Building Effective Veterinary Client Education Resources

Client education is a cornerstone of veterinary practice, helping to keep pet owners engaged in their pets' care and allowing them to make the best possible informed decisions. However, visiting clients often struggle to retain verbal information because their attention is pulled in multiple directions.

Effective resources can improve veterinary client education and subsequent compliance, strengthen the client-veterinarian relationship, and lead to better pet health outcomes. Here’s a guide for creating impactful educational materials for your veterinary practice.

1. Analyze clients’ educational needs

Understanding your audience is crucial to creating effective educational resources. Pet owner knowledge, experience, and preferences vary widely. Identifying client groups and creating targeted goals can help you tailor content and increase its impact. Consider how puppy, first-time, or specific breed owners have different pet health and wellness concerns. Then, determine which topics to address and to what extent. Make a list of common questions, frequently occurring conditions, and difficult-to-understand topics to work from.

2. Consider multiple digital and print resource types

Once you choose the veterinary client education topics, consider how to deliver the information. Educational resources can take many digital and print forms, including:

• Printed materials — Brochures, flyers, posters, and handouts can be placed strategically or handed out as needed during client visits. Stuff new patient, puppy, and kitten binders or folders with handouts, samples, and clinic swag to give clients a reference base and help reinforce initial visit topics.
• Digital written content — A weekly or monthly blog can help build a digital reference base for clients. Alternatively, consider social media posts, email newsletters, and mobile client engagement platforms or apps to communicate relevant information and create a resource reference. Repeat essential topics as they relate to seasons, holidays, or awareness days to hammer home the information and reinforce veterinary client education.
• Videos — Producing videos can take more time than written materials, but videos also provide helpful animations or demonstrations not possible with words alone. Use video to demonstrate simple procedures (e.g., pilling, nail trims), explain health conditions, or provide care tips in a personal and relatable vlog style.

3. Develop targeted educational content

Creating high-quality content requires a time investment that many practices simply don’t have, so consider hiring outside writers, editors, social media managers, or video producers. Well-staffed hospitals can assign the project to a current team member, but they must be given sufficient time to complete the project alongside other duties.

When developing new content for veterinary client education, focus on using clear, simple language and minimizing confusing medical jargon, except for labeling conditions in proper terms. Try adding simple visuals, like cross-sectional drawings or diagrams, to written or digital content to grab attention or help explain conditions.

4. Focus on client engagement

Engaging clients requires creativity, consistency, and repetition. You can augment the hospital’s core content catalog, which should contain reference handouts, blog posts, or videos, with regularly updated social media posts or newsletters. Use these platforms to highlight personal or client success stories and case studies, provide updates on evolving topics or relevant current events, and encourage questions and comments.

5. Regularly re-assess educational offerings

Regularly reviewing materials helps ensure accuracy and allows evaluation of educational efficacy. Client feedback through surveys or in person may provide helpful information about clarity, readability, usefulness, and accessibility for materials provided or recommended to clients. Use view counts and social media interactions (e.g., likes, follows, shares) to gauge digital content’s appeal and traffic. PIMS reports and in-depth metrics can help assess targeted campaign efficacy—for example, comparing preventive care reminder conversions or heartworm prevention sales before and after the education project.

Building effective veterinary client education resources is a dynamic and ongoing process. Let your goals and target audience guide content creation, and use diverse formats and platforms to engage pet owners. Your investment in client education will benefit your clients and their pets, strengthen your practice, and enhance your professional reputation.