Regardless of whether you’re a Mac or a PC person, I think we can all agree that Steve Jobs was a visionary.  One of his unique talents was recognizing that people ‘don’t just want to buy personal computers anymore, they want to know what they can do with them.’  I think this applies to pets as well so, to paraphrase Steve, people don't just want to have pets anymore....they want to know what to do with them.  

I just read a fantastic article entitled “The Mobile Mind Shift” by Forrester Research.  https://solutions.forrester.com/mobile  The article included a couple of key insights that were particularly relevant to private practitioners and I’ve summarized them here.  For more information, definitely click on the link and read more about their work in this exciting field.  

A commonly cited paradigm for how we should think about marketing is “The 4 P’s”:  product, price, promotion, and place.  For our use, place is synonymous with distribution:  how do your clients receive products and services from you?  The obvious answer is “at the clinic”, and that might have been the end of the discussion when I graduated from vet school in 1995.  In 2015, however, the complete answer is far more complex than that.  Where else are you providing service to your clients?  The Internet has completely revolutionized the idea of “place” with respect to the traditional definition of marketing mix.  Truth be told, this is the one “P” that has changed the most in the digital revolution.  

Veterinary practice owners and managers are becoming increasingly aware of the power of mobile technology, which is a great thing.  There’s no doubt that the explosion of smartphone technology has created a tremendous opportunity to provide value to clients year-round, not just when they’re in the office.