One good marketing idea: Let pet owners hear you!

Svetlana / stock.adobe.comVideo is great, but what about all the ways your words can get into local pet owners' ears without moving pictures?

Do you like to talk? If you have a local low-power radio station, consider pitching a show idea to them. Shows can be recorded in advance so they can be taped at your convenience. The Federal Communications Commission keeps a list.

Ever consider a podcast? Some veterinary practices are producing podcasts, listenable at desktops, on tablets and on smartphones. Podcasting kits can be purchased, often for less than $100. (Here's an article with some equipment tips.) It could be fun to figure out what you want your podcast to be. One idea would be to conduct interviews with people who do interesting things with animals or stories and advice to celebrate and strengthen the human-animal bond. Your show is limited only by your imagination.

Both of these ideas require time and commitment but can yield new clients at a low cost-and high enjoyment, if this is your thing.

Tracy Sheffield, BS, LVT, CVPM, is practice administrator at Wimberley Veterinary Clinic in (you guessed it) Wimberley, Texas, as well as co-owner of T&L Veterinary Business Consulting. She was a dvm360/VHMA Practice Manager of the Year finalist in 2016.