Marketing your Strengths and Overcoming Weaknesses

July 10, 2011 //
4

Marketing your business is all very well, but what are you marketing?

As we looked at here, developing your marketing strategy should have given you some ideas as to what your clients are wanting to buy. By marketing to what your clients are wanting to buy, as we looked into here , you are already defining certain things about your business. But what about your competitors? How are they marketing, branding,and running their business? You need some business intelligence – don’t just assume you know what is going on actually take the time to find out for sure!

Step one: Online Research. The great thing about the Internet is that you can now research a business to your heart’s content, for the most part, online. Look your competitors branding, how do they sell themselves? Are their hours better than yours? Do they promote how low their prices are? Do they have much of an online presence at all? Is their style very informal, or very corporate?

Step two: Physical Research. There is nothing wrong with sticking your head in, say hello to one of your local competitors, as long as there is not huge animosity between the businesses. You can learn a lot by just waiting in the lobby. There is nothing sneaky about this, this is the store front – essentially a public space. If you are in the veterinary business you can tell a lot if the building smells nice- you can bet the clients can too! Do the staff greet you as soon as you walk in the door? Is the waiting area comfortable? Is the waiting area well laid out? Does the office seem like a model of efficiency, or is everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off? Take the time to phone your competitors – not from your business, use someone else’s cell phone. How is the phone answered? How do their prices actually compare? They might say they are low cost but in reality…

Step three: Opinion of clients. Hopefully, when planing your strategy, you already figured a lot of this out already, but there is nothing wrong with talking discreetly some if your clients about why they like your business over your competitors. You might be surprised by the responses! What can this tell you about your business and your competitors?

Step four: Look at yourself and your plans. How does your business compare? How can you differentiate yourself? Maybe you need to be the low cost option in town? Maybe you need to be the premium option in town? How do your clients currently think of you? Are there simple things you can change about your business, now that you know all about your competitors, that will make a difference in the minds of your clients? These don’t have to be huge changes, but the more you can neutralize and respond to what your competitors are doing, the more you will begin to control the marketplace and define what it means to be in that market.

A couple of short examples:

Do you close for lunch? Do your competitors? Would your clients like to be able to come in during lunch? A staggered schedule could mean that you become the known as the business that is open and available at lunch time – that could be huge in the veterinary world, where if a pet is sick, and your client has to work, their lunch hour may be all the time they have! It is not a lot, but it is those little things that can start to differentiate your business.

Do you encourage communication? Do you make it easy for clients to come and talk to you? Do all the principles in your business have email addresses? Will they use them? Sounds strange, but the mere concept that businesses want to communicate with their clients – on the clients terms – can be seen as quite a radical concept.

If you have ideas along these lines feel free to add them in the comments section.

Next week: Get out of the building!

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Categories Business, Marketing, Veterinary

Book Review: “The Ten Commandments of Goal Setting” by Gary Ryan Blair

July 9, 2011 //
1

More of a pamphlet than a book, looked at in the wrong light ” the Ten Commandments of Goal Setting” can be used as an example of the worst kind of business writing: full of jargon, vague concepts and an almost pseudo-spiritual believe in goal setting. It is not all bad, and it is obvious that many people get a lot out of Gary Ryan Blair’s work; however being distilled in to this short volume, it sometimes reads like a speech made by Tyler Durden (the protagonist in Fight club.)

Purely a rallying call for goal setting, and very short on actual practical advice, this book is readable for someone already sold on the concept of goal setting (something I am) and painful, incomprehensible nonsense to anyone who’s not.

(Clicking on the cover above will take you to the book’s Amazon page and contribute to my book buying habit / problem.)

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Categories Books, Business, Leadership, Management

Strategy to Branding and Back Again

July 4, 2011 //
10

Branding can seem like a dirty word – particularly to industries which seem to believe they should be above such things. But branding is simply a way of identifying your business to your clients, and more importantly, for clients to identify your business in their own minds.

Branding itself is neutral. Crass and badly implemented examples can certainly lead to customer confusion or downright rejection. However, the world if full of examples of businesses that embrace branding, find it a useful tool in their marketing strategy, and clients responding in an overwhelmingly positive manor. How else do we explain clients paying money to advertise brands on the clothes they wear rather than the other way round? The brand becomes such a powerful image that clients, and would-be clients, will pay to be associated with it because of what the client perceives that will say to other people about themselves.

As a business, excellence in branding is a key element in any marketing strategy; however, the marketing strategy itself is a critical part of that brand. The brand is method of communicating the goals and ideas contained in the marketing strategy to clients. The brand can’t do it all, but it is an important step and should re-enforce in the mind of the client these goals and ideals until they become synonymous (see last week’s post on creating a marketing strategy here for more information.)

Branding your business is about consistency and simplicity. Walk down the high street and look at the major brands you see there. It is highly unusual to see complex logos or extreme color palettes. By and large most chains use a logo that consists of their name, which ideally is short, and easily identifiable. Chilli’s, Subway, and Wal Mart are all good examples. Even target, which does use a separate logo, uses such a simple logo that is does not detract from their name.

Moving on from the name / logo of a business, other elements of the brand become even more apparent. In Target’s case it is the color red, which is reflected in color if the stores themselves both inside and out, the uniforms that associates wear, the carts, baskets, the carrier bags, the list goes on. Every item where a decision about color has to be made, or can be made, it is made with reference to the brand. But there are other more subtle color choices going on at target as well. There are two other colors that are being used – white and kaki. White is used as a secondary color wherever red is used. When it is not practical to use white, such as the color of trousers that associates wear, it is kaki a neutral white equivalent. Even the Target dog is white.

I find it useful when creating a brand to create a brand bible, or style guide if you prefer, which defines these types of decisions so that everyone can be on the same page when it comes to branding the business. Primary fonts, secondary fonts and general text fonts are all defined, primary and secondary colors are defined and most importantly the business name and / or logo is created in color and black and white and any additional ways if using the logo are defined in detail. Please also remember that when you are defining a brand: work with what you have. If you don’t work with existing elements the process needlessly expensive – unless a complete identity change is what is required in which case make sure that your budget is up to the task. For example, I once defined a brand’s color scheme, in part, because the business’s building happened to be painted those colors.

The web’s restricted color palette and choice of fonts, although becoming less of an issue as the web becomes more and more sophisticated, should still inform your branding decisions. To ignore them would be needlessly short-sighted and potentially very expensive.

Having photographs to hand which help define your business that are online with your brand are incredibly important. When you need a picture of your building, it does not necessarily have to always be the same picture, but it should have a consistent style so that potential clients know they are looking at the same building if they see two different pictures.

Your business’s mission statement may also be able to inform your branding choices. If not then I would argue it is time for a new mission statement! To use Target again the “Expect More, Pay Less,” tag line effectively distills their mission statement into four words, defines what they are about as a company, and even takes a pot shot at their competitors. Not bad for four words.

Finally, be intolerant of off message paperwork, business cards and even staff interactions. In terms of an
Animal hospital is your name ” X animal hospital” or is it “The X animal hospital?” Clients who are familiar with your brand should be able to spot your website, paperwork and even your building even if they forgot your name – because it will feel inconsistent with the identity you have created.

Clients ultimately control your brand’s identity because of how they perceive your business and the interactions they have with you and others about that brand. However, you can set the agenda and shape the discussion by having a consistent and identifiable brand that clients can latch on to and be proud to be associated with.

Next week: Marketing your Strengths and Overcoming Weaknesses

Categories Business, Marketing, Veterinary

Book Review: Why We Love Them So – Surviving the Loss of an Animal Friend by Father Paul A. Keenan

July 3, 2011 //
0

Although significant grief is not, thankfully, something that have had to personally experience, I do see it everyday both from a distance, and close up, in my career in veterinary medicine. This book does hope to help readers through the grieving process by exploring the stages of grief and the relationship of the author with his own pets and their deaths.

The first part of the book deals with the stages of grief and as you would expect with a writer who is also a Father it leans significantly on the spiritual. This gets quite tiresome if you are not that kind of person (I’m not) and almost put paid to the book for me.

However, the second part of the book, which deals with the authors own relationships with his cats – their lives and their deaths – is much better. The author does manage to convey the deep connection that is possible to achieve between owner and pet and how it is impossible to relate to that connection unless you have experienced it. Although, the Father’s own recollections are with cats, which exhibit their own peculiar habits familiar to cat owners world-wide, the deeper message of acceptance, and validation, of the human animal bond are universal.

This is a very short book, much shorter than than even it’s slim spine predicts. One quarter of the book is taken up with resources and memorials to lost pets and considering how I found one half purgatory to read it’s $14.95 price tag more than a little steep. (Full disclosure: I was actually send the book free to review, I assume so I would consider selling them or recommending them through my hospital – I’m not.)

It is possible that in the mids of significant grief over the loss of a pet that this book could provide support and reassurance I suppose, but I hope there are better examples out there than this. If you are looking for an essay on the human-animal bond, this provides a good one – if a little on the pricey side.

Categories Books, Veterinary

Marketing from the Ground Up

June 27, 2011 //
19

So you think you need a marketing strategy?

Now what?

Marketing for a veterinary practice, any small business for that matter, starts with deciding what you should sell, or more appropriately what your customers are buying.

For example: Starbucks don’t sell coffee, they sell a daily luxury and a comfortable friendly environment to enjoy it in. They make coffee.

BMW don’t sell cars, they sell a status symbol that is tempered by a performance driving experience. They make cars.

You’re buying what?

Customers (or clients if you prefer) of veterinary practice are, in general, not buying veterinary services, they are buying the wellness and health of a family member. If you are looking to sell to your clients you need to understand what your clients are wanting to buy, or will want to buy, and then taylor both your marketing strategy and, ultimately your business to that need.

Business or Marketing?

Marketing can act as an adjunct to your other business operations, however, I believe that things work best when marketing is integral to every part of your business. Marketing is about the dialog you have with your clients. That dialog could them visiting your website, calling your office, dropping by, or receiving services. Who you are as a business, will define how those interactions are handled – why wouldn’t you want them to be informed by a consistent, and well though out, marketing message that is self reenforcing.

Having a clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve in business, and how you want your clients to perceive that achievement, will define everything else about your marketing program.

A final work of caution…

Keep in mind that you may not always be able to control how clients perceive and pigeon hole you. This is not necessarily a bad thing as your clients are claiming ownership of their relationship with your business. Google would be a classic example of one of the most successful brands on the planet, that can fail totally with product launches because their clients do not feel the new products fit in with how they perceive the company. The trick is to maintain, cultivate, and nurture the relationship with your clients without stifling it.

Next week: Strategy to Branding and Back Again.

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Categories Business, Marketing, Veterinary

Wildfire, Pets, and Excel (or how I spent the weekend & why this blog post is late)

June 23, 2011 //
2

The wildfires that have been threatening Sierra Vista, Arizona created a epic pet emergency in addition to the human drama.

Dr. Pam Drake and Hospital Administrator Kathryn Honda from New Frontier Animal Medical Center, threw open their doors as soon as the evacuations were announced. By the 17th, New Frontier was looking after 300 pets spread across three locations.

Having run a practice in, and lived in, Sierra Vista and consider Kathryn and Dr. Drake friends, I felt that I needed to help if I could.

The view of the Monument Fire from the New Frontier parking lot.

When I arrived at New Frontier on the morning of 18th the scene that greeted me was on of controlled and cheerful chaos. A loose dog, in the parking lot which I helped to retrieve from underneath a parked pickup truck, seemed to underline the whole morning. After touching base with Kathryn, and finding out how I could help, I headed for the main dog shelter – annex 2. New Frontier’s main building was acting as a triage center and treatment center for any pets that required significant medications. Annex 1, the main cat shelter was an empty office space in a strip mall. Annex 2, the main dog shelter, was behind the main Fedx depot in Sierra Vista. Both annexes had been generously donated by a local property management company.

Annex Two – the carriers and cages had been donated by members of the public.

Although the staff of New Frontier had done a great job of documenting the influx of pets, the sheer volume, inexperienced volunteers and multiple locations had led to multiple lists of pets. My job, for the day it would turn out, was to inventory and create an single list in Excel that the staff could refer to and find pets for the owners and contact owners about their pets. With a population of that size just knowing how many we had and where they were seemed a minor problem until you tried to manage them as a pollution rather than as just an evacuation.

After a 14 hour day, I headed home as the fire seemed to have quieted down and things were very much under control at New Frontier and the two annexes.

Annex Two held 80 dogs and 45 cats

How wrong could I have been.

Due to a previous engagement I spent the 19th in Tucson. In the afternoon, my phone started to go crazy. The wind had dramatically picked up, the fire had jumped the highway and was baring down on both the major boarding facilities that were also acting as shelters – one was evacuated that that day. New Frontier was on pre-evacuation and had taken the decision to evacuate all their evacuees to a third annex. Coronado Veterinary Hospital was evacuated for the second time. My Tucson colleagues who are part of the Southern Arizona Veterinary Managers Group (SAVMG) were already raising the alarm and getting staff and supplies on their way to Sierra Vista, along with my boss who reached out to vendors and other veterinary practices. So off I headed back to Sierra Vista.

The cat room in Annex three

When I arrived, Annex three was already setup, annex one was completely full and annex two had become the central triage center. As night fell the mountains could be seen burning and smoke still covered Sierra Vista. I updated my spreadsheet, spoke to the media on behalf of New Frontier, and worked on a plan of action with Kathryn for the following day(s). I spent the night at Annex three as all the hotels for miles were full of evacuees.

The biggest issue on Monday the 20th was management. Lots of new volunteers, who needed to be trained to handle both unfamiliar dogs and cats as well as how we needed to document. It was also unfortunate that we had a number of volunteers who were comfortable with dogs of whom we had 100, but we had a shortage of cat friendly volunteers and we had 200 cats. Luckily for us, Laurie Miller from AAHA as well as a number of technicians and doctors from Tucson were on hand throughout the morning. They worked tirelessly, and very much got into the spirit of having to make things up as we went along. It was definitely a balancing act between the standards we like to uphold as veterinary professionals – particularly when it came to documentation and at the same time making things easy and friendly enough for the volunteers who were going to be the day in and day out help that would keep the operation running.

Sunday the 19th saw the creation of Annex Three

A scare in the morning of the 20th, brought up the specter of of parvovirus. Although the test was negative, a rush request was put into our SAVMG colleagues in Tucson to see if we could get 150 dose of Bordatella intranasal vaccine as kennel cough was potentially a bigger threat to our hastily thrown together population.

The view from Annex Three

As I left Sierra Vista for the second time it was interesting to reflect on the issues and problems that my weekend had brought up. The complete lack of infrastructure made communications extremely difficult, phones were a huge issue – I spent an incredible amount of time just driving between the various annexes. Facebook became a significant communications channel for both the pet rescuing community and the entire Sierra vista community at large. However, having spotty Internet access (iPhones and iPads) made access a chore with so much else going on.

Considering that New Frontier went from 0 to 300 pets in a matter of a day or two they did a remarkable job, made even more extraordinary that Kathryn and several other staff were evacuated themselves. The entire community pulled together in a quite extraordinary way and the support from our Tucson veterinary community and distributors / manufactures made everything possible.

As I write this much longer blog post than planned, the fires are seemingly under control (60% contained) and the Annexes are beginning to empty. Almost 60 homes have been destroyed and many more buildings damaged and one hopes that this is a once in a life time disaster.

Why we do what we do.

 

Photos of the fire can be found here: www.svherald.com/coronado_fire

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Categories Arizona, medical, Veterinary

Vets, Groupon and cost of Discounting

June 9, 2011 //
1

Thinking about harnessing the power of the social media darling, Groupon, to benefit your veterinary practice? What could possibly go wrong? Nothing according to this article , however I’m not buying it.

I’m not disputing that the two practices mentioned in the article have probably achieved their goals for their promotion, and I’m sure they have figured the actual costs to their brand and revenue, and considered it a good trade. I am, however, disputing that Groupon – and discounting in general – is a good business model.

Ignoring that the champion of discounting, despite spectacular revenues, makes no profits and is considered by some to be bordering on insolvent, let’s take a look at what is in it for the veterinarian or any other small service business.

Study after study (look here if you don’t believe me), have always come back with price being near the bottom of clients reason for visiting or staying with a veterinary practice.

But lets for a moment ignore that and assume that price is the single driving force that gets people in the door, how do you pay for all the new traffic? Lets say I offer $10 exams instead of my normal $50 exams and I can see 20 patients in a day. If I max out the schedule on $10 exams I make $200 – that’s four regular priced exams. I can set my staff to be calling over due appointments or even just send them home and have an easy quiet but at least profitable day.

But perhaps we can make it up in additional services that the patients will receive when they come in. Three times your normal exam fee is a pretty good average client transaction but you’ve discounted and attracted discount clients so lets be generous and say they spend half or what you would normally spend

My four regular priced exams bring in a total of $600

My twenty $10 exams bring in $1,200! Sounds great.

Except it is all at a loss.

Lets say I have a gross margin of 50% at regular prices (50% of $600 = $300)

But with my low cost exam I have to recoup the discount out of my additional earnings.

50% of $50 (regular exam fee) = $25

$25 x 20 (max visits a day) = $500

20 x $10 (exam income) = $200

Exam Discount Deficit = $300

50% of additional income from exams = $500

Gross margin = $200

I could have kept my costs low, or retasked my staff, instead I chose to make busy work and I made $100 less.

Groupon’s standard model is at least 50% off with 50% of the cost of the Groupon (25% of your normal priced service) that the client actually pays going to business and the rest going to Groupon itself. You have no control over when your Groupon is going to be posted and so it could come at your busiest time of year. Finally, if you can attract clients with a Groupon SO CAN ANYONE ELSE! Where is the loyalty building? What happens to your regular clients? What are they going to think about you giving massive discounts after their years of loyal custom?

Now, there are a lot of assumptions here, but the main point of all this is you follow the discount path it has to be with the numbers to back it up. Discounting DOES impact the perception of your business. Companies who spend millions on brand perception still have their businesses affected by their pricing and discount policies – Think Starbucks vs. McDonald’s coffee. Think Trader Joe’s vs. Wholefoods. Think Wal-Mart vs. Target. Think Kia vs. Audi.

Groupon is the ultimate discounter and there are horror stories galore about what happens when you deep discount without calculating the real cost, both to your brand and to your bottom line – and particularly with small businesses. Companies that base their business model on discounting know where every penny comes in and where every penny goes out – at all times.

Proper marketing, engage your clients, build your brand, and offer superior service for a fair price in the name of the game. Discounting is a really good way to give money away.

This post is based, in large part, on a post I made as a response to a Group Question on LinkedIn group. My thanks to Firstline Magazine for spiking my interest in this subject, yet again. 

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Categories Management, Marketing, Veterinary

Book Review: “The Yellow Pages are Dead” by Dave Nicol

June 5, 2011 //
4

Books on social media, and there are plenty, face a significant problem – the world of social media and content marketing is changing so fast that they are in danger of becoming obsolete before they are even published.

“The Yellow Pages Are Dead,” has the potential to address this issue in two ways; by being only available in electronic format which one assumes can be easily updated, and dealing with the concepts and issues related to content marketing / social media in general terms. It will be interesting to see whether this happens – I would be very surprised if it did not.

A very easy, and reasonably short read, the book tackles most of the ideas and issues that the veterinary profession faces when dealing with the digital age. Certainly opinionated, and passionate about his subject, Dr. Nicol walks the reader through each step of transferring an analog marketing plan into a digital and social one based around content creation.

If I have to pick fault – and I do because it is my nature – it is that the book makes several assumptions that veterinary practices have a marketing plan of some kind, or at least know what one looks like. This, in my experience is not always the case. This, however, is a minor quibble. New trends and potential fads in the social media world are pretty much ignored in the book (QR codes, geolocation, electronic coupons, etc. etc.) however the concepts and ideas that the book explains can easily be adapted should you want to follow any of these technologies.

The great thing about this book is that it does walk the reader, whether experienced or not, through each step of creating a coherent strategy for digital marketing. Which is pretty much what it says it will do on the “cover.”

Of course, the thing that really makes this book stand out is its author. Not just a veterinarian, but also a business man, manager, and a digital marketer who has walked the walk. Dave Nicol shows that digital marketing can be a part of the working veterinarian’s life.

No veterinarians were harmed in the writing of this book, but a lot of businesses might be saved from painful, or useless, forays in the the social media world by reading it and taking its advice to heart.

(Clicking on the cover above will take you to the book’s Amazon page and contribute to my book buying habit / problem.)

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Categories Books, Content Marketing, Marketing, Veterinary

Bored of hearing about Heartworms?

June 3, 2011 //
1

Since it seems like everyone wants to talk about heartworms in an effort to sell you something, but is rare to hear anything new, it was really refreshing to really be scared by some of the statistics and language being used by the experts.

I was recently the guest of Novartis, the makers of Interceptor Heartworm prevention, at a small two day meeting in Tucson, on parasite control. Speaking were Dr. Noble Jackson from the University of Arizona (U of A) and Dr. Bowman of the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAP-C).

Dr. Jackson has been looking at heartworm levels in the Coyote population in Arizona and the data is quite startling for those who believe that heartworm does not exist in Arizona. In Pinal County, which Includes Casa Grande where I live, the infection rate Dr. Jackson has seen is 34%. In Cochise county, that includes Sierra Vista where I used to live, the infection rate is 11%.

Now Dr. Jackson’s work is not finished or published yet, and the sample sizes are relatively small – 160 Coyotes for the whole state. But even allowing for statistical anomalies these results make you sit up and take notice.

Dr. Bowman, however, had the most disturbing news to my ears, in that there have been two confirmed cases of heartworms in humans. Heartworm infection in humans is extremely difficult to detect, since it looks a lot like lung cancer (infection shows up as coin sized lesions in the lungs that can only be definitively diagnosed by thoracotamy) and so the actual rate of infection is sure to be significantly higher.

There is currently mandatory reporting of heartworm positive cases in three states, and significant restrictions on exporting positive dogs.

Heartworms are not that scary for dogs, cat or humans compared to a lot of other parasites, the issue is that prevention is so easy and so successful that makes the current epidemic so sad.

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Categories Arizona, medical, Veterinary

Why a Blog?

May 31, 2011 //
3

So why, when there are thousands of other things to be doing, have I (and you should too) have a blog?

Well, there are a number of reasons – but for the most part it is because I believe in content marketing and I need to practice what I preach.

Content marketing, the generation of content (articles, tweets, etc.) that create a following amongst potential clients, is currently considered the future of marketing. It is also, quite probably, the most honest form of marketing as it is an exchange of information. A blog is hopefully a dialog between writer and reader, meaning that the writer’s position can be challenged or supported.

So in addition to my Twitter feed, my rants on LinkedIn groups, and my book reviews on LinkedIn, I’ll be posting here about every week – thousands of other things permitting…

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Categories Content Marketing, Marketing, Uncategorized
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