Veterinary professionals are used to receiving emails with subject lines like, “Help! Our house has become infested with fleas!” It happens, and it’s putting pressure on your veterinary staff and your clients. Year-round education about parasite prevention is vital, but it’s especially important as we hit spring and cases start to skyrocket. In fact, 2020 showed us just how crucial parasite prevention is for pet parents. According to Pets & Parasites, numbers were high across the US, especially in the southern region.
- Heartworm: 201,888 canine positive cases, 998 feline heartworm AB positive cases, and 83 feline heartworm AG positive cases
- Roundworm: 177,365 canine positive cases and 81,676 feline positive cases
- Ticks: 400,781 canine positive Lyme disease cases, 247,105 canine positive anaplasmosis cases, and 244,645 canine positive ehrlichiosis cases
As you know, these are scary diseases that can permanently harm or even kill an animal. Now it’s time to make sure your clients understand the importance of parasite prevention for their pets.
Bring this up during every single appointment.
The best chance you’ll have of getting a patient on proper parasite prevention medication is bringing it up to the owner when they are in front of you at their appointment. If they are not currently on a regular schedule with their pet, explain to them the importance of protecting their pet from these not-so-uncommon parasites. If you have specials running or rebates to offer new subscribers, bring it up and get them signed up on the spot. Marketing is always going to be your second best weapon for getting the message out, but nothing beats your team speaking to the importance of this.
Go big on marketing and bold on messaging.
There is no sugarcoating it: heartworm and ticks kill thousands of animals per year, and most pet owners would do anything to not have their pet as one of those statistics. This is your chance to make them understand that parasite prevention is one of the most significant health decisions they’ll make during their pet’s lifetime, and their participation is a must.
While we don’t advocate for fear-based marketing tactics, we do think it’s important to lay out the cons of keeping a pet off of heartworm prevention and other protective medications. According to the American Heartworm Society, heartworm preventives can cost less than $10 per month for a dog, but treatment for heartworm can cost more than $1,000. This is your message, and the more you can push it out to your clients, the better.
Cat owners don’t get off easy, either. One in four cats diagnosed with heartworms is an indoor-only cat, and it’s important that your clients understand that all pets are susceptible to being infected.
Let WhiskerCloud help you promote Parasite Prevention Month.
It starts on the website, and we can help with that. Here are a few ideas on how to properly promote a Parasite Prevention Month special on your website. First things first, let’s get a nice banner on the top of all pages that clearly showcases your current or upcoming special. From there, we’ll link to a custom landing page.
The landing pages are built custom for your clinic, so you have options on the types of features you can include on these pages:
- Showcase special pricing! A great deal will entice people to book to lock in the lower price.
- Explain why parasite prevention is so important, and yes, make sure clients understand what happens when pet owners ignore it.
- Have a countdown for your special pricing; this can create a sense of urgency for your clients to book.
- Create a form that allows users to unlock the special; this gives you their contact information so that your team can follow up and work to get them booked.
Let’s create some custom social media posts for Parasite Prevention Month.
If you’re on our Content Plan, you know the WhiskerCloud social team can create unlimited custom graphics for your clinic’s social media page. Whether you’re shooting videos or sending our team some images, we’ll create content that gets engagement and drives people to your website to claim an offer for Parasite Prevention Month.
Run an advertising campaign.
The WhiskerCloud advertising team currently manages seven figures of ad spend for veterinary clinics worldwide. Nothing gets the phone ringing quite like an advertisement popping up on Facebook or Google that educates pet owners on how bad things can get if they don’t protect their pet from pesky parasites. Couple that with a special offer, and you’ve got conversions left and right on your latest campaign. We can target pet owners searching for dental care or do outreach ads that target pet owners within a specific radius of your hospital.
Click here to learn more about our advertising options →
We’re here to help.
No matter what you’re doing for Parasite Prevention Month, make sure to reach out, and let our team know all of the details of your campaign. We’ll make sure you’re in a position to succeed. Just email our support team at digital@whiskercloud.com and we’ll be ready for you!
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