• Written by Michael Noah
• Tagged as Blog

Want to attract more customers to your veterinary facility and boost engagement? Sending a thoughtful appointment reminder on a veterinary postcard with cute pawprints and hearts is a smart and budget-friendly way to do so! 

In this digital day and age, veterinary postcards may seem obsolete, but they’re truly useful when it comes to boosting customer engagement and loyalty to your veterinary clinic. Veterinary reminder postcards can effectively reach more clients, thus marketing your veterinary practice. Arecent study indicated that postcards have the highest response rate of 4.4% for direct mail, which exceeds email (0.12%) and text response rates.

But why exactly should you send veterinary postcards to your clients, you may ask? Postcards work for several reasons, and here’s why you must do it!

1.People Take it Seriously

In a world full of information, it's harder to grab someone's attention, especially when we continually check our phones, computers, and other devices. Veterinary reminder postcards, however, require our full attention. Opening, reading, and appreciating a postcard takes time, which is why they’re so powerful at communicating and building relationships. Also, let’s face it—who doesn’t like a little personalized gesture that individually caters to them? We all do! 

USPS research shows that 91% of Americans read postcards. The same study indicated that postcards are easier to remember than digital information, allowing us to use our imagination and digest information differently. Sending postcards to clients can help veterinary clinics grab their attention and convey crucial ideas. You may use postcards to remind clients of appointments, offer new services, or educate them about pet care.

Here are some more reasons why people take postcards seriously in the digital age:

• Physical postcards: Postcards are a remarkable change from internet communication. People enjoy owning a tangible object they can adore.
• Thoughtful postcards: Sending custom postcards is a grand gesture to show your clients you care about them. 
• Postcards are distinctive: The best approach to making a postcard differs for each one. You can show your creativity and convey a unique message to the recipient.
• Postcards help strengthen relationships: Printed postcards are effective for client communication and relationship-building. Make clever, personalized postcards that grab clients' attention and get your message across.

2. Best Response Rate

Printed postcards are the most effective direct mail; they average 4.4% response, according to the DMA Response Rate Report. This exceeds direct email household (0.12%) and text response rates—attractive, isn’t it? 

Besides offering you the best response rate, there are several other reasons why veterinary postcards are so effective. Mailing postcards to clients can help veterinary clinics:

• Increase brand awareness
• Advertise services
• Create leads
• Develop client relationships
• Encourage repeat business

Here are some specific ways that you can use printed postcards to get the best response rates and capture client attention: 

• Use vibrant colors: Make your postcards stand out by using bright colors to attract customers.
• Speak concisely: Be direct and avoid jargon; nobody likes spending too much time on unnecessary stuff. 
• Customize postcards: Customization is key! Personalize the postcard by adding your client's and pet's names.
• Images should be good: Quality postcard photos will grab your client's attention and be remembered.
• Encourage action: Tell your clients to schedule an appointment, visit your website, or sign up for your newsletter.

3. Best Way to Send Reminders

Missing appointments is often a never-ending struggle for veterinary clinics. AVMA or the American Animal Hospital Association found that 11% of veterinarian clinics miss appointments. For every 10 appointments, one client will not attend. Missed appointments can negatively impact veterinary clinics, as they can cut revenue, waste time and resources, and hinder patient care. 

However, one of the best (and proven) strategies to prevent missed appointments is to remind clients. And what’s better than sending them a cute, customized reminder? Veterinary postcards are a terrific way to remind clients about upcoming appointments! Here are a few tips for sending an effective custom postcard reminder:

• Remind your clients about their scheduled appointments at least 72 hours before. This gives them time to reschedule.
• Your printed postcard should include the appointment's date, time, and location. 
• Personalize the postcard with the client's and pet's names. 
• Use vibrant colors and high-quality photographs to make the postcard appealing. 
• On the veterinary postcard, invoice details like "Call us to reschedule" or "Visit our website to learn more about our services." This helps with marketing your veterinary practice. 

4. Branding Opportunity

Veterinary postcards are a unique and effective technique to boost brand awareness and client trust. But how exactly does a printed postcard help with branding? In a world of emails and texts, postcards stand out because they are physical. This increases their visibility, opening, and reading.

Regularly mailing postcards to clients helps develop a pleasant and memorable picture of your veterinary facility, promoting your brand and USP. Veterinary reminder postcards can help you grow your brand and gain client trust in many ways, including:

• Allow consistent branding: Postcards comprise high-quality pictures of your facility, which aids in consistent branding. It helps your clinic look more professional and cohesive.
• Highlight your vets and staff: Printed postcards make your clinic look more human and demonstrate to clients that you are sensitive professionals. This will demonstrate your dedication to pet care.
• Promote your USP. What sets your vet practice apart? Veterinary reminder postcards help showcase your USP and convince clients to pick you for pet care.
• Provide pet care education. Postcards help establish your veterinary facility as a trustworthy resource for pet owners.
• Showcase your team's skills. These help explain your vets' training and give case studies of how they assisted pets.

5. Time-Saving Benefits

Time is valuable in today's fast-paced environment, and postcards offer veterinary clinics extreme time-saving benefits! Custom postcards may be used to communicate with clients in many ways and are easy to print and ship.

Here’s how sending postcards to veterinary clients saves time:

• Instant accessibility: Your clients receive postcards at their houses, so they may immediately access the information. This is useful for time-sensitive notifications like appointment reminders or new service or promotion announcements.
• Efficiency: Bulk postcard production and mailing save time and resources. This benefits large veterinary clinics with many clients.
• Convenience: Postcards are compact and light, making them easy to store and ship. They make communicating with clients easy—without bulky envelopes or pricey postage.

6. Easy-to-Redeem Offers

Promoting discounts and unique offers to veterinary clients is made effortless with custom postcards! Including a redeemable offer on your postcards helps encourage clients to schedule appointments, buy your products and services, or refer friends and family to your clinic.

Besides, clients may easily find and redeem unique deals via postcards. Keeping the postcard in a wallet or purse to redeem the offer on their next visit helps eliminate the need for them to clip coupons or carry discount codes.

Postcards are also more personal than emails or texts for promoting special offers. People notice and read postcards more than digital messages and preserve them for future reference. You can make postcards easy-to-redeem by following these tips:

• Be specific in your offer: Display the offer prominently on the postcard and make the terms and restrictions clear.
• Unique code or barcode: This lets you track marketing performance and how many customers redeem the deal.
• Ask for action: Tell your clients to "Schedule your appointment today!" or "Visit our website to learn more." to claim the offer.

7. Cost-Effectiveness

Offering a cheap way for vets to reach patients, veterinary postcards are cheaper than brochures, flyers, and direct mail letters. Postcards are cost-effective for all veterinary facilities, allowing low-budget clinics to sell and communicate with clients. You can save money on printed postcards by following these strategies:

• Use bulk mailing rates: The USPS offers discounted postage for firms who mail several postcards at once. Bulk mailing prices can help you save a lot on postage.
• Design your own postcards: Instead of paying a designer, you can save money by making your own. Veterinary clinics can design postcards using free and low-cost web tools.
• In-house postcard printing: This saves veterinary clinics even more money. Many cheap desktop printers can print high-quality postcards.
• Cheap alternative: Custom postcards are a cheap way for vets to reach patients. They are affordable for all veterinary clinics, including the smaller ones.

What’s more, small veterinary clinics have minimal funds. Small clinics may struggle to compete with larger clinics with better marketing resources. Veterinary reminder postcards help small veterinarian clinics compete with larger ones. Here’s how postcards benefit small veterinary facilities:

• Target specific neighborhoods: Small veterinary clinics might send postcards to certain neighborhoods. They may contact their target demographic more effectively and avoid wasting money on postcards to non-customers.
• Partner with other local businesses: Small veterinary clinics can cross-promote with other local businesses. A veterinary clinic may join with a local pet store to offer a discount on pet food to clients who redeem a postcard.
• Utilize social media: Small veterinary clinics might utilize social media to promote postcard campaigns and motivate clients to redeem offers. A veterinary clinic may post a photo of their postcard on social media and ask customers if they want one.

8. Appealing to the Eye

Screens literally attack us with messages, making us less sensitive to digital advertising. Postcards, however, allow you to engage your clients and deliver your message more personally. Using high-quality graphics and colors makes veterinary postcards more tactile and attractive. A tangible postcard can also leave a better impression than a digital one.

Besides, personalization helps establish customer relationships and drive repeat visits to your clinic. It can also increase client engagement and the relevance of postcards. Tips for designing attractive and personalized veterinary clinic postcards:

• Use high-quality pet and animal photos. High-quality animal photographs attract attention because people are naturally drawn to them.
• Colors should pop. Brightly colored postcards stand out in the mail, so make sure the colors pop. 
• Keep your message simple. Make sure the postcard's message is clear and noticeable.
• Individualize the postcard for each client. Please name the client and attach a pet photo on the postcard.

Conclusion

Veterinary postcards are an incredible way to boost customer engagement and loyalty of your veterinary clinic. With these veterinary reminder postcards, you can highlight your veterinary clinic's personality and ideals. If your clinic provides holistic veterinary care, postcards might emphasize natural healing and preventive treatment. 

Further, if your practice is known for its kind and sympathetic personnel, utilize postcards to share client comments or stories about how your team has helped pets. Create beautiful, personalized veterinary postcards to impress your clients and enhance your relationships today!

Try VETport Postcard Service

Sending postcards to the clients will definitely add value to a veterinary business.

That is why VETport helps veterinary clinics in creating beautiful postcards and sending them to clients. The award winning design and marketing team at VETport take care of the end to end process involved in creating a postcard template, adding personalization to the content, despatching to respective addresses and finally tracking the delivery.

Want to leverage the VETport postcard service? Write to us on - sales@vetport.com or call us on +1 216 930 2700


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