetings to ensure that they are taking the feedback and also discussing the campaign results and what worked and what didn’t. We often come across many practice owners who mentioned that they hired an agency in the past, but because they had no clear communication plan, they failed to understand what we want and what we want to achieve.
At DVMelite, our goal is to ensure that a dedicated account manager who will work with your practice will have a clear action plan. Over the past years, we have built a community of like-minded practice owners, so you will have DVMelite along with a practice owners' community where you can ask questions about marketing, operations, or anything that will help you grow.
Before we move ahead with Step 5, we will recommend you to book a call with our growth expert “Blake” today and take the first step towards success.
Step 5 - Understand The Pricing
As a practice owner, your goal is not only to shortlist the top agencies for your clinic but also to ensure that you clearly understand their pricing and what services are included in that price range. If you find that any of the services offered are not required for your clinic, make sure to discuss this upfront and, if possible, request revised pricing.
The best way to ensure you find the right agency is to ask for proposals from the agencies you’ve shortlisted and then review the costs alongside factors like experience, expertise, and other key considerations. While costs are important, remember that experience is non-negotiable, always hire the best. A good agency will be transparent about costs and provide clear projections for your return on investment (ROI).
Final Words
When you are hiring an marketing agency for your veterinary practice, you will need to take care of all the steps we discussed today. The goal of hiring a growth partner is to ensure that they will work as an extension of your team, and finding the right one who understands your niche and aligns with your thought process is a challenging and time-taking task.
At the start of the blog, we mentioned the difference between a successful and average practice is their marketing. As a practice owner, your goal is not to pick the first agency you interview but to ensure that you have the right strategy in place because the right partner can help you attract more clients, increase revenue, and enhance your practice’s brand.
Ready to take the next step? At DVMelite, we specialize in helping veterinary practices grow with customized marketing solutions. Contact us today and let’s explore how we can help you achieve your marketing goals. Fill up the form below to book a free consulting session today!
