Pokémon GO: Marketing Your Veterinary Practice.

Use Pokémon GO as a marketing tool for your veterinary practice.  Veterinarians might find Pokémon GO irrelevant to their business, but since the game is geographically based, there are a number of ways you can use it to attract local players to your location and, hopefully, convert them into clients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Released July 6, 2016 Pokémon GO is:

⇒ Currently topping 2 million dollars a day in the US market alone.

⇒ Has 21 million active daily players

⇒ Has passed Twitter in active daily users and gaining ground quickly against Snapchat.

⇒ 43 minutes is the average daily play time of users.

 

 

 

So how does a veterinary clinic harness this marketing opportunity?

 

»»» POKESTOPS «««

 

 

You WANT to be a Pokémon GO PokéStop.  PokéStops are businesses, buildings or places of interest around a city where players swing by to grab some extra Poké Balls and potions that take the form of floating blue cubes that you can tap on to get the picture of the real-life location counterpart. Your business name and location will be shown over and over and over to anyone playing in your area.

If you want to request to add or remove your veterinary practice as a PokéStop, requests can be submitted by clicking HERE.

 

»»» OFFERS & EVENTS «««

 

1. Lure drop event – Lures are modules that are placed on a PokéStop. They attract Pokémon to a specific location (which will bring in players that are potential clients). Lures last 30 minutes. The app signifies that a module is in place when players are in the area by showing a cloud of pink and white above the PokéStop.  You could buy a package of lures (which amount to the price of a coffee) and host a “Pokémon Go Lure Drop Event.”  Promote on your social media that you’ll be dropping a lure on a specific date/time and watch pet parents show up.

You’ll be the talk of your community and I bet for the first veterinary practices to put this together, you could attract the attention of the media (free media advertising is always a gift).

I tested this theory at one of my client clinics yesterday without even promoting that we dropped lures, and in 1 hour we had 23 people show up.  It brought lots of laughs, good conversation about clinic services, an opportunity for potential clients to bond with the veterinarians and staff, and we even had 1 client come in that was out walking their canine friend and was due for vaccinations, so while the Owner was catching Pokémon in reception and the exam room, the staff vaccinated their pet (turned the cost of the lures into a tidy profit).

 

2. Poké-dog walk event – Set up a neighbourhood walk with Owner and dogs starting and ending at your clinic doorstep.  Promote the date and time on your social media for your dog-friendly community Poké-dog walk, then head out for a stroll with everyone catching Pokémon along the way.  I encourage you to get clinic branded t-shirts for everyone to wear to up the advertising ante.

3. Social media offers –  There’s a plethora of options with this one!  Offer a free nail trim, free dental check up, or credit on account if they do any of the following:

(a) Have pet parents tag your clinic with screenshots of Pokémon they’ve caught in or outside your clinic.

(b) Players have an incredible amount of team pride with the teams they join. Use this to your advantage! Offer pet product deals to different teams on different days. Let pet parents know they’ll have to stay tuned to your social media to find out the specific team deal date/time.  If you have a clinic app, you can also broadcast it out through the app.  Get players and clients / potential clients engaged in your social media and app.

(c) Create a Facebook social media post and have pet parents post screen shots of their captured Pokémon with their pet in the comments of the post (interaction with your page tells Facebook it’s a post people want to see and will help it show up in newsfeeds more often).  Choose a random winner of a prize pack from all those that commented with pictures.

 

 

 

»»» IN-CLINIC PICTURES «««

 

I bet if you walked around your veterinary clinic with the app open you’d find an abundance of Pokémon roaming around waiting to be captured!
Dr. Andy Roark has a great BLOG showing veterinarians and staff in action with their clinic Pokémon.  Get creative with social media.  People come to social media to be entertained.  Engage and entertain your followers and fans on social media with your clinic pictures that are sure to be commented on and shared widely.

 

»»» MOBILE FRIENDLY CLINIC «««

 

This is a must, must, must for each and every clinic (Pokémon craze or not).  We’re in a mobile and tablet world.  Cater to your clients’ needs by offering a charging station in your reception area.  Does double duty by offering it to Pokémon GO players out on the hunt in need of a battery boost.  The more often you can get potential clients in your clinic, the better chance you have of converting them to a client.  During the Pokémon craze, offer your clinic as a universal charging station hub.  You can buy them for under $100 and they come with all the cables you need to charge various devices with several USB ports.

 

»»» GET YOUR STAFF INVOLVED  «««

 

We sure don’t expect you to let your staff play Pokémon GO while working but encourage their participation in the game so they understand the basic concepts.  When I’m in-clinic I’m the client talker upper.  I engage with them, shower their pets with attention, and get to know them by bonding on a social level thereby earning their trust.  I’ve calmed many angry clients down because I’ve had an authentic relationship built with them over time because I took the time to engage.

With Pokémon being a topic on everyone’s lips, it’ll be a great conversation piece while clients are waiting to see the veterinarian.  Having your staff know something about the game, in order to offer up a conversation (good or bad) breaks the ice and opens up dialogue that can lead to all sorts of discussions that can lead back to pet health.  Never miss an opportunity to have an ice breaker.

All this leaves me with 1 question: Could this be deemed animal cruelty (stuffing a small animal in a ball with no catch and release option)? Please, Pokémon GO responsibly and enjoy the marketing potential for your veterinary clinic!

Need help setting up or managing your social media accounts?  

Contact me to discuss marketing strategies to boost your client retenton and sales.

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