Most veterinarians don't consider the importance of a good USP when starting their own practice. If you look at the Yellow Pages, you'll find that most all the ads look the same – the name of the clinic, phone number, address and hours of operation. I occasionally see an ad with a tag line of "When your Pet Deserves the Best" or other empty slogans like that. Anyone can say this; and when you look like all the rest, there's nothing separating your practice from the pack. You have to think USP. USP means Unique Sales Positioning.

When you think of USP, think of Domino's pizza. When Domino's pizza first started up, there were other pizza deliveries in business. They had to find a way to compete; to separate their business from the pack. So how did they do it? They came up with a unique slogan – "30 minutes or less… or your pizza is Free". By creating this simple positioning statement, they completely separated themselves from so many other pizza deliveries.

Now apply this to your own veterinary practice. What do you offer that's different? How can you make your service unique? How can you offer better value? You don't have to do something completely different. Sometimes, it's just of matter of positioning your services in a better way. As a veterinarian, you could create a YouTube channel that provides weekly tips on taking care of your dog or cat.

Think of a show each week that offers advice on treating simple ailments like tics, fleas, hotspots, etc. the videos could be short, maybe 5 to 10 min. in length. All you need is a Kodak Zi8 camcorder. Have your office assistant record you in front of the camera offering your weekly tip. After they've recorded your segment, have them do some basic editing to video by adding a simple caption at the end that has your website address.

By implementing this one simple marketing strategy into your practice, you have separated yourself from the pack of other local veterinarians. Fewer people are searching the Yellow Pages today for veterinarians. Instead, they are going to Google and typing in "their city + veterinarians". By tagging your YouTube videos with local geographic keywords, you'll get ranked very high in the search engines for veterinarians in your town. By offering these weekly video tips, you'll be known as the local Gary Vaynerchuk of veterinarians. In case you've never heard of Gary Vaynerchuk, he's the guy who's dominated the wine industry by branding his wine store with simple wine tasting video tips. You can see them at Wine Library TV.

There's a lot of retailers that sell wine, but there's only one guy who's known as the wine expert. He's created a powerful USP in his industry and you can certainly do the same in your industry as a local veterinarian.

Online video has exploded in popularity. How many times recently has a friend forwarded you an email with a link to a video of something that caught their attention; often times it's a funny pet video that someone's decided to share with the world. The fact is anyone can create an online audience in today's world of YouTube and Ustream. 

If you've not thought seriously about incorporating video on a regular basis into your online marketing, you are missing out on a tremendous opportunity to spread the word about your veterinary clinic locally. All you need is a small HD camcorder like the Kodak Zi8, and of course a computer with an online connection. 

What Kind of Video Do You Need? 

Start shooting video of your own practice. Video your staff, talk about what a typical day is like at your clinic. Video some of your recent patients, and get testimonials from their owners, especially those clients who've been with you a long time. Video testimonials are a powerful tool in marketing your veterinary practice. Also Google likes video, so if you create a YouTube channel and post that video online, Google is likely to rank it very high in the search engines if you have the right targeted keywords. 

Most businesses think that it's necessary to have professional video done for their business, but that's really not necessary. In fact, people tend to be more attracted to non scripted video that doesn't sound like a typical commercial on television. 

So if you haven't already, go out a grab a Kodak Zi8 (I personally like this one because of the external MIC port and it's inexpensive) and get one of your staff members to start recording video around the clinic each week; then have them upload them upload the videos to YouTube. The is one little marketing tip that will cost you less than $100 to implement (The Zi8 is $99 on Amazon). 

Once upon a time, veterinarians all across the country were enjoying thriving practices based on quality service and word-of-mouth advertising. Every business worth its salt used yellow pages advertising and new customers regularly called or visited. The monthly fees seemed a little steep but it was reasonable considering it didn't really take any work and new clients came in on a regular basis.

Fast forward to the new decade.

People are cutting corners due to pinched wallets. They don't even know where their phone book is. If they need something they look on the internet. Now, more and more people access the internet with their smart phone so they carry the "yellow pages" around with them in their pocket.

What does this mean to top quality veterinarians who need more customers and increased revenue per client?

Use up-to-date marketing methods or get left behind.

In the "old days" a few minutes spent with the phone book rep did the job for the whole year. Now, you're going to have to spend a bit more time but it doesn't have to be a burden.

Here's something you'll want to consider with corresponding suggestions:

— People use the internet to search out all kinds of products and services. —
Simple as it sounds, businesses today absolutely must have a website. But not just any website. Plenty of small businesses (and lots of large businesses as well) have a website that is simply an online brochure. And quite often the site is as conspicuous as a billboard on a deserted dirt road.

— What to do? —
Construct your website with these things in mind…
Google will actually help people find you if you utilize their Google Places feature.
Use basic SEO, that is Search Engine Optimization, to bring more and more visitors to your site.
Capture visitors' contact information so you can keep in touch.
Optimize your site for mobile access.

This may sound like high tech stuff but it doesn't have to be difficult. You can use, what else but the internet, to find information on these topics. Google can be your friend in more ways than one!