Why Every Veterinary Practice Should Embrace Email Marketing
By Molly Daphne
As a veterinary professional, you're constantly juggling the responsibilities of caring for your patients while running a thriving business. With so much information to share, finding effective ways to connect with your community can feel rather daunting. However, for those wanting something easy, cost-effective, and more sustainable than traditional physical marketing strategies, email marketing is your best and most powerful tool.
So, what is email marketing and how do you get started when you’ve already got 101 things on your to-do list?
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is exactly that: a digital strategy where you send marketing materials to your contacts via targeted emails. These emails can serve various purposes: sharing valuable pet care tips, announcing new services, sending appointment reminders, or simply building a strong relationship with pet owners. It’s like having a conversation with your clients, but through their inbox!
There are plenty of platforms out there that can help you do this. You don’t have to sit at Google or Hotmail and send your emails one by one. Instead, using platforms such as ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, or Hubspot, you can send personalised emails to thousands of people all in one go. Email marketing is one of the best tools any business can utilise when you need to save time but share crucial information.
Why Should You Use Email Marketing?
There are many reasons to start thinking about your email marketing strategy, but here are just a few key reasons this should become a priority:
Direct Communication: Email marketing allows you to connect directly with your community. You can’t phone people en masse, and let’s be honest, not many people want to receive information over a call. Emails still retain that personal element and help you get your message out far and wide with much less effort required.
Cost-Effective: Compared to traditional marketing methods, email marketing is incredibly affordable. You can reach a large audience without breaking the bank.
Enhance Customer Relationships: Regularly engaging with clients through informative and helpful emails builds trust and loyalty. It’s a great way to show that you care about your patients even outside the clinic.
Promote Services: Whether you’ve got a new grooming service, special classes, or an upcoming vaccination drive, email is a fantastic way to keep your customers informed about what’s happening at your practice.
Retention: Automated emails are a great way to keep your community coming back for more and sticking to agreements. Appointment reminders, payment reminders, vaccination reminders—if they need to know something, an automated email is the quickest and most effective way to do so.
How to Grow a Mailing List
When you first get started with email marketing, your priority should be building your mailing list. This isn’t going to happen overnight. Mailing lists take time to grow and will continue to grow over time, though you may see it decline at times. That is normal.
So, how can you grow your mailing list? It’s not complicated and it doesn’t need to cost you much, if anything at all. Here are a few tips to get you started:
Sign-Up Forms: Place sign-up forms on your website, social media pages, and even at your front desk. Make it easy for clients to opt in to receive updates.
Offer Incentives: Encourage sign-ups by offering something valuable in return—perhaps a discount on the first service or a free pet care guide.
Engage on Social Media: Use your social media platforms to promote your email newsletter. Highlight the benefits of subscribing, like exclusive pet care tips or first access to new services.
Ask in Person: When clients visit your clinic, don’t hesitate to ask if they’d like to subscribe to your newsletter. Personal interactions can go a long way in building your list.
GDPR (UK)
Here’s where it gets a bit more complicated, or at least sounds a bit trickier, especially for practices within the UK. In the UK, we have strict data protection laws called GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). These regulations tell us, as marketers, how we can use people’s data. This is crucial when it comes to email marketing.
However, when you break it down, it’s a lot simpler to understand. Here’s what you need to know:
Consent: Before you send an email to someone, ensure you have their explicit consent. This means they must have voluntarily opted in to receive emails from you. For example, if you have someone’s email address in your inbox because you’ve spoken to them via email in the past about a cancelled appointment, you can’t add them to your mailing list to receive a monthly newsletter because they’ve not agreed to it. However, if a customer has given you their email via your website and ticked a little box that says, ‘I agree to receiving email marketing’, you can send them your monthly newsletter as they have ‘opted in’.
Data Protection: Safeguard personal data and only use it for the purposes you’ve specified. Just because you have their personal data doesn’t mean you’re allowed to use it.
Right to Unsubscribe: Always provide an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe from your emails. Respect their choices and promptly remove them from your list.
Privacy Policy: Clearly outline how you use and protect personal data in your privacy policy. Make sure it’s easily accessible on your website. You should also state how long you keep their personal data stored; once that time has expired, you should either remove their data or ask them if they’re happy to stay on your mailing list.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a great way to share all the wonderful information you have and the critical details your community needs to know. Once you’ve designed a template (or many platforms have pre-made templates ready to use), chosen your content and prepared your mailing list, send your first email!
It’s normal to be nervous, especially if you’ve got a large mailing list and you’re sending your first email. Even the most seasoned email marketers get nervous before they press the send button, but it’s worth it! As you send more and more emails, you will learn what your community responds to and what they really want to read.
We asked our marketing team for their best tips and here’s what they said:
Personalisation: Just because you’re sending a mass email doesn’t mean it should be generic. Address your community by their name, use their pets’ names, and tailor content based on their needs. If you’ve got lots of cat owners, don’t send them emails with information that’s all about dogs. Personalised and tailored emails always work better.
Mobile-Friendly: Most people read emails on their phones, so use an email marketing platform that adjusts your emails to look good on both phone and desktop.
Test and Optimise: Not all businesses are the same, and not all communities are the same. What works for you might not work for us, and vice versa. So, experiment with your emails. Try different subject lines and sending times. Try different formats. Maybe your community responds better to emails that have very few images, or maybe they prefer videos in their emails. It’s important to test and adjust accordingly.
Email marketing is a fantastic tool that, when used correctly, can bring immense benefits to your veterinary practice. It’s about building relationships, sharing knowledge, and keeping your clients informed and engaged. So, why not give it a try?