Why One-Size-Fits-All Messaging Falls Short with Veterinary Teams

Jun 16

Is your animal health brand using a single messaging approach to educate the entire veterinary team? First, we applaud you for knowing that you need to message the entire team. Sole decision-makers are rare in animal health, which means your B2B veterinary marketing strategies need to include the entire care team.

Now, back to the original question. One size does not, in fact, fit all when it comes to veterinary team education. But we’ve got a trick to help you adapt your education based on the persona you want to reach.

The trick: keep your message spine steady, but change the wrapper for each audience. Let’s build your message backbone.

What’s a Message Spine?

Your message spine is the core truth of your message that never changes, no matter the audience. It’s your deep, core value proposition.

Here’s a template to develop yours. First, define your non-negotiables:

What does your product do, and when is it used?
What is your 1-sentence value promise?
Provide 2-4 proof points of how you deliver on your value promise. Bonus points for claims that are backed by defensible data.
Is there anything you can’t say? List any claims guardrails.

Next, build your general message hierarchy. For now, we won’t worry about buyer personas, just your high-level message. Use this framework to build yours:

Headline: What is the outcome you aim to deliver?
Subhead: How do you deliver the outcomes, and why should the audience believe?
Support: Define your proof points and specifics of how the product solves a problem.
Call to Action: What are the next steps you want your prospect ot take?

Now that we have our spine, let’s work on how to adapt your wrapper for each member of the veterinary care team that you need to influence.

The Audience Adapter Framework

Now comes the fun part: adapting for each audience. The Audience Adapter helps you quickly map what matters most. For every group, ask:

What does a win look like for them?
What anxieties keep them up at night?
What is their role in the decision-making process?
How do they define success?
What content formats will they actually consume?
What action are they willing to take next?

Then adapt your message to address each persona’s specific concerns.

Now let’s work on adapting your message for each member of the veterinary care team.

#1 DVMs

Veterinarians hold clinical efficacy above all. They want data, protocols, and clear use cases to provide the best care. If they don’t trust it, they’re not buying it. Here’s an example of what their wrapper might look like:

What does a win look like for them?
Fast, effective treatments that are affordable to pet owners that don’t require a hard “sell”. They value confidence in their recommendations. They value data and require clinical proof of success before making recommendations. They are open-minded, but to influence them, you’ll need to prove why they need your product.
What anxieties keep them up at night?
Making a mistake with a patient. A treatment that didn’t work the way they thought it would. An angry pet owner.
What is their role in the decision-making process?
They are often partial decision-makers or, in some cases, sole decision-makers. If they are practice-owning DVMs, they can often make very independent decisions.
How do they define success?
Happy patients, happy owners.
What content formats will they actually consume?
They’ll spend time on long-format education such as webinars, case studies, podcasts, research papers, and eBooks.
What action are they willing to take next?
Schedule a meeting to see the product in action.

#2 Practice Owners

Sometimes the practice owner is a DVM, especially in small 1-2 doctor practices. Practice owners are concerned with both clinical efficacy and business success. For the purpose of this exercise, we will assume the practice manager is not a DVM.

What does a win look like for them?
Effective treatments that drive client satisfaction and business growth. They’re very concerned with workflow efficiency and ensuring operations run smoothly, you know: minimizing missed charges, optimizing client communication, and making sure there are no missed preventive care opportunities.
What anxieties keep them up at night?
A bad Google review. Thinking about how to grow the business without charging pet owners fees they can’t afford. How to improve operational efficiency to boost staff morale.
What is their role in the decision-making process?
If there is a sole decision maker…this is the persona who will be it. Often, the practice owner invites the opinions of others on the care team before making a purchase decision, unless the practice is very small.
How do they define success?
Happy patients, happy owners, happy staff, business growth.
What content formats will they actually consume?
All the same stuff as the DVMs if they are a DVM, plus case studies about business implications, workflow content, and ROI analysis.
What action are they willing to take next?
Schedule a meeting to see the product in action or for a business consultation.

#3 Technicians

Technicians have a big job in the veterinary clinic. They assist with everything from clinical procedures to client interfacing and providing extra pets to nervous patients. Workflow optimization is their love language. They want tools that fit seamlessly into their daily hustle. Think fast setup, simple utilization, effective outcomes without the drama.

What does a win look like for them?
Workflows that don’t slow down their day. Treatments that pets tolerate well and that make a meaningful difference. Appreciation, sometimes a simple thank you, goes a long way with this group.
What anxieties keep them up at night?
Making a mistake with a patient. An angry pet owner. Worrying about how they will get everything done that they’re responsible for.
What is their role in the decision-making process?
They are often influencers. They are a commonly overlooked group when it comes to care team influence, but data shows that they have more control over buying decisions than they even believe.
How do they define success?
Happy patients, happy bosses, happy co-workers.
What content formats will they actually consume?
This group is more socially influenced; you can connect with them on Facebook and Instagram. Short videos and not-too-clinical snackable content do well with them.
What action are they willing to take next?
They usually can’t schedule the meeting, so asking them to connect so you can find out who the decision maker is often a good next step.

#4 Practice Managers

Practice managers wear a million hats. They handle HR, inventory management, staffing, client complaints, implementing new processes, purchasing, and the list goes on and on and on. They are less focused on clinical information and more tuned in to how purchasing decisions will impact operational workflow. They do generally have a better pulse on business KPIs, but operational optimization is the way to their heart.

What does a win look like for them?
Harmony in the clinic. Appointments on schedule, no drama with the staff, inventory managed, no technology failures, just peace and harmony.
What anxieties keep them up at night?
The massive list of things that they are responsible for, really, it’s a lot.
What is their role in the decision-making process?
They are often involved in procurement and are partial decision-makers; unless the product is workflow-related, they may be the primary decision-maker.
How do they define success?
Happy patients, happy owners, happy staff, happy boss. They literally want to make everyone happy, and it’s a big job.
What content formats will they actually consume?
They are also more socially active. They’re pretty busy, so short-form content typically lands best with them.
What action are they willing to take next?
Schedule a meeting to see the product in action or for a business consultation.

The Right Message for Every Audience

Now that we’ve established your message spine and taken a tour of the unique needs of each persona on the veterinary care team, it’s time to bring it all together.

For each audience, complete this worksheet:

For this specific segment of the audience, what does your product do, and why do they care about it? Essentially, based on their job function, what’s in it for them?
What is your 1-sentence value promise for this specific segment that they will care about?
Provide 2-4 proof points of how you deliver on your value promise.

Next, for each audience segment, develop your new message with the same framework we used before, but using your new answers to the worksheet above:

Headline: What is the outcome you aim to deliver?
Subhead: How do you deliver the outcomes, and why should the audience believe?
Support: Define your proof points and specifics of how the product solves a problem.
Call to Action: What are the next steps you want your prospect ot take?

Mistakes to Avoid

You can’t be everything to everyone in a single message. Here are a few pitfalls to avoid:

Don’t overstate your claims. This market will see right through it.
Don’t ignore veterinary technicians or nurses; they are influential.
Don’t overlook the importance of adoption. Even if your product is the most innovative thing the world has ever seen, if they can’t implement and adopt you won’t be successful.
Don’t send DVMs ROI messages until they’re far down in the funnel.
Don’t expect everyone to engage with the same content.
Don’t expect everyone to engage on the same channels.
Don’t provide conflicting information to different members of the care team.

The Cliff Notes

In short:

Message Spine + Audience Adapter

= Messaging that Influences
= Shorter Sales Cycles
= Better Marketing ROI
= Happier Sales Teams & Bosses
= Product Staying Power
= More Effective Implementations

Need help messaging for the animal health market? We’ve got you! Our team has deep B2B animal health marketing expertise to help you reach the right audience segment with the right message. Contact us today to get started.

Amanda Hoffmeyer