As a veterinary professional, you also need to be a marketer — and learn how to measure your marketing efforts for optimal success.

Are you familiar with John Wanamaker’s classic saying: “Half my money I spend on marketing is wasted — I just don’t know which half”? If you aren’t, you’re probably not yet aware of the importance of measuring your marketing efforts. In this article, I explain why this is so crucial, and share some tips on how to market — and measure your marketing — effectively.

As a self-taught marketer, I’ve immersed myself in the topic, devouring hundreds of blogs and books on marketing every month. While my background is in veterinary science, my colleagues know me as someone who gets genuinely excited when discussing anything about marketing. Unfortunately, for many people, marketing is a necessary evil that lacks excitement or strategic planning. Instead, they just mimic what other businesses are doing or copy the strategies of big brands in the hopes of achieving similar results. That really is not ideal; to be genuinely effective, your marketing needs to be unique, memorable, consistent, planned, flexible — and measured.

THE ABSOLUTE BASICS OF MARKETING

1. Consistency is key: To see results, you really have to be consistent with your marketing efforts. Blowing hot and cold will not bring in the desired traction. Consistency is the key to success — as in all things.
2. Don’t spread yourself too thin: One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is trying to be on every social media platform. You simply spread yourself too thin and dilute your efforts. Instead, choose two platforms, one primary and one secondary, and focus on creating engaging content on those.
3. Measure your marketing efforts: Measuring is crucial for determining what works and what does not. Once you figure out what is effective, you can focus your resources on the strategies that are actually driving results.
4. Stay adaptable: The environment in which we work is constantly changing, and it’s essential that our marketing stays relevant. New businesses pop up, the desires of customers change, your team takes on a new skill or facility, the profession develops, and social media algorithms can change at the drop of a hat. You need a marketing strategy that is planned but flexible.
5. Be unique: Don’t copy what everyone else is doing. Try to stand out from the crowd. Be unique and remarkable! Being different is what gets you noticed and remembered — and it makes marketing so much more fun.

AIM FOR A SUSTAINABLE MARKETING STRATEGY

A sustainable marketing strategy means a consistent and measurable strategy. Define what consistency means for your practice — this will depend on factors such as the size of your team, your available resources, and your overall goals. Decide to do a few things well rather than trying to a lot of things more or less okay.

• One of the best ways to ensure consistency is to plan. Create a quarterly and monthly social media content plan and run one or two themed campaigns each month. Then regularly assess your tactics to see what is working and what is not. By consistently reviewing your strategies and measuring your results, you can refine your marketing plan over time to maximize impact. This approach will help you create a sustainable marketing strategy that drives long-term growth for your practice.
• Next, decide what you will measure — i.e. your key performance indicators (KPIs). I used to measure all the wrong things in my business. It was only when I got a Google Analytics specialist to look into my website traffic that I realized 4,000 of my site’s monthly visits were for a keyword in a blog that was completely unrelated to what I did. I was getting a lot of traffic, but most of it was the wrong traffic — which is why my conversion rate (traffic to engagement) was so low. Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is crucial to understand what is working and what is not. For this, you need to know what KPIs to measure.

KPIS TO MEASURE

Conversion rate: This measures the percentage of visitors to your website who take a desired action, such as filling out a form to book a consult or, if you have an online shop, making a purchase. A high conversion rate indicates your marketing is effective at driving user engagement and sales. The average is a 5% conversion rate. You can see your conversion rate by accessing your Google Analytics data. You might need to create some tracking goals. An SEO or Google Analytics specialist can help you with this.

Return on investment (ROI): This is a measure of revenue generated from your marketing efforts in relation to the amount spent. If you made $1,000 from a $100 effort, your return on investment would be 0.9, or 90%. A high ROI means your marketing is effective. I am often asked: “What should I budget for my marketing?” For most practices, assume 6% to 14% of income. If you’re getting a high return on your investment, the marketing budget really does not matter; your only limit will be how many clients you can actually treat in a day.

However, money is not the only consideration when it comes to ROI. Time is precious, too. The time you or a team member spends on marketing must justify the return. Evaluate how much time you spend on marketing, especially social media marketing. Even if those beautifully curated Instagram stories and posts are generating results, is the time you spend on them worth it? It is very easy to get sucked down the social media rabbit hole. Think about the time spent creating posts that are seen by only 1% to 5% of your followers, depending on the algorithm. Most of these will disappear after 24 hours. Spend more time creating evergreen content you can use over again.

Repurposing social media content is always recommended. You can share a video to different platforms, transcribe the audio and use the text for a blog. Also be sure to reshare social media posts that did well, especially ones that share valuable content.

To enhance ROI, have a clear goal for every post you create and schedule — perhaps to increase brand awareness (a general goal); drive engagement (a specific goal); or generate traffic (a focused goal). You might want to educate or entertain, showcase a specific service or cluster of services, or simply maintain relationships with established clients. Each of these is quite different. Perhaps include a variety of types each month. Then measure whether each post has achieved its goal.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC): This measures the cost of acquiring a new customer. A lower CAC means your marketing is effective; it is generating new customers at a low cost. Knowing how much you spend gives you a way to track whether or not this amount is increasing. The lower the CAC, the better.

Engagement metrics: A higher engagement rate indicates your marketing is effective, since it is generating interest and building a community around your brand. In social media marketing, engagement metrics are the most important KPI.

Beware of vanity metrics. These look impressive on the surface but do not provide any meaningful insights or contribute to the achievement of business goals. They are often easy to measure and are used to inflate the perceived success of a marketing campaign — e.g. likes, shares, and followers on social media, website traffic and page views. These metrics may make a practice look good, but they do not necessarily indicate success or a positive return on investment. Focusing on vanity metrics can distract practices from measuring and improving metrics that are truly important for achieving their objectives. My advice is, don’t get caught up in vanity metrics; focus on metrics that provide real insight into how your marketing is translating into engagement and customer acquisition.

Brand awareness: This measures the level of recognition and recall of your brand among your target audience. A high brand awareness indicates your marketing is effective at creating a memorable and recognizable brand.

Customer retention: Measuring the percentage of customers who return to make repeat purchases is important. This is an area on which we really need to focus. Ultimately, it has little to do with marketing, and far more to do with customer experience. Spend time with each customer, show genuine interest in each case, and give a great client experience — that’s how you win repeat customers. When consistent marketing is backed up by a great experience, you have a winning combination. Remember as well that it is cheaper to retain a customer than to acquire a new one.

YOU’RE A PROFESSIONAL AND A MARKETER

Yes, you’re a professional — but a successful professional in an age of social media and personal branding is a marketer too. Your key to success is consistent marketing sustained over time, regularly measured and adjusted.

If you want your practice to grow, you are going to have to learn to love marketing, or at least embrace it. It really can be fun — and the better you are at it, the stronger the community around you becomes and the more animals you’ll reach. So let your marketing skills grow alongside your ever-evolving professional skills.

Twice a month Dr. Kelly curates hundreds of social media trends and updates in her Social Media Buddy free email newsletter. If you’re interested, you can sign up online.