IM for a local business - OTO ideas

WOW thank you all very much for the replies!!

SiteSmarty:
- We're already #1 in local search, but only for searches in our town. We're right on the edge of another town and don't rank well for that at all. I can use AdWords to solve that problem.

- What is happening with mobile...? Please explain.

- Problem with postcards is that you have to put out a lot of money and wait months for ROI. I.e. you have to do multiple mailings to get a good response and if the offer is something like a free exam you have to wait until the client's second visit to make money. This is no good if you put the bill from the postcard company on a credit card which is due at the end of the month, even though the lifetime value of the average client may be thousands of dollars.
I actually think postcards would work well for us as long as the offer was good (not something free, I don't know exactly what yet), but we don't have the $$$ to experiment at this time.
- Not sure about wipes but your idea made me think of poop bags...that could work well. Thanks!

rich8169:
- We're using Facebook but not Twitter. I plan to sign up for Twitter soon. I've found Facebook to be great for client nurture but not good for new client acquisition, at least not without some sort of paid campaign and a sales funnel. I would like to develop our Facebook more and would be very interested to hear your experiences.

Tsnyder:
- I did e-mail you, thank you!

travlinguy:
- We've done discounts on dentals with some success. February is traditionally dental month and we did a 20% off offer this year. I have some ideas to improve the marketing of it for next year (this year I wasn't organized enough).
- BUT I'm not sure how well it would work for a OTO because it would only be appropriate for prospects who knew their pets were in need of a dental. I don't think there would be enough of those people.

Linda_C:
- you say "Your clients are primarily local, so why hit them up with free reports when you could be enticing them to come into the clinic?". The reason is that a lot of visitors to our site aren't ready to come and see us yet. E.g. their pet isn't sick or due for anything. By offering a free report in exchange for their e-mail address we can market to them using an e-mail autoresponder until they are ready to come in. I agree that the goal has to be to get them into the clinic.

- I have given free reports to existing clients (though not a OTO as I don't have one yet). They appreciated it. If the content's good and they're interested in the topic it's a great way to educate people. For example, I sent a copy of our parasite report to someone whose dog was diagnosed with intestinal parasites. I might offer a OTO to an existing client. I was thinking about an ebook on pet insurance. A lot of people are interested in that. If the ebook cost $5 and there was $5 or more value in it, I think I would be ok offering it to them.

- I would say that IM is very applicable to all local businesses provided keywords related to their product or service are searched for on the Internet in useful volume, by people in their local area. The major pitfall is local search volume (it can be so low as to rule out many relevant keywords, and make testing impractical) and geotargeting (Google's geotargeting isn't accurate enough). Another pitfall for us is that a lot of people searching online want information as to how to treat their pets at home, but we don't want people to do that, we want them to come to our clinic! I think an ebook on treating your pets at home would do well if marketed properly (there are probably many such books already) and it would be a way to make money from people beyond our local market as you say, but we won't be publishing one.

- you say: "Instead, you need to craft your messages towards face to face interaction. You want to offer a squeeze page - fine - but offer them something that will bring them into the clinic. A printable coupon for a discount on their first visit, or a special rate on getting their shots, etc."

We have had some success with free exam coupons but not on squeeze pages. Here's why (I think):
1. People who don't need a vet right now (don't have a sick pet or a pet that's due for something) want something NOW in exchange for their e-mail address. A free exam requires them to call to make an appointment, take time out of their day, load their dog (that doesn't need a vet anyway) in the car, etc...it's too much work.
2. People who DO need a vet right now just want the coupon. They don't want to jump through a bunch of hoops. A lot of our competitors offer free first exams without an opt-in required. Why should they be bothered to opt-in? Also, exams have become a commodity. However, a cool report - that's unique.

BTW, here are two non-obvious problems with free exams:
1. They consume a lot of doctor time (which is expensive and precious).
2. Some clients are crappy and drift from clinic to clinic - one free exam offer to the next. We really don't want to attract people like this!

Hence, I think a better tactic would be to offer people who don't need a vet right now a free report on something related to pet health, use a OTO to cover the cost of the PPC, and use an autoresponder to (i) send them a coupon for use when they are ready to come in and (ii) build up a relationship so they want to come in enough to be bothered to call for the appointment, load the dog in the car, etc.

- We already send reminders for vaccines etc., I need to improve them but that's another story!

VegasGreg:
- This idea could work. Maybe not for a $200 service as something that expensive would usually be a surgery and the final price for these often depends on the particular pet...but maybe say a $15 parasite screen test (save $20!!) - they pre-pay and we make enough profit to cover the lab fee and the PPC fee. Thanks for the tip!!!


Thanks again for all the help!!! Really appreciate it!!!!