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Part 2: Evaluate Before You Elevate - Assessing Your Veterinary Practice's Marketing Position

Key Takeaways

  • Conduct a comprehensive SWOT analysis to ground your marketing strategy in reality
  • Audit your online presence across all digital channels to identify improvement opportunities
  • Define genuine unique selling propositions that truly differentiate your practice
  • Establish clear baseline metrics to accurately measure marketing performance
  • Implement structured client feedback systems to inform your marketing decisions
  • Track relevant KPIs including client acquisition rates, retention, and return on marketing investment
  • Prepare for targeted persona development and SMART goal setting in the next phase

Welcome back to our 5-part series on creating a veterinary marketing plan that works with any budget in 2025. In Part 1, we explored the unique nature of veterinary marketing and how aligning your messaging with emotional trust builds consistent branding.

Now, let's shift from theory to diagnostics. How can you plan your marketing journey if you don't know your starting point?

Start With a Comprehensive SWOT Analysis

A thorough SWOT analysis—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats—builds a strategic marketing plan grounded in reality rather than assumptions.

Consider these examples:

Strengths:

  • Specialised services
  • Experienced team
  • Convenient location
  • Modern technology and equipment

Weaknesses:

  • Outdated website
  • Limited online visibility
  • Dated branding
  • Restricted service hours

Opportunities:

  • Growing pet ownership in your area
  • Underserved market segments (e.g., exotic pets)
  • Local community partnerships
  • Emerging service needs

Threats:

  • New competitors entering the market
  • Shifting local demographics
  • Rising operational costs
  • Declining treatment compliance rates

This exercise offers internal clarity whilst helping you anticipate external forces that may impact your results.

Conduct a Thorough Online Presence Audit

In 2025, this step is non-negotiable. Evaluate your complete digital footprint to understand how visible, functional, and appealing your practice appears online. Here's what to examine:

Website performance:

  • Does it load quickly?
  • Is it optimised for mobile devices?
  • Does it effectively convert visitors to clients?

Local SEO visibility:

  • Are you ranking for relevant keywords in your service area?
  • Does your Google Business Profile appear for local searches?

Social media engagement:

  • Is your follower count growing organically?
  • Are people meaningfully engaging with your content?

Online reviews:

  • What are clients saying across Google, Yelp, and Facebook?
  • What's your overall rating, and how does it compare to competitors?

Email marketing metrics:

  • Are your open rates, click-through rates, and conversions improving over time?

Tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, or Ahrefs can reveal game-changing insights, even with their free versions.

Identify Your Genuine Unique Selling Propositions (USPs)

What truly sets your practice apart?

Your USP isn't simply "we love pets" or "we offer quality care." Those are baseline expectations. Consider more distinctive offerings such as:

  • Fear-Free certified handling practices
  • Extended evening or weekend appointment hours
  • Specialised exotic animal expertise
  • Guaranteed same-day emergency appointments
  • Comprehensive telemedicine consultation options

These differentiators must align with genuine client needs and provide compelling reasons for pet owners to choose your practice over alternatives.

Establish Clear Baseline Metrics

What gets measured gets managed. Before implementing any new strategies, establish your starting point with these key performance indicators (KPIs):

  • New client acquisition rate
  • Client retention percentage
  • Average transaction value
  • Website traffic and conversion rates
  • Social media engagement metrics
  • Return on marketing investment (ROMI)

Without tracking these metrics consistently, you cannot accurately gauge whether your strategy is delivering results.

Listen Attentively to Your Most Important Stakeholders: Your Clients

Your clients are already signalling what works—and what doesn't. Here's how to gather their valuable feedback:

  • Send brief post-visit email surveys (limit to 3–5 questions)
  • Conduct annual satisfaction surveys
  • Place suggestion cards or QR code links in the waiting room
  • Monitor and professionally respond to online reviews
  • Organise small, focused client discussion groups (especially when testing new ideas)

This client feedback loop helps ensure your marketing resonates more effectively and misses fewer opportunities.

What's Coming Tomorrow

In Part 3, we'll define precisely who you're marketing to and how to build SMART goals that bring focus and deliver measurable ROI.

Look forward to insights on developing detailed client personas, understanding emotional buying drivers, and creating goal-setting frameworks that genuinely move the needle for your practice.



Creating a Veterinary Marketing Plan on Any Budget in 2025: Foundations & Fundamentals