Marketing Your Dog Biz

Blogging is good for you, and good for dogs. We’ve seen some fantastic dog blogs over the years, and many of our readers and clients blog regularly, enjoying the benefits of regular posting (like getting more clients and helping more dogs). But too many dog pros neglect their blogs, posting only rarely, or don’t have a blog at all. The usual reasons are lack of time, a dislike of writing or lack of writing skill, and not being able to think of enough to write about.

If any of this sounds familiar, we’ve got some tips to help get you blogging regularly and, we hope, painlessly.

The benefits of blogging
First, though, why blog? Here are four good reasons:

1. Get clients. Blogging helps establish your credibility and expertise, backing up what your website says about you and making potential clients more likely to hire you.
2. Help dogs. Your blog provides R+ education for site visitors who don’t hire you, allowing you to help more dogs. If someone isn’t ready to hire a trainer, at least they now know that their dog is resource guarding, and perhaps they’ll leave her alone while she eats instead of punishing her.
3. Get clients. This isn’t a repeat typo, just another point on how a blog can bring you business: Your blog, if regularly kept up, can keep you in front of both these audiences via subscription, increasing the chances of repeat business, referrals, and folks who decided not to act eventually coming around.
4. Get clients and help dogs. Blogging is a powerful SEO boost, which means more people finding your site in the first place, which means more of 1-3 above.

The reality is this: You have to market your business. You may as well do good in the process. And blogging is a lot less stressful than, say, walking cold into a vet’s office to ask for referrals.

If we’ve convinced you to consider a blog, or double down on the one you have, here are some ways to make doing so much easier:

Tip 1: Know who you’re writing for
This one seems sort of obvious, but try to push beyond the surface answer of dedicated dog lovers who need training help or a dog walker or a pet sitter. The trick is to get out of our dog pro heads and into our readers’ minds. What questions do they have? What is worrying them? What might they find interesting? Or useful? What could provide relief?

As a dog trainer, you may find yourself wanting to write about criteria setting. Your readers may not find that as engaging as a tip to improve their dog’s recall. That tip could be not asking for recalls that are beyond a dog’s current recall level (i.e., criteria setting!). Not only is writing with your readers in mind more likely to engage them, think how much simpler (and how much shorter!) the second piece would be to write than the first.

Tip 2: Make a master topic list
Staring at a blank computer screen trying to think up something to write about is a sure-fire path to abandoning your best blogging intentions. So don’t start your blog by blogging. Start (or reprise) your blog by brainstorming. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write down every topic idea you have. Do this a few days in a row. As your ideas begin flowing, you may find topics popping into your head throughout the day—jot these down or get them into your phone as they occur.

Once you’ve got a list going, sit down with it again and start organizing. Identify ideas that are large category headings (like puppy training or walking tips), move any other topic ideas into this category that fit, and do some quick brainstorming on additional topics for each category.

Tip 3: Break your topics down
Now break your topic ideas down further to get to more focused subjects. This will give you many more topics to write about, and make those posts easier to write. For example, let’s take that big puppy training category and break it down. There’s a lot there—manners training tips, problem solving topics, socialization—and each of these can be broken down into specific topics, too.

Let’s practice with socialization. If you try to cover what it is, why it’s important, what the research says, how to do it, where to do it, what to socialize your puppy to, mistakes to avoid… you get where I’m going. Writing a blog post like that would be tantamount to writing a booklet on puppy socialization. You’ll probably never post again!

Instead, brainstorm all the short posts you could produce on puppy socialization. It might be helpful to consider the different types of blog posts to help this process. For example:

A What Or Why Post on the benefits of early socialization now and later

A How-To Post on tips for socializing your puppy, or how to read her body language (You could probably even break both of these ideas down into a series of posts…)

A List Post on what to socialize your puppy to, or great local places to take your puppy for socialization

A Curation Post listing 5 great articles on puppy socialization, or a collection of socialization action shots with short captions (Curation posts are great for bloggers who aren’t so comfortable writing.)

A Sharing Post summarizing a new study about puppy socialization (Or simply post a link with a quick description if time is short.)

Tip 5: Write your post
Even with a topic all picked out, this is the challenging part for most bloggers. Everyone’s approach to writing is different, but the old outline-before-you-write trick works for most. Give yourself 10-15 minutes to sketch a basic outline of your main points and the order you think is most logical for them. Then try setting a timer for 30-45 minutes and just go. Write with abandon, not worrying over specific words or how it’s all coming together. Just get a draft down. Step away from your computer—for at least half an hour, or even a day—before coming back to clean up. In addition to tightening up and fixing typos, pay particular attention to your intro (see next tip). Ask a trusted friend or colleague to do a final clean up check for you.

Tip 6: Nail your intro
With everyone being short on time these days, and our shrinking attention spans, you don’t have a lot of time to convince a reader to stick with you. This makes your intro the most important part of your post—nail this and you’re much more likely to get the chance to share the info you set out to.

How can you engage readers right away? Try any of these techniques: Telling a story is a surefire way to get readers past your first sentence. If you’ve got an appropriate joke, that’ll work, too. Expressing empathy is another powerful strategy. Dog pros can make good use of this one, as most site visitors are there because they have a problem to solve. You can also lead with an interesting fact or startling, surprising statistic. Finally, though don’t overuse this one, asking an engaging question can bring readers into your piece. Using our puppy socialization example, you might ask: Why did you get a dog? or Who is the dog you’d like your puppy to grow up to be?

Tip 7: Pick a compelling title
Without a good title, your awesome intro may not have a chance to do its part. Keep your title short, or at least not overly long. Include SEO keywords if you can. Active verbs help catch attention—words like “Learn,” “Get,” or “Stop,” for example. Numbers are also effective, as in “3 Tips to Stop Jumping.” And of course, including benefits is always powerful: “Enjoy Walking Your Dog Again” or “Get the Dog of Your Dreams” or “Impress Your Friends with a Rocket Recall.” Alliteration (like Rocket Recall) is great, too, though be careful not to go overboard. And if you have a clever sense of humor and it’s appropriate for your subject, have fun!

Tip 8: Add a Call-To-Action
A good blog will build your readers’ confidence in your service and provide them some useful information. But you’re probably hoping they also hire you! So where appropriate, add a call-to-action at the end of your blog post. It could be an invitation to join your puppy class, or reach out for a free dog walking meet & greet. Other times, there may be opportunities for continued engagement, like a link to another related post. The point is to offer some direction. They’ve finished your great piece, now what would you like them to do?

Tip 9: POST!
This seemingly obvious next step is for the perfectionists among us. It can be a anxiety inducing to put content out for public consumption. We feel the butterflies every month before we push the publish button on a Monthly Minute or Two Feet Forward edition. (Did we say what we meant to say? Did we say it well? Did we catch all the typos? Are all the links working?) For some of you, these butterflies may be a worry about getting things just right. For others it may be a fear of being judged, whether by potential clients or industry colleagues. At these moments, try to hold this thought to heart: If you don’t get your work out there, you don’t get the opportunity to help people and their dogs. So take a deep, steadying breath and hit that button.

How often should you post? At least once per month. If you’re more prolific, even better. But a consistent post per month will quickly build your library in addition to making Google happy for SEO.

Extra Tip: Schedule your blogging time
If staying on top of your blog has you worried, here’s how to make sure you have the time: Schedule it. The easiest thing is to pick a regular time for blogging, a block of time that’s consistent from month to month so you get in a regular habit. If your schedule is more fluid, pick a time each month. As soon as you post this month, schedule the time for next month, ensuring posting consistency and avoiding the look of an abandoned blog, which can discourage site visitors from using your service.

Another Extra Tip: Have fun
Don’t feel like all your blog posts have to be on serious topics. You can share a great dog cartoon or a graduation picture from your latest class or a particularly terrific shot of dogs having fun on your dog walk or in your dog daycare. (These kinds of quick posts are also great for those months where emergencies cut into your regular blogging time!)

In addition to the overt benefits of a good dog blog, over time you’ll hopefully come to enjoy the creative outlet and opportunity to share the thoughts, ideas, knowledge, and successes you’re most passionate about. And that’s not just good for business—it’s good for dogs.

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.

 

 

 

Checking online reviews has become a regular part of most shoppers’ decision-making process. That includes dog lovers, whether searching for the right dog treats or choosing the best dog trainer, walker, pet sitter, or other dog pro for their best friend. Good online reviews can boost new client inquiries significantly—enough so that it’s worth taking an active approach to collecting them.

If you’re like most dog pros we know and work with, though, fishing for compliments is not a comfortable activity. So here are some tips, and some language, to make asking your clients to say nice things about you online a little easier.

1. Seize the moment
Asking for a nice review out of the blue can feel pretty awkward. Instead, use the moments your clients provide. If you’re doing your job well, you’re probably the recipient of some pretty nice comments from your clients, in person or over the phone, and via email and text. There’s no better time to ask for a review. Thank them, take a deep breath, and just ask. You know they’re happy with you, so the risk of being told no is minimal. All you need is a smooth way to make your request. Try something like this:

“Thank you so much! That means so much to me to hear. We really strive to [whatever the client complimented you on—make our clients’ lives easier by always being there/create real training results that make a difference in everyday life, etc.], so it always feels great to know we’re hitting the mark. I appreciate you telling me that! [If you’re talking to the client, rather than texting or emailing, pause for breath. Your client may have more to say more here, too, like, “You’re super welcome. I really mean it.” Then continue:] I wonder if I might ask you a favor? We’re working to build up our online reviews so we can help as many dogs and their people as possible. If you review online and feel like it’s appropriate, I’d be so grateful if you’d be up for sharing your experience with us on any platforms you use. No worries at all if you don’t do online reviews, but if you do, that would be great.”

Who could say no to that?

2. Survey your clients
In addition to providing invaluable information about how you’re doing, and anywhere you can improve, putting out a short survey helps reveal exactly which clients to target with a review request.

Keep your survey short and easy to use. Use a simple rating system (1-5 scale, for example), and focus your questions on your clients’ experience of your service. For example, depending on your services, you might ask clients to rate your reliability, professionalism, support, their enjoyment of the training process, positive changes they’ve seen in their dog, improvements in the ease of living with their dog, etc.

Also include space for clients to share open-ended comments, but in the spirit of building a quick-and-easy survey, leave this part optional for your survey-takers.

3. Ask happy clients for reviews
Look through your survey results to identify your happiest clients, and reach out to them to ask for reviews. Send a personal email along lines like these:

Dear/Hello, [Client Name]—

First, thank you for taking what I know is precious time to fill out our survey. We really appreciate it.

Second, wow. Thank you so much for your positive input and kind words! It means a great deal to know that we’re hitting the marks we work so hard toward. It’s such a pleasure to work with you and Fido, and to [make your days easier by getting Fido out for a good romp/ helping Fido learn that other dogs really aren’t so scary and worth barking at/ etc.]!

I wonder if I might be so bold as to ask one more favor? We’re working to build up our online reviews so we can help other wonderful people and dogs like you and Fido. If you do online reviews and feel it’s appropriate, I’d be so grateful if you could share your experience with us. If so, here are links to the platforms we’re currently on: 

[Insert links]

Again, thank you! [Insert something related to your service and the client, like: “It was such a pleasure training with you and Fido!” or “I’m so lucky to spend time with Fido every day. It means the world to be trusted with his care!”]

Your name

4. Don’t forget the R+

Reinforced behavior increases, so when you ask clients to engage with you, be sure to reinforce liberally when they do. Thank all your clients for taking your survey, regardless of their answers. And, of course, thank clients when they post online reviews. Sending a simple email is easiest, but consider going bigger if you can. Hand-written cards mean a lot these days, and a small gift (a gift card to the local pet supply store, for example, a bag of high-end dog treats, a hand-picked dog toy, etc.) can make a big impression.

Bonus Tip: Use what you learn
You’ll likely get lots of great positive reinforcement from your survey. Be sure to bask in the glow of that. If you also get some constructive input, don’t let it get you down. Do set aside some time to reflect on and use it to make your services even better. In the long run, used well, it’s the criticism, more than the positive input, that will help your business grow.

That said, some glowing online reviews certainly don’t hurt! So schedule some time to put together your client survey, and start practicing your review request pitch for the next time a client tells you just how awesome you are.