Need some veterinary social media inspiration for August? We’ve got your veterinary clinic covered with a guide to add to your marketing plan. This month is jam-packed with fun social media marketing holidays and activities that you can easily tie back to your business. Kick off the end of summer with engaging social media content, promotional events, and blog posts that are informational and enjoyable. To give you a head start, we’ve put together a list of 20 content ideas to help with your clinic’s marketing strategy this month that should delight and draw engagement from pet owners.
Veterinary Marketing Ideas for August
1. National Immunization Awareness Month
As a vet med employee, you know just how important immunizations are for our furry friends. Share this knowledge on your social media pages and custom veterinary website. Create a few blog posts around the topics of vaccines to be posted on your site and promote the information on your social media. Directing your social media followers to your website gets them one step closer to booking an appointment. Here are a few blog ideas to get you started:
- At what age can my dog or cat be vaccinated?
- What are core vaccines vs. lifestyle vaccines?
- Why it’s important to stick to a vaccination schedule.
2. National Back-To-School Month
Everyone knows that the kids are going back to the classroom, but so are the puppies! Back-to-school time is a great tie-in to help you promote dog training classes. Think about running a promotion for your pet training classes or partnering with a local trainer to offer classes in the clinic. Running limited-time promotions is always enticing to potential clients. At WhiskerCloud, we can create a countdown timer to put on your website, promoting the urgency of taking advantage of the deal while it’s still available.
3. International Assistance Dog Week – August 1-7
This week, it’s all about shining a spotlight on service dogs! If you have any clients who are service dogs, ask their pet parents if you can highlight them on your clinic’s social media channels and website. It’s also a good idea to have information on hand about how to adopt an assistance or service dog just in case you have any inquiring clients looking for a working pup. Additionally, many organizations that train service dogs ask for sponsorships. Get involved in your community by sponsoring a service dog in the making. Then, post their training progress updates on your social media channels!
4. Give a Dog a Bone Week – August 10-16
National Give a Dog a Bone Week is a campaign started by Feeding Pets of the Homeless, a non-profit organization with the mission to provide food and veterinary care to pets of homeless individuals. Throughout this week, donation sites are set up throughout the country asking for dog food and supplies that are then taken to food banks and shelters. To help the cause, set up a donation site at your clinic and help collect pet food for dogs in need or notify your followers of local donation sites. Use your social media channels to help raise awareness and give information about how to donate.
5. Universal Birthday for Shelter Dogs #Dogust1st – August 1st
Time to celebrate all the lovely adopted shelter dogs! Partner with a local dog-friendly bakery to supply birthday cupcakes for dogs that come into the clinic on this day. Be sure to take lots of pictures and videos of the pups enjoying their treats and share these photos on social media.
6. National Ice Cream Sandwich Day – August 2nd
Naturally, you’ll want to post photos and videos of your feline patients on this day. We recommend creating spotlight posts for a couple of cats by sharing their picture and a few fun facts about them, like their favorite treat or strangest napping spot. If you have a cat that lives in your clinic, share information about them or a “day in the life” video of your clinic cat.
7. International Cat Day – August 8th
This day is all about the felines! Share images of your newest and oldest cat clients. There’s so much information your clinic can share about cats and cat ownership that is useful to your followers, so create content covering cat-related topics. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- What food is right for your cat?
- How often should your cat see the veterinarian?
- How to know if your cat needs a companion.
8. National Spoil Your Dog Day – August 10th
Chances are pet parents are already spoiling their dog every day, so on National Spoil Your Dog Day share information about appropriate dog treats and how often your clinic recommends giving these treats. Additionally, highlight any services you provide to pamper pups, including dog spa treatments, daycare, boarding, acupuncture, etc.
9. National Lazy Day – August 10th
Pump up your engagement by asking your followers to share their favorite ways to be lazy. Better yet, create a lazy day photo contest! Put out a call to action for your followers to submit photos of their pets being lazy (you can direct them to submit to the gallery page of your website) and share them on your social media channels. Think about creating an interactive story on Instagram where users can vote on which lazy day photo is their favorite.
10. World Elephant Day – August 12th
Although your clinic likely doesn’t service elephants, your audience is full of animal lovers who would be intrigued by fun facts about these magnificent creatures. You can also create content showing how elephants are related to the animals you do service or get your followers involved by creating a quiz on your Instagram story to test their elephant knowledge.
11. National Check the Chip Day – August 15th
It’s a perfect time to highlight your microchipping services. In recent blogs, we’ve mentioned social platforms move toward prioritizing video-based content, and ‘Check the Chip Day’ can provide a great topic for a short video or Instagram Reel. Demonstrate how a microchip is placed or how a chip is scanned. This will showcase to pet parents just how simple it is to keep their pets protected.
12. National Relaxation Day – August 15th
It’s time to take a break and relax, and pets can join in on the relaxation day fun too! Create content that highlights the services you provide to pamper pets. Grooming, spa, and boarding services are all things for pets to do on National Relaxation Day. Or, if your clinic doesn’t offer these types of services, team up with a local pet spa to cross-promote your businesses.
13. National Tell a Joke Day – August 16th
This is a fun holiday that you can use to get your staff involved in your social media! Film a quick video clip of some staff members telling their favorite animal-related joke and encourage your followers to submit a joke of their own!
14. National Black Cat Appreciation Day – August 17th
Showcase some of your black cat patients on your social media feed! You could also partner with your local shelter to highlight any black cats that are up for adoption. Additionally, focus your social media content on dispelling some of the myths associated with black cats and sharing interesting facts about these furry felines.
15. World Photo Day – August 19th
World Photo Day presents a great opportunity to think about celebrating in the clinic by seeing up a photo booth using an instant camera or a portable printer. Don’t forget to take some behind the scene footage to share on your social media pages. This is also a great time to ask your clients to submit their best photos of their furry friends to your photo gallery!
Read More: Your Veterinary Website Should Have A Photo Gallery
16. International Homeless Animals Day – August 21st
Partner with your local shelter to highlight some animals that are up for adoption. If you do not already have a relationship with your local shelter, this day is a great way to kick off the partnership! If you have a bit more time on your hands, host an adoption event at your clinic. Put together a new pet adoption kit for pet parents to take home and include material such as informational pamphlets, a food bowl, product samples, and more.
Read More: How to Partner Your Veterinary Hospital with Your Local Shelter
17. National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day – August 22nd
Highlight the services you provide for feline patients, including and boarding or grooming services. Create social media content geared toward transporting a cat to the vet, like choosing the right cat carrier or calming an anxious cat before and during a veterinary appointment. If your clinic is a fear-free clinic or has feline-only hours, be sure to add that information to your website and social feed! These specialized services can easily set you apart from other clinics in your area, and posting about them will attract clients who are in need of these offerings.
18. International Dog Day – August 26th
This day is all about the pups! Share images of your newest and oldest canine clients. There’s so much information your clinic can share about dogs and dog ownership that is useful to your followers, so create content covering dog-related topics. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- What food is right for your dog?
- How often should your dog see the veterinarian?
- How to know if your dog needs a companion.
19. National Women’s Equality Day – August 26th
Create content that shares facts about women in vet med. The AVMA put out a press release for Women’s History Month earlier this year. It’s a great resource to gather facts about women in the veterinary industry that you can use to create social media content. On this day, you should also celebrate the women in your clinic through employee spotlights on your social media page and promote organizations for women in vet-med like DVMoms and Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative.
20. National Holistic Pet Day – August 30th
Holistic pet services are becoming increasingly sought after, but not many practices offer these types of services. If you are one of them, be sure to highlight these unique offerings on the ‘services’ page of your website as well as your social media platforms. Demonstrating some of these services online, through video, is another great way to boost awareness of the treatment your clinic provides, as well as educating on the service itself.
We’ve given you the ideas; now, the next step is creating your content and scheduling it out! Or make your life even easier and let our team take care of your content creation for you. Our content plan customers receive custom graphics and scheduling tailored to their audience and increase traffic to their site!
Need more than just veterinary marketing ideas for August?
Check out our complete social media holiday guide for veterinary hospitals. We update it often so you never run out of awesome campaigns and ideas.
Enjoy free veterinary marketing guides for each month of the year.
WhiskerCloud websites are fully loaded with everything you need to grow.
We offer cloud hosting, SEO, real-time website tracking, reputation management, social media management, and advertising — and all of it comes with unlimited support from our team.
