Veterinarians have the hard job of educating their clients while in exams, but what about blog content? How do you appeal to potential clients through your content without losing people in medical jargon they don’t understand? How do you build trust and legitimacy that actually results in new clients walking through the doors?
Pet Marketing Unleashed is here to help by providing 18 different creative blog post ideas for veterinary practices. And in fact, many of these ideas can result in several blog posts, allowing you to produce endless pieces of blog post content for your vet hospital. I recommend bookmarking this page in your browser so you can come back to it when you’re struggling with what to write on your blog.
1. Give Away More Info Than You Think
While it seems counterintuitive, the more information you can give away to pet owners, the better.
Why?
Because can you imagine what value they will place on you as a service provider if even the FREE content you put out there is insanely valuable? This puts them down the road of imagining what more value you could provide to them if they came into a 1:1 appointment. This also allows them to trust your expertise once they see that the tools you share are working for them.
So, what sorts of information am I talking about ‘giving away’ here?
You can put together blog posts on:
Ways to help your dog’s upset tummy
How to know when you REALLY need to make a veterinary appointment
Remedies for itchy pet paws
How to motivate your cat into taking his/her medicine
Assisting them on the backend will help build trust and allows you to book important and more revenue-boosting appointments that are more worth your time!
2. Post Something Polarizing
We don’t want to go too crazy with this. But, it can be SO powerful and attention-grabbing to post something a bit polarizing. Many people are afraid to post these types of posts in fear of people not agreeing with them and therefore not working with them. And honestly, yea, that might happen. But it’s actually a good thing.
Why? Because you want to work with clients who resonate with your message. Those are the clients that will be willing to spend more on you, will trust you and become loyal, and will be a joy to work with. And that’s why you started your pet business after all, right? To work with the right people who value your services.
By refining down your target market in this way, you’re able to find clients who resonate with you. That’s gold!
Examples of these types of posts can be:
Tips For Avoiding A Veterinary Dental Surgery
7 Reasons Why You Don’t Need To Vaccinate Your Pets (Note: This can 100% dig into why they would need to vaccinate, but you can outline situations in which they don’t need certain vaccines, exploring titers, unnecessary vaccines, etc. The point is to entice them into clicking on this blog post).
Flea Preventatives To Avoid
3. FAQ Posts
Pet Marketing Unleashed is ALL about providing ways to make your life easier and one of the best ways to do that is through your own content. If you have clients asking you the same questions over and over, it’s time to get them into a blog post. This is something that you can send to new clients or include in a Welcome Packet (I have templates for different types of pet businesses - veterinary ones coming soon!). Or, you can simply link to it for more guidance when you get the question.
Consider the questions clients ask you repeatedly like...how to prepare for an exam, what to do if my cat is anxious to come to the vet, when do my vaccines expire and which ones should I get...you name it. Those are each blog posts of their own! Boom, lots of content ideas right there.
4. Process Posts
This one is sort of similar to the FAQ posts in that they can address common questions. However, the motivation behind these types of posts is to figure out what you wish your clients knew to make your life easier.
This could be:
A complete overview of the new client process
How to prepare for your pet’s dental surgery
Steps to ease anxiety for your pet’s visit to the veterinarian
5. Ask Your Audience What They Want
This is one that’s not often used but can be so valuable because your current clients are the best insight into what potential clients may want to learn about. You can ask them directly, whether it be in the form of posting on social media, DM’ing clients individually, creating a survey, asking people via email, or creating a poll on Facebook. Ask them what they want to learn or hear about and go from there!
6. Create a Pet-Friendly Guide for Your Area
Time and time again, this blog post topic becomes the most popular blog post for my
VIP DAY clients.
Divide the blog post up into categories: pet-friendly restaurants, dog parks, pet food or supply stores, dog trainers, groomers, photographers, dog walkers/pet sitters, boarding facilities, you name it! I highly suggest using places you actually love, frequent, or recommend as the point here isn’t to showcase every single dog-friendly business. It’s to share ones you recommend, which adds to your trustworthiness and personality as a business.
Bonus points: When you share about this post on social media, be sure to tag these businesses so they know they’re featured and can reshare!
7. Tell The Story of How You Got Started
As Simon Sinek famously said,
‘People Don't Buy What You Do, They Buy Why You Do It.'
This is true more now than ever as people are wanting more humanity in their purchases whether it’s products or services. The more they can relate and learn about who’s behind the business, the better! Be vulnerable and show people your story and how you founded your veterinary hospital.
8. Share Upcoming Events Around Town
This is a great option for a fun and SEO-enhancing blog post. The more you can link to other websites, the better as that shows Google you want to share other reputable information for your audience, which in turn makes you more reputable. It also showcases your involvement and care for the community. This is a wonderful trait to have because as I’m sure you’re already aware, the pet industry is a very personal one built on trust and love.
9. Outline Your Process And/Or What It’s Like to Work With You
This can give potential clients an inside scoop on what it’s like to work with you. This can help in a multitude of ways:
It can weed out clients who aren’t the right fit
It can motivate the clients who are the right fit to reach out and already be sold on your photography
It can help you save time (because of all the reasons above) AND you don’t need to hop on unnecessary calls or send unnecessary emails
It can build your trustworthiness and transparency as a business in the community
10. Create a Client Spotlight
Maybe people only go to the vet as a last resort, which can mean treating problems only after they progress. Consider sharing stories of clients who come in for their regular, annual exams and how that has prevented much more serious issues. The more that pet parents can see their pets in your stories you share of other pet families like them, the more likely they’ll take action and want to get in on the benefit that others are experiencing from working with you.
11. Share Secrets!
Nothing gets us to hit the read button more quickly than seeing the words ‘Secrets’ pop up in a title. Think of some things that people would want to know that no one really talks about in the pet industry. These are great ways to increase interest and readership.
You can post secrets on what it’s like to become a veterinarian, behind the scenes of vet techs, the favorite and least favorite aspects of a day in the life of a veterinarian, etc.
12. Create a Need-To-Know Checklist
Again, we’re coming back to the fact that anything you can do to help ease your client process will be beneficial on so many levels! This is a blog post you can share with clients when they first start working with you. This can help you avoid mishaps, back-and-forths, accidents, and unnecessary stress. It’s also great for the reasons listed above under blog post idea number nine. Not to mention these types of blog posts increase your professionalism and legitimacy which is invaluable.
This is the opportunity to let them know things like:
How to book their first exam appointment you
How to prepare for surgery (potentially broken down by type of surgery)
How to ensure a healthy puppy/kitten after adoption (with tips from you guys on regular appointments)
13. Interview a Dog Trainer
One of the most challenging aspects that can be avoided in your practice is the amount of anxious, fearful, or aggressive dogs that walk through your doors. So, again, (I will repeat this endlessly), going back to how to make your own life easier, consider interviewing a dog trainer for help on puppy socialization and/or how to encourage positive veterinary experiences. Building confidence in new puppies or dogs can make a great difference in how they act at the vet, so by interviewing a dog trainer on the topic, you can provide potential clients (and current clients) with resources to help make it a better experience. This ends up saving you time, reducing embarrassing experiences for both the owner and you, and establishes you as a helpful resource in the community).
This is a double bonus because you’re not only increasing your legitimacy and trust, but you’re also expanding your reach and awareness because the dog trainer can share this information on his/her social media platforms as well.
Bonus points: This can also be the beginning of a beautiful partnership! For help crafting your partnership email to them, get my FREE partnership email template for pet businesses here.
14. Highlight a Local Citizen or Business
Nothing’s better than showing your love and involvement in the community. When you support others, people will support you. Simple as that. I’ve written blog posts for clients on interviewing local artists who paint pets, groomers who are offering discounted or free grooms for those struggling, or those who are fundraising money to help rescue animals. The options are endless here. By getting involved in your community, you will be increasing your trust and respect, not to mention increasing your local SEO, which is key in blog writing!
15. Recommend Products To Earn More $$$
Consider alternative means of income. The more you can add in different income streams, the better! So, perhaps writing a blog post on your recommended pet food, toys, litter, etc. can allow you to bring in extra income. Whether you sell these items in-store, on your online pharmacy, or through an affiliate relationship with companies like Purina or Amazon, writing blog posts on this topic allow you to educate and spread more information about the resources many pet owners can benefit from!
16. Share Dog Parks, Restaurants, Etc.
There are endless ways to get more specific on all sorts of pet-friendly options in your area. Think about what people would search for in your area and go from there to create blog posts relevant to your town and their pets.
17. Education, Education, Education
Obviously, as veterinarians, this is a BIG one, especially with all of the contradictory information your clients are seeing on ‘Dr. Google.’ So, it’s your job to put the right information out there for your clients in a way that helps them learn.
My advice? Start to pick some of the conditions you see most often and then write blog posts on them. Choose titles in a way that appeals to your audience. In other words, what will they type into the search engine? They may not know the medical name of the condition, but maybe they know their pet is constipated or ate something bad. Begin to write blog posts on it and include information in your blog post and/or in the title on your location so people know where they can go for help on that particular condition.
18. Share Local Concerns
Depending on your area, you probably see a lot of common issues that need to be addressed. Think: rattlesnake bites, frostbite, seasonal allergies, tick season, etc. These are things on clients’ minds OR if not, things that should be on their mind. You should be your community’s go-to resources for things like that, so blog posts on these topics are ALWAYS a great idea!
I hope this was SO helpful as you navigated through the ideas here. I highly recommend bookmarking this page, so you can come back to it when you’re struggling with ideas on what to write. If you’re looking for some Instagram ideas for your pet business, I have 33 creative Instagram post ideas just for you here.
However, while we're on the topic of blogging, I wanted to tell you a bit about my course, Blogging For Your Pet Biz. This course walks you through the steps of:
- Getting in the right mindset to produce content that attracts your dream clients
- Selecting the RIGHT blog post topics for your pet business for a year
- Writing your blog post titles, outlines, and CTA's
- Implementing blogging SEO
- Marketing your blog posts
And SO much more! If you're at all interested, I highly recommend clicking here to check it out. It is JAM-PACKED full of tips & tricks, perfect for those who know nothing about blogging (or even for those that know a bit more) and need some help creating a process that saves time and increases strategy!
