A strategic marketing plan is key in ensuring you have the maximum impact in growing your brand

A well-designed annual marketing strategy can assist you in leveraging your business's greatest assets to increase income and promote your brand. All of your staff will know what you're doing at any time with a marketing calendar, and it provides structure for everyone to stay on track and complete important milestones. You'll have a road map for success if you have a plan in place, which will help you take your company to the next level. In a nutshell, you need a strategy!

Right, where do I begin?

You'll want to create a marketing plan that is more of a strategic calendar, with key dates set aside for each stage of planning and execution in the financial year.

It will take you at least a day or a morning to compile a yearly calendar that you can adhere to. This is an extremely crucial and lucrative process for your company that you should not overlook. Following a marketing plan means putting an end on costly and ineffective reactive campaigns, allowing you to spend more time with your family.

Your annual marketing plan should include a variety of media, including as clinic advertising, social media posts, neighborhood campaigns and commercials, SEO, Google My Business and online presence management, as well as staff-facing marketing and events.

Clinic promotions

These are the number one method to attract new patients and boost income at your practice. It's debatable whether or not the finest revenue-generating incentives are things like dentals, neutering, puppies, kittens, and geriatric pets. However, it all comes down to what your staff enjoy doing: promotions that you enjoy running will always appeal more to employees and therefore clients.

Season-specific offers are a good idea; for example, flea and worm awareness campaigns are best implemented in the spring when parasites pose a real risk.

Some practices want to offer a new deal every month, but studies have shown that a two- or three-month campaign is effective, as it usually takes a few weeks for your staff to get familiar with the promotion and for clients to arrange themselves to come in.

Get social

You should make a separate social media calendar for your clinic marketing, with a good mix of useful information about current clinic discounts, as well as your typical features. Ideally, you'll develop a social media calendar with specific timings and themes you'll be discussing each month in the year ahead, making it easier for your team to plan and produce excellent content.

Focus on local

Make sure to schedule local marketing activities well ahead of time on your calendar. Try to commit to hosting at least one special event day a year, such as the summer holidays. This might be a dog show in your neighborhood park or an open practice with engaging games for all ages, for example.

Don’t forget your team

Remember that your brand is nothing without your team, so make certain that one of the most important elements of your marketing strategy involves interesting learning events and enjoyable days throughout the year to keep your staff happy and invested in living and breathing your brand on a daily basis.

Plan for success

The most crucial component of any marketing strategy is assessing its effectiveness. After each campaign, you should enter your practice management software and calculate how many more procedures you did in comparison to the same months last year. You should aim for at least a 10 percent increase over the previous year's results. Any greater than this figure suggests that your campaign has really piqued people's attention, suggesting that you consider repeating it again next year at the same time.

Make certain to inform your staff of any marketing triumphs, and congratulate and assist them in assisting you promote your practice. Don't forget that a marketing strategy is a long-term project that should be updated and improved on annually as you discover the best promotions and methods for your clinic.