Thank you, Antony, and welcome everybody. What a fantastic session you've had on this marketing stream. I've been listening in in in between grabbing myself a cup of tea and and lunch, etc.

And I can see that you've had some fantastic input from the other presenters this morning. So in terms of what we're going to be doing here today, what I'd just like to check is that everybody can hear me and that you are currently seeing my slides. So if we can just pop in the chat window that this is, that everyone's seeing and hearing, that would be grand.

Wonderful. Always worth checking that you're not speaking to the top tip if you ever do webinars in your marketing. So yes, I am Bryony Thomas and I'm absolutely delighted to be with you here today.

In terms of what we're gonna go through, I'm going to do about 45 minutes of content. You're very, very welcome to put questions in chat and Q&A as we go. I'll stop at a couple of, a couple of key points along the way to answer those, and I've left some time at the end for questions as well.

In terms of the material in today's session, as Anthony says, this is based on the watertight marketing book. This is, this is my book that came out, it's actually 6 years ago now, so it's been on in its bestsellers list organically now for Over, just coming up for 6 years. There are over 110 5-star reviews.

But what's more important to me is that the tools in this book are currently being used by over 1500 businesses. In fact, at last count it was over 2000 businesses. And of those, a number of them go through online and consultant-led learning programmes.

Now, the key thing for me for this is a book, is that it's written for marketers and non-marketers alike. It is a book that helps you to piece together all the Advice and possible things that one could do on marketing in order to navigate through it and decide which is right for your business, which is right for you, and critically, in what order to do all the things one could possibly do on marketing. Because I very much doubt, I'm gonna hazard a guess that there isn't anybody here who couldn't think of yet more ways to spend money on marketing.

What's usually tricky is deciding which of those thousands of new ways that you could spend money on marketing is actually going to be right for you and your business. And so really, that's why I wrote the book, it's to help people to understand how it all fits together and make really good decisions. If you are going to get a copy of the book, my top tip, and this has come from, from the readers, is to read it first time through like a novel, and don't reach for a pen and paper, because if you reach for a pen and paper on the first read through watertight marketing, you'll probably never finish it.

Because it is a bit of a, you know, it's a how to, it's a bit of a manual, but sometimes people will get distracted by the first idea rather than the best idea. So if what we go through today looks like it's gonna be useful for you, that would be the next thing I would advise you to do is just read it through cover to cover, like a novel, glass of wine optional, call it the holiday read. So in terms of where we are and and how I think about marketing.

So when I set up my consultancy business in 2008, I had spent my career to that date, working with large corporates with multi-million pound budgets. And in 2008, which I'm sure you'll all agree was a great year to set up a business, I started to work with smaller businesses, who are generally owner run, and, you know, by, run by people who were Good at what they did, rather than had marketing teams. So I went from somewhere where you had marketing specialists and lots of money to organisations where you had a specialist at at running the business, who'd never had any previous marketing experience.

And in my last, in my last few months when I've actually, funnily enough, through various reasons, spent quite a lot of time with vets. You know, we found that the, the founding vet is often the person who ends up responsible for marketing, and marketing is not a key, a key stream that is taught on the veterinary degrees. And so if you are running your own practise and or perhaps you are running a franchise practise, and then often what we found is that the person at the, at the top of the practise has looks at marketing, think my marketing isn't working.

But really, what, what have they risked to set that up? Well, many people are putting their, their mortgage on the line, so people have invested in setting up their businesses. The levels of of stress, of long hours, of thinking that there's always more that you can do in your business will put a real stress on your personal relationships.

And I don't think I've yet found an entrepreneur who hasn't at some point put their own health on the line, be that their mental health through that stress, or through simply overworking. And so when somebody says to me that their marketing isn't working, it's not the N word I hear. I hear that they've risked their mortgage, their marriage, their mental health, and it's not working, or it's not working as well as they would hope.

Add on to that, the kind of fear of missing out, the FOMO effect in marketing, when there are all these things that you could be doing and you can't choose between them and you're not an expert. It truly matters to me that people can make good decisions about their marketing, and that is what I want to equip you with and start you on a journey towards, today as we go through this. And so the watertight marketing tools.

And that there's the book, there's workbooks that you can download from our websites that are free with your copy of the book. And if you wanted to, there are a whole swathe of online courses. And all of these tools have been put together to help you to outthink rather than outspend the competition.

And in my understanding of the veterinary market, it has become increasingly crowded and with a, you know, with a, with a highly slick corporate entrant into the veterinary veterinary sphere. If you were a small independent veterinary practise following Move for move, one of the big corporates on their marketing, they would bankrupt you. And so really, you need to outthink them, rather than copy the move for move because you're never going to outspend them.

And even if you are in a corporate setting, thinking more and spending less will always mean higher returns. Now, when I talk to people about marketing, and I know you've been hearing from specialists today who are saying, they generate leads and lead generation, get people looking at your business, this is a diagram that you're gonna find. So if you were to go and do a bit of thinking about marketing your veterinary practise and getting more customers or more profit, At some point in your journey, this is a diagram that is going to pop up.

It's a sales funnel or a sales pipeline, or a sales hopper. If anyone hasn't seen this, before, then just go and do a little bit of search on sales funnel, and I promise you, that the world will give you lots of answers. In fact, if you search this on Google, you get over 33.5 million results.

This is a pretty ubiquitous marketing model. And so, if you have a think about the sales funnel, what this is saying is that there is a journey, through which people move, and people use the word funnel to demonstrate the way in which people move through a market. Decision, move to decide who they're going to work with.

And of course, today we're talking about where they're going to take their, their very loved pet, or of course, if in an in an agricultural setting, setting up a relationship with a a vet that you're going to work with in the long term. Now, the word funnel is really misleading. I would imagine that you have funnels in your kitchen, and I would guess that all the water that you put in the front comes out at the bottom.

And therefore, the sales funnel as a metaphor is truly awful. It is not true that anyone who's ever heard of your practise will at some point, give you some money. In actual fact, what most people have here is a colander, because what the funnel is saying is that there are reducing numbers of people at each stage in the process.

And as Chris was saying just before, if you've paid for somebody to be aware or inquire about your organisation, if they go no further than the money that you've spent on them to that point is money wasted. And so actually, you don't have a sales funnel. What you have usually is a colander.

And the whole purpose of watertight marketing is to help you to understand how to make this process as watertight as possible. That is, to make sure that as many of the right people, that the types of clients that you want in your practise, make it all the way through their journey with you. And so what I'd like you to have a think about is a new metaphor.

Every time you think about a sales pipeline, a sales funnel, I want you to think of it in 3 phases. I want you to think of it as buckets, funnels, taps. Now, I've said that.

From the bottom up. And there's a reason for that. So if every time you see a sales funnel, you think to yourself, I don't have a funnel, I have a bucket, I have funnels, and I have taps.

Now, why would I say it in this order? Now, in the two presentations that have gone before, there's been lots of talk about generating traffic to your website. Well, generating traffic to your website is taps.

This is where you, that they've just heard of you, and think about it as taps. Now, would You sensibly, if the aim of the game is to keep your bucket topped up, would you spend money on taps if you had a hole in your bucket? It stands to reason that you wouldn't, which means that there is a sequence to the way that you do your marketing.

You, first of all, start with tools, techniques that make sure that your customers stay your customers and that they spend more with you and that they stay over time. And in our language, that's your bucket. Once you have a good bucket, would you then put on taps?

Well, I would argue not. The reason being is that your taps are all over the place, and you have to literally tap into other people's platforms, other people's channels, get familiar with Facebook, get familiar with Google, etc. You're running around madly, putting your bucket underneath these taps.

And so actually, before you go to turn your taps on, what you need is funnels and philtres, which means that you can channel that activity to your bucket. So essentially, what you do is you think about customer journeys forward, so you think, what are they looking at, which is a lot of what we've we've heard. I heard from the previous two speakers.

Think about where they are. Are they on Facebook? Are they searching?

So think about it forwards, but build it backwards so that you have a watertight bucket, then you've got your funnels and philtres, and only then would it make sense to turn your taps on. Now, often in this process, what people will say to me is that this is how that they see these different functions in an organisation. So you think the reason your customers stay being your customers is because you provide excellent service.

Often this is to do with The style of interaction with the vets in the room, your receptionist, that sort of thing. Do they like you? Are you nice people?

Did you do a good job? And so often people will think, well, you know, if I provide excellent service, and I do that naturally because I care, then people are going to remain my clients. Then they think about the funnels as the sales piece.

And often this is about offers, so that free first consultation, that sort of thing. So they put together some sales offers, discounts, that sort of thing that get people who've heard of you to take that first step of working with you. And then they think of the taps as marketing, marketing being that lead generation, generating awareness, and getting people to inquire about working with you.

Now, I would define this slightly differently. So I believe that marketing has a role to play all across this. There are tools, there are techniques, there are things that you can do that support every single part of this process.

Now, in the watertight marketing book, it's in chapter two, for those of you who are interested, and they're obviously blog post on our website, and I'll point you to where where you can get more information on this later, is the core model in the watertight marketing toolkit. It's called the 13 Touchpoint leaks. When the book came out, I had done research across around 200 organisations, as I say, that's now up to around 2000 organisations, to demonstrate the 13 typical ways that people Step out of their journey with you.

And there are 13 areas where if you do not have a tool and you do not have a technique and you do not have a process, then you're likely to lose customers at that stage in the journey. So there are 3 of these that relate to, that surround your service delivery, that somebody with a job title marketing could deliver very effectively for your organisation. And if you don't have these marketing things in place, however good your service is, you're going to lose some people.

At the sales area, there are another 3, leaks 45, and 663 areas there where there are tools and techniques that you need to have in place to make sure that people convert and specifically the right kind of people. So sometimes people qualify themselves out, if they're not going to be right for your practise. And then there are, between 7 and the area 7 through 13 that relate to generating awareness.

So it's not wrong to say that there is more for a marketer to do around awareness and interest, but what we, what we're saying is that there are also significant marketing investments to be made further down the process before you turn your taps on, so that you're not losing money. Precisely as Chris was saying, you know, you don't want to pay for someone to arrive at a website that doesn't work. You don't want people to book using your sexy system that you've that you've spent money on for a free consultation and then never come back.

And you don't want to spend money on developing a pet plan product that nobody's going to buy. And so what we're thinking about here is making sure that you have a marketing tool and technique, that is mapped to each of these stages in the journey. And you will need to build them buckets up.

So you start with your bucket, then you do your funnels, and then you do your taps. Do pop in the chat area or questions if you want me to clarify that in more detail. Now, what I want you to have a think about, and you are perhaps the best audience for this analogy, and, Anthony's absolutely right.

I use this, I use this metaphor with every audience. The fact that you're vets just makes it beautifully relevant. So, many of you will have experienced, the, the wonderful character of cats.

And cats make their own choices, don't they? So I always like to say to people that your customers are like cats, they have choices. And so potentially the most important marketing question you are ever going to be asked is, if you wanted to steal your neighbor's cat, how would you do it?

If you are going to steal your neighbor's cat, how would you do it? And I ask, I ask every audience this, and that, there's always a number of ideas that come out. So we'll have someone who says, oh, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll put some, I'll put some food out.

Well, where do you put the food? Do you put the food by your back door, or do you put the treat out for the cats, near where they hang out? So this is about, you know, if you think about your customers, what Chris was talking about earlier in terms of things like search words, and I know what Natalia was talking about earlier in terms of Facebook as a channel.

This is about understanding where your customers hang out. So, In the cat analogy, if you're going to steal your neighbour's cat and you know that the cat hangs out under the tree at the bottom of the garden, that's where you would put your first treat. And then you'd do a little trail of treats from their hangout spots all the way to your back door.

Now, sometimes, every now and again, we'll have somebody who says, oh, the best way to, to steal your neighbour's cat is to put it on a lead and drag it through the hedge. Now, you're possibly the perfect audience for telling me that that would end in disaster. So first of all, you're probably gonna have scratched hands, you know, the cat's not gonna appreciate it.

And the moment that the cat gets a sniff of the back door being open, it will shoot out the door. And this to me, is the equivalent equivalent of manipulative marketing techniques that wins a customer at any cost. This is kind of slimy sales techniques that win somebody through slightly ways, but it's not actually a choice that they made.

And then they end up being kind of locked into something that, that they weren't really keen on. So somebody who's locked in and didn't really choose what they bought and is now feeling disgruntled about it, first of all, they're going to leave the 1st, 1st opportunity, and the second, they're going to whinge to all their friends about how awful it is. And so, those kind of quick win techniques don't work for for customers, and they don't work for cats.

So every time you think about how am I going to set up my marketing, think about earning the respect of quite a fussy cat. Because if you were to think about it in that way, then you're going to lay out the right trail of toys and treats, for the customers that you want to hang out on your metaphorical sofa. And so my definition of, marketing.

Is that it is the job of marketing to lay out a trail of tools and techniques, and there are 13 of them. So if you imagine that each one of these numbers here represents a basket of cat toys, and then you and your team are the people standing one step ahead of that cat, encouraging it forward, reaching into the basket and using the right toy at the right time. So what you're doing is laying out a path of toys and treats, and then you, the marketing department and the marketing team or you as the person getting your head around marketing is laying out a trail of things that you know that the customers that you want are going to enjoy.

And you, as the people involved, will pick up the right toy, talk about it, and encourage that customer forward just as you would with a with a encouraging a cat to trust you. Now, one of the great things about a cat analogy is, that as we all know, when you buy your cat an expensive toy, it plays with the box. And what I, what I think is fantastic and really analogous about this is that if you, you don't need to spend a load of money on marketing, what you need to do is get your head around what your customers need and want so that you can do something functional, not so embarrassing that ticks the box.

And so what I'm going to run you through is the typical ways that I see people, they just haven't got the right tools and toys in place, and they're leaving money on the table. So I'm going to just ask, I'm going to outline for you the 1st 3 of the 13 touch point leaks. Now, if you think that these are useful and you want to go through all 13, you can do that at watertightmarketing.com/VC2019 virtual Congress 2019.

Have a look there, because you only can go through all 13. I'm just gonna go through 3 of them today. Now, here we are in the bucket.

What we're aiming to do here is to, is to make sure that your existing customers stay your customers. So this is about people who, have been into your practise, they've bought from you once, and here you'd be looking for them, first of all, to convert. From a, that first consultation into perhaps a bonded product, a pet plan or some sort of loyalty club.

And you would want them to be telling all their friends how wonderful you are. And the next time they're they're having a dinner party, and they can, they start talking about their precious pets, that your organisation, your practise is mentioned. Now, there are 3 ways that we see.

People lose customers at this stage in the process. Now, the first is forgotten customers. Forgotten customers is when you forget about them and they forget about you.

Now, in a vet context, this would mean that your customers only hear from you when there is a problem with their pet, which means you are a problem. So if they're only ever getting in touch with you when their pet is ill, then they are associating. With the problem and the expense of each interaction.

So if you forget about them, they forget about you, and the interaction becomes only when there's an issue, then they're going to start associating you as an expense, rather than as an organisation that's part of the love that they have for their pets. And so you can overcome this by making sure that you have tools in place that mean that you become a valued part of, their, the love that they have for their animals. And the key things that you need to build into your marketing here are, first of all, to be of service, secondly, to make them feel special, and thirdly, to facilitate some social interaction.

So service, have a think about proactive service. We know that you're good at reactive service, so if someone calls me and says my pet's got a problem, you jump to action, that's what you do. What could you do that would provide proactive service?

Could you have a newsletter, email, or otherwise that drops people a line with seasonal tips? It's summer, or it's, it's, coming up to either, so in the UK, we have bonfire nights, perhaps it's Thanksgiving in the States, where there's going to be fireworks going off. And so you drop people a line ahead of the, the cultural festival, and tell them how to look after their animals at that stage.

So what you're looking for in terms of service, Is reasons to get in touch that are of service to your customers that that make them feel like you're, you've got them on in their mind, and that you are providing them tips and information that's going to be useful for them. You're thinking of them in a way that isn't just reactive, isn't a problem, and isn't about getting more of their money. Now, the next one is to make them feel special.

And so one of the things that I would say it can be quite difficult about discounting as a as a technique in your awareness marketing is that it can degrade the trust of your existing customers. So if you are doing a special offer, make sure that you communicate that offer or something equivalent to your existing customers first, so that they don't think that they need to move practise in order to get the best deals. If you're coming up with a, a new customer deal, think first, how do I go to my existing customers and make them feel special?

How do you do things that make them feel like you've remembered their animal? Do you have pet birthdays? Do you have some way of marking special occasions?

Maybe you, you could have a special group, where you have, you know, competitions for photos for your annual calendar or something like that. And then the third is to have social an opportunity for social interaction. Now, it's really important in all human relationships to allow people to socialise together.

And so if I were encouraging you to look at Facebook as somewhere to focus on your marketing, I would say do a group. Before a page and use your Facebook group just for your existing customers. You might go in there, once a week to give them those service tips and perhaps on a monthly basis, you just have your best cat photos and socialise.

And that's also where you might encourage people to post example, you know, they, they lost lost animals and that sort of thing. So make sure that in your marketing, you're thinking about your existing customers, you're separating them out, and you're providing service, special and social in the marketing that you do. So have a think for a moment about how you do interact with your existing customers.

So the people who have bought from you once or indeed are on a plan with you, you need to be thinking about lapsed customers, existing customers, and people who have had some interaction with you. How are you talking to them differently? Think about this as raising yourself from 0 to 10.

So 0 would be we have no tools that do this job. Now, I know you do it as human beings because you, you love your, you love your customers, but do you have tools? Do you have processes, and do you have systems that make these things happen, beyond the human interaction?

So 0 is no, we have no tools that do this. Up to 10, which is absolutely we're world class, we're all over this. So have a think in your own mind, where are you?

0 to 10. So you'll see that there's a colour coding on that. So if you're rating yourself up in the Kind of red zone, then, you know, this is a key area for you to focus.

If you're rating yourself there in the amber zone, this is something that, you know, could do with a bit of, a bit of a tweak, but it's, you know, it's doing a pretty good job. And if you're in the green zone, well done. Now, here's the question to ask yourself and rate yourself on that 0 to 10.

Do you predict and respond to service needs? Do you make people feel special, and do you enable social connections? So for forgotten customers, do you have marketing tools and activities that allow you to predict and respond to your customer service needs, make people feel special, and enable social connection and social interaction.

Just ask yourself that question. So if you haven't got those things in place, then you're not going to be getting referrals. People are going to be thinking of you as an expense rather than as part of the ongoing love they have for their animal.

And it's highly likely that they are going to be open to the offers of other practises, because you haven't perhaps demonstrated the added and ongoing value. So let's say you've got all that covered, how could you possibly miss? Leak number 2, if we move on up from your existing customers to customers who are new to the practise.

So people who've just come in, it's their first consultation, this is a magical moment where you have an opportunity to move them on to being a loyal customer, perhaps get them signed up to one of your bonded offerings. Now, this in the marketing in our methodology is called poor onboarding. And again, there are 3 areas for you to have a think about to make sure that there are tools and techniques that kick into action when somebody is entering into their first paid interaction with your organisation.

The first is to make sure that you say thank you in a way that is, you know, it gives them that kind of hug. Is it that you send, send them a little thank you card? You know, might, might you take a photo of the pets as they come in and then upload that to a digital printing service and send them a thank you card with their pets on the front?

Do you simply have a branded, set of branded thank you cards that you just a thank you in and put it in the post the moment they leave from that first, that first visit? Often what people get at the end of their first visit is an invoice. And the thing about an invoice is it doesn't make you feel valued, it makes you feel like somebody wants your money.

And so make sure that you're kind of balancing out the slight slap in the face of an invoice with a beautiful hug, and this gives you an opportunity to say something about who you are and what you do. Now, the second is to set about creating a helpful set of materials for that onboarding period. Now, I spent the day with a group of 20 vet owners and practise managers, just two weeks ago, and we were talking about identifying trigger moments.

For example, when a pet has just been diagnosed with, with arthritis, do you have a helpful sequence. Of communication that helps that pet owner to understand the condition, understand, the medication, know what they can do for their animal. They do have something that clicks into action, the moment there is a trigger that means that you can have a time-bound set of materials that gets them up to speed with something new.

I know a lot of people do this with puppies, where you do your vaccination, you invite people in for a puppy party, that sort of thing. You put together a helpful sequence of activities from the moment that the trigger happens through to the point at which they would consider themselves up to speed with that new, relationship. And then the third part, and it's almost in a timeline, you say thank you, then you have a little sequence of activities that's helpful, and then you celebrate the point at which they've moved into a different stage of their relationship with you.

For example, if they sign up to your pet plan product and you send them a voucher for pet photography, for example. So there's something that marks that change in relationship. So creating this welcome window, a set of tools that kicks in from that first interaction to move them through to that customer loyalty.

Now, having a think about that again, I want you to think about rating yourself from 0 to 10. 0 is we don't have any of those things in place. 10 is we know all of our trigger moments, and we have sequenced activities that kicks into action that that takes someone through.

Thank you, helpful to celebrate. So ask yourself this question. Do you welcome people warmly, help them to use your service, and celebrate and mark milestones with them?

Do you welcome people warmly, help them to use your service, and celebrate or mark important milestones with them. But just think about that question from 0 to 10. And if you're not, you know, if you're not up at the green area, then there's definitely some stuff that you can do here before spending money on some of the things we've been hearing about, like Google AdWords.

You will get more return from making sure this welcome process is beautifully done than you will from spending lots of money on AdWords, because everybody who walks in is more likely to convert into being a long-term customer. This is why we work from the bottom up. So now let's say you've got brilliant customer communications, you've got a great welcome window that means that each first interaction with you becomes a loyal interaction with you.

How could you possibly miss? Now link number 3 is called No Emotional Connection, and I'm really surprised that I've seen this with veterinary practise. People love their pets, and so you have an opportunity to truly make a phenomenal emotional connection with your customers.

And yet, when I spent time a fortnight ago in preparation for this workshop that I did with a number of veterinary practises on looking at websites and marketing material, it was amazing how Paint by numbers, it was, stock photography, websites that looked similar. There was a whole load of things that came together to really make lots of practises look very much like many others, and it was very difficult for a customer to really distinguish between them. And so, just at the point where you're thinking, where am I going to trust, you know, who am I gonna build a long-term relationship with?

I'm choosing between this organisation and this organisation. Is there a way that you can make sure that they connect to you as opposed to anyone else? And so here, what I would encourage you to really look at, and it comes in at this stage in the process so that you can then roll it out through all of the tools that go out into the wider world.

To really look at your visual, your written, and your photography. So your visual identity. Now, in this little audit I did of the 25 practises a couple of weeks ago, there were people with logos.

So there's a logo that was a squirrel, and yet this was a vet practise that specialised in domestic animals. They don't do wildlife. And so it's quite confusing to have squirrels represented.

We also had stock photography, so they bought photography. It wasn't photos of the vets themselves. We were then looking at the meet the team area and there were no, you know, there were no pictures of the actual people they're going to meet.

Now, if you can help people. To really connect to you, truly and have a distinct, a really distinctive visual identity that's very much like the world that they already live in, then it's much more likely that, you know, their pets are part of their family. And so you want them to bring them into a visual style that looks more like their home, and then kind of clinical and distant.

The next is your written information. Again, having looked at a number of veterinary practises, it can be written in quite a clinical, quite a cold manner, and often some of the language assumes that we under that, pet owners understand veterinary terms. And so I would encourage you to make sure that your writing, and particularly on your website and in all your materials, is written, for an intelligent 12 year old.

And I pick a 12-year-old because in the UK the average reading age is 12. So an intelligent 12-year-old needs to be able to read your material, understand it, and feel like they're being valued. And then the third area there is photography.

Now, I've mentioned not using stock photography and making sure that you really use your own photography. That's photos of you. And I was having a chat with one of the the vets a couple of weeks ago, saying, you know, if you, if you are having photos of pets, then have a photo of a pet with a local landmark where you know, for example, your local dog owners will regularly walk their own dogs.

And don't go to one of the stock. Libraries, get your own photographs done. You know, I would encourage you, at least every 2 years to work with a professional photographer to photograph pets in and around your local area.

Perhaps you could have photos done with, you know, the local characters on your high street, the local headmistress, and the local cafe owner, just to really make sure that people know, that you are real people that operate in their community. Now, when you have these things in place, it's highly likely that when people are choosing between you and a, and a kind of paint by numbers option, that they're going to connect with you. And if particularly it's an animal that's part of their, their family, then they're more likely to choose you over others.

Once you have those things in place, it then goes all the way through all the other touch point leaks. So if you're creating a website, you're creating materials, if you've got these things in place, then it washes through everything that you do from here on up. And so the question to ask yourself, and again, I'm gonna ask you to rate yourself from 0 to 10, is, do we have materials and tools in place?

So n is we have nothing that does this job. 10 is that we are absolutely all over this. Now, to ask yourself this question, what I want you to, oh, I haven't got the question up there.

Well, I know what the question is. The question is, do you have a consistent visual and written identity that your Customers can see themselves in, and does your photography represent you and them in a way that they can immediately see? Do you have a consistent visual and written identity that your customers can see themselves in, and does your photography represent you and the customers in in their real lives?

So just make sure that when you look through and read all your material, it is the world that your customers occupy. Rate yourself from 0 to 10. If you were up at a 10 here, it's highly likely that you've got fantastic brand guidelines consistently applied from the practise manager to the receptionist, to the materials to the signage, to your ads.

It all looks the same. It also all uses brilliant photography that's really associated with you, and when people look at it, they couldn't think that it was anybody else but you. So thinking about that from from 0 to 10, what we do in the full touch point leak assessment, and if you wanted to get a quick snapshot of that, I've made the profiling tool available to you for free.

So if you go to watertightmarketing.com/VC 2019, you can assess all 13 of These leaks. We've looked at leaks 12, and 3 of 13.

So it might well be that your area of focus is further upstream in some of the ways that Natalia and Chris have talked about earlier in these presentations. But if, in what I was just talking about, there are some tweaks that you could make, I would suggest that you start there. Because if you have a hole in your bucket, there really is no point in spending money further upstream.

Now, the key point here is that if you are, if you don't have a massive marketing budget, if you don't have dedicated marketing resource, or indeed, even if you do, sometimes it's the sequence in which you do things that make sure that you actually generate a profit. Because if you're spending money on your taps, and then people are not converting, then you are wasting money. If you're converting people, but they only come once, then you're wasting money.

And so what we would like to equip you to do and encourage you to do with all of the tools, that you've learned about today and that you can find elsewhere, is to make sure that you do these things in the right order so that each investment that you make builds on the last. In the UK there was a comedian called Eric Morecambe, and he used to say, you know, I, I, I'm a great pianist, I know all the right notes, I just play them in the wrong order. And sometimes this is the case in small businesses.

You've got lots of great marketing ideas, you've done lots of things, but perhaps they've been done in the wrong sequence, which means that they don't pay back. And so what I would encourage you to do is have a look at a sequence of really small tweaks in your path so that you can move up in a sustainable way, sustainable profits, where each marketing investment you make builds on the last. If you go through all 13, on the profiling tool that I've made available to, the virtual Congress participants for free, what this will tell you.

Is that the items on those 13 touch techniques that pop out as red are the things that you do in phase one. You sit down, you look at those, and you put something in place that just moves it up to amber. Don't try and go from red to green.

Just put something in place that's functional and not too embarrassing, because that will start to make you some more money. You just tweet. It up.

The other thing about going from red to amber is it allows you to test before you, go all out. So, for example, if you were going to put together, a, a welcome pack, you know, one of that we welcome sequence around arthritis, for example, I would do that initially as a set of emails and PDFs, in, in reasonably. Looks smart, but it's not stunning.

And you ask your customers, has this worked for them? Do you see that turning into a more engaged, more loyal customer? And only when you see that it's it's worked in that functional level, would you then step up to something like an online tool kit or a diagnostic online tool or something like that?

Now, if you have some, if you then go to your items on amber, you then look to tweak them up to a green, so you, you take what you know is working, and you make it better. And then you go to the things that are on green, and that look at those later. So if when, if you do your full analysis or just read the chapter on the touch point, And think, where do I need to focus.

If things are already working well, don't spend more money there. Go to the areas where you have some issues that you're leaking people from this process, that you're leaving money on the table, and tweak it up just a little so that you can then put those further investments in place in a way where each investment builds on the last. What we're talking about here.

Is making sure that you have a tool and a technique for every stage in the journey. And so if you were thinking about stealing your neighbour's cat, or indeed your competitor's customer, you'd be looking to put a trail of tools and treats all the way from where you know they hang out to where you want them to be. But you would build that that breadcrumb trail kind of backwards so that there is a full path to purchase.

And if anyone's going to get that analogy, it's going to be this group. And so I'm going to now open up for questions and make sure that you know that there is a tool kit waiting for you. You go to watertight Marketing.com/VC 2019 to get your your touch point leaksanaly.

This is free, and I know that Anthony has truly enjoyed doing this, not only for his own organisation, but those that he's recommended it on to. What this gives you is a sequenced plan that Means that you can outthink rather than outspend your competition. When you're looking at Google AdWords, when you're looking at Facebook, when you're looking at advertising in the local paper, you can quickly look at that and think, do I need it?

Do I need it now? So, use the tool now, and perhaps in a quarter's time when you've made a few little tweaks to make sure that you're constantly and iteratively tweaking things up with really good thinking and not too much spending. I'm now gonna open the line for some questions, and I know that, Anthony will always come in with some questions, so do go ahead.

Thanks, Brian, that was great. Can you hear me OK? We can, yeah.

Good, great. I'm downstairs. I've decided I want to have a sit on the couch and listen comfortably to all that you have to say.

It was really, really good, as always, and I think this is, I think what I tried to say with the programme that we've put together for the marketing. You know, Facebook, paper click, it, you know, is really important, but if there are lots of holes in your buckets, really it's best to sort those out. But then almost you always need traffic coming in to see how well you're doing as well, don't you?

So. Absolutely right. I mean this is premised on the, on the on the assumption that you have a business.

So if you were. So assuming that you have a business, it's running, you have some awareness, there are leads coming in, then you would tweak up from the bottom. If you're a brand new startup, then obviously you do have to have some taps, otherwise nobody's going to walk through the door at all.

So if you're, if you're, a startup organisation, then you go through leaks 1 through 13, putting something functional, not embarrassing in place, you make sure there's something running. And if you're a more established business looking to get onto, slightly higher profits or a more sustainable, position where you've got predictable income, then if you do it from the bottom up, then each investment will build on the last. I'm reading a really interesting book at the moment called Making Websites Work, and one of their premises was, you know, that if you want to improve quickly, and obviously it's probably more relevant to digital than, you know, to a veterinary bricks and mortar business, the, the quicker that you're able to test things out, the better.

So, you know, obviously the more traffic coming in. So, that's, that's what we're doing. I think that's true for digital.

However, I do think that in the last, certainly in the last five years in marketing, I think that, you know, what's the problem, the answer's digital, it has become quite difficult for people, and I think lots of people go straight to the digital option. When, and I'm look, I, I'm, I've been, I've been, doing digital marketing for, for nearly 20 years. I was doing webinars in 2004.

I am a big, big. Advocate of digital marketing, but it needs to interplay with the traditional stuff. And one of the things about animals is that they're tangible, you know, if someone wanted a digital relationship with their animal, they'd have a, they'd have an avatar, wouldn't they?

This is someone in their family. And so you do really need to interplay it with the human touch points, and sometimes a little tweak to I don't know, a checklist that your receptionists use, that's stuck to the side of their computer screen can have more impact than, you know, than, than the latest digital. It, it's like the cat that plays with the box, yeah, you, you don't have to do digital, it doesn't have to be sexy because the cat's gonna play with the box.

Yeah, no, absolutely, and it's, it's having a mix, isn't it, because When people actually come through your door, it's probably been several touch points that have got them there, so they've listened to people in the park, you know, they've seen your signage as they've walked past your practise, they've maybe seen an advert, you know, that you had in the paper or whatever. And it's those things that come together that in the end encourage them to, you know, pick up the phone, make an appointment and walk into the practise. Yeah, absolutely.

I think one of the things to really think about in vet practise is, is also the the crisis purchase. So I think lots of first purchases, lots of first interactions with the pet owner is because there's either been an accident, they've moved to the area, and perhaps they haven't given it an awful lot of thought. You just happen to be the closest practise.

And in that circumstance, this is a cat that happens to have wandered into your back door. They didn't, they weren't. And they didn't actively choose it.

And so, if it's a first, you know, someone's, if someone is coming in, you can't assume that they've done a lot of thinking about choosing your practise. So, sometimes some of that digital stuff is actually a second touch. So they, the cat gets run over and because they've recently moved to the area, they haven't given a lot of thought to the best practise.

So they just take their cat to the one round the corner. And in that moment, they haven't chosen you, you just happen to be there, and so after the event, they might go home and Google you. And that's so interestingly, sometimes the digital comes later.

But it, it's not always as simple as as it seems, you know, that lead generation is digital and conversion is is the, you know, the, the interaction with your human being. Sometimes it's a little more subtle than that. That's brilliant.

And obviously, everyone, as with the other two speakers, Brian, he's very kindly set up that leak analysis, which I have done on several occasions. One of the things that we found early on with, with going through this methodology was, you know, how well were we actually, you know, onboarding new people who came into the system so that we were encouraging them to watch some of the fantastic CPD that we do. So we've really sort of worked on that and hopefully, you know, you've seen some differences there, but do let me know, you know, if we're, if we're up to the mark and, and doing the right thing for you.

I make a phenomenal difference, Anthony. So we, and, so we've had people work on just leaks 12, and 3. And in fact, you, you met Holly, she's not a bit, she's an online, they do online, .

It's an online shop. Yes, yeah, they sell Odenza is the, the. That's right, yeah.

So they, they sell beautiful things for your home and garden, and over 12 months, they worked full focus on leaks 12, and 3. So this is an online shop, and some of those things were as simple as a printed postcard with a handwritten thanks for your order. And in that 12 months of doing just the leaks we've talked about today, they doubled their turnover and profits.

Yeah. Because people were buying more, staying longer and referring things on. And so, you know, tiny little tweaks, can make a massive, massive difference.

And of course, once you've got those things in place, if you then run your taps, it will turn into, it, it's like alchemy, you know, it turns into exponentially more, when you the path. I'm conscious, just checking that we might have are two of the speakers. Let me just check if they're still here.

No, they're gone. That's OK. So, we're all being very quiet.

Hopefully you've made notes of the, the Watight Marketing.com/BC 2019, because I would really recommend that. I found it really useful actually.

I did it on my own, and then I took it to the team and actually one of Briany's colleagues, Rachel, went through it with us, and actually the results that the team got were different from the results that I got, which was, of course, fascinating. Yeah, it's worth doing it from both sides. Yeah, it is, and that's one of, one of the things that's really useful about the water marketing methodology as a tool is to get everybody in your practise to understand what marketing is and how their role, how their role applies.

And what we found in the practises that have done this, as I say, I spent, spent, a day with, with 25 practises just a fortnight ago. And they were suddenly able to, you know, we had the receptionists who were having ideas, we had vets who were having ideas, and we had practise managers suddenly sighing, sighing a great sigh of relief because other people understood what they've been going on about. So in many ways, it's, you know, it's getting people to understand how it all fits together.

So that when you say we're going to spend some money on this rather than that, they understand why. And the other thing that we've seen happening is once people have got the, so one of the things that comes out, with your report is a two-page action plan for the area that, that, appeared to be your, your top focus. And they're generally things that you can do with elbow grease, not money.

So that, you know, there are ideas in there that you can do. So you, you literally put aside, a couple of hours, get something done, and you, you suddenly start to see the impact, you know, little tweaks, which really encourages people, rather than thinking, oh my goodness, I've got to rebuild my whole website, which feels like a big job. I'm gonna do this.

And what we found, with, with small businesses is that marketing is, it feels like a real pressure, particularly if it's not your key area of expertise. It feels like, you can never keep up. There's always more you should be doing.

It's almost like there's a little guilty thing at the back of your mind going, oh, I really ought to be doing some marketing. And this is a really helpful tool for saying, do this. It's a good idea.

You'll make some progress and as people tick those things off, they, they get more energised about them going into some of the deeper projects later on. Brilliant, Brian, just, just to remind everyone, obviously the day goes on until midnight and then tomorrow we've got large animal equines. So, I hope you're still going to come to some more of the sessions.

We've also put into the chat box, the, virtual goody bag. Which you've got some offers and discounts from our sponsors. So, go in there and have a look at that and obviously, you'll see in the chat box that we put watermarketing.com/VC2019.

If you put the WW at the start, then that should allow you to do the, the test, which I would highly recommend. Bryony, you've been so kind because I know how busy you are, so I really do appreciate you coming to, to speak to the vets. Obviously, this will also go out as a recording, so I'm sure many more vets will listen and might be listening now as a recording, and nurses and practise managers, and, you know, thank you for the resource because it's a fantastic resource, and I think it's going to really help the practises that make use of it.

So thanks for that, Bryony. Thank you. I look forward to any questions, which you can follow up if you do the report.

The email address will be there, and if you have any further questions, we'll be very happy to take them. Thank you for inviting me along. Well done for those of you doing this fantastic learning marathon.

I'm sure you've got phenomenal value from what everyone, at the virtual congress has put together for you. Well done, Anthony and your team.