As a veterinarian, you have an important role in your community: keeping animals and beloved pets safe and healthy. And you want to spread the word about what you do and get more customers in from your local area. However, getting a strong handle on online marketing can be difficult to do on your own.
Marketing to your local area is important for businesses like veterinary clinics. Your clients don’t want to travel too far for care for their animals, so making sure your marketing messages reach people who live within targeted local areas is paramount. But how exactly do you do it? That’s where Surefire Local and hyperlocal marketing strategies come in.
Hyperlocal marketing can help you get those key customers that are in the right area for your business. And when you have the help of a tool like Surefire Local, you can implement these techniques and get the best results for your veterinarian business. In this article we’ll explain what hyperlocal marketing is and give you hyperlocal marketing tips for veterinarians.
Hyperlocal Marketing Explained
The first question we need to answer is what hyperlocal marketing is. Hyperlocal marketing is designed to increase online visibility and reach within a specific geographical area or local market.
When people search on search engines like Google, they search with location in mind. They ask questions like “who is a top rated veterinarian near me?” or “the best veterinarian in X area”. In fact, “near me now” is one of the fastest growing search terms. That means that your online presence matters more than your website, as customer engagement can happen off of your website.
Your influence in local searches is dependent on things like your Google Business profile, online reviews, and local listings. There are five pillars of local search visibility and hyperlocal marketing that you need to keep in mind as you think about ranking for local search:
- Recency: How often do you publish new content on social media, directories, and your website?
- Distance: Where are you in relation to a person’s search, and does Google know if you service the area where a person is searching from?
- Prominence: Do other websites link to yours as a source for expertise and knowledge?
- Relevance: Is what you are creating valuable and useful to readers? Do you provide answers to the questions that people are actively searching for?
- Availability: Are your business hours set to open when people are searching?
Hyperlocal Marketing Tips for Veterinarians
Hyperlocal marketing is essential to local businesses. In order to implement it in your business, you need to get some tips and strategies to become more visible to your ideal customers online, no matter where they look.
Website Optimizations
One of the ways to hyperlocalize your website is to include your local area in the URLs of key pages on your website, such as a Services Area page. Your location tag can include your city and state. Doing so will specifically call out where your business is located and list all of the areas that you serve in that area. Another way to help hyperlocalize your website is to make your contact information stand out. Make sure that your location, phone number, and hours are clearly listed across your website, like in your footer.
In addition to making a detailed services page, you can also make sure that your site is optimized for the mobile user. Most web searches take place on a mobile device, so making sure that your website loads on smartphones and tablets is essential to keeping your customers happy.
It’s also important to note that consumers expect websites and web pages to load quickly, within a few seconds. If it takes too long, a potential visitor will abandon the website to find a quicker option. That’s why reducing the number of redirects on your website, compressing image files, and leveraging browser caching is so important.
Local Business Listings
One of the most important steps in implementing a hyperlocal strategy is to claim and optimize your Google Business profile. This is a free tool that allows you to manage the way your business appears on Google Maps and in Google searches.
However, despite the fact that this step is so important, 56% of businesses have not claimed their listing. That means that they are losing out on opportunities to optimize their listings and be seen. A complete Google Business profile that improves your visibility in local search will include:
- Business info
- Categories
- Service offerings
- Service areas
- Posts
- Photos and videos
- Reviews
- Questions and answers
- Appointment links
Beyond your Google Business profile, there are many other local listings that you can put your business in. The more local listings you have, the more visibility for your business. You can get listings on search engines like Bing and Yahoo, review websites like Yelp and Nextdoor, and social media platforms.
In order to get the most out of your listings, you need to make sure that your information is updated and accurate. The more complete and accurate information you have available about your business, the more credibility Google will give to your business and the higher you will appear in searches.
Reviews & Ratings
Word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing tools. You should strive to get at least 3 to 4 new reviews each month. Focus your review collecting on sites like Google or Facebook that have more domain authority. Don’t be afraid to ask your customers for reviews in emails, with reminders, and in person during appointments.
Great reviews are recent, prominent, and relevant. It’s also important to respond to all the reviews you get, even if they are less than flattering. By responding and proving that you care, you can do even more to convince potential customers that they should give you a try.
Content Marketing
Creating content is a foundational part of marketing, but you can add location signals into your content in order to build a hyperlocal focus on your area. Think about pairing types of content with location tags. Content includes:
- Blog posts
- Videos
- Images
- Infographics
- Podcasts
- Social media posts
And location tags include:
- Social media check-ins
- Content titles
- File names
- Meta descriptions
- Events
The more content with location signals you have, the higher the chances that you will rank high and appear for local searches. Having photos of your business on your Google Business profile can also help.
Digital Advertising
Paid ads include platforms like Google Ads, local service ads, Bing ads, Facebook Ads, and Yelp ads. These types of ads can get your content and message in front of specific audiences, including those in a specific geographical location.
By setting location parameters on target locations, you can help to narrow down your ads by state, city, town, or zip code. You can also create location-specific landing pages for every area in which you serve to get really specific with your ads.
Email Marketing
Building an email list is one of the most reliable sources of marketing. Emails have great readability and are direct communication with customers. You can gather emails through blogs, exit pop-ups, sign-up sheets, or CTAs. Once you have an email list built, you can set up campaigns that are specific for locations and target specific segments of your audience.
Brand Building
Building an online presence is closely tied to your brand. A brand includes things like your business name, logo, community, awards, and services. Combined with your content and citations, your online presence starts to build. Making these areas focused on your local area by doing things like supporting local events and charities can help improve your reputation and online presence.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Demo
Hyperlocal marketing is important for veterinary clinics and other local businesses. However, without the right tools, it can be hard to implement these strategies and get ahead of the competition. By partnering with Surefire Local, the leading all-in-one marketing intelligence platform, hyperlocal marketing is made easy.
Control all of your marketing efforts from one place and gain deep insights into your marketing to find out what’s working and what isn’t. Attend a Surelife Local marketing demo and discover what the platform can do for your business today.
