Here at R&Co Communications, we have provided veterinary PR services for more than 20 years.
Dealing with animal referral hospitals and primary care practices across the UK and Ireland, it is safe to say our team are experts in vet PR and ensuring our veterinary clients are recognised both online and offline as absolute leaders in their field.
Our work over the years has included securing international, national and broadcast press coverage for a variety of interesting and eye-catching stories from our clients, some of which you can read about in the R&Co newsroom and in our case studies.
Throughout our decades working within the veterinary industry, we have forged exceptional links with both its trade press and wider contacts across the country who all know they can rely on our high-quality content.
Here, we are going to share some of our knowledge and advice on making veterinary PR suitable for a consumer audience.
What makes interesting consumer veterinary PR?
As with the many other B2B and B2C industries we work in, our veterinary clients are experts in their field and their pioneering work is at a truly elite level.
While, of course, it’s a pleasure to be working with such professionals, it can present us with an age-old issue of convincing them what they often view as ‘just their day-to-day job’, is actually incredibly interesting to the average person on the street.
Having a nose for a news story
Here’s the crux of what makes interesting veterinary PR for consumers – we’re a country of animal lovers! We’re a pet-owning nation who are proud and happy to call our animals incredibly important members of our families.
People love to read and watch interesting animal stories which delight, entertain, pull at the heartstrings and, ultimately, give us that all-important feel-good factor.
Our skillset is to prise these stories out of our clients. We often have to convince them a case which, for them, maybe wasn’t particularly groundbreaking or cutting-edge, would be perfect for consumers and a hugely valuable part of the veterinary public relations parcel.
When I say convince, it really can be that tough. However, our track record in securing incredibly valuable press coverage which can form part of a strong, all-encompassing veterinary PR campaign speaks for itself.
Creating a PR package for consumer press
Largely, the clinical approach alone can leave people amazed as we talk about procedures and equipment more often associated with private human healthcare, as opposed to what many think about when considering veterinary treatment.
Add into the mix an intriguing or eye-catching element, owner or pet backstory or strong visuals, then there’s a strong chance your overall package will stand a real chance of standing out from the crowd, putting your clinician’s name and animal hospital front and centre of a fantastic tale.
Veterinary PR – the finished article
Our job as experts in the veterinary PR world is to try to source these suitable cases from our clients and break down the technical information (which lends itself perfectly to the B2B press but doesn’t necessarily translate for a consumer audience).
We carry out what can often be sensitive interviews with owners about their beloved pet’s treatment and, ultimately, earn valuable press coverage which can then be shared across multiple platforms.
Gaining valuable media coverage
With many of our team having spent years in newsrooms across the country, we pride ourselves on being able to recognise a story.
It is this collective nose for a story which helps keep us, and our clients, at the very forefront of consumer veterinary PR.
Throughout 2023, we amassed almost 3,000 press hits in regional, national, international and broadcast press for our veterinary clients.
Supporting wider veterinary marketing efforts
Of the overall 4,356 veterinary media hits in 2023 (including vital trade press coverage, of course), we secured an average domain authority of 58 and an incredible 1,167 backlinks for our clients, driving referral traffic from a wide variety of consumer websites.
These results show the importance of veterinary practices maintaining and enhancing their reputations through positive PR and the wider impact this can have on SEO and other marketing channels.
Read how our specialists develop a PR strategy for our veterinary clients or take inspiration from our blog on digital marketing ideas for veterinary businesses. You can also view examples of our work in veterinary PR, along with example campaigns across many other sectors, and learn more about our veterinary PR and marketing services.
If you would like to find out more about how we can help your business appeal to a consumer audience and boost your reputation among both current and future clients, contact our team.
