Unfortunately, too few practices develop a comprehensive marketing plan. In fact, just 8 percent of the practices Veterinary Economics surveyed have a written plan for the year.

Why is a written plan important? Taking the time to think through your communication with clients and potential clients positions you to build stronger bonds with pet owners and helps you focus on the pet health messages you feel are most important. Plus, you can decide up front what criteria you'll use to decide whether your marketing efforts succeeded. So you'll be even better prepared the next time you plan.

More in this package:
Practices lead with Yellow Pages
But what really works?
Do you have a plan? It turns out, most don't
Practitioners identify the biggest competitive issues
Growth in the number of practices nearby
What distiguishes you?
Now, welcome to the Web world
How practices tackle sites
Monitoring results