Some careers take you places you never could have predicted at the beginning. Recently, our Founder, Deb Croucher, presented to a room full of vets who wanted help making sense of marketing for their profession.

Long before this became her world, she was a young vet and practice owner who got tired of repeating the same information about heart disease and other ailments. There had to be an easier way. So, she created a leaflet to give to clients instead.

What does that have to do with now? Everything. From leaflets came newsletters, websites and eventually SVMG. Today, we have countless ways to reach people, but knowing what to say, where to say it and who needs to hear it still matters.

That was the thinking behind How Vets Get Found, Trusted and Chosen, which brought many of the conversations we have with practices every day into one practical framework they could use to take stock of their own position after they went home from the conference.

Deb doesn’t travel to conferences just to tell vets they need to post more on Facebook. And yes, we know that conflicts with some popular industry advice.

The rest of the usual advice takes a back seat, too. Spend more on Google Ads. Make more videos. Learn how AI works. Get on the latest platform or lose out. We’re not saying these things don’t have a place in the marketing mix, but none of them is the one true magic fix either.

All that noise can leave practice owners with a growing list of things they supposedly need to do, without much help understanding whether any of it is actually right for their business. Some know they need to do something, but have no idea where to start. Others are already doing plenty, but couldn’t confidently tell you what is working.

And that’s the problem with putting too much weight on any one tactic. For example, Google Ads can put your practice in front of someone searching for specific keywords at exactly the right moment. That visibility comes at a cost and only covers the searches you have chosen to target. This becomes a much bigger limitation when you consider how people are searching now.

Pet owners once typed something like “vet near me” into Google. Now, they might pull out their phone and ask Google or an AI tool, “My Westie keeps getting itchy ears and skin problems. Is there a vet near me with experience treating this breed?” Search has become far more conversational and specific. A conventional ad campaign may never reach them.

The point isn’t to dismiss any of these options. It’s to understand what each one can realistically achieve, what your practice actually needs and where your time and money are best spent.

Before obsessing over which marketing channels to use, forget about channels for a minute. Take a step back and ask yourself: what does your practice actually need its marketing to accomplish?

A few more considerations. Do the right pet owners know you exist? When they find you, can they quickly understand who you are, what you do well and why they should choose you? Do they have enough information to feel confident making contact?

We think brand is a really misunderstood term. It’s not your logo. It’s not your shopfront or uniform. It’s how people feel about you before they call. And that’s exactly why these questions matter.

And this is where marketing presentations can go one of two ways. Some presenters or marketing agencies will give you a big, long to-do list. We prefer the second option, which is to give the room a way to figure it out for themselves.

At the recent AVA conference, Deb presented our Growth Framework, which looks at marketing through five foundations: brand, visibility, trust, measurement and systems. Attendees were given a workbook to make notes, answer questions and bring back to their clinics for future reference.

She then put some of the most common marketing activities through that framework, from websites, reviews and educational content to AI search, Google Ads, social media, email and reporting. The differences were pretty stark. Some of the things practices spend the most time and money on actually came out much weaker than you might expect.

Websites, Google Business Profiles, reviews and educational content were among the stronger performers. Websites also have the extra advantage of being the only marketing asset a business truly owns. It’s yours. Google and social platforms can change the rules whenever they like, and their role is generally narrower. Email, however, typically performs strongly across several areas.

Detailed reporting is essential. And not just a list of traffic, impressions and views. Context tells you what’s actually performing, where new clients are coming from, which content and keywords are working and whether paid spend is delivering a return.

For us, there’s more value in giving people the tools to make informed decisions for themselves. They can then apply that thinking to the realities and priorities of their own practice. We talk a lot about why generic marketing formulas don’t work. Giving people another one would rather defeat the purpose.

Deb sent vets at the AVA Conference home with a powerful tool. The workbook. It gave them an opportunity to honestly review their current marketing and come away with a score. From there, they could see what needed attention and where their priorities should lie.

At Specialist Vet Marketing Group, we have a full team of specialists working together to help veterinary practices put a complete marketing system in place, with the right strategy, content, visibility, reporting and processes to support long-term growth.

If you had the opportunity to hear Deb’s presentation, we hope your evaluation is going well, and you’re feeling confident about making some positive changes. If you weren’t there, or you’ve realised you could use some help making sense of your marketing, please get in touch. We’ll be happy to talk through what you’re currently doing and what might be possible from here.