Show not tell
How to explain to clients why your practice is special
Sometimes you realise that you’re saying something quite a lot.
You’re not sure where you picked it up or why it’s cropping up so often, but there it is, a phrase or concept that suddenly seems to make sense in lots of different contexts and conversations.
For me, as our clients know only too well, this phrase is show not tell.
It’s three little words but it encompasses an approach to marketing and storytelling that can make a massive difference to your practice when applied effectively.
But in the interests of clarity, allow me to tell you what it is, before I show you how we can use it – do as I say and not what I do!
The tell
What does it mean and why is it important?
So, let’s start with an example – and please excuse me for taking the opportunity to talk about myself for a moment.
I could tell you that I’m an experienced and successful copywriter and marketeer. Maybe you’d believe me, most probably you wouldn’t care.
Or I could tell you how I reported on Michael Phelps’ last ever Olympic medal live for the BBC (from Salford, not Rio, unfortunately), created stories and wrote websites for dozens of veterinary practices while at VetPartners and was nominated in a number of categories at the recent Veterinary Marketing Association Awards.
Now, bragging in this way might not make me sound very likeable out of context, but if you were looking to hire a copywriter, which is more convincing?
The other thing to consider is that we’re fortunate to work in an industry with an inherent baseline of trust.
The majority of pet owners believe that the majority of veterinary professionals are good people who love animals – and that’s a lovely position to be in.
But it does mean we have to work harder to differentiate ourselves, and to say your team are nice and they love animals is a bit like a copywriter saying they’re creative and they know how to spell.
Or in other words, it isn’t saying very much at all.
Fortunately, there is much to talk about when it comes to shouting about the service you and your team deliver. Sometimes, you just need an outside perspective to remind you of what is special.
For example, when I worked at VetPartners I often asked practices what they believed made them unique.
Invariably, the first attempt to answer this ran along the same lines: “all of our team love animals”, “we treat patients like one of the family”, “we deliver high standards of care”.
All nice sentiments, but cliched and without context, meaningless to clients trying to work out which practice is best for their pet.
By digging deeper and talking it through, the gems come up.
Sometimes that’s nothing more than a throwaway comment, like when Shipston Vets told me a lot of their clients turn up in wellies – and what better anecdote could there be to summarise the approach of an informal, friendly practice catering to a rural community?
And sometimes it’s a detail that may seem everyday to someone in the industry but is really so much more than that, such as the practice who told me that they don’t run their own out of hours but if a patient needed overnight monitoring one of the nurses would set up a camp bed and sleep in the kennels to make sure they’re okay.
Now that’s treating a patient like a member of the family – but by putting it into concrete terms it’s so much more evocative.
The show
How can we use this in our practices?
Enough with the words already! How else can the concept be applied
I’m explaining this concept as a copywriter, but you don’t need to – so step away from ChatGPT right now.
There’s loads of stuff you can be doing to show your clients and prospective clients how great you are.
Want to show how trusted you are by your clients? Your Google reviews do that for you – and you should publish these on your website so the five star reviews are pulled straight through in real time, a constantly evolving source of goodwill, praise and trust.
Want to show how committed you are to your community? Create a web page on your website detailing all of your community work and charity fundraising – and keep it updated as you continue to do good.
Want to show how important being sustainable and caring for the environment is to your practice? Set reminders asking clients to return unused antibiotics so you can recycle them efficiently.
There are so many ways in which you can do this – and if you want more personal advice, we’d love to help.
The important thing to remember is that to people who don’t care for pets for a living, the things you do are remarkable. So don’t be afraid to shout about them!
Vet practice marketing
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