We’ve been talking to quite a few of our clients over the past year or so about how powerful a “They Ask You Answer” marketing strategy could be for Veterinary Practices, which is why we were so excited to be given the opportunity to host Web Marketing Guru Marcus Sheridan on our Modern Veterinary Practice Podcast.
Marcus has spearheaded the “They Ask You Answer” (TAYA) movement, and it all started with his own business, below we’ve collated our conversation so that you can see how your practice could benefit from this type of marketing…
A bit about swimming pools…
So I started a pool company 2001 and by 2008, when the market crash looked like we were going to lose the business. And so that’s when I started to really learn about the internet and read all these fancy phrases online, like inbound, marketing content, marketing social media, all that stuff. And what I really heard in my simple pool guy, mind was you know Marcus, if you just obsess over your customers questions and you’re willing to address them on your website, through text and through video, you might save your company. And so I said, you know what? That’s something I can do. You know, I’ve been selling pools for about seven, eight years at that point, and I’ve heard the questions and so I can absolutely answer them online.”
And so that’s what I started to do. Make a long story short. We essentially became the Wikipedia of fiberglass swimming pools and the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world. And from that, I started to write about the success that I was having and that started to get traction and gain a following and eventually wrote a book on it.
And this whole philosophy of course, is what “They Ask You Answer” is all about. It is a true obsession with the questions, worries, fears, issues, et cetera, that your customers, your buyers have. It’s a willingness to teach and communicate with them in the way that they want to be taught and communicated with. Selling it in the way they would prefer to buy it.
So that’s really the essence of “They Ask You Answer”. It’s extremely buyer, customer, patient centric.
They ask you answer – how it works and why it’s important
Be honest, how many times have your clients brought their pet into your clinic and mentioned that they’ve already googled the symptoms? We all know that they do it (and we might all be guilty of doing the same thing for ourselves before a trip to the Doctor).
In fact, a recent study was conducted by an organization called Bayer stating that 77% of pet owners consult Google for medicinal information before even consulting their vets. We’re sure this comes as no surprise to anyone that works in the veterinary industry, and this is only set to increase more with more millennials using veterinary services, as well as obviously the introduction to gen Z into pet ownership.
Marcus shared his thoughts with us…
I mean, if somebody will vet five pet sitters, just to make sure that they’re leaving their pet in the hands with the right person, you compound that by 10 when you’re talking about the veterinarian that they’re going to be working with in case there’s a medical issue that arises. Which there always is, right? And we as customers, as buyers, we just have so many questions, worries, doubts and fears.
Often the question starts with something like “I heard that…”, or “someone told me that…”. And then you’d fill in the blank from there. And this is where in this case, the medical professional, the veterinarian is able to resolve the issue.
You want to have that conversation before they come into your clinic. You want to address it earlier rather than later, because if you address it later, you may have already lost a huge percentage of potential business or at least trust that you otherwise would have ascertained by simply being the one to address that fear, that worry, that concern, that question.
How vets can approach it
Okay, so you might be convinced already that this is going to be the way forward with your practice marketing strategy form now on. But how can you approach TAYA in a way that does the subject justice? How much content should you be producing? How do you pick what questions to answer? According to Marcus, it’s actually quite simple…
If you said okay, we truly are going to be one of the foremost teachers in our space. I’m going to brainstorm all the questions I get asked or I know people are asking about the different services that we offer within our clinic. And then you take the time to produce articles and videos at a very consistent level. So, I mean, ideally you should be producing at least 100 pieces of content a year in some way, shape or form to really start to see that you become that trusted authority in your space.
You do your brainstorm, you start addressing them, you do it consistently. But here’s how it’s going to help you immediately. One way that’ll help you immediately is that you’re going to start to see that the redundancy of questions lowers.
So, there’s certain questions that you know as a vet, you just hear over and over again. You’re like good grief, if I answer this question one more time today I’m going to vomit. Right? Well, have you ever said to yourself well maybe I’m the reason they keep asking the question. I mean hello, they’re asking that question because you haven’t answered it and nobody else has, right. So, if you want to eliminate redundant, silly, ridiculous questions, you answer them.
These answers don’t necessarily have to be added to a blog on your website and just left there for people to find. You can also start to use them as part of your client education piece. Why not collate them into sections, for example FAQs about your most common surgeries, including information about the procedure, recovery time and any medication needed after.
And if you ask Marcus, it doesn’t necessarily even have to be in word format or even perfect for release. All that matters is that you get started and keep going…
So let’s say that you produce your first video today, which you could do easily on your phone. Everybody knows how to make a video on their phone. At this point, you hit the red button. That’s how you make a video on your phone. So could someone, if they wanted to, could they produce that today? Could they therefore quickly learn how to upload it to YouTube? Could they upload it to their social media channels? They could.
Listen to the Full Podcast Episode…
If you would like to know more about “They Ask You Answer” or want to listen to our full interview with Marcus Sheridan, check out the Modern Veterinary Podcast Episode 7|They Ask You Answer, a Revolutionary Approach to Gaining New Clients.
