VMP 266: Strategy Guide To Stop Veterinary Marketing Struggle Forever

Brandon (00:00:00) - Welcome to the Veterinary Marketing podcast, where it's all about how to attract, engage and retain clients at your veterinary hospital using digital marketing. My name is Brandon Breashears and in today's episode we are going to talk about where should you start when you're trying to either fix or improve your marketing? This is going to help you to not just think about specific strategies, but take a bigger look at your entire marketing systems that you have in place and then figure out, what should we fix? What should we do? What is the most valuable thing that we can work on? So hopefully it'll give you clarity so that when you're thinking, how can we improve our practice marketing, you'll be able to have a framework in place where you're not going to just be guessing. It's going to be better than just like throwing darts at the wall and seeing what you land on type of thing. So let's get into today's episode. Before we begin, just a couple of things. If you haven't done so already, be sure to subscribe in iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play wherever you get your podcasts from.

Brandon (00:00:53) - If you could also leave me a review, that would mean the world. I'd really appreciate it. If you like the podcast, if you ever think there's something I could do to improve it, we'd love to hear your feedback as well. You can actually go on Spotify and submit questions there too, if you're ever interested and want answered question or something. All right. We also have two sponsors for today's podcast and here they are. This episode is being sponsored by the International Veterinary Dentistry Institute and VeterinaryDentistry.net. If you're a veterinarian or you have veterans that you work with who struggle with dentistry, or who'd like to be more confident when it comes to dental procedures, then you definitely should go to Ivy dawg forward slash vmp that is ivdi.org/vmp to sign up for a free upcoming live training that's going to go far beyond your average dentistry seminar. This is the gateway to the Veterinary Dental Practitioner Program, an intensive masterclass program that is a comprehensive initiative designed to enrich veterinary associate skills while empowering practice managers practice owners to take their practice to new heights.

Brandon (00:02:03) - This live training is going to be conducted by board certified veterinary dentist doctor Brett Beckman. He's been on the podcast twice and is incredibly talented teacher and educator. He's going to dive deep into actual cases. He's going to dissect all the vital components of effective dentistry, case management, and this is going to give you some really direct insight and a clear blueprint to improve your prowess in veterinary dentistry. So if you're ready to elevate your practice and your professional skills, simply go to ivdi.org/vmp. This is going to be the golden opportunity that helps you to make a significant impact in your practice. It's going to help to give your patients and your clients better care. And it's also going to improve the personal professional development that you have in your career. Go to Ivy org forward slash Vmp. This episode is being sponsored by two websites by Brad Haven. We have usedvetequipment.com and newvetequipment.com for over nine years now. Usedvetequipment.com has been helping vets to buy and sell used equipment.

Brandon (00:03:10) - You can save money when you buy. Used everything from cages, kennels, pumps, extra equipment, lasers, ultrasounds, dental equipment, surgery equipment, lab equipment from a boxes and tables, tubs and sinks, vet trucks and vet boxes. What do you have to sell at used vet equipment comm? They bring the buyer and seller together. Also, if you're looking for a new veteran equipment with amazing warranties, check out newvetequipment.com where they show you the price up front. They have digital X-ray equipment, dental X-ray equipment, ultrasound equipment, LED surgery, lighting, surgery tables, autoclaves. When you go to new vet equipment comm, you'll clearly see the price on every single item for sale. And you'll also know what the warranty is so that you can buy without regret. So how do you fix your marketing when you're maybe not happy with the current results that you have? Or maybe you're just not sure what you should do next? And so a lot of times what I see happen is practices will just pick something out of the air and they'll just start doing it with really no kind of end goal in mind.

Brandon (00:04:08) - And so I think, first of all, we need to think about how we are approaching marketing. And so the tools that I'm going to be giving you today are going to be things that you can use forever, regardless of what platforms come out, what marketing and rules change, those kinds of things. It's going to be a bigger, uh, strategic way to think about your digital marketing. So let's get into first a fundamental that you need to know about digital marketing within any kind of marketing that you're doing, you have different stages of the funnel that you have people engaging or encountering your business. So first off, if people don't know about you, they can't do business with you. You have the top of the funnel, which is awareness. So that's where you're making people aware of your business. If somebody doesn't know you exist, they can't come in and become a client for you. So that is the the highest point. Then we have middle of the funnel when there. Thinking about engaging with you.

Brandon (00:05:01) - So that is consideration. And typically at consideration you have people that are maybe signing up for email newsletters, people that are um, possibly, you know, looking at your social, following your social things like that, where they're considering to do business with you at the bottom of the funnel. We have engaged conversion, which is people are making a purchase decision and they're deciding to become a client in your practice, or at least come and try you out. And then at the stage below that we have re-engagement, right? So once people buy, it's hopefully not just a single time, but they come back and he turn into a client for life. So where should you start when it comes to your practices marketing? My suggestion for every practice out there, and the reason why I suggest this is because you're going to see the most value immediately from it, and also the things that you do in the future. If this stage is figured out and you have it fixed and working well, it's just going to make every single marketing activity that you do more effective and more valuable in the future.

Brandon (00:06:03) - So I always suggest starting with the bottom of the funnel. A lot of times when you think about marketing, you probably thinking we should do more social posts, we should create more content, do things like that. The problem with that is that is a top of funnel activity. So you're going to generate more awareness. And the people that are coming into your final that are engaging with your practices brand, they're going to essentially be at the mercy of your current conversion rates and things. And so you need to make sure that you are, number one, optimizing all of the traffic that you have and doing your best to make sure that you're converting as many people as possible. And the way to do that is to start at the bottom of your funnel. So what do we mean by that? I think initially your most valuable segments, and especially if you're not busy right now, a lot of practices are seeing slowdowns. And so this is really, really timely. But doesn't matter what the market cycle is, if you can maximize the value of every single client that you have, you're going to be benefiting.

Brandon (00:07:09) - So starting at the bottom of the funnel with your current clients and your re-engagement I think is probably the most important. So that's adding activities like loyalty programs, rewards programs, wellness programs, things that bind people to your practice, that keep them engaged and coming back. Um, another thing too is like on hold messaging, which sounds like a weird bottom of funnel activity. I'm going to be talking to somebody about this. They are an expert on hold messaging, but I think it's fantastic because your current clients who call and are waiting on hold, you're able to sell them additional products and services without any additional work. And I think any time that you can consider building systems that are going to help to reengage your current clients more, that doesn't require work. That's going to automatically increase their annual transactions and automatically increase their lifetime value. You're going to be so benefited. The other thing that I think would be really good for re-engagement is physical mailing of products or, um, thank you cards, those kinds of systems as well that are going to help to add additional touches.

Brandon (00:08:18) - Right. And it's not necessarily traditional marketing, but it is giving people a feel for your practice. So you can automate, you know, sending out thank you cards, reminder notes, little gifts. You can build automations for all of that, especially if you're using a, um, a good CRM system like Activecampaign, um, go high level, MailChimp, basically any kind of CRM that you're using, you can set up automations. When somebody comes in, they get some kind of a, um, like thank you packet or thank you message. If you also could build out referral programs into that. So incentivizing your current clients to spread the word, especially if it's clients that you really like working with, chances are they have friends who are very similar. And so building out an actual referral system that when somebody comes in, you know, they get a thank you message. And with that thank you message, it has a gift card for their friends. You know, hand this out to your friends.

Brandon (00:09:17) - It is a $50 credit. Next time they come in we want to say thank you. And we'd love for you to share the word with your friends. And the cool thing about stuff like that is it helps those people to increase their status because they're giving something of value to their friends and family for something that they like, which is cool. Other thing that I think you really need to focus on with Reengagement is a consistent email marketing, uh, system. And also text messaging, I think is a mandatory thing that you need to be doing. So consistently re-engaging your existing clients with useful info content that you're creating, which is top of funnel stuff, and then also, um, offers for them to come in. The more offers that you make, especially relevant offers, they're not going to seem like they're annoying, and you're going to be able to engage your current client base more. So, I think you should be sending at least one email and one text per month. I would say probably more ideal would be weekly or bi weekly.

Brandon (00:10:18) - Um, just because the more offers that you make, the more clients are going to come in. It's a fact for sure. If and by offer I mean here's what we have, um, that you might be interested in. Here's how to claim it. It doesn't have to be a discount. It doesn't have to be, um, you know, giving something away, but saying, hey, we have dental spots open this week. It might be a great time for your pet. Here's all the benefits. Book your appointment. Now that's making an offer. And it's not making it discounted or promotional. Right. So that bottom of funnel stage is very, very important. And if you get that figured out, where you're able to, let's say, increase your, um, compliance and visits by 10% a year, right? Every single person that you put into that is now even more valuable. And that's why I suggest starting at the bottom of that funnel. I'm sure there's a bunch more ideas, but anything that you can do, and I think this is why loyalty programs are fantastic wellness programs, if they're simple, I think complicated wellness programs are terrible.

Brandon (00:11:17) - But if if it's an easy to use wellness plan, um, that keeps people compliant and increases their spending, and that's a great thing to. Um, you might want to also consider upselling and cross-selling too. So if you have somebody that comes in, it's a puppy owner and you know that the person is a puppy owner, what are the additional products and services that you have in your practice that might be beneficial? So and a lot of practices are doing things like behavior training. And so offering that built into it, offering routine dental plans, you know, creating something that's puppy specific and specific, those types of things. And that relates more to the importance of having good data and segmenting your data. So as much as you can extract from your practice management software into your marketing softwares, that is important. And I think if you can build a system and the problem is, I can't tell you exactly what you should do because everybody's using different softwares. So you're gonna have to think about it.

Brandon (00:12:14) - But if you can set it up one time and it's going to function for you over and over again, that system that you do, those are some of the highest return on investment marketing activities that you can do, because they're going to work for you. And it doesn't require your input. So you need to be thinking about what are the opportunities that we have that we can segment and really help to indoctrinate the clients that we have coming in. So those are current clients and that re-engagement and and continuing to engage people is the lowest level of the funnel. And just above that slightly is the conversion process. So the people that are coming in for the first time now, when it comes to figuring out how to improve your conversion process, I think the most valuable thing that you can do is create offers that are compelling. So what are the components of an offer offer that you're making to your potential clients are where they are currently, and then what it's going to look like once they're finished working with you.

Brandon (00:13:12) - So it's that transformation of they're not currently working with you to they are now a client and their pet comes to you. What does that look like and how can you make it unique to you? And you know, so many practices just say that they care more, right? They are compassionate, that they are experienced. And that is not compelling because everybody says it. So I've said this a lot of times in the podcast, but it's important and it's worth saying a lot. If you could copy and paste your competitors about section or your services section and put it on your website, or if you could take your your section of your website and interchange it with your competitors, you do not have a unique offer. You are a commodity. So really framing the offers and services that you have in your practice in a way that makes you unique. What is it truly that makes you unique? What is your unique selling proposition? How do you convey this value if you're not wanting to do it in terms of price and you're wanting to charge premium prices, what are the things that are worth premium prices? You have to justify it somehow.

Brandon (00:14:20) - People don't typically just want to spend more money for the sake of spending more money, especially in the economy where inflation is increasing. Right? So people are managing their finances more tightly. You need to really convey what is the value, how are we proving it, and how can we break it down and communicate that value in a way that's going to get people to take action. So I want you to remember that people make decisions for emotional reasons and they justify it with logic. So the more emotional ties that you can put into your marketing messaging and help to ease fears, help to avoid pain, especially that is really valuable and it helps to convey the value that you're providing in your practice. So if you can think about both the emotional side of what you do and then also the rational side. So things that are benefits, you're going to be far ahead of other practices who are just simply talking about features. Right? They're talking about we have an underwater treadmill. We have this tool, we have this tool, we have this tool.

Brandon (00:15:26) - We've gone to this college. And these are credentials. Those are all features. They're not specific benefits. So talking about things in terms of we are here for your pet. Like let's say you're doing senior pet stuff, right. Talk about the emotional impact of your pets, quality of life being improved. And you get to enjoy, you know, 2 or 3 more fantastic years of great health with your best friend so that they have a wonderful life. And they're not just stuck sitting around all day or laying down all day, right? So as much emotional and people are emotional about their pets. Totally not rational and emotional. If you ask most people though, they will say, I'm make my decisions based on logic, but that is not true. You can prove it pretty easily, you know. And I know, for example, that I should, you know, eat really, really healthy. I should be working out, but I don't do it right. And it's for emotional reasons, probably more than just rational.

Brandon (00:16:22) - It's convenience. And I make excuses, whatever. So you get the point. Most people. Will justify their decisions with logic. So all of those features that we were just talking about, those are additional things that you put in there. I'm not saying you shouldn't include your features, but just focusing on those. It makes people have to compare based on price. And so, so many practices don't want to just be competing on price. Totally get it. Give them a reason that is emotional, that conveys value, and it's going to help them to make the decision that's going to be right for them. So when we're talking about bottom of funnel offers, though, what are the types of things that work really well? Um, I think if you want more clients and you're not happy with the number of clients that you have coming in, if you're happy with things, you know, keep doing what you're doing. But typically when you're trying to convert people, you're going to want to give them a reason to try.

Brandon (00:17:19) - And. Work to really help to increase the conversion of the people that are seeing and engaging with your content. So if you're creating content, for example, or you have social posts and they get likes and comments and shares, but you're not seeing that translate into more clients, it's because your offer is not aligned with the content that you're producing or the audience that's engaging with it. So number one, write down a list of all of the fears, hopes, and aspirations of your ideal client and see how you can achieve those things. Whether it's avoiding those fears that pain or going for those hopes and aspirations. Um, that's something that's, I think, really, really important. Uh, with offers, things that always work really well are free products or demos, um, adding in products. So value added offers, um, sales and promotions do work. If you don't want to discount, give a reason for it. Right. So if if you don't want people to be attracted to your practice because of discounting, then you need to give an excuse for it.

Brandon (00:18:26) - Like the most common one that you'll see, especially for like used car sales or something, is our lot is full. So we're having a special we need to sell these things, right. It's not the expectation isn't that it's always going to be that way. It's this is special. There's urgency. There is scarcity. Come and do it before you miss out. And so if you're doing any kind of discount, I really suggest, number one, that you make it short term. That adds urgency. Urgency and fear of missing out is a big motivator for people. Um, it adds scarcity against people missing out that is important. It gets people to make a decision. That's like the biggest thing with the if you've ever had kids or been around little kids especially, they have a big fear of missing out, built in. And as we grow up, we still have that fear of missing out really ingrained in us. Um, so that is one of the most powerful marketing tools that you can use.

Brandon (00:19:17) - Fear of missing out. Absolutely. Um, so working to do short term promotions, events where you're bringing in new people based on the goals that you have for your business. Now, I would say that you probably want to have. 4 or 5 core offers that are the things that really convey value to attract the right clients. So, for example, make your wellness exam, make it branded to your practice. Name it something that's not just wellness exam. Make it something that explains how the sausage is made, so to speak. Right? So people need to know what goes into it. What are all the components that build this out, um, and then really work to teach people how when they start working with you, here's what they look like. And then once they come in, this is what you can expect from us, right? It's that before and after transformation that's going to give people an idea and a sense of why should I come to this practice versus the other practice down the street.

Brandon (00:20:16) - So actually convey that and sell that either through your web page, um, where you have copy written out or through video content or a mix of those two. Um, and I think you'll do much better. So if you can convey and drop a lot of value on people. That is going to be really helpful. The other thing that I think is really important is having. Emails and text again. This is the bottom of funnel activities. But email and text systems so that when somebody comes in they get a ton of attention and it keeps them sticking around. So they they know that you care. They're getting individual care, individual messages, segmented messages that make it seem like there's a lot of attention to detail. They actually care about my pet. And. They're going to give me the the kind of experience that I want to have. So if you want to provide great care that continues on even after they've left. And so they need to know that you are there and that you're not just going to basically show up only when you want something, but you're going to provide value.

Brandon (00:21:25) - So I like to call that an indoctrination sequence. When somebody opts in or is engaging with you as a new client, just pour it on value to them, give them things that they find valuable and really help to retain them to your practice. If you do those things, they're going to be more likely to open those other emails and segmented messages that you've created to reengage your clients. Right. So this is all building on each other. So we have that re-engagement. And then the new clients, if you're able to convert more new clients and you're able to get those new clients to come in more frequently, it's going to compound. So the more of these things that you're doing, you're getting a compounding effect where things become just much more successful for you. So I think inside of this, uh, conversion process, two one thing that is very, very important is making sure that you have a review and referral system in place. So that's kind of like in between the conversion and bottom of the funnel and the re-engagement.

Brandon (00:22:22) - But. Not everybody who comes in is going to be a repeat client. So it is important that if you can, if they had a great experience, you get reviews, ask for those reviews, have a system in place. I think Google my business and Google Business profile rather not Google my business anymore is going to become incredibly more important than it is already, with the introduction of the Google generative search experiment that is coming out. So Google Search is going to be changing this year in a profound way that we've not seen before. We really don't know all of the details, but I think when it comes to transactional search, meaning people that are looking for vet near me or vet open today or vet that does ophthalmology or whatever the search is that's transactional. So people are looking they want and need some veterinary services. I think Google and Business profile is going to have an even bigger impact than it already does. So something to note, and I think reviews need to be built into the bottom of your funnel.

Brandon (00:23:20) - Okay. So there's obviously a million different things you could do within bottom of funnel. But pick just a few. Pick your primary services, start with one. Really figure out how to enhance the value, how to communicate that, and then work to do that. I think even small changes that you do there are going to have a big impact. If you can take your conversion rate from like 2% to 5%, your cost per acquisition comes down so much and traffic prices. And if you're trying to get either through paid ads or any kind of paid. Traffic at all. It's only going to continue to get more and more expensive. That's just 100% guaranteed. Traffic is getting more expensive, especially as attention becomes less easy to attract because people are more distracted than ever. You have to have a better mousetrap that's going to catch more. And if you don't, it's just going to be more expensive. So if you want to be able to compete with the big, massive companies that have endless budgets for marketing, you need to make sure that your mousetrap is catching as many as possible so that you're being as effective as possible.

Brandon (00:24:32) - If you don't have the deep pockets. You have to be more effective. You don't have the luxury of being sloppy, so convert more of those people. So we have the bottom of the funnel, which is conversion. Then we have middle of the funnel. So middle of the funnel is really, I think, important about having specific offers that give people an easy next step from becoming aware to then beginning to evaluate. So I think content series are fantastic for this, um, content series that people have to opt in for. So you're getting emails and text message, phone numbers, um, asking people to subscribe to your channels and engage. So content that is series based. I like for a few reasons, and I think podcasts are fantastic for this. I'm a big advocate for podcasting. I love my podcast. I love my podcast audience here. Um, and I think more practices should do podcasting because it's actually really easy to produce content. I'm going to be doing a series here in the future that is all about how to create a podcast that is going to create an endless supply of content for you.

Brandon (00:25:38) - It is amazing. Every single podcast episode I do, I get between 25 and 30 pieces of content. Additionally that I can chop up and with the AI tools that are out there now, it does this almost instantaneously and automatically. So it is automatic, but it's almost instantaneous because I have to upload it and wait for it to produce. But it is incredible how cost effective this is and the compounding effect of creating this content and then putting out these little pieces on these different platforms where it suits, it's more suitable. Um, and then it points back to the longer form content. It works so well. And it is, um, truly, I think, the best form of content out there. It's also the least busy. And so, um, there's just a bunch of reasons. So we'll be doing that here in the very near future. I was hoping to get a guest, but he's booked until August. So the guy that I learned, um, how to start a podcast from, his name is Pat Flynn.

Brandon (00:26:35) - He has a podcast called Smart Passive Income, and I learned how to set up all my podcasting stuff from him. He hopefully is going to be on in August of this year. Um, we're working on the dates for that, but he's super busy, so I'm excited for that. Guest. We're going to talk all about podcasting. But other ideas for middle of funnel. So we're trying to get people to engage. We're trying to get people to really become aligned with your way of thinking is how we'd like to think about it. So a lot of times I'm trying to either do segmenting where I'm trying to repel people that are not the right types of clients, or attract people that are the right types. You can do both of those things. So repelling works really well. Um. If you're if you're going for a very limited subset of people. So if you're doing services that are more expensive or you're doing services that are either like higher personalized or maybe lower personalized where you're just trying to do volume, you could create marketing and content that would really attract repel people based on those things.

Brandon (00:27:37) - Um, I think two at this middle of the funnel level, having lead magnets is something that's really important. And so I think this is why content series work really well too. So let's say you were doing a series on puppy potty training, for example. You could break this down into five videos. So puppy potty training, what is the gear that you need to have? What is the consistency recipe right. What are the the ways to make sure you avoid mistakes? How do you handle accidents when they happen? Right. So you break it into these five topics and then once it is all completed, you could use that as a lead magnet that then automatically delivers to people. So lead magnets are fantastic. Um. And I think. It's something that you should absolutely develop. Um, be sure that when you have a lead magnet series, you're asking for a conversion at the end of it or throughout it. Um, always be in your middle of funnel offer. Make sure that you have a relevant call to action, but they have to get from middle to bottom somehow.

Brandon (00:28:41) - And so the easiest way is if you'd like to set an appointment, here's the phone number to call. Give people the easiest way to convert possible. If you're texting back and forth with somebody with like, you've collected their phone number and you have a text message marketing automation setup, don't ask that. They go to call you. Now. They are somebody who likes texting. There's mediums that people prefer, and so engage them where they are and give them a way to convert where they are to something that I think is really important. And most practices just have one way that they want their clients to contact them. But the reality is that they're missing out because they're not using technology and systems, um, the way that people want to be used and that they're expecting. Right. Just because your practice doesn't think it's important. Like if you look at consumer behavior across how people in act engage with like Amazon or Target or any of these major e-commerce retailers, I think a lot of times clients have the expectation that they'll be able to do business kind of the way that it's done in the modern world.

Brandon (00:29:42) - So make sure that you have modern methods of converting people, um, for your specific practice. So, um. Obviously a lot of content here in the middle of funnel, but it is more focused and targeted towards segmenting. And then at the very top of the funnel, we're just trying to gain awareness. We're trying to get people to become aware. So I think that a lot of practices that I see, well, not a lot, but there's there's a lot more than there used to be. We're really good at making the fun content. So I think this is the stuff that gets the most likes, the most shares, those kinds of things. Um, if you look at TikTok, TikTok is an awareness medium, and I think we'll make this quick note, too, that channels, in particular of content are more focused towards certain stages of the funnel. Let me give you an example. So I think that TikTok is the best awareness funnel right now, or awareness content piece in the funnel, because you can get a lot of attention, a lot of eyeballs on it.

Brandon (00:30:48) - Um. And then you need to give them a way to then take the next step from there. But, um. TikTok is fantastic for awareness. Facebook is also good for awareness. It's not as good for conversion these days, just because the targeting options and the data that they have are not as good. Kind of the only good, um, middle or bottom of funnel tool that you have on Facebook or Facebook lead ads. I think that is pretty. There's obviously going to be outliers, but pretty consistently you're going to have to use Facebook lead ads if you want to collect names, phone numbers, emails, just how how it's going to happen. Um, unless something changes and there's been actually some, uh, interesting changes between Facebook and Amazon coming out. And I know this is getting a little bit off topic, but I'm watching this and I'm very interested. Facebook is going to allow Amazon to sell natively inside of the Facebook app. And that might give us better conversion data with iOS 14.

Brandon (00:31:48) - It gutted so much of the conversion data that we had access to, and that killed a lot of the effectiveness, um, that, that we have available. But if they have purchased history, purchased data being fed by Amazon, that is a game changer for Facebook in my opinion. So I'll let you know if I see anything interesting come of that. Um, but that would be very, very cool. So I think Facebook. And that includes Instagram. But I think Instagram is actually a little bit better these days at middle and bottom of funnel. So people are treating your Instagram page more like your website than they have in the past. It was Ariel Potter who brought me on to this idea, and she is from spot on veterinary hospital and, um, pet resort and check out her TikTok. She's fantastic at TikTok. Had her on the podcast, um, a while back, but I think that she's absolutely right. People look at TikTok like awareness, and then they go from TikTok to Instagram, and Instagram is more like the website, especially to younger generations.

Brandon (00:32:48) - So make sure you have direct conversion paths on your Instagram where people can book appointments and they don't have to leave Instagram and go to your site and then be hassled with things. But, um, the the more you can be efficient, uh, at creating attention and really capturing attention of your target market. And I think practicing on TikTok is actually a very valuable skill, uh, across all of the marketing that you do. But jumping on these fun trends that come up. Um, creating content that's more fun and engaging and entertaining here at top of Funnel. I think being entertaining or interesting or funny is crucial at these stages. Um, so with the content that you're doing where you're just trying to capture as much attention, be out there, be entertaining, and obviously maintain your brand. But the better that you can do just for getting more people out there and aware of your brand is helpful. Um, at top of final two, you have SEO. I'm actually a little bit hesitant on SEO when it comes to web development SEO because a few reasons.

Brandon (00:33:57) - First, I've been studying how conversion looks on your website, and if you get. I've seen practices that get a tremendous amount of organic traffic for blog topics and blog posts that they've created, but the number of people who actually convert on that are so small, it it doesn't typically make sense to really focus on that. I think SEO as a byproduct of content production, especially for top of funnel. So if you're thinking of creating content and blog posts and written posts, I think it's better that you're creating that for basically food for your audience, so to speak. And then if it creates SEO benefit, that is an additional benefit. But for vendor practices, it is tough to take SEO at scale. Um, when it comes to like, blog content and turn that top of funnel blog content into actual paying clients. The caveat there is that I think your SEO, when it comes to your Google business profile, is absolutely a valuable investment. But I wouldn't say content so much. Um. And then also doing things like partnerships, joint venture content, partnerships, helping yourself to align with other audiences.

Brandon (00:35:17) - Here at top of funnel, I think is one of the best ways to really expand your audience and find your ideal target clients. And there are so many people out there who would love to talk to a veterinarian, um, to create content with a veterinarian. So doing joint ventures is a fantastic way to expand your net and, and basically try to reach more of your ideal clients, especially with micro-influencers in specific marketplaces. So it doesn't have to be a traditional influencer. But, I mean, if you did a joint venture with a realtor, for example, on like, how do you, um, they might have questions about like dogs and, and stuff, especially when it comes to like staging homes. How do you make this, like more appealing? I'm just making this up as I go. Right. There's there's definitely ways to target people who typically wouldn't be your ideal customer, but they have an overlap there with pet owners and things. So, um, think about that. Especially people that have.

Brandon (00:36:20) - A lot of credibility with a certain demographic locally. Um, those are the types of people that are really fantastic for your type of funnel awareness. So just to reiterate here, I think that if you start at the bottom and you work your way up, every single thing that you do at the top of the funnel is going to be more effective. And, um, having more effective marketing is important. If you are, uh, somebody that wants to stand out, that you want to control who you're targeting, do you want to be able to be tactical and efficient with your marketing and your marketing budget and produce better returns? So if you have any questions on this, please let me know. Always happy to answer questions and I hope this was helpful for you. Be sure to subscribe in iTunes, Spotify, Google Plus wherever you get your podcasts from, and I really appreciate you listening all the way through. You're amazing. Have a wonderful day.