What do you do when your business operates in a compassionate industry where marketing and sales are a dirty word? Well, one thing you could try is follow the lead of country vet and long time listener, Braden Collins. Braden has successfully applied many of the ideas shared in past episodes (of the best marketing podcast going around ;0) along with his own sprinkling of his own marketing magic.
Listen in as we discuss:
- The importance of being helpful in your marketing
- Why getting started with your marketing is more important than perfecting it
- How to generate free publicity
- How to start blogging
- Why having your marketing radar on at all times will lead to some great content creation
Yep, another highly useful episode of Australia’s #1 marketing podcast … so let’s get stuck, right in!
BTW, here’s the email Braden sent me suggesting he’d make a great guest for an interview:
G’day Timbo,
How to do look at marketing and sales in an industry where marketing is very inward looking (hey, the opposition is doing that so I’ll do the same thing, just a little bit better), and sales is a dirty word in what is seen as a compassionate industry.
I am the Marketing Manager (and practice owner, vet, and handyman) of the Bunbury and Eaton Vet Clinics.www.bunburyvets.com.au
We purchased our first clinic in early 2012 and in three years doubled it’s turnover. We got cocky, purchased a second clinic last year, then experienced the perfect storm with roads being ripped up outside the clinic and an new clinic opening up just down the road.
Boy, did we learn a lot in a very short period of time. But being a couple of practical blokes, we rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in to some marketing. I wrote a book on New Dog Ownership (what I really did was write a series of blog articles for use on the website, then put them together as a book with just a bit of tweaking – it was great repurposing of material), got some coaching, and started to really look at the way we promoted the clinics.
As vets, we need to approach marketing from many angles. We need to attract new clients to even stay the same size (with animals only living 10-15 years, you’re going to lose 7-10% of your patients each year), work on our reminder system, hammer Facebook and try a few new things on our website. For example, we put our prices on our website. This certainly upset the other practices locally as there is the long tradition of not doing this for some reason, but I figure that if I want to know a price and I can’t find it on a website, I will go to the next one until I can find an answer. I wanted to be the one they got the answer from and then stopped looking.
I also decided to use helpful marketing. For example, I did one blog post listing the dog kennels and catteries in our area which still gets around 130 hits per month. We don’t have kennel facilities ourselves, but it’s a great way to have people find out about us.
We have increased our website trafic from 850/month to around 3500/month in the last 12 years, and the second clinic we purchased is now experiencing around 30-50% growth compared to the same time last year. A result we’re pretty proud of.
There’s still a lot more work to be done (I set aside 8 hours/week for marketing now, which I think is very rare in the vet profession) but I thoroughly enjoy this side of business ownership
Anyway, I won’t take up more of your time. I really enjoy the podcast and it’s great to get some new ideas on a regular basis, but above all else it’s just the inspiration that’s helpful. If you think I could contribute something to the show, please feel free to drop me a line.
Keep the G O L D dripping.
Braden
EPISODE TIMELINE
00:30 Welcome & overview
02:50 Time for a check-in on the week
06:00 Today’s guest introduction – Braden Collins
07:26 Interview with Braden Collins – Part 1
25:18 Insights in to 99Designs & Netregistry
27:06 Interview with Braden Collins – Part 2
42:05 My top 3 marketing learnings fro my chat with Braden Collins
44:15 Motivational marketing quote of the week
34:09 Wrap-up and insights in to next week’s guests
EPISODE SPONSORS (PLEASE SUPPORT THEM)
Netregistry special offer – Get your online marketing sorted. Websites from $79 / month.
99Designs free coupon – Get a design you’ll love. in 7-days. 100% guaranteed.
RESOURCES & LINKS MENTIONED
Bunbury Vet’s official website
Let Braden Collins know (via Twitter) you heard him on the show
TWEETABLES
(GO ON, SHARE THE LOVE, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO)
MY TOP 3 MARKETING TIPS FROM THIS EPISODE
- Be helpful with your marketing. Share that mountain of knowledge you’re standing on openly and freely knowing that you will build a tribe of long-term, loyal followers.
- Always have your marketing radar on – be on the look out for opportunities to promote your personal and business brands.
- Adopt a philosophy of ‘good enough’ – because perfection gets in the way of production … every time.
INSPIRATIONAL MARKETING QUOTE
“You can market your ass off; but if your product or service sucks … you’re dead!”
Gary Vaynerchuck
OVER TO YOU …
What was your biggest marketing learning or ah-ha moment from this episode?
Leave your comment below.
My guest and I respond to each and every comment.
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