Marketing Your Dog Biz

When it comes to productivity, few places are as treacherous as the Internet. Between Facebook, celebrity gossip, and cat videos, it’s a wonder any work gets done at all. But for gathering information the web can’t be beat, and today most consumers begin their buying decisions online. For most dog trainers, sitters, and walkers, a website is the only storefront you have. Groomers and doggie daycares may have physical locations, but these days they too will make first impressions online.

And let’s face it: some websites are better than others. Just like in the real world, the details make a difference. Strobe lights and high-decibel Lady Gaga set the right tone for a teen girl’s clothing store, but would be less successful at the maternity shop down the street. When it comes to your own site, you’ll need to hit the right people with the right message. Here are some tips for making the most of your virtual presence.

Architects Get It Right
You wouldn’t build a brick-and-mortar store with your own two hands. And yet the Internet is littered with homemade sites poorly designed, written, and coded. For a dog owner wondering which local pro to trust with their beloved companion, a site designed and written by professionals implies a level of across-the-board competence, making the choice clear.

Graphic designers give your site the right look, pleasing to the eye and aligned with your brand. Writers craft messages with a big marketing punch, choosing words that all at once convey information, engage the viewer’s emotions, and push your site closer to the top of search engine results. And web designers bring it all together in one quick-loading, well-coded whole.

Hiring the pros does cost money. But in an increasingly web-savvy world, your site should be the last place you cut corners. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you work with your website team.

Retire The Dancing Chihuahua
Blinking smiley faces, background music, and where’s-the-pause-button slide shows frustrate viewers, and detract from the capable, professional image you want to project. Good photos work better than animated gifs while still offering visual variety. If you insist on adding moving parts to your site, let your visitor control them with a click.

Less Really Is More
People don’t read websites like they read books. Your potential client will scan your page, then zero in on the relevant info. Nothing provokes the urge to click away and check one’s email like a long page of unbroken text. Hold your potential client’s attention with short paragraphs, bullet points, and lists.

Give Them What They Want
Shorter paragraphs = fewer words. Make every one count. Your homepage should provide:

• Business Name
• Location/Areas Served
• Services
• Rates
• Phone/Email

Create a separate “About” page for staff bios; a page for each service describing them in greater (though not long-winded) detail; and a final “Contact” page. Use clear and consistent navigation links throughout.

Include contact information—a phone number and active email link—on every page in an easy-to-find location. The top right-hand corner is best.

Worn-Out Leashes And Solid Praise
A few weeks in business can leave you with a grimy treat bag and a few broken clickers. But your hard work probably pleased a few clients, too. With Internet shoppers giving greater weight to customer reviews, grit your teeth and call in a few favors. A “Testimonials” page, with detailed before-and-after success stories (“I can finally walk Bowser by the neighbor’s dog!”) is worth its virtual weight in gold. Sprinkle short testimonial excerpts throughout your site, too, set apart visually to draw the eye. Consumers know that some businesses fake their own praise, and reviews signed with full names and locations sound more authentic than those signed “Tricia K.”

Write For The Right Crowd
You pursue continuing education in canine behavior. You network with other dog pros and subscribe to industry email groups. You know the lingo. Your clients don’t. Few will have more than a vague understanding of the term “positive reinforcement,” let alone “R+.” Whether it’s “recall,” “sep anx,” or “resource guarding,” be sure your writer chooses words with the dog owner—and our good friend Google—in mind.

What’s Their Problem Anyway?
The last point bears repeating. Your website is for your clients. When mapping it out, always keep them in mind. Their priorities are different than yours. Most owners love their dogs, but they’ve chosen career paths that don’t leave their hands smelling like liver treats at the end of the day. When owners steal five minutes in their cubicles to surf the Internet for local dog pros, they’re not worried about the quality of their human-canine bond. They just want to come home to an intact couch and a still-white carpet. They’re short on time and need their dogs walked, groomed, or trained not to jump up on attractive neighbors. So be sure your website answers two questions:

1. Where does it hurt?
2. And how can I help?

Step Away From The Soapbox
Humans are confounding. It’s tempting, after time spent in the trenches of owner compliance, to use your site to lecture on proper training methods or the exercise needs of young Labradors. But an owner is like her dogs in at least one respect—neither of them like to be scolded. You can summarize the key benefits of R+ in brief and welcoming prose. But don’t let a gruff bark scare off new business.

With these tips and the right professional team in place, your site will make a formidable first impression, setting you apart from other local dog pros and grabbing the attention of potential clients. Good design, strong writing, and a clean layout will quickly provide the info clients need, earning their gratitude. After all, Facebook, cat videos, and the rest of the Internet are calling.

Making guarantees is a tricky business. Domino’s Pizza discovered this back in the early 90’s after its 30-minute-delivery-or-your-pizza-is-free guarantee led to a series of car accidents and lawsuits. You may not have a lot in common with an international chain like Domino’s—apart from the occasional use of pepperoni with your more demanding clients—but you’re undoubtedly looking to turn a profit, and the right guarantee could tip a hesitant potential client in your favor.

But guarantees can backfire, setting up expectations that you can’t possibly meet, and turning your marketing tool into a weapon wielded by a disgruntled client with easy access to Yelp. Just as Domino’s discovered, part of making guarantees work means figuring out what not to promise.

Potential clients contact you for results. A front door without visible teeth marks, for example. A perfectly coiffed Pomeranian. An Aussie that actually naps.

Whatever your area of expertise, some outcomes are easier to guarantee than others. And knowing that a potential client is out there, browsing your home page, trying to decide whether to entrust her companion to your care, may compel you to promise a garden of roses.

But tread carefully. Trainers, when you joined the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) you pledged to abide by their ethics statement, including section 6, which reads: “Members will refrain from giving guarantees regarding the outcome of training because there is no sure way to guarantee the cooperation and performance of all parties involved and because the knowledge of animal behavior is incomplete.”

If you’ve struggled with a reticent client and a fearful dog, for example, you understand how little is within your control. And so the thing that the client most wants changed (behavior) is the one thing you can’t guarantee. What’s worse, the traditional trainer across town who doesn’t belong to the APDT may be making wildly improbable promises that, from your viewpoint, attract hordes of new clients.

How can you compete with that?

Take such guarantees head on. Add a tab to the navigation bar of your website or a link from your training page called Our Guarantee. On this new page, explain why it’s unethical to make guarantees about behavior results and that as a member of APDT you’re dedicated to a better approach to training. This demonstrates your professionalism and your level head, and implies that you’ll bring those same qualities to your work (which, of course, you will.)

Then tell them what you can and do guarantee — stellar customer service, a customized approach to each client’s goals, a commitment to excellence and to ongoing continuing education. The second part of APDT’s clause reads that the prohibition against behavior-based guarantees “…should not be confused with a trainer’s desire to guarantee client satisfaction with their professional services.”

An ethical approach to guarantees aligns with the ethical treatment of animals, and will appeal to a certain type of client: the kind more likely to choose you.

For walkers, guaranteeing pick-up and drop-off times can lead to unhappiness all around. Traffic, weather, and other unexpected delays can throw a wrench in your best intentions. And though all clients want their dogs walked at noon, you’ll never make a living chasing that guarantee, unless you’ve figured out a way to be in multiple places at the same time (in which case, please share!)

Instead, offer clients a spot in either your morning or afternoon group, with a realistic window of time that allows you some breathing room and keeps you from breaking a dozen traffic laws. Or guarantee that you’ll pick up their dog no earlier than 10 am, for example, and tuck them back home no later than 1 pm.

For sitters, it’s best to guarantee a set number of visits, and the approximate time of day: morning, afternoon, evening meal, or bedtime check-in.

For all dog pros, consider the kind of business you want to run, day in and day out. Emphasize the features that will contribute to your vision and your brand, and that will set you apart from your competition. Features you can actually control:

• • Superior customer service
  • Trained, expert staff
  • Commitment to R+ training methods
  • Small group sizes
  • Customized training plans
  • A commitment to help clients seek relief, change, and improvement

And then deliver on those guarantees. In fact, do more than just deliver—delight your clients by giving them more than they expect. In the age of the Internet the customer review has steadily gained prominence. Most guarantees pale in comparison to a few glowing testimonials.

Apologize sincerely when you fall short. After its string of pizza delivery lawsuits, Domino’s fortunes declined until 2009, when a survey of consumer taste preferences ranked the chain dead-last. Domino’s faced the problem head-on, acknowledging the dismal ranking in an ad campaign and committing to improve its product “from the crust up.” The result? An enormous quarterly gain, and by 2011, a 233% growth in company stock.

Sometimes the best guarantee you can make is a superior product or service. Be the best at what you do. Your clients will appreciate your efforts, and word will spread.

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.