For any business, the right communication plan can mean the difference between retaining loyal customers or losing out to a competitor. In the current climate and with more choice for pet owners than ever before, devising an effective client communication strategy should be a top priority for your practice.
Effective client communications should keep pet owners informed, reassured and save them time and effort. By showing clients they can rely on your practice for appointment reminders, practice updates and other essential pet health communications, you strengthen your relationship with them. This, in turn, can help establish the kind of loyalty to your business that will generate return visits and trust over the years.
Whatever your marketing mission, direct mail such as postcards can be used to:
- Establish your brand message & value
- Drive awareness of your practice & services
- Promote a new service or product
- Remind clients of appointments & treatments due
- Offer unique benefits, discounts & loyalty rewards
- Share practice updates & announcements
Whether you’re looking to implement a new client communication plan – or improve the effectiveness of an existing one – direct mail should not be overlooked as part of your practice marketing strategy.
1. To communicate your brand
Direct mail marketing such as postcards provide customers with something they can physically hold in their hands, therefore the visuals and messaging used can be a powerful way to influence how your clients feel about your brand. While it’s true that digital communications are effective, cost-efficient and essential, it is also worth considering how a physical representation of your brand can work to translate value.
Brand value is all about the connection made with your business and how your product or service makes your customer feel. For a veterinary practice, postcards can be a useful tool to capture your brand value using visuals and tone of voice to create connections with customers at home. For example, a well designed, clear and friendly vaccination reminder which hangs on a client’s refrigerator can act as a token and representation of your brand as a professional, caring and trusted advisor that can be relied upon. More importantly of course, it acts to remind your clients to book in for their pet’s next vaccination, keeping them healthy and your practice compliance on track.
2. To provide a personal touch
For most businesses, providing a personal touch to a service or product can go a long way to enhancing your relationships with your clients. Keeping an eye out for opportunities to surprise and delight your clients, however small the gesture, can make all the difference when it comes to building connections and creating positive client experiences. With the cost of client acquisition increasingly high, these efforts should not be reserved for your new clients either, but also woven into your client retention strategy.
Your practice management software holds a wealth of data about your clients so making use of this information to send relevant, personalised messages should be a key strategy when considering your direct marketing tactics. A personalised postcard which uses client and pet names and is signed off by familiar practice team member, stands a much better chance of evoking positive feeling and action than one with generic messaging. Additionally, allowing your clients to update their communication preferences, such as the information they would like to receive and by which method, is key to this personalisation strategy. This personalised approach will help your practice ensure you are sending your clients the right information, through the correct channels, at the right time and frequency.
3. To deliver high impact and response
Consider how many emails you as a consumer receive a day, now consider the last time you received a postcard? When it comes to marketing your practice, standing out and cutting through the clutter of email inboxes can be tricky. The higher your ability to grab attention the better your chance of bringing about a potential action. When competing with other forms of direct mail, research suggests that postcards are more than six times as likely to be read as compared with direct mail letters – 94% versus 14%.1 Additionally, The Royal Mail NeuroInsight research shows that mail has a powerful impact on long term memory, 49% stronger than email and 35% stronger than social media.2 This is important as recall has been shown to strongly influence decision making and purchase intent.
4. To support your wider marketing mix
Adding direct mail to the mix to support your wider marketing strategy can increase overall effectiveness and open up new responsive audiences. Research shows that when mail is added to the mix, 13% more consumers visited the sender’s website, 21% more consumers made purchases and 35% more consumers redeemed coupons or vouchers.3
Postcards for example can be an effective tool when used in tandem with other marketing activities, as an introduction before an email or phone call or as a follow up communication post purchase. Postcards are also highly versatile and can be used to support upcoming events, announcements of new products or services or to offer seasonal advice for pet owners. Direct mail is also well suited and effective for offering promotional offers and discounts to your clients. To redeem the offer, simply ask your clients to bring the postcard on their next visit to the clinic or state a promotional code when making a purchase or online booking. The possibilities for postcard use are expansive and their versatility means they are a valuable tool to enhance the effectiveness of your wider marketing mix.
Interested in knowing more about the power of direct mail for your practice? Our team of client communication experts can help.
“We’re here to help you design and deliver your client communications, from start to finish. We’ll work with you to develop and nurture your trusted advisor voice. We’ll select the right images and messages to suit this voice and your brand and segment your client base to target those you wish to reach with your message, then issue it. This is all done without impacting your existing team. This allows you to focus on what you do best – caring for your animals.” Rebecca Millard, Campaign Consultant
Need some inspiration? Take a look at some of our Postcard campaign examples below.
Health Check Vaccination Reminder Wellness Check Vaccine Amnesty
Covetrus managed communication service
- Email
- SMS
- Direct Mail
- Online booking
Why not let us help you drive your client engagement via RoboVet + Rapport and make it simple for you manage your client communication goals. To learn more about implementing or improving your communications plan contact us to talk to one of our Rapport client communication experts.