The Cat Doctor is a specialist mobile cat vet, visiting cats in their own home to reduce the stress on both the cat and the owner. They wanted to increase awareness levels within their very specific geographic territory, leading to more sales.
The Cat Doctor
A Growth Voucher case study
The Client
What did we do?
After being awarded a Growth Voucher (link may not work after 31/3/15) in July 2014, they found SME Needs on the Enterprise Nation Marketplace. SME Needs was engaged in September to help them to take their marketing to the next level.
As we do with all new clients, the first phase is to ensure Amy & Robert understood exactly what their current marketing was delivering. It was a pleasant surprise when we first looked at their marketing data – because they were actually doing some performance measurement. For example they knew exactly what each new customer cost them to generate and how this varied between each marketing activity. Something I very rarely see with a new client.
Some new customers were costing up to £60 each. This was significantly more than the average and way above their target and so they were considering stopping these particular activities: print advertising in this case.
What SME Needs did was take their analysis one step further. Whilst we agreed that these customers were expensive to acquire, the revenues they were generating hadn’t been taken into consideration. These customers were actually some of their highest spenders (and they continue to be customers too) and so generated a good return on investment.
The return on investment was calculated across all marketing activities so that they had a full and accurate picture of the performance of each activity. They were now in a position to make better decisions about how to invest their resources (both time and money) going forward.
The next step was to look at their customer base and identify who their key targets were. Extensive conversations led to the identification of two key audiences:
- Busy professionals who are working during normal veterinary practice hours
- Older people who find it difficult to get to the vets’
The marketing strategy developed from there was predominantly one of doing more of the same, but on a consistent basis: regular blogs, Facebook activity and advertising (both online and in print).
Since the development of their marketing strategy, SME Needs has supported them in implementing their marketing, providing advice, guidance, support and the occasional nudge to ensure their marketing is happening on a consistent basis
Results
Although it’s still early days, the gross profit generated in January 2015 was 300% more than in January 2014.
