Using Facebook as a marketing tool in veterinary practice: the key to customer engagement

Abstract

Due to the emergence of social media, businesses have gained the opportunity to use a new set of tools to communicate with their customers. Veterinary practices seem to be keen to seize this opportunity. Regarding this subject, most existing literature focuses on developing and enhancing customer engagement. Customer engagement is defined as a deep, meaningful and long-lasting relationship between a customer and a brand. It is argued that increasing the level of customer engagement will lead to superior business performances.

As veterinary practices find it difficult to shape their online presence on social media, the aim of this study was to investigate what content creates the highest levels of customer engagement. Moreover, it was studied if veterinary practices that use a marketing strategy focusing on customer engagement indeed create higher levels of customer engagement. Messages posted in a six months period on Facebook pages of fifty Dutch veterinary practices for companion animals were analysed. The influence of enrichments and different message categories on levels of customer engagement was determined. The ten participants scoring highest and the ten scoring lowest on customer engagement were sent a questionnaire to investigate if they used a marketing strategy focusing on customer engagement.

The addition of a photo or video to a Facebook post that contained text resulted in highest levels of customer engagement, especially if one solicited for comments, too. The addition of a link turned out to have a negative influence. Messages focusing on community relationship were found to have the highest levels of customer engagement, while those focusing on product promotion scored lowest. These results provide guidance to veterinary practices in shaping a social media presence.

The second research question could not be answered, as none of the participants used a customer engagement focused marketing strategy. In fact, none of the participants appeared to use a specific marketing strategy at all. As the use of marketing in veterinary practice has been advocated, practices are encouraged to write down a marketing plan and implement their social media strategy.