Marketing Your Dog Biz

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.

Why Use an E-Newsletter
Here are four reasons you should put out an email newsletter:

1. Sell your services. Being front-of-mind increases the likelihood of sales. Yes, existing clients know what you offer and can use your services whenever they need to. But so many things vie for time, attention, and resources these days it’s easy to be forgotten. Getting back on people’s radar can mean getting back on their priority list.
2. Get repeat business. Clients are a built-in audience for new services. Already loyal to you, they’re the most likely to try the latest thing you’ve added. Assuming they’ll find out through other channels is risky, and people are more likely to respond to a direct message from someone they know.
3. Build customer loyalty. Checking in creates a sense of community and increases brand loyalty, which means you’re the one they come to when they need dog-related services.
4. Get referrals. The combination of brand loyalty and a gentle nudge that you’re there 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. Staying in your clients’ consciousness keeps you on the tip of their tongues.

E-Newsletter Tips

Be useful and entertaining. If your newsletter doesn’t provide information and entertainment, people won’t keep reading. Talking too much about your business and services turns your newsletter into a glorified brochure. Yes, these topics belong in your newsletter. But unless you also include articles of general interest people will soon treat your newsletter as they would any other advertising material: Maybe a glance, then the trash button. Your end of the deal is to entertain and inform, not just sell your services.

Sell your services. Though you want to avoid too much focus on your business, the purpose of the newsletter is to promote your business. Don’t make the mistake of not including information about your services—particularly their benefits. Make contact information—website, email, and phone—clearly visible. Don’t hesitate to include a call to action. For example, “Fall classes are filling quickly—sign up now!” Or “The holidays are just around the corner—make your boarding reservations early to ensure your dog’s spot with us.”

Keep it short. Your email newsletter should be monthly and short. Share a quick tip, or an excerpt from an interesting article about dogs, or a humorous or thoughtful anecdote from one of your walks. Put together a fun profile of one of your daycare dogs, complete with a picture. Include a short call for referrals to friends and family or a schedule of upcoming classes. That’s it. Keeping each e-newsletter short and entertaining means clients are more likely to read the next one—and hopefully to pass it along, too.

Actively build your list. You’re going to put some work into getting your newsletter out each month, so the more people reading it the better. 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, such as Constant Contact or Mail Chimp, for example) offer this option as standard.

Also 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 and invoices. Include it in your email 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). Ask your brick-and-mortar referral sources (vets, shelters, pet supply stores, for example) to keep a sign-up sheet on their counter or in their lobby. And don’t forget to include it in your printed newsletters, too. In other words, never miss an opportunity.

 

Want the power of a newsletter without all the work? Check out our Newsletter Service.

If you’re a typical class trainer you’d rather think about what you’re going to do with students once you have them in your classroom than what you’re going to do to get them there. For most of us, teaching is much more fun than marketing — and it comes much more easily. But given the difficulty of teaching without students, it’s best to make sure you get the most from your marketing time and dime.

Here are some tips for getting your classes filled:

Class Titles and Descriptions
Everybody and their aunt teaches “Puppy” and “Basic.” You may be tempted to jazz up your class titles, and you should. But be careful that prospective students can still tell what you’re offering. Clever class titles may accidentally camouflage your classes, causing them to be overlooked. And many people will look for classes online. If a potential client searches for “Puppy Class” and yours is called “Surviving Your Dog’s Toddler Years,” they may not find you. So if you have a way with words, try subtitles. For example, “Basic Manners: Channeling Your Dog’s Inner Lassie.”

Focus your class descriptions on human-oriented outcomes. What will students be able to do after taking your class? How will they feel different? How will their lives be improved? A list of behaviors — the typical meat of a class description — does none of these things. It just lists behaviors, and so does everyone else’s class descriptions. Make yours stand out by telling potential students how they’ll be able to walk down the street with ease — no more embarrassment and no more back aches. Tell them how it will feel to have the dog that everyone covets. Wouldn’t they like to be the person asked, “Wow. How do you get your dog to be so calm and well behaved?” And wouldn’t it be less stressful to know they were coming home to a dog who hasn’t destroyed the house? Tell potential students that your class is the first step toward these goals.

Marketing Projects
We’ve written more than once about the power of community- or content-based marketing for dog trainers. Your time and money are better spent on projects that give people some sort of direct experience of your expertise, professionalism, and efficacy rather than on passive forms of advertising in which you tell them how great you are. (This is particularly true for positive reinforcement trainers, with whom we work exclusively, as they are less apt to feel comfortable singing their own praises — and, accordingly, are less apt to do so well.)

Think beyond fliers. Fliers are fine, but they’re passive. Instead, embed your class schedule in a content marketing project such as a quarterly newsletter or branded tip sheets. Dog owners are more likely to act on the class schedule printed on the back of a great Building a Solid Recall handout than to respond to a class flier. Why? Because the training tip on the front gives a taste of your expertise and style.

Give referral sources a taste. Referral sources who have directly experienced your classes are more apt to remember to recommend them — and to do so enthusiastically. Give pet supply stores, vet offices, and any other referral outlets you’re after a free class pass or two for staff members to use. (This will also help to fill new classes so you can run them for your paying students.) Or even offer a class just for the staff of a particular clinic or daycare at a day and time convenient to them.

Help referral sources help you. Once you have a referral source on your side, make it easy for them to refer to you. Provide them compelling material to give to their customers. Business cards are easily lost and brochures are commonplace and passive in nature. Your newsletter or tip handouts are more likely to finish the sale and less likely to find their way to the trash.

If you’re ready to take a referral relationship to the next level, ask them to include information about your classes on their website and in their email list blasts. (This is particularly appropriate in cases where you’re teaching classes in their space or engaging in any sort of cross-promotion.) Again, make it easy. Email language to use and any visuals you’d like them to include, such as your logo file. Your information will go up on their site and out to their email list faster if they don’t have to create the content themselves.

Optimize your website. If a dog lover can’t find you she can’t take your class. If your site isn’t performing well in searches for the classes and services you offer, it’s probably because it hasn’t been properly optimized. Don’t assume if you had your site professionally designed and programmed that it’s also been optimized. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a niche skill set and, unfortunately, many programmers do not pursue it. SEO can range a great deal in simplicity and complexity, and in cost. But even a small amount of attention and money paid to it can bring significant results. Just be careful to seek out qualified, ethical practitioners, as the industry is sadly rife with scams. (dogbiz provides free SEO referrals if you are unable to find a local professional–just email and ask.)

Get caught in the act. What better way for people to experience you than to literally see you in action? Look for opportunities for public training. Post short YouTube videos of your classes. Provide demos or hold 15 minute mini-classes at local events and festivals. Take your advanced students on the road — hold class in front of the local mall or supermarket or in a popular park. It’s great practice for your students and gives onlookers a first-hand glimpse of what they and their dog might be capable of.

In all of these in-person situations, bring along someone to pass out class information to onlookers and answer their questions while you teach. At events, offer a 10% discount to anyone registering on the spot. And outfitting yourself and your students in logo t-shirts is a great way to increase brand visibility.

Get covered. Find out who covers goings-on in your community for the local paper and invite that reporter to take pictures of one of your classes. Better yet, have her show up for the class you hold in public. If she has a dog herself, give her a free pass to take your class so she can write about her own experience. And don’t overlook events calendars in the local paper. It’s often free to submit, so get your classes listed. Check with the local radio station about free event listings, too.

Put it in writing. Nothing says “go-to expert” like your name in print. Ask the editor of the local paper about carrying an Ask the Trainer or Training Tips column. Or offer the same to run in school, church, neighborhood association, or senior center newsletters or bulletins. Such smaller publications may also be happy to print your class schedule alongside your article.

Class Offerings and Structure
As we’ve written about in other articles, the structure and content of your classes can play a critical role in their success, too. One-shot teaser classes, shorter topics classes, open enrollment, and curriculum focused on real-life application all help first-time and retention sales. If you’re still teaching behavior-based classes following the old “explain-demo-practice” model, it may be time to shake things up a bit.

For more ideas about success with group classes:

• Look at the dogbiz University course Best Classes in Town
• Read about Group Classes That Really Work

Think of a three-legged stool. It stands—and supports your weight—only because each leg has been built to do its part; it’s perfectly balanced. Remove, or even shorten, just one leg and the stool topples. Like the stool, a balanced marketing plan requires three legs. Unfortunately, it’s rare to see a dog business marketing plan that gives careful attention to all three.

More often dog businesses put emphasis in one area, ignoring or underserving the others. Sometimes the focus is on marketing to referral sources, sometimes on getting out in front of the general public of potential clients, sometimes on staying in touch with current and past clients. But the most powerful marketing plans balance a bit of all three, because each has a specific role to play in the success of your business.

Referral Sources
Referral sources—other dog professionals who send clients your way— are the most critical audience when you start out, and they’re what will feed your business for long-term sustainability as well. Get a few good referral sources on your side and your business will build much more quickly.

Referral sources such as veterinarians, dog trainers, dog daycares, dog walkers, pet sitters, pet supply stores, shelters, and rescue groups tend to come into contact with people at points of need. This means that potential clients are likely to hear about your services from these sources precisely when they have need for you. They may complain to a veterinarian or dog trainer about their dog’s destructive or hyper behavior, be told by a daycare that their dog isn’t a good fit for group play, or worry out loud to a pet supply clerk about an overly long stay away from home. You want fellow dog pros to have your name on the tips of their tongues when this happens.

Court referral sources with content-rich adoption or behavioral wellness folders they can provide to clients for free (great in particular for shelters, rescue groups, breeders, and veterinary clinics), free staff training presentations, a glowing article about them in your newsletter, free or reduced-price services for them and their staff members, a surprise pizza lunch on a busy day. In short, think about what you might do for them, rather than asking for referrals. Those will follow if you make their lives easier and find ways to show them your expertise and professionalism.

Potential Clients
Marketing to potential clients is about building your brand awareness and recognition. It takes time for people to become actively aware of a new business or service, so start early and be consistent. Success here requires staying in front of people so they’re already aware of you and know just who to go to when they decide it’s time for a trainer or need to board their dog. So the more marketing you do, the more effect it will have.

Writing articles for the local paper, distributing a printed newsletter, providing tip sheets or “how to” fliers to local dog businesses, staging public demos, wearing logo clothing when out training and walking, using effective signage for your facility—these are just a few examples of public marketing projects you might employ.

Current And Past Clients
Retention marketing is key to longevity. This should be the smallest portion of your marketing plan as you start out, because you have few people to keep in contact with at first, but should grow in importance as your business grows. You’ll be spending quite a bit of effort getting your clients; it makes no sense not to keep them in your marketing loop. This is not only good customer service, it’s also how you build word of mouth over time. Get enough happy clients talking and you’ll end up with more happy clients.

E-mail newsletters, blogs, and social media outlets like Facebook are the most common forms of retention marketing. If you’re just getting started and you’ve put all your weight on this leg of the stool, back off a bit and make sure you stabilize the referral and public legs of your marketing plan—you have to get clients first before you retain them!

Newsletters can be powerful marketing tools. Done well, they provide ongoing connection to and brand loyalty from current clients. They let past clients know about new services to come back for, and remind them you’re there if friends or family need a dog pro. They introduce and keep you in front of potential clients until they’re ready to pull the trigger and hire you. And they do all this while educating your community about dogs and humane training. If your marketing time and money are limited, this is the project to prioritize.

Print or Email?
In most cases, both. Email newsletters are terrific for retention marketing—that is, keeping the clients you already have. And if you’ve already got plenty of brand recognition in your area, an e-newsletter can be a great way to stay in touch with potential clients who have found you but haven’t yet signed on for services.

But if your business is either new or you’re actively looking for growth, a print newsletter can’t be beat. An email version means someone has to find your site and choose to sign up, whereas a print newsletter allows people to happen upon your business while going about their daily errands.

Why use a newsletter?
Cross-sell to existing clients. Clients are a built-in audience for new services. Already loyal to you, they’re the most likely to try the latest thing you’ve added. Assuming they’ll find out through other channels is risky, and people are more likely to respond to a direct message from someone they know. Checking in also creates a sense of connection and increases brand loyalty, which means you’re the one they come to when they need more training—and the one they send friends to as well.

Get new clients. Selling dog training is hard. It’s not as easy as convincing people they need or want some cool new thing. People don’t need you until they do, which means you have to stay in front of them until that moment. A newsletter is a perfect way to do that. Unlike a static brochure, the content changes every quarter, so there’s always a reason to pick up a fresh copy. And because a good newsletter is full of fun, useful information, readers engage in a way that’s nearly impossible to achieve with a traditional marketing piece. If you engage, educate, and entertain your readers they’ll undoubtedly come to you when the need for training arises.

Build brand recognition. Print newsletters transcend the dog world. Because they don’t feel like marketing material, you can expand beyond vet offices and pet supply stores to place your newsletter anywhere people might appreciate some good reading material: in cafés and dentists offices and hair salons, etc. This allows potential clients to encounter your brand repeatedly across town. Your newsletter doesn’t have to compete with colleagues’ materials in these places, and it stands out powerfully among others’ business cards and brochures on the vet counter.

Gain referral sources. While email newsletters are primarily retention marketing tools and print versions are best for gaining new clients, you can also use both to build your referral sources. Have a vet you wish would send you clients? Eyeing that perfect spot for your newsletter on the pet supply store’s counter or in the corner café? Ask the owner for a 10-minute interview to feature their business in your next newsletter and you’ll be well on your way to building a referral relationship.

Tips for a successful newsletter:
Follow these guidelines to make sure you get the most from your email newsletter:

Write a newsletter, not a brochure. Your newsletter shouldn’t be all about you. If you focus too much on your business, readers are much less likely to open or pick up the next edition. Keep business info to a minimum by using a sidebar for listing your class schedule or to highlight an event or service. But don’t forget to call your readers to action. What do you hope they’ll do as a result of reading your newsletter? If you’re trying to fill a class, include a Register Now button or let print readers know to go to your site for more information. Have space in your puppy day training program, dog walking schedule, or dog daycare? Invite readers to let friends and family know you’re currently enrolling, and offer a referral incentive.

Be useful and interesting. Think of your newsletter as a tool for education and entertainment. Trainers, use your main article to educate and be helpful. Share a training or behavior tip or explain a little learning theory or the importance of puppy socialization. Dog walkers, you might share your favorite trails or walking routes. Then fill the rest with interesting or entertaining dog-related reading. Let people know when tick season has arrived and how to best remove the nasty little buggers. Tell your readers about a local dog-friendly business or activity, share an excerpt from an interesting dog-related article or book you’ve been reading, or write about a fun historical fact about dogs. (Extra tip: Email newsletters should be very short—spread the content of your quarterly print newsletter across all three months of that quarter’s email newsletters.)

Give your readers a reason to pass it on. Dog parents can be just as enthusiastic as parents of two-legged children when it comes to sharing pictures of their canine darling doing something cute or clever. Share a client success story (with the client’s permission), or class graduation photos, or pictures of dogs in action—dogs playing on the trail or daycare floor, or performing a successful down-stay amidst distraction. Always caption your photos and include the dogs’ names.

Be consistent. Send your e-newsletter out each month, on time, and distribute your print version quarterly. A scattershot approach makes you seem disorganized, and missed newsletters are missed marketing opportunities.

Be professional. A homemade look or poor layout will undermine your brand and make it less likely your newsletter will be read. It’s worth paying a designer to create a professionally branded template for you to put your writing and photos into.

A final word of inspiration
Marketing is no dog pro’s favorite activity. If it helps, don’t think of your newsletter as marketing—think of it as community service. Because a well-created newsletter provides much-needed community education about dogs, dog behavior, and humane training methods while promoting your business. Focus on that, and you’ll likely find this marketing project a little easier than most.

 

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Increase the human-canine bond. Improve relationships. Keep dogs in their forever homes. Spread the R+ word. Help as many dogs as possible.

These are common goal refrains from the trainers we help to build thriving businesses. Many trainers share a common frustration, too, of not feeling they’re making a difference for as many dogs as they’d like. Whether you’re still working to fill all your training and class slots or your dance card is already bursting full, you probably wish you could do more. You can.

You have a tremendously valuable knowledge set. One way to affect more dogs’ lives (and those of their people) is to find creative ways to share that knowledge within your community.

What Do You Want Dog Lovers To Know?

The first step to your community education movement is to identify what you want to share. This may seem somewhat obvious, but spending some real thinking time on this step can greatly increase the impact of your efforts.

Start by asking yourself: What key handful of concepts or how-to’s would have the largest effect on your goal to improve interspecies relationships or the treatment of dogs in your community? Is it a few broader concepts about how dogs learn? General strategies for teaching dogs, such as reinforcing behavior you like and ignoring what you don’t? Maybe you feel the crux is to start at the beginning with puppy raising and socialization. Or speaking to common frustration points you see in your community such as barking or leash pulling. Perhaps there are specific cultural expectations of dogs in your area, such as a desire to have dogs off leash, requiring the building of powerful recalls and polite greetings, as well as an understanding of situational awareness and distraction.

We can’t possibly impart everything we know as dog trainers. The trick is to zero in on what you believe would have the highest likelihood of changing the way people see, feel about, and interact with dogs.

Find Ways To Share What You Know

Clearly, the favored way is to be paid for your dog training services. But if you share the desire to have as wide an effect as possible, it pays to find ways to reach as many people as possible.

Write. An article or a column for a local paper or other community publication such as church bulletins, neighborhood newsletters, school newsletters, etc. Distribute a fun, informative print newsletter, leaving it anywhere locals might appreciate a bit of reading material. Put educational tip sheets on your subjects in dog-related businesses and areas like vet clinics, pet supply stores, dog daycares, dog parks, walking trails, and the like. Create engaging educational posters to place in the same spots. Write a blog on your website or post your articles or tip sheets.

Teach. Give local talks on your key subjects. You can set talks up as a fundraiser for a local shelter or rescue group, or through your local library or a community group like a Rotary or Lion’s Club, a senior center, adult education program, or local rec center. Offer humane education talks or interactive learning sessions (or even summer camps) through local schools, libraries, or summer programs such as through the Y.

Share. Use opportunities ranging from local events to social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram to share tip sheets, articles, tid-bits, and how-to’s. These don’t all have to be of your own making—curate material from colleagues, journals, books, blogs, online networking groups, and the internet generally to provide a stream of education and inspiration. Put your print newsletter out in email form.

Inspire. Inspire others with your own actions. Wear logo clothing so your community can see a professional dog trainer at work using humane, science-based methods—and how well positive training works. Also post videos of yourself in action on your website, on YouTube, and on your social media channels.

Reap The Benefits

I don’t know any dog trainers who don’t love to share what they know with others, and see that knowledge transform understanding and action toward dogs. I’ve never met a dog trainer who felt she was making as much change as she wanted to see. Implementing projects that share knowledge, and seeing that knowledge slowly transform the dogs and people around you, is powerfully satisfying. The only thing better is getting to work directly with dogs and their people.

And here’s the kicker: These projects will lead to more of that, too. As people encounter, engage with, and benefit from your knowledge, they’ll seek you out when it’s time for professional assistance. Your community education projects double as your marketing projects, replacing tired old standbys like brochures and business cards and stressful activities like direct selling and cold networking.

So you make more money and help more dogs—not a bad combination, and everyone wins. Including us at dogbiz. Because our primary, immediate goal is to help R+ trainers make a good living doing what they love. But behind that goal is a desire we share with all of our clients—to change as many dogs’ lives for the better as possible.

Learn more about marketing and education through our THRIVE! program and Marketing Toolkit.