Vet Marketing Labs started off as a website/ blog project back somewhere around 2013. The name “Labs” is a nod to Anatomy Lab where every vet spent much of their first year in vet school learning how a body’s systems work together. Your Marketing plan also has various parts and systems to market veterinary services in your clinic. – your website, your social media presence, your offline and in person promotions.
As a way to dive into the question of “So, where did my clients, especially spay and neuter clients, go?” They were here, and now they aren’t. The second part of the Bayer Veterinary Care Study was published in 2014 and it answered some of the questions. The economy. Competition. Fragmentation.
However, the bigger, more important question was “So if all this is happening, what is one supposed to do about it?” And if I am experiencing it, are others too?” Turns out they were. But not everyone. And not every location.
Dr. Andy Mathis
In February 2016, I inadvertently became the poster boy for compassionate veterinary care with a good samaritan case by the name of Graycie Claire. I got tons of messages and emails that all said the same thing- we need more vets like you. Which left me scratching my head and wondering, “I am like the veterinarian that is 5 minutes from your house. Why do you (the general public) think otherwise?”
Here’s what I know now.
Veterinary Medicine, as a profession has an image problem. Veterinarians are thought of as “greedy bastards” who “only care about money.” If you didn’t know this already, I challenge you to spend 5 minutes on the social media pages of animal rescues.
In changing the way we market veterinary services in today’s competitive environment, it means better care for our patients and less stress and worry for us.
Market veterinary services for better patient care and compliance. Higher professional satisfaction and a sense of purpose. A better work/life balance leading to practice vet medicine with enthusiasm rather than anxiety, depression, and burnout.
One thing that was needed was an online community space for veterinarians and practice owners. Vet Medicine Labs. Hosted over on Mighty Networks.
It’s free to join if you are wondering, and there is more info on the landing page. Click the image or the link below to head over to the Vet Marketing Labs community.
Market Veterinary Services and Maintain your Well-Being
Who is the Vet Med Labs community for?
Veterinarians. Graduated, Practicing or Retired.
and more recently- Practice Owners. I noticed that some practice owners are closely related to a Veterinarian, such as a spouse.
Why only Veterinarians and Practice Owners?
Before deciding on the Mighty Networks community platform, I considered a forum for Veterinarians, support staff, and practice managers. They should all be having the same struggles, right? the same goals? Turns out, no. So, I initially decided to restrict Vet Med Labs to Veterinarians only. I have gotten a few requests to join from Vet Students. If you are a student, focus on your studies for now. You’ll have plenty of time later partake of post-graduation opportunities.
More recently, Practice Owners with very close ties to Veterinarians, such as a spouse.
Why Not Create a Facebook Group? everyone is already there. . . .
True. Everyone is there . . . .and that is part of the problem. Facebook and its algorithm mix everything together in a newsfeed. This creates what I call “Facebook fatigue”. It happens when every 30 seconds you have a mix of good news, sad news, bad news, fake news, rantiness, hatred, anger, etc. Facebook groups are also limited by single topics. Meaning you need to join several to keep up with various aspects of vet medicine. You also can’t message other members of a single group without being Facebook friends. Vet Medicine Labs has a single interest- Veterinary Medicine. And then can be divided into topics, groups, and interests. And it has scale designed in its functionality as the site grows. Facebook Groups don’t scale so smoothly. On Facebook, you are at the mercy of an algorithm. Being an advertising platform, FB tries to show you what it thinks you want to see. It is designed to be addictive. There is no algorithm on Mighty Networks.
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