Age-Based Veterinary Preventive Care Marketing
Age may be only a number, but for pets, that number can be a catalyst for better care. Recognizing pets' evolving health needs and raising awareness through targeted life stage marketing can improve pet well-being, enhance clinical outcomes, and drive client compliance for lifelong veterinary preventive care.
Time Changes Everything: Pet Life Stages and Diagnostic Findings
Dogs and cats age quickly, with some entering their senior years around age seven. This rapid progression can leave pet owners unaware and unprepared for their pet's changing needs. Calling attention to the pet's life stage at each wellness visit—and the corresponding likelihood of clinically relevant findings on diagnostic screening tests—can help owners see the bigger picture, anticipate what's to come, and understand the value of veterinary preventive care lab work.
A recent IDEXX study including a CBC, chemistry profile, and urinalysis determined the likelihood of clinically relevant findings for cats and dogs of all ages. Below are the general life stage guidelines coupled with those findings.
- Young adult:
- Among dogs 1 to 4 years old, one in seven dogs showed clinically relevant findings.1
- Among cats 1 to 7 years old, one in five cats showed clinically relevant findings.1
- Mature adult:
- Among dogs 4 to 9 years old, one in five dogs showed clinically relevant findings.1
- Among cats 7 to 10 years old, one in three cats showed clinically relevant findings.1
- Senior:
- Among dogs ≥ 9 years old two in five dogs showed clinically relevant findings.1
- Among cats ≥ 10 years old, three in five cats showed clinically relevant findings.1
You Are Here: Establishing a Health Baseline
A patient's health baseline provides a personalized reference point for all future results, ensuring truly personalized care. By determining each pet's normal values during times of perceived health veterinarians can pinpoint clinically relevant abnormalities and individual variances. Young pets are so full of energy and life that clients may feel testing is unnecessary, but this is the optimal time to establish a pet's baseline values. These findings will inform future interpretation and, ideally, improve the ability to detect and diagnose issues early and start treatment.
Recommended protocols for all life stages should include:
- Complete patient history
- Thorough physical examination
- Diagnostic testing: blood work that includes a complete blood count (CBC), plus a chemistry profile, urinalysis, fecal testing, and vector-borne disease (VBD) testing for dogs as well as heart worm, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and feline leukemia virus (FeLV) for cats
Crafting a Timeless Message: Life Stage-Based Marketing
Life stage-based marketing strategies can raise awareness and spark client conversation about age-related health changes, risks, and the need for ongoing veterinary preventive care by providing personalized education, recommendations, and a proactive plan.
Marketing materials should call attention to the pet's current life stage and inspire positive action for ongoing veterinary preventive care. Example messaging by life stage includes:
- Puppy and kitten: "Protection and prevention." Preventive care helps create a foundation for future health.
- Young adult: "Establishing a baseline." Diagnostic testing at this age establishes each patient's individual normal so you are prepared to detect small changes later that may signal potentially serious issues.
- Adult and mid-life: "Preservation of health." Remind clients that their pet's current health is in part due to their past preventive care. This messaging should reinforce the importance of routine exams and diagnostic testing to identify evolving health needs and early age-related changes.
- Senior pets: "Graceful aging and early disease detection." Senior pets' findings are more likely to be concerning to the pet owner, so messaging should shift from disease prevention to detection and rapid, targeted intervention to ensure continued quality of life.
After testing, share results with each client, even if the results are normal. Go through the diagnostic testing line by line and explain what information you've gained by running each specific test. Celebrate normal results as confirmation of their pet's good health and as a valuable baseline to which you can compare future results.
Attention, Please: Strategies for Reaching Your Audience
Personalized care deserves equally tailored communications. Reaching clients with personalized, targeted messaging specific to their pet's life stage conveys your practice's investment in their pet's well-being. It also respects the client's time and shows the client is regarded as an integral part of their pet's care team. These all help increase engagement and grow compliance.
Segment Your Audience by Life Stage
Use your practice management software to separate clients by pet life stage and species. This ensures your clients receive timely, relevant content about the importance of their pet's veterinary preventive care.
Craft Life Stage-Specific Content
In addition to writing emails and reminder messages for each life stage, consider creating age group-specific educational content, including blog posts, informative handouts, videos, and newsletters that address age-related risks and the importance of wellness testing. Providing multiple resources—especially on your practice website—can help clients who seek additional information and reinforce in-clinic conversations.
Leverage Social Media To Stimulate Conversations
Create social media campaigns for each life stage, highlighting recommended diagnostic testing and age-specific health risks. Encourage engagement by asking your followers to post pictures or videos of pets who match the recognized life stage. Host monthly live Q&A sessions to address life stage-specific questions and emphasize the need for wellness testing.
Introduce Targeted Wellness Packages
Make it easy for clients to say "yes" to preventive care by bundling recommended diagnostic testing and care services in tailored wellness packages for each life stage.
Life Stage Marketing: A Lifetime of Benefits
Helping clients understand routine preventive care as it applies to their pet's current life stage creates lasting and impactful benefits.
- May help improve pet health. Greater client awareness and compliance ensure pets receive consistent and correct care and screening tests at every life stage, helping catch health issues early and promoting a longer, healthier life.
- Enhance client recognition of their pet's life stage. Tailored messaging helps clients recognize and understand their pet's life stage and their unique care needs.
- Build trust and loyalty through personalization. Customizing messages that feature the owner and/or the pet's name and the pet's life stage helps clients feel valued and appreciated, strengthening their relationship with the practice.
- Empower clients with direction and a plan. Clear, age-specific wellness recommendations empower clients to make informed decisions and proactively manage their pet's health.
- Communicate preventive care's value. Simplifying the importance of wellness care by life stage as well as its benefits over time helps owners grasp the value of annual testing, leading to better compliance.
- Set expectations for annual wellness care. Early and consistent messaging about the importance of routine care establishes expectations for regular wellness testing and creates a lifelong habit of preventive care.
Age serves as a roadmap for veterinary preventive care. By recognizing and addressing pets' evolving health needs through life stage-based marketing, veterinarians can empower clients to make informed, proactive decisions that strengthen the veterinary-client-patient bond and ensure pets lead healthier, happier lives.
Reference:
1. Data on file at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. Westbrook, Maine USA: Study #014_Preventive-Care-Findings_220908090729.
