How to Find New Clients for Your Veterinary Clinic for Under $10,000/month

Veterinary clinics often don’t market as much as they should, whether for a lack of knowing how or a lack of realizing how valuable it can be. Nonetheless, there is a lot that your clinic can gain from taking the time to create a dedicated strategy to help you attract new clients. And, since you’re growing and likely working with a budget, you’ll be happy to know that there are plenty of tactics and tools out there for less than $10k per month, meaning that you can maximize your resources to increase your lead generation and new client acquisition rates more than you may have anticipated. 

Every clinic is different and there will be certain things that you have to factor into your marketing efforts. However, when it comes to the general concept of attracting new clients, there are some tactics and strategies that everyone can consider. To determine which ones to use, you’ll want to think about what kind of clients you wish to attract and how you can best reach them. 

To that end, we’ve compiled a list of five tactics that will help you generate new leads and build that new client list with ease. While you’re busy taking care of your most important clients (the animals), you’ll be able to use the strategies below to help ensure that more pet parents find their way to your clinic. 

Tactic #1: Capitalize on referral marketing 

Cost: Free, unless you offer incentives/discounts, etc.

Referral marketing is the bread and butter of many businesses, even still today when there is so much information readily available online. Even with vet clinics that have a full, well-planned, and informative website, there are still clients who are going to go in search of reviews and testimonials before they even consider doing business with you. Referral marketing can include several tactics, such as reviews and testimonials, offering incentives for referrals, and more. 

Basically, you’re getting people to do the hard work for you. And when you do, new clients are more likely to listen. Sure, you can say that you’re the best in the industry, but can you prove it? When you’ve got a lineup of quality reviews and testimonials, that will be all the proof that people need. 

Tactic #2: Attend trade shows and local events 

Cost: Free, unless you pay for tickets, booth rentals, etc. 

Being a part of your local veterinary and animal community is going to make a big impact on your reputation. It also makes your clinic more visible and shows that you’re committed to helping and doing more than just getting paid for handling the medical needs of people’s pets. Local pet expos, dog shows, adoption events, and other shows are great places to connect with potential new clients and get your clinic’s name out there in the local community. 

You can even partner with pet stores or shelters on adoption events, vaccine clinics, and other events that will attract people to your clinic and show them how much you care about your community and the pets within it. 

Tactic #3: Improve your local SEO

Cost: $200-$5,000, varies 

Local optimization is a critical element for businesses like yours that have a local presence. It doesn’t matter if people halfway around the world think that your clinic is the most reputable one available—those aren’t the ones that you’ll be serving. You need to make the right impression on your local audience. Part of that comes in developing an effective local SEO strategy and executing it properly. 

It's best to invest the money to hire the pros here—they know all about local optimization and which efforts to focus on. They’ll even be able to help you optimize your Google Business Profile and make sure that you’re listed in as many reputable directories as possible, both of which will boost your local SEO efforts. 

Tactic #4: Get engaged on social media 

Cost: Free

Assuming that you’ve already got social media profiles set up, it’s time to get engaged with as many of them as possible. You can’t just create profiles and call it a day. You have to also use your social media to connect with clients, potential clients, and others within your industry. If you’re not an expert at social media, feel free to read up on some best practices to ensure that you’re doing it right. 

You could hire someone to set up and execute your social media campaigns, but that often creates a feeling of disconnection because you’re not the one doing the interacting all the time. Perhaps hire someone for setup and consulting, and then handle the account use and management on your own. However you do it, make sure that you’re sharing information, engaging with your audience, and otherwise putting your social media presence to work to help you build your client base. 

Tactic #5: Outsource what you can 

Cost: $250-$5,000 

Outsourcing is the way of the future. Even for mid-size clinics like yours that are on the rise, it’s a powerful tool to have more than one person to answer the phone, schedule appointments, or even handle payment collection if that’s something that you need. Fortunately, you can also find all of these services available from the same place if you choose a reputable virtual receptionist solution like the team at Smith.ai. 

We know that you’ve got a clinic to run and pets that need your attention. You don’t need to be distracted by answering calls, handling inquiries, and trying to balance lead intake with your existing client list. Partner with Smith.ai and we’ll take care of all of that, starting with an invaluable service for your vet clinic: a 24/7 answering service to ensure that your clients can reach you at any time of day or night. 

Plus, we can offer assistance for lead intake, appointment scheduling, live website chat, and even support your outreach campaigns. And we’ll work with you to create a custom strategy to manage it all so that you’ll never miss an opportunity. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.

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