Marketing Your Dog Biz

We get a lot of questions about social media marketing. The most common two questions are some form of “Should I?” or “Do I have to?” and “Does it work?”

Should I?
It depends. The two most important factors are time and interest. Social media marketing requires a consistent time investment. Some choices are more intensive (Twitter, blogging) than others (Facebook, LinkedIn). But all demand regular attention if they are to have any impact.

So if you aren’t interested—if you aren’t likely to actively engage in the process, if you don’t like to work on the computer, if you’re not “into” it, you would be better served pursuing non-social media forms of marketing.

But if you enjoy social media and can commit the time, there are some potential rewards to be had.

Does it work?
That depends, too. Social media marketing can do a lot for your business. Perhaps most importantly, it improves your website’s ranking so more people find you when they search online for a local dog pro. It also generates brand loyalty among those who follow your efforts. And the thought processes involved can produce lucrative by-products for your business, such as ideas about new services, customer care approaches, or marketing projects.

But recognize that social media marketing may or may not generate much actual business. In our industry, don’t expect your efforts to lead to a line of potential clients knocking down your door. Think about your typical clients—are they the type to go looking for a dog blog? Or to follow a dog pro on Twitter? If they’re like most clients they’ve probably hired you because they’re too busy to take care of their dog themselves, which means the answer is probably no.

On the other hand, now that they know and have come to trust and admire you, they may well enjoy reading your blog or friending you, and that reinforces brand loyalty. Social media may not get you business in the first place, but it’ll help you to keep it.

But no matter how effective your efforts or how much you enjoy them, social media is not a substitute, ever, for on-the-ground community marketing. You still have to get out there to create and nurture referral relationships, use your expertise to create brand awareness and connection, make yourself seen and known.

If you use social media.
Use a set schedule. Carve out specific blocks of time each week to maintain a consistent presence in whichever outlets you choose to participate. And do not allow yourself to go over time—you need that time for other areas of marketing.

Combine with non-media marketing. Set aside at least as much time per week, if not more, for your on-the-ground marketing. Choose, plan, and complete one project per quarter—launch a newsletter or give a small number of free class passes to local veterinary clinics or invite a local reporter to join you on a dog walk.

Have a plan. Don’t launch into a social media marketing project without a plan. What is your purpose? How will you approach it? For example, if you’re starting a blog spend some time brainstorming the kinds of topics you’ll blog about. Don’t launch until you’ve got a good 50 topic ideas to make sure you can sustain the project. Joining the Twitter movement? Do the same—generate a long list of tweets as well as a set of guidelines for what you will and will not tweet about.

You’re promoting your business, so keep all your material on topic. Avoid the temptation to mix in the personal, such as old high school buddies posting to your Facebook page, or tweets about how you spent your day. And think twice before touching anything controversial.

The bottom line.
Social media can be a useful addition to a well-designed dog pro marketing plan, but in most cases cannot replace other marketing efforts. If social media isn’t your thing, you’ll be glad to know it’s not imperative. On the other hand, if you’ve jumped in with both feet but the phone isn’t ringing, it’s time to add some traditional community marketing back into the mix.

Running a business without proper marketing is like running an engine without oil. But running a car with the wrong kind of oil will get you into trouble, too, just as there’s no point spending time and money on marketing that doesn’t work. If you’re not satisfied with the results of your current marketing efforts, it’s time to take a look under the hood. Read on for the most common reasons marketing fails for dog pros.

Not sticking with projects long enough
Most marketing efforts have a delay time. People need time to make decisions, to be exposed to a new service or idea multiple times before committing. And you may be reaching the right people at the wrong time. They might not need your service right now, or they may be too busy with other things to pull the trigger. If you stop your marketing efforts too soon, you won’t be in front of them when the time is right.

Give any marketing project at least six months, a full year if possible, before assessing its effectiveness. It really can take that long, and throwing in the towel too early means losing out on the rewards of your labor and investment.

Not doing enough marketing
Most dog pros simply don’t do enough marketing. Not only does inadequate marketing lower your chances of being noticed, but you also miss out on the cumulative effect of multiple projects building on each other. The more marketing efforts you have running at a given time, the more exposures a potential client has to your company. And the boost each project receives from the others can shorten the time it takes to see results, too.

Straying off topic or message
Good marketing should show off your expertise and professionalism while giving potential clients insight into the benefits and experience of working with you. More than once I’ve heard from clients who were seeing little to no response to powerful projects such as a regular column in the local paper or a lecture series. But when we looked together at the implementation of these projects the reason for failure was clear: Articles about poisonous plants or good dog biscuit recipes or effective tick removal and lectures on dog breeds aren’t likely to get the phone ringing for dog training. These topics don’t convey what a trainer has to offer, what change she can bring to a dog owner’s life, how effectively she can solve problems. An article on tick removal by a dog walker, however, would be a much more appropriate show of expertise. And published dog biscuit recipes would effectively show the extra mile a pet sitter is willing to go for her charges.

Using the wrong marketing message
If you’re already mindful of building your marketing around a message but aren’t getting the results you want, assess the message itself. Is it aimed at your target audience, or are you accidentally marketing to other dog pros or the dogs themselves? Because we feel so strongly about helping dogs we often focus on how our services benefit them. But even dogs who run roughshod over their households aren’t the ones making the hiring decisions. Your marketing message should be focused primarily on how you will make their peoples’ lives better.

When crafting the marketing message, trainers should remember that potential clients aren’t dog pros and that most of them aren’t behavior geeks, either. They’re just people who want to enjoy a well-behaved dog. So don’t use your website and other precious marketing space and time to lecture them about the need to improve their relationship with their dog, or to learn about their dog’s needs, or to tell them that they’re the ones who need the training. It may all be true, but it isn’t good marketing. Instead, tell people how you can bring them relief, make life with their dog easier, help them get a calm and well-behaved dog, etc. Once you gain their trust you have the opportunity to impact their relationship with their dog.

The message of human relief– from worry, from guilt, from an over-energized dog– is a strong one for walking, pet sitting, daycare, and boarding businesses, too.

Not maintaining visual consistency
I’ve seen dog pros put tremendous effort into their marketing only to see disappointing results because they broke the visual branding rule: Everything should look like everything else. All of your materials—website, printed pieces, logo clothing, handouts, newsletters, car signs, business cards, everything and anything—should be instantly recognizable as yours. I should be able to tell, at a glance, that I’m seeing something from your company. If your newsletter looks different from your brochure, and your website has its own look separate from both, you’re losing the cumulative effect of repeat exposure. In addition to a consistent marketing message, make sure your potential clients are exposed to a uniform visual identity.

Marketing to the wrong audience
This mistake dampens your results, eats your time, and kills morale. Screening emails and calls from people who aren’t the right match for your services is discouraging and inefficient. If you’re getting too many calls that don’t pan out, check that your message is getting to the right people. Are you placing your articles in papers read by the right demographic? Is your newsletter in vet offices located in the right geographical area and serving a population likely to want, appreciate, and be able to afford your professional services? Are you networking with pet supply stores and shelters frequented by the same? In short, analyze each marketing project and referral source to be sure it’s directed at the people most likely to use your services.

Doing the wrong marketing
If you’re spending more money than time on your marketing, chances are you could improve your results by reversing that equation. Passive marketing—advertisements, direct mail, print or online Yellow Pages, etc.—is rarely effective for small dog service businesses. Though there are exceptions, you’ll often find if you take a moment to compare the revenue from these efforts against their cost, the numbers don’t pan out.

Instead, put time into community-based marketing. Community marketing uses education, information, and entertainment to expose potential customers to your business. Projects like newsletters, lectures, article writing, event organizing, humane education programs, a content-rich website, free class passes for referral sources, etc., give people a window into your expertise and what you can do for them. All an ad can do is tell your potential audience how great you are, and most of us, if we bother to read ads at all, do so with skeptical eyes. Instead, choose community marketing projects that show people who you are and expose them to the benefits you can provide.

Forgetting the call to action
Finally, don’t forget to explicitly suggest to your potential clients what they might do to get relief from a less-than-perfectly behaved dog: They should call you. Be sure your contact information is on all your materials, and tell people what to do with it. Don’t be shy. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) plaster huge red letters screaming “Call Now!” across the top of your newsletter, or blinking ones on your website’s homepage. But don’t forget to tell them you can help: “Tired of coming home to a whirling dervish? We can help. Call or email to schedule your initial consult, the first step toward a customized training plan (or to joining our daycare, etc.). Let us help you enjoy your dog (or your vacation, etc.).” Your call to action should be specific to the kind of work you take, and based on the central concerns your clients have. What makes them call you, what are they wanting relief from? Build your call to action to speak directly to their needs.

If you don’t have the steady stream of clients you want, the first step is to ask yourself if you’re doing enough marketing. If not, set aside some time each week to top off the oil in your business engine. If you’re already marketing but not seeing the results you’d hoped for, give your plan a tune-up by assessing your efforts on each of the points above.

Marketing is a cornerstone topic in our THRIVE! program – join to build a successful marketing plan and grow your business.

Dog businesses do better when they band together. Our most successful dog pro clients tend to view their competition as colleagues and allies rather than enemies. Their greater success is due partly to finding ways to support each others’ businesses. This approach also means less time wasted worrying about what others are doing, leaving more energy for one’s own business.

There are many ways to band with other dog pros, from loose relationships to formal ones. Here are just a few ideas.

Marketing partnerships
Marketing partnerships allow two or more businesses serving the same general area to pool money, time, and talent to make a bigger marketing splash.

Most dog business owners face a number of marketing challenges. Where will the time come from? What should I do to market my business? What if I don’t have all the skill sets I need? Most dog pros feel uncertain and anxious about marketing. And when it comes to money-based marketing like advertising, most don’t have budgets big enough to make their efforts worthwhile. Banding with colleagues can take a lot of pressure off. Why should several businesses struggle with these things on their own? Why not share resources and get more from the process?

Members of a marketing partnership might represent a selection of different service businesses—say a trainer, a pet sitter, a dog walker, a daycare, for example, who market their businesses together around a shared concept of excellent customer service or elevated expertise. Or they can be a collection of businesses all offering the same service. For example, a group of positive reinforcement-based trainers banding together to market that concept and, in the process, themselves. The businesses may all serve the same area or they might be spread out a bit, serving a collection of contiguous counties or towns.

The term ‘partnership’ is used loosely here—it’s not a legal entity relationship. Each member is a separate business owner; they don’t own a business together. But a marketing partnership should operate under a contract that governs what each member is obligated to contribute, be that funds or time or particular tasks, and at what amount and frequency. There should also be a clear process for making joint decisions about marketing directions, projects, and the use of any funds.

Referral networks
This is marketing partnership lite. Rather than marketing together, members of a referral network pledge to send each other business.

A network might have exclusive rules, similar to the Business Network International (BNI) model wherein only one company from each service category is allowed to join. For example, one trainer, one boarding facility, one dog walker, one groomer, etc. Or it may be all-inclusive, with as many pet sitters and trainers as care to join. A network may also apply certain rules, such as a positive reinforcement-only policy, good standing with the local Chamber of Commerce, or a requirement for active participation in the network.

Once the network is in place, members meet on a regular basis (usually monthly) to get to know each other, learn about each members’ services, exchange marketing materials to share with clients, and share ideas about how to give effective referrals.

Local associations
We’re all aware of the large national associations, such as APDT, IAABC, NAPPS, PCSA, APSE, just to name a very few. But I’m often surprised by how many dog pros don’t know about local associations operating in their own area. I’ve come across many a local trainers’ group, pet sitters’ group, dog walkers’ group. These small collections of dog pros support each other in many ways.

Some associations actively market themselves, thereby helping to elevate the marketing of each member business. Some provide opportunities to share service, marketing, and dog care advice. Some associations use dues to bring in continuing education or professional development speakers. And some members simply find support in being able to get together monthly with colleagues to trade stories and talk with people who understand what it’s like to be a trainer or a dog walker or to run a dog daycare.

Online groups
Joining the larger national conversation is well worthwhile, too. Many of the national associations have Facebook groups and other online forums to join. And there are an endless variety of Facebook groups to choose from. You can also respond to blog posts on sites like DogStarDaily.com, join forums on sites like Dogwise.com, or dog-related groups on sites like LinkedIn.

There are limitless ways to get yourself in touch with other dog professionals for support, ideas, and networking opportunities.

When others won’t play nice
If there aren’t already local partnerships, networks, or associations in your area, it may be up to you to start them. In some locations that will be relatively easy. But we know from our business consulting work around the country that there are areas in which the prevailing business culture is to regard other dog pros as competition to be warily avoided. If you’re hoping to band with others in your area but find yourself getting the cold shoulder, don’t give up.

Look for ways to keep the dialogue going, even if it’s painfully one-sided at first. Email your competitors and other local dog businesses to share news of a speaker coming to town (and do they want to carpool?), or a cool article you found, or a national conference (anyone want to share a hotel room?), or a funny dog-related You-Tube video. Extend an invitation to lunch, with no agenda attached. Just keep playing nice until, finally, you break down their defenses and competitors become colleagues. You won’t win everyone over. But there are bound to be other dog pros in your community pining for connection, too. And when you find them, you’ll all do better for it.

Email marketing gets overshadowed by social media a lot these days, which is a great shame because email is a terrific marketing workhorse—free or low-cost, targeted, and much less time-intensive than social media. Here are four reasons you should put out an email newsletter:

1.    Clients kept up-to-date about your offerings are more likely to take advantage of them.
2.    Already loyal to you, clients are a built-in audience for new services.
3.    People like to feel special. Checking in creates a sense of community and increases brand loyalty, which means you remain the one they come to when they need dog-related services.
4.    Staying in touch makes it more likely clients will think to refer a fellow dog lover to you. If their experience with your company is buried in the past, referral opportunities are easily missed.

To succeed with a newsletter in any format, you must:
1.    Make it a really good value.
2.    Get the word out.

What’s valuable?
In this age of information overload (people are exposed to around 3,000 promotional messages a day), value means one of two things: Useful information or entertainment. Either give people something they can use or give them a good time.

For dog service businesses, the first category would include tips, information, and how-to articles about anything dog related: Training, exercise, home life, management out-and-about, local events, Did You Know-type items, recommendations of books, collars, food, etc.

The latter category could be quotes, fun sites to visit, and stories, both fun and serious. Before & After-stories, for example, make very popular reading.

Aim to:
•    Be brief
•    Use straightforward language
•    Lay the text out so it is easy to scan, with bullets, small paragraphs, photos, etc.

Getting the word out.
First of all, have a prominently displayed sign-up field on your website. Also include a ‘Forward to a Friend’ button in the newsletter itself. Most e-mail marketing services (and you should always use a service) offer this option as standard.

Other than that, include a benefits-oriented call to sign up for your newsletter on all your materials, however mundane. Class sign-up sheets, handouts, brochures, postcards, rack cards, even business cards. Include it in your digital signature and on your stationary. If you write an article for a local paper, mention it in your bio blurb. If you are on Twitter, tweet about an interesting newsletter item and link to the sign-up box on your site. On Facebook, post the entire newsletter and include a sign-up box beside it (a free, downloadable application lets you do this).

As your list grows, engage your subscribers by including occasional content that encourages interaction. Contests, for example, where answering a trivia question gives the reader a chance to win a leash or a bag of dog treats. Other options are surveys (Google and SurveyMonkey offer free tools), a monthly ‘cutest photo’ client competition, or Ask The Expert-style items.