Do you know that there are over a billion pets worldwide? This number includes a whopping 470 million dogs and 370 million cats. Although not equally distributed, almost every family on earth has a pet animal living with them. It can be a dog, cat, reptile, bird, or fish.

 

In the United Stated, 70 percent of all households own one pet or more. In the United Kingdom, the story is not different, with over 12 million pets distributed in 40 percent of the households. As the growth in pet ownership and humanization increased, so also did the care for pets see a substantial rise?

The global pet care industry is projected to hit $269 billion by 2025, with China contributing 14 CGAR percent to this growth. In the US, the pet industry expenditure is estimated to be almost 100 billion dollars, with vet care raking in a little above 30 billion USD.

 

Despite this growth in pet ownership and the need for vet care, the market is still handicapped as the cost of starting a vet clinic is very high. The estimated cost of starting a veterinary clinic is almost a million USD, which is rather too high for most upcoming vet doctors looking to start their own veterinary business.

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Those that can raise the money for their pet clinic charge ludicrous amounts for caring for your pets. In the USA, there is a significant decrease in visits to the vet clinic due to the care cost. Another reason is that most pet owners now access health information online, which is cheaper. 

 

The Veterinary Industry

The veterinary and animal hospital raked in over 67 billion dollars in 2018, with a projected increase of $105 billion by 2022. While this is a fascinating statistics, the industry is run by the big boys of pet care. The US has almost 32,000 vet clinics across its terrain, ranging from small rural animal facilities in suburban and rural regions to animal care center in large bubbling cities. 

 

The major players in this industry are Mars, Greencross, Banfield Pet Hospital, and the CVS Group, to mention but a few. Generally speaking, these well-established businesses have a fail-proof marketing plan in place that brings the customers to them. For new or small pet care centers, marketing is a huge problem that takes most of them out of the business.

The veterinary industry is split into two segments. There is the animal care section that deals with pet hospitalization, surgeries, clinical, testing, and laboratories. The second deals with pet care services paying attention to their drugs, food, after-care treatment, and many more.

There is a third segment that deals with diagnostic services, in-patients care for seriously ill dogs and special care services for pets with ailments that do not require surgery but an observation. All these are areas of veterinary where potential vets can leverage on and make money while building a brand for the future.

The Veterinary Market

Veterinary is a stable business, a very unique career path for young vets looking to provide a caring service to animals other than to humans. Vets across the globe make a reasonable income too; the average annual earnings for a vet in the USA are almost $90,000, with annual spending by pet owners at 17 billion dollars.

The US/North American (when you consider Canada and Mexico) is the largest vet market in the world. This is closely followed by Europe, Asia, and other upcoming countries in the world. However, with big names taking all the spots, there are little small vets or enthusiastic vets can do. The only options left are to partner with a big corporation or take a chance at the challenges ahead and grow.

Although North America is the largest market for veterinary services, it is also the slowest when compared to upcoming markets like the Asia Pacific and Europe. Despite the US dominance in spending, other countries like the UK and Australia are trying to catch up. However, the case is different in china that has the largest pet population in the world with more adopted annually.

Factors that are driving the veterinary market are

• An outbreak of diseases among animals
• Pet population among pet owners
• The size of the pet market
• The number of veterinarians in the market place
• Animal welfare
• Pet owners need for better pet care service
• Humanization of pets
• Research into pet disease, treatment, prevention, and care

 

Trends in the Veterinary industry

Changes are happening across every section of the world’s industry, and the veterinary industry is one of them. For upcoming vets, this is the fastest moving train to latch unto and showcase yourself and skills in a booming market place. 

However, to stand out, you must market yourself to the community and world. The question is, how do you do it? Before we jump into how to distinguish your brand in the veterinary industry, let’s take a look at some top trends in the pet industry.

Increases in pet/livestock population – since 2018, the population of domesticated pets has almost doubled across the globe, even livestock is on the rise. These two areas are prominent as more people adopt pets to reduce the population in animal shelters. 

As more people adopt pets, some need special health checks that you can provide with the right marketing tactics. Furthermore, livestock farmers need hands-on vets that can come into their farms to cater to the needs of the animals during a routine check or an emergency.

 

Big data and wearable technology – the pet industry is big on big data and wearable technology to track, control, and treat the outbreak of diseases and offer quick treatment to pets. Veterinarians can leverage this data compilation system to help identify disease among animals in a region and prevent them from spreading. This revolutionary trend help with epidemiology, diagnosis, and disease control.

 

Pet wearable has been around for a couple of years now; it was usually used by pet owners to keep track of their pets in their absence. These innovative devices have been upgraded to help monitor the health and habits of pets. Pet wearable can monitor body temperature, heartbeat, breathing, blood pressures, and other vital data to help veterinary care better for the animal.

 

These high tech remote monitoring devices are not only helping pet owners but ensuring livestock are safe and healthier by mitigating and preventing the supposed spread of an outbreak in the future. Wearable technology helps the farmers to improve on livestock and breeding capacity but also keeps the veterinary doctor busy and valuable in his community.

 

Innovative Testing Capacity – with the advancement of technology, animal testing has improved tremendously. Laboratories are set up in the animal center to conduct pathology, endocrinology, hematology, microbiology, chemistry, and many more tests in pets. Now there are pet clinics that do DNA testing for animals – not to ascertain paternity but to help eliminate a particular disease or hereditary gene in future generations of the breed.

Marketing ideas every vet should try

Veterinary clinics and animal centers are essential services in every community. In the United States, veterinary services bring in almost 19 billion dollars to the economy annually. A number that analysts are saying it will rise with the number of pets adopted, bought or gifted in 2020.

With that been said, there will be more clients that need quick service and access to a vet. So if you are a newcomer in the industry, you need to sell your skills to attract new pet patients to your facilities.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine has been available for humans where access to a regular doctor was difficult. During the pandemic, this is how many people accessed their doctors, and perhaps it will be part of the new normal post-pandemic. 

So, if you are a new vet coming into the industry, you can leverage technologies like Google chat, zoom, or other cheaper communication means to interact with your clients. This will limit the number of times clients come into the clinic for simple issues that are not serious. As a vet, it allows you to spend more time on pets in critical conditions to enable their quick recovery.

Create Vet related content

Content is king, good content is the best marketing strategy.  Many people go online to search for related topics and treatments for symptoms concerning their pets. If you plan to go into full-time veterinary practice, content creation using the appropriate keywords will help you a lot. 

Remember to add a contact address or number that you can be reached. For example, if you write a topic about signs and symptoms of stomach problems in a dog. A pet owner with an active dog who suddenly becomes quiet might see the article and address the issue with their pets without having to spend a dime. If the symptom persists, you are likely to have a new client if they live in your location.

Diversify, diversify, and diversify

It is okay to want to practice caring for pets and ensuring they are safe and healthy, but diversification can blow your vet practice through the roof.  There are lots of areas you can venture into, such as healthy food, fitness and wellbeing, and pet counseling service. This will improve your professional skill and make you more endearing to pet owners.

Open multiple channels of communications.

Develop a service app, have a specified email address or phone number that is only for your practice. This will enable you to reach out to more people and attend to their needs. Do not forget to keep to an appointment, home visits, and updates. If you cannot handle this part, hire a competent PA that will assist you with it. Effective communication is the beginning of good business.

Educate yourself with the latest trends

The world is continually changing, to stay ahead of the competition means to stay in the know. Enroll for certificate or diploma course to boost your practice or IT with prominent pet care centers to know more about the industry’s dynamics.

What should you avoid?

Overpromising and under-delivering – The vet practice is very tedious; it occupies both your private and public life unless you create separation. One of the biggest marketing mistakes is promising clients and failing to deliver on your promise. Do not ever do that; do not tell a client you can, when you cannot. Also, never charge more because you are the closest vet clinic to them.

No regards for time – keep appointment time without failure, customers will not take lightly to consistent laziness or disregard for them or your business.

Your practice is not customer-driven or market-focused – to succeed in the vet industry, you need to be customer-driven, have a front desk that screams, and welcomes pets. This will appeal to pet owners and their pets too. Furthermore, your marketing strategy should be about the pets and their needs

Not checking up on your client – they may be pets, but they are loved and cared for by their owners. As a vet, always ensure you place a call back to check on the wellbeing of the pet after treatment or regular routine.

Skimping on the details – pet owners want to know down to the nitty-gritty of their pet problem. Never ever think they do not deserve to know what is wrong or fail to pay attention to the fears that brought them into your clinic.

Getting angry at a client – pets are likely to make a mess, especially when they are ill. Learn not to show your dislike if an accident happens in your clinic. Expressing your anger towards an animal gives your business a bad reputation and will cost you, potential customers.

Finally, being a vet is a good profession if you love animals and caring for them. However, being a veterinary doctor and running a clinic or animal center requires more than school degrees and owning business premises. The growing love for pets means you need a good marketing strategy to create a niche for your brand among the giants.

Want to grow and scale your Veterinary Business ?? Then you need to apply right targeted strategies & an Automated System which can bring a lot of Pet owners as your customers!! Click here to know more!