Email marketing for veterinary clinics is one of the most affordable and effective methods of bringing in new clients to your practice. 

If you are a veterinarian and you aren’t using email marketing, now’s the time to start up an email series or weekly newsletter. Email marketing helps you to stay in contact with your patients (and their owners) and helps you build a stronger relationship with them. 

In this blog post, we’re going to take a look at what makes email marketing for veterinary clinics so effective, how it can bring in new clients and how it keeps your current clients coming back. 

Before you can persuade people to book in for follow-up appointments, try out new products or buy your latest special offers, you have to get them signed up to your mailing list! 

Ask During Their Initial Consultation

One of the easiest ways to get your client’s email is during the initial administration work. You need to take down all the details of the new patient and their owners – adding an email address to the list of info asked for is a pretty common way of adding people to a mailing list (be sure to ask first though!).  

When you write out the administration form include a section where the client must provide all their necessary contact information. This includes their name, phone number, and email address. With this information all in one place, it’s easy to set up a mailing list for all of your customers. You can then send them reminders through email, or text, telling them that their pet is due for either a follow-up exam or needs to come in for a regular visit to get their shots. 

You can also set up your emails to go out automatically after appointments. This will put less stress on your staff and they won’t have to worry about forgetting to email a client. 

Have A Sign-In List

Another great way to get your customers to sign up is by having a sign-in form at your front desk. With the sign-in sheet, you can have columns for their name, their pet’s name, contact number, and email address. 

They will be more inclined to put their email down if it’s already listed on the form. This works incredibly well if a customer sees other pet owners filling in their details too.  

Get Them To Rate Their Visit

Get your customer’s email address by having a ‘check-out’ list at reception. When they’re paying for their visit you can give them an optional feedback form to fill in (best to keep this short, who wants to fill out a four-page feedback form after a check-up!). You can ask them to rate their visit and if they would like to sign up for your mailing list. 

Some customers might not want to sign up for a mailing list for fear of being spammed with marketing, adverts and unnecessary emails so offer them a little incentive. You could offer them a small discount off their next check-up for signing up for the mailing list. 

People are always more likely to sign up for something when they know they’re getting something out of it in return.

Woo! You’ve got their email…. Now what?

What Can You Use Email Marketing For?

When you have your customer’s email address, there are a few different things you can send them to get them back through the door. 

The most obvious option is a reminder for their pets’ follow-up appointments. Email is a great way of doing this, you can even automate the emails to send out at set times – which can save you a huge amount of excess admin work. 

That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to email automation. Many vet practices have embraced it to offload a wide variety of tasks from their admin staff’s workload too, including: 

• Sending seasonal promotions
• Reminders for prescriptions to be refilled
• Promoting wellness checks and vaccination drives
• Encouraging pet owners to get their pets vaccinated
• Sending out information on common health problems and how to avoid them 
• Popular trends in the pet world
• Upcoming local events
• New research around particular animals and their needs

Your email marketing should aim to show your customers that you genuinely care. It gives you the opportunity to reach out and become closer to your patients and develop a deeper connection. 

The more personalized your email and the less sales-focused, the more you’ll connect with your reader. When you give them valuable information, a bit of a break from daily life (who doesn’t love cute animals popping up in their inbox), they’re going to look forward to seeing your name when they check their emails. 

Calls To Action

If you want your clients to take action then you need to tell them to. In an email, this is called a CTA (call to action) and encourages the reader to do something specific. This is the perfect opportunity to encourage your clients to book into an appointment or a follow-up. 

For example, you could link a button in your email to a calendar on your website which allows your clients to book their pets in for an appointment online. 

Personalized Messages

Email marketing allows you to put a personal touch to all of your messages. This means you can create custom lists for each type of pet owner so they get emails specifically aimed at their animal’s needs. 

So, if you create a list of all the dog owners that visit you, you can send them dog-focused content. They’ll only receive info that’s relevant to their interests/pets’ needs – so no discounts on catnip or vouchers for rabbit dental check-ups! 

Monitor The Results

There is a lot of software out there that can help you with your email marketing and each one can give you insight on what your clients are doing with the emails you send them. This includes how many times they opened them, what they clicked on and more. 

It’s essential to monitor the results of your email marketing efforts – you can figure out what your customers enjoy reading and what they just send to trash straight away. This will help you to keep delivering great content to your customers – creating a sense of loyalty and trust between you and keeping them coming back to you time and time again. 

Want to learn more about email marketing and how it can help improve your business? Get in touch, and we’ll get back to you in two shakes of a lamb’s tail!

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