Managing Negative Comments or Reviews Online

If you're marketing your veterinary practice online using local business profiles, at some point in time, you'll have to manage negative comments and reviews. Managing your reputation online is part of marketing your veterinary practice on the Internet. It comes with the territory - but it is well worth it.

If a disgruntled employee or an unhappy client writes a negative review about you or your animal hospital, how should you respond? Should you try to have it removed? As any veterinary practice knows, unflattering results can appear in your local profile (like Local Google results). They can be embarrassing and can hurt your reputation. But don't forget, great reviews and flattering remarks can also be posted!

My Hometown Vet can help you. Below is an excellent video and article about how to deal with these negative review.




Recovering From Negative Reviews
4:17
"A Web site can be a marketer's lifeline with its customers, but what happens when it's marred with negative reviews and comments? Bruce Weinberg, marketing professor at Bentley University, tells WSJ's Erin White how to address and recover from poor feedback."

April 22, 2009
How to Manage Your Reputation Online
By Azadeh Ensha
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/how-to-manage-your-reputation-online/

How to Manage Your Reputation Online
By Azadeh Ensha

On Tuesday, Google announced that it had started displaying Google profile results on name queries to help give users more control over their Google identity.
As anyone who has been Googled knows, unflattering results of your name or company — especially when listed in the first several pages — can run the gamut from embarrassing to damaging.

Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to remove content from Google. The search engine’s rule of thumb is to send you to the webmaster of the site, which often owns the content in question and has final veto power over its removal. As for Google profile, it runs at the bottom of United States name-query search pages, which means potentially damaging items will still be prominently highlighted in the search results.

If the webmaster doesn’t agree to have the negative content removed, your next best option is to bury it. Here are some quick, easy ways to do that.

Use your name to register your own Web site. I would also recommend a sub domain and a blog, again using your real name. Wordpress and LiveJournal both have high Google PageRanks. Look into how to use title tags and headers to further optimize your results. Almost without exception, your Web site will show up as the first result in your name search.

Piggyback off Web sites whose pages rank high in Google. Social networking sites are great for this. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Naymz, Tumblr, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Vimeo, FriendFeed and Ning are great places to start. You don’t have to actively use these sites. Simply park your profile, add the necessary amount of content and make sure to adjust the settings to public view where appropriate so that your profile can be crawled and indexed by Google. Social sites are especially useful in pushing down negative content because some, like LinkedIn and Flickr, allow you to create a unique URL, like flickr.com/johnmiddleinitialdoe, which will further ensure that the site ranks high atop your name search.

Another option is to leave a comment on high-ranking blogs and Web sites using the same name.
One person who has been successful in pushing down offensive content is oft-skewered Web personality Julia Allison. Ms. Allison’s name search incorporates many of the above tips. Ms. Allison also changed her last name, which is another way to clean your Web footprint, as is using a middle initial.

It’s also useful to set up a Google news alert for your name so you can continue to monitor your brand. Remember, everything you put your name stamp on can potentially leave a lasting trail on the Internet so, perhaps most important, think before you type.
Have any other strategies for managing your rep online? Post them below. If we get enough, I’ll digest the best suggestions in a follow-up post.

To your Internet Marketing success!
CJ Levendoski
Managing Partner

Myhometownvet.com allows veterinarians to market their veterinary practice on the internet; marketing your veterinary practice website; search engine optimization for the veterinary practice. Veterinary practice management. Veterinary marketing. Veterinary advertising, veterinary reminder cards.

Understanding Search Engines - Veterinary Internet Marketing

When I talk to my veterinary clients about how to market their practice online, one of the first things we discuss are the different elements of a search result page. When pet owners search for an animal hospital online, they type in their "key words" and look for results that best match their criteria. That search result page can be broken up into three different elements:

Paid results (sponsored ads, "Pay Per Click" ads, Natural or Granular search results, and Local results. Understanding what the different sections of your search page mean will help you understand how to market your veterinary hospital's website more effectively.





Our goal at My Hometown Vet is for your website to appear in all three of those places on the first page. Why is that important? Here's a statistic that will make it very clear:


According to Google (where nearly 75% of all searches are performed), the average searcher makes a "click-through" decision in 2.5 to 5 seconds. That's not a lot of time to get a pet owner's attention! That means the vast majority of decisions are made on the first page to the search engine results. If you want your veterinary practice to be found by a potential client, your site needs to appear there. Most people do not look past the first few search results, let alone go to the next page!


Another important statistic from Yahoo suggests that websites that appear in both the sponsored ads and the natural ("free") results are 4X more likely to be clicked. It's important to have a comprehensive Internet marketing campaign that combines all of the different elements of a search result. And let me say it again - if you want potential new clients to find you online, you have to appear on the first page!


SEO Beginners Guide: Keyword Research

Keywords. This is a term that you hear all the time when it comes to SEO. In fact, it’s difficult to read something about SEO without keywords being mentioned. This blog post will help you understand why keywords & keyword research are so important to the popularity of your website.

Simply put, keywords are the words that the search engines use to catalog, index and find your website. The idea is to find the most relevant and popular search terms that apply to your business and then make sure the content of your website are optimized for them.

For example if a user searches for “walking maps in the Negev”, a web page with that exact text will rank better than a page that says “desert walking routes in Israel” In fact, keyword research is very much like traditional market research. You need to find out as much information as possible about your target market(s) to ensure your marketing messages are relevant and useful to the reader.

Why are keywords important? Well there are three main reasons:

1. It helps to bring lots of visitors to your website Finding and using the right keywords on your web site to improve your site’s ranking is really the cornerstone, if not the most important part, of any SEO strategy or project. The difference between two similar keywords or phrases can mean the difference between 2, 200 or 2000 visits a day.

2. Focusing on relevant keywords and useful content will improve the experience for the visitor People don’t have lots of time to waste and want to find relevant information, products or services as quickly as possible. Search engines want the same thing. In order to keep both of them happy you need to provide useful and relevant content that relates to the popular search terms. This way the search engines will rank you higher because they trust visitors will be happy with your content.

3. Keyword research can help identify new areas of opportunity you were unaware of Conducting keyword research really uncovers the needs & interests of your existing & potential customers. Looking at what they search for highlights problems or needs, interests or passions, and what’s valuable or relevant.

To your Internet Marketing success!

CJ Levendoski
Managing Partner

Myhometownvet.com allows veterinarians to market their veterinary practice on the internet; marketing your veterinary practice website; search engine optimization for the veterinary practice. Veterinary practice management. Veterinary marketing. Veterinary advertising, veterinary reminder cards.

The Secrets of Marketing Your Animal Hospital in a Web 2.0 World (part 2)

I've been receiving questions about the need for Search Engine Optimization and Website Marketing services versus directory listings. While there's nothing wrong with being listed in a directory (I am certain that potential clients will find you there), nothing should take the place of having your own Internet Marketing campaign. No matter how well the directory says they market themselves, that's still just one place a potential client might find you on the Internet.

Can you find your website on the first page of a Google or Yahoo search when you search for an animal hospital in your city? If you can't, then your clients can't either. So how do you get there? This is the problem that My Hometown Vet solves for you.

Did you know that 70% of all Internet searches rely on the natural or granular results that appear in a search engine result? Those are the "free" listings. If a potential client wants to find a veterinary practice, who do you think they'll be most likely to chose - a directory of veterinarians, or an actual veterinary practice's website?

Here are some additional tips and tools you can use to make sure your website is found:

The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
The Wall Street Journal
Dec. 15, 2008

Give consumers a reason to participate.

Consumers have to have some incentive to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences on a company Web site.

One lure is to make sure consumers can use the online community to network among themselves on topics of their own choosing. That way the site isn't all about the company, it's also about them. For instance, a toy company that created a community of hundreds of mothers to solicit their opinions and ideas on toys also enables them to write their own blogs on the site, a feature that many use to discuss family issues.

Other companies provide more-direct incentives: cash rewards or products, some of which are available only to members of the online community. Still others offer consumers peer recognition by awarding points each time they post comments, answer questions or contribute to a wiki entry. Such recognition not only encourages participation, but also has the benefit of allowing both the company and the other members of the community to identify experts on various topics.

Many companies told us that a moderator plays a critical role in keeping conversations going, highlighting information that's important to a discussion and maintaining order. That's important because consumers are likely to drift away if conversations peter out or if they feel that their voices are lost in a chaotic flood of comments. The moderator can also see to it that consumer input is seen and responded to by the right people within the company.

Getting Sociable
· A New Approach: Marketing these days is more about building a two-way relationship with consumers. Web 2.0 tools are a powerful way to do that.
· The Pioneers: A growing number of companies are learning how to collaborate with consumers online on product development, service enhancement and promotion.
· The Lessons: From these early efforts, a set of marketing principles have emerged. Among them: get consumers involved in all aspects of marketing, listen to and join the online conversation about your products outside your site, and give the consumers you work with plenty of leeway to express their opinions.

And, of course, it's important to make a site as easy to use as possible. For instance, there should be clear, simple instructions for consumers to set up a blog or contribute to a wiki.

To your marketing success,
CJ Levendoski
Blog with us at: http://www.myhometownvet.com

Myhometownvet.com allows veterinarians to market their veterinary practice on the internet; marketing your veterinary practice website; search engine optimization for the veterinary practice. Veterinary practice management. Veterinary marketing. Veterinary advertising, veterinary reminder cards.

The Secrets of Marketing Your Animal Hospital in a Web 2.0 World (part 1)

A hospital manager asked me the other day why they should work with us when they're already listed on another directory service. Now that's a great question!

The Internet is far to big to be considered one "venue". When you think of marketing and advertising, many veterinarians and animal hospital managers think of the Yellow Pages, or a community newspaper advertisement. The Yellow Pages is one venue. It's one place where a pet owner will find you. On the Internet, your website could be found many different ways. For instance, a pay per click (PPC) campaign on Google is one venue. If a pet owner uses Google to search for an animal hospital or veterinary clinic in Chicago, IL, they may find your ad. But what if they use MSN or Yahoo? What if they ignore the PPC ads and look at the "natural" or "granular" search results (these are the "free" results that appear under the ads)? What if they're looking for a veterinary practice on Facebook using their friends fan sites? Twitter, LinkedIn, Local Profile Pages, Blog Sites, Groupsites, etc... The Internet is comprised of hundreds and thousands of ways for you to be found.

Seems a little overwhelming, doesn't it? That's exactly why companies like My Hometown Vet (www.myhometownvet.com) exist. It's a lot to ask of a small business owner who also happens to be practicing medicine to understand all there is to know about the Internet and using Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 tools to grow their practice. However, that's where your clients are.

To reach them, you have to meet them where the are.

Let's focus a little more on Web 2.0 today. The more you understand what your clients use to find information and communicate with each other, the better you'll be equipped to meet them where they are by using the tools they use.

To your marketing success,

CJ Levendoski

The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
The Wall Street Journal
Dec. 15, 2008

By SALVATORE PARISE , PATRICIA J. GUINAN and BRUCE D. WEINBERG

For marketers, Web 2.0 offers a remarkable new opportunity to engage consumers.

If only they knew how to do it.

That's where this article aims to help. We interviewed more than 30 executives and managers in both large and small organizations that are at the forefront of experimenting with Web 2.0 tools. From those conversations and further research, we identified a set of emerging principles for marketing.
But first, a more basic question: What is Web 2.0, anyway? Essentially, it encompasses the set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online. That includes blogs, wikis, social-networking sites and other online communities, and virtual worlds.

Millions of people have become familiar with these tools through sites like Facebook, Wikipedia and Second Life, or by writing their own blogs. And a growing number of marketers are using Web 2.0 tools to collaborate with consumers on product development, service enhancement and promotion. But most companies still don't appear to be well versed in this area.
So here's a look at the principles we arrived at -- and how marketers can use them to get the best results.

Don't just talk at consumers -- work with them throughout the marketing process.

A Web site can be a marketer's lifeline with its customers, but what happens when it's marred with negative reviews and comments? Bruce Weinberg, marketing professor at Bentley University, tells WSJ's Erin White how to address and recover from poor feedback.

Web 2.0 tools can be used to do what traditional advertising does: persuade consumers to buy a company's products or services. An executive can write a blog, for instance, that regularly talks up the company's goods. But that kind of approach misses the point of 2.0. Instead, companies should use these tools to get the consumers involved, inviting them to participate in marketing-related activities from product development to feedback to customer service.

How can you do that? A leading greeting-card and gift company that we spoke with is one of many that have set up an online community -- a site where it can talk to consumers and the consumers can talk to each other. The company solicits opinions on various aspects of greeting-card design and on ideas for gifts and their pricing. It also asks the consumers to talk about their lifestyles and even upload photos of themselves, so that it can better understand its market.

A marketing manager at a company says that, as a way to obtain consumer feedback and ideas for product development, the online community is much faster and cheaper than the traditional focus groups and surveys used in the past. The conversations consumers have with each other, he adds, result in "some of the most interesting insights," including gift ideas for specific occasions, such as a college graduation, and the prices consumers are willing to pay for different gifts.

Similarly, a large technology company uses several Web 2.0 tools to improve collaboration with both its business partners and consumers. Among other things, company employees have created wikis -- Web sites that allow users to add, delete and edit content -- to list answers to frequently asked questions about each product, and consumers have added significant contributions. For instance, within days of the release of a new piece of software by the company, consumers spotted a problem with it and posted a way for users to deal with it. They later proposed a way to fix the problem, which the company adopted. Having those solutions available so quickly showed customers that the company was on top of problems with its products.

Myhometownvet.com allows veterinarians to market their veterinary practice on the internet; marketing your veterinary practice website; search engine optimization for the veterinary practice. Veterinary practice management. Veterinary marketing. Veterinary advertising, veterinary reminder cards.

The Internet and your veterinary practice; Veterinary Practice Management Part 2:

It's no longer enough to have a nice website. In fact, you might have the greatest website the industry has ever seen - but can your clients and potential clients find it?

Here's a quick test - go to Google (Google is used for nearly 70% of all searches world wide) and search for your clinic using this example: "Veterinarian Houston TX". Where do you appear? Are you on the first page? Can you find your website at all? If not, don't feel alone - most veterinary practices don't have the time or personnel to manage an aggressive Internet marketing campaign. It's why we started My Hometown Vet.

Understanding how the Internet works today will give you some insight as to where you can reach pet owners. It's no longer enough to publish a website and expect people to come to you. Today, your website should go to them. That's the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Web 2.0 Means Business
These tools are many times free and very easy to use. There are now a variety of tools available to veterinary practice for both knowledge sharing and collaboration. Here are a few examples to help get the creative juices flowing:

Web Sites
For the most part, traditional animal hospital Web sites limit visitors to viewing content. The sites are online versions of printed brochures that far too often are static—quickly becoming out of date and stale. Web 2.0 Web sites, on the other hand, expand the user experience by encouraging participation and asking users to add value. Some have defined Web-as-information-source as Web 1.0—contrasting that to the participatory Web known as 2.0.

What could that mean for your animal hospital? Instead of having an overly deep and content-rich Web site you have a “thinner” site with an integrated blog component. It is through the blog that the content remains dynamic, fresh and current. More importantly, current clients and prospective new clients can add comments to your posts. Thus, they are engaged and become active participants in your animal hospital “community.” Coincidently, they are adding value.

RSS
Really simple syndication, or RSS, is a basically a personal news wire service. When you create content you can use RSS to automatically notify the world that you have added information to your blog or Web site. People interested in your Web site or blog subscribe to RSS feeds so that when you site is updated, the RSS reader grabs the latest content and delivers it back to the them.

By using RSS feeds, content is pushed out to subscribers which is much more effective than expecting customers to “check in” to your site.

Del.icio.us
The Web 2.0 capability known as del.icio.us can be installed as a plug-in to your Internet browser. It allows you to bookmark and tag Web articles immediately with keywords that resonate specifically with you. As a result, rather than sending a link to an interesting article in e-mail, clients can access del.icio.us and can see the stories you have tagged.

Instead of using email you are using a tool where users can start to see the common interests of others. As confirmed by the golf “culture,” common interests in one area—even if they are not work-related—open conversations that often lead to professional relationships.

Social Networking
Many animal hospital owners question the value of social networking and think that those using social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook are wasting time at the workplace—when they could be seeing patients or working with clients. Yet, social networking tools are becoming the building blocks of trusted professional relationships.

Think of these environments as today’s online Chamber of Commerce meetings, where interactions lead to business opportunities. But unlike Chamber meetings, these social networks offer even more relevant and targeted interactions with the sorts of clients a veterinarian may want to acquire. Technologies such as Facebook show the relationship and instill at least a small degree of trust between someone who sends an invitation to become "friends" and others within the network of friends.

Social networks, too, are fostering more collaboration within the veterinary industry. As an example, I have my profile on LinkedIn and I’ve found a several groups focused on the veterinary industry that share common interests.

Groupsites are a new class of Web sites that basically allow any group the ability to create their own unique social network and collaboration site. Groupsites combine the features of traditional Web sites, blogs, collaboration software and social networks. Groupsites can be either public or private and provide a meeting place that typically provides members with a shared calendar, discussion forums, group blog member profiles, photo gallery, and file storage.

Conclusion
For all the benefits that Web 2.0 offers your animal hospital and our industry, the capabilities also pose challenges. Because people are accustomed to using the Web 2.0 tools at home, the line between personal and professional usage blurs. While your animal hospital can benefit from providing your employees with an open environment that fosters participation and collaboration, you will want to ensure that the technology is being used appropriately and professionally. These issues are particularly salient when managing young professionals who have grown up in a world where Facebook and MySpace are their primary way to share information.

The technologies of Web 2.0 continue to evolve and change at an ever-increasing pace but the social and cultural changes they enable have permanently transformed the way our world works. Ignoring the Web 2.0 Culture is not an option. Social media and other Web 2.0 capabilities are creating new opportunities by facilitating communication inside your animal hospital and extending collaboration beyond animal hospital walls. Having a strategy and setting goals are keys to insuring success with any new endeavor—this is especially true with something as transformational as Web 2.0. The rewards are great: When chosen and applied judiciously, nearly every Web 2.0 weapon can play meaningful and profitable role within your animal hospital.

Myhometownvet.com allows veterinarians to market their veterinary practice on the internet; marketing your veterinary practice website; search engine optimization for the veterinary practice. Veterinary practice management. Veterinary marketing.

The Internet and your veterinary practice; Veterinary Practice Management Part 1:

I've said to our veterinary clients (clients of My Hometown Vet) that in order to find new clients of their own, they have to reach them where they are. Where do you believe your prospective clients are? Do you believe that people are picking up the Yellow Pages to find a new veterinarian? Perhaps some of them. But I can tell you from our company's research that most people no longer use the Yellow Pages. They use the Internet.

So, are you there for them?

Are you reaching them with the tools that they're using everyday? For instance, did you know that there are over 200 million active Facebook users and that an estimated 100 million of them logon to Facebook everyday? Does your practice have a Facebook fan site? What a great example of using Web 2.0!

Many veterinary practice owners are wary of the hype around online social media, but they should think about them as today’s practice-building tools. Are you taking advantage of them to grow your practice?

When there is a discussion about Web 2.0 it typically centers on Web logs (or blogs), Social Networks, Flickr, Wikis, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the like. To be sure, there is an entire universe of very cool technology making up the Web 2.0 landscape.

Yet, technology just for technology’s sake makes little sense and if Web 2.0 were just about the technology it would be far less compelling. Technologies are neither good nor bad. Rather, it is how they are used that defines them.

So, you might ask, “What’s the big deal about Web 2.0?” Web 2.0 technologies are the enablers to a set of social and cultural trends that are transforming our world. Peers coming together and tapping into a collective intelligence to create value characterize this new world. It is a culture where by drawing strength from each other, individuals collectively gain control, influence and power.

Back to the Future
Actually, people’s desire to connect is not new. Historically, people have depended on each other for strength and support. The front porch of the general store was a place where the community gathered to share stories and trade goods. However, during the era of mass production and mass communication, institutions subjugated the value of individual. Now, the social and interactive technologies of Web 2.0 are ushering in a new era of relationship and community—there is a power shift from the institutions back to the people.

Why Should I Care?
A great deal of personal and informal business Web 2.0 usage is taking place today. More than likely, you and/or your ptactice team members are already watching video on You Tube, reading blogs, and joining social networking sites such as Facebook, Ning, and LinkedIn. Unfortunately, many practice owners just haven’t been able to get their heads around the concept—at least not as a business strategy. And even if they know they need to or want to, they're quite busy practicing medicine and don't have the time to do it! Yet, making the Web 2.0 culture part of your Internet marketing plan may very well be a matter of survival.

As pointed out above, Web 2.0 culture in not a passing fad. It’s a long-term hard trend that has significant implications on how your practice can most effectively interact and communicate with your current clients, prospective clients, and team members. Only by understanding Web 2.0 culture (technology and trends) will you be armed with the knowledge necessary to create and implement appropriate strategies to tap into and profit from the Web 2.0 culture.

Myhometownvet.com allows veterinarians to market their veterinary practice on the internet; marketing your veterinary practice website; search engine optimization for the veterinary practice. Veterinary practice management. Veterinary marketing.

Veterinary Internet Marketing: 6 Ways To Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website

Veterinary Internet Marketing: 6 Ways To Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website

Veterinary Internet Marketing: 6 Ways To Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website

Veterinary Internet Marketing: 6 Ways To Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website

6 Ways To Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website

How to market your veterinary practice online.

In United States, there are nearly 2 Million “veterinarian” searches a month on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. 2 Million in a month! These are pet owners looking for a veterinarian or veterinary related information in their home towns.

Are you there for them?

With so many pet owners using the Internet to search for veterinarians, it’s important for the growing practice to be found online! You can have the greatest website in the world, but if a client can’t find you, they’ll never visit it. So what can you do to make sure a potential new client finds you online? How do we drive traffic to your website?

It’s important to generate traffic to a website, but it’s also important for this traffic be targeted such that the people who visit your website are likely to buy the services and products you offer on your website. Since promoting your website takes time and money, you don’t want just anyone to visit your site. Instead, you want people who are interested in your services.

1. Know your target audience and make sure that your advertising campaigns are targeted towards these individuals. This means using the necessary keywords to define your potential clients in your online advertising campaigns. If you are using Google Adwords, your ad must specify the targeted customers. If you are writing articles as a way of promoting your website (such as on a blog or a social media site), your articles must contain the keywords that your audience is using.

2. List your website with top search engines and directories in categories that suit your niche. This means that people who are looking for this specific information that relate to your practice will easily find your website.

3. Advertise your website in relevant forums and online groups. The more you know about your potential client, the better you will know where to find them. This means you can post articles on relevant forums or online groups where your potential clients are.

4. Write articles that are keyword rich. Your articles may get picked up and published by other websites, blogs and directories. The results are other websites that promote you!

5. Create a blog (like the one you’re reading now- hint hint) to advertise your website. By posting Be sure your blog is regularly updated with relevant content and offers value to your subscribers. And be sure to include your website URL in each of your postings to make it easy for potential clients to find you.

6. Identify other websites in your industry (local and national) that would be willing to share links with you. If your website address appears on another popular website that is relevant in your industry, that gives your website additional credibility. Not only will potential clients find you, it will also increase your ranking within search engine results.

We understand that most veterinary practices are far too busy to develop and maintain an aggressive internet marketing strategy. Unfortunately, if you want to appear on the first page and attract new clients, that’s what you need to do. Your choices are to do it your self or to hire a reputable company to do it for you. CMS – the developers of My Hometown Vet – is a veterinary specific marketing company that is focused on new client acquisition tools to help you grow your practice. And because we are owned and run by veterinarians and veterinary industry professionals, we understand how to market your practice.

CJ Levendoski
Managing Partner

Myhometownvet.com allows veterinarians to market their veterinary practice on the internet; marketing your veterinary practice website; search engine optimization for the veterinary practice. Veterinary practice management. Veterinary marketing.

Is your Yellow Pages ad worth the investment?

Is your Yellow Pages presence worth it?

Before launching My Hometown Vet this year, we did a lot of research and focus groups with Veterinarians to determine how they currently market their practices. The vast majority of veterinarians we spoke to responded with two things:

Reminder Cards and the Yellow Pages.

Digging a little deeper, we discovered that the average Veterinary Practice spends about $12,000 per year on their Yellow Page ad. However, over 90% of the veterinarians we spoke to agreed that they don't believe they receive any benefit from the Yellow Pages. They maintain that presence not to acquire new clients, but out of fear of what might happen if they suddenly dropped the ad!

Besides referrals from happy clients, new clients aren't coming from the Yellow Pages. Why? Because most people don't use the Yellow Pages anymore when searching for a local small business (that includes a veterinarian).

They're using the Internet.

With this in mind, should you, the veterinary professional, continue to spend your marketing budget on the Yellow Pages? The article below is a good gauge as to whether or not the Yellow Pages is a good investment for you.

Determine your (Yellow Pages) ROI
Is your Yellow Pages presence worth it?
by Peter Fernandez, D.C.

When determining if the return on your Yellow Pages investment is working for you, it's key to look for a 3-to-1 ratio or higher.

Every dollar you spend on a Yellow Pages ad should make you $3 or more. One dollar goes toward your overhead. One dollar pays for the ad. And the third dollar is the profit for your work. There are no exceptions for this rule.

To determine if you are achieving a minimum 3-to-1 ratio, use the following three-step method:

1) Total the number of new clients that were attracted to your practice by your Yellow Page ad over the previous 12 months, and the services rendered to these clients.

2) Determine how much you paid for the ad for the prior 12 months.

3) Divide the amount of money you spent for your Yellow Page ad into the number of services you rendered to these clients and see whether you have a 3-to-1 ratio or higher. If your Yellow Page ad produces less than a 3-to-1 ratio, it's a dog. Don't repeat it.

Note: Don't skip step 3. While it entails a bit of work, it is the only way to determine your ROI. When you don't know your advertisement's ROI, you will be wasting most of your advertising dollars.

This excerpt originally appeared in the online version of the Chiropractic Journal, 11/21/08

By: CJ Levendoski
Managing Partner
CMS

Find a veterinarian near you at www.myhometownvet.com

My Hometown Vet (www.myhometownvet.com) helps dog, cat and other pet owners find a local veterinarian in their neighborhood. Pet owners can also keep us with the latest veterinary healthcare tips and trends with our professional pet tips blog. To find a veterinarian near you, visit www.myhometownvet.com. Myhometownvet.com allows veterinarians to market your veterinary practice on the internet; marketing your veterinary practice website; search engine optimization for the veterinary practice. Veterinary practice management. Veterinary marketing.