Marketing Your Dog Biz

Oh, the time vortex that is social media! The black hole! The hamster wheel! The endless worry and fretting over what to post, the constant search for ideas, the daily back-of-the-mind nagging to find time to sit down and post something brilliant…

It’s easy to spend a lot of time on social media getting very little done. But when you run a small business, efficiency is key to sustainability. Here are our top tips for creating great content with less impact on your busy schedule. (We’ve included some content ideas for you, too.)

Create your content framework
Giving yourself a content framework makes generating your posts much easier, because you’ll know how many you need, as well as what kind.

One way to construct a framework is dedicating days of the week to particular types of posts. You might have one day for answering training questions, a day for sharing your favorite training or walking tips or mental enrichment toys, a day that you always post a client success story, etc.

It will also help to decide on the number of posts you’ll share each week. For example, your weekly content framework might include 2-3 dog-related meme shares, a client testimonial, 3 training tips, daily captioned walk or daycare floor or class photos, etc. The idea is to have a set “routine” of posts to avoid the pressure to make it up as you go.

Make things easy on yourself
Once you’ve decided on your weekly framework, carve time out of your schedule to get your content planned and created in batches. This is far more efficient than scrambling for time each day to put your posts together. Batch at least a week at a time, creating your posts for the week ahead. Or, if you really want to get off the social media hamster wheel, set aside a larger block of time once a month to get all your content planned and created for the month ahead.

Once you’ve decided on your posts and their timing, schedule them to go out automatically via apps like Hootsuite or software like Trello. This leaves your daily social media time for responding to questions or comments, rather than searching for post ideas.

What makes good content good
People are busy. Your followers have unlimited choices for how to spend their time and attention. Your posts must engage and provide value by educating, inspiring, or entertaining your audience. When crafting a piece of content, ask yourself: How might this post make my audience feel? How does or could it encourage them to engage? How will they benefit from this?

Good content is also varied content. Mix it up—some fun posts, some tip or other educational posts, photos, graphics, short videos, etc.

And good content is easy to consume. Keep things short—share one idea, concept, or point at a time, use as few words as possible, edit videos to hold them under one minute. The better you get at brevity, the more success you’ll have. 

Never miss a CTA
Social media is supposed to be social! The most successful pages are generally those with high engagement. Actively encourage your audience to engage with you by adding a call-to-action (CTA) to all of your posts. Depending on the nature of the post, invite people to click a link, answer a question, share their input, leave a comment, post a picture of their dog, message you for more info, email you now, sign up for your mailing list, etc.

Some content ideas for you
To make building your content framework a little easier, here’s a list of content ideas to get your brainstorming off to a quick start:

Re-share. Watch for funny dog memes or gifs, or graphics or tips from other dog pros you admire, to re-share with your audience. Every re-share is a post you don’t have to create! (Be sure to give credit where it’s due!)

Share links. Collect links to articles, products, info-graphics, etc. to dole out. Add a short caption to provide context or explain what you like about what you’re sharing.

Post client testimonials and reviews. Turn your clients’ glowing words into graphic posts using an app like Canva or Adobe Spark. If your clients have a lot to say about how awesome you are, be sure to edit down first!

Tell client success stories. Use captioned photos, short videos, or Instagram stories to show potential clients what working with you can do for them.

Invite your followers to ask you questions. Make it open-ended or give them a topic. Then answer each question in a separate post. (Remember that brevity is your friend—keep your answer posts short. You can always include a link to a blog post or other resource for a more in-depth version.)

Invite your followers to share. Ask your audience to share a favorite themed photo (their dog taking a nap, their dog with his or her favorite toy, their funniest photo of their dog, their dog’s Halloween costume, etc.) or video (best trick, most embarrassing moment, cutest thing ever, etc.). Invite them to tell a story or share a milestone (their best training achievement, most frustrating dog moment, biggest training breakthrough, favorite puppy story, etc.).

Share your go-tos. For example, your go-to training tools, online resources, treats, etc. (Remember to dole these out one at a time!)

Share your favorites. Your favorite dog tricks, dog sites, puzzle toys, hiking trails, books, etc. (Again, one at a time!)

Recycle content you’ve created for other purposes. For example, break points in a blog post or article you’ve written into multiple social media posts. Mine any presentations you have for post inspiration, too.

These are just a few ideas—we hope they get your creativity whirring!

Get off the content hamster wheel
If you’re ready to make managing your social media channels easier while also increasing their success, we urge you to grab or pull up your calendar right now and commit to two blocks of time: 1. Choose a 2-3 hour block of time to sit down and create your content framework. 2. Choose a regular weekly or monthly block of time to batch and schedule your content.

Getting out in front of your content creation and posting gets you off the social media hamster wheel, results in better content, and leaves more time for engaging with your audience. It also means more time for other aspects of running your dog business—and perhaps more downtime outside of it, too!

Think about the client journey as a marketing roadmap to your training services and classes. Another way to put it: A client journey is the complete experience a dog lover has with your business, from start to finish.

Everyone who comes into contact with your business takes a journey with you. Careful cultivation of that journey, of the pathways people have available to them, means more potential clients becoming actual ones, and more of those becoming repeat clients and raving fans who send others your way.

Every journey has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The client journey is no exception. (Though when crafted well clients tend to cycle back through rather than saying good-bye!)

Here are the 4 parts every client journey should include, and some tips for mastering them:

1. Entry Points
Each client’s journey, each client’s experience of your company, begins at an entry point. You likely have more than one, and hopefully many.

Entry points include professional referrals, such as recommendations from a vet clinic, pet supply shop, or rescue organization.

Other dog lovers may find their way to you via a personal referral from a friend, family member, or work colleague who has enjoyed your services or perhaps come into contact with your marketing materials.

Speaking of which, your marketing materials are also potential on-ramps to a client journey with your business. A dog guardian may begin their journey by picking up your print newsletter at their local pet shop or reading a good training tip sheet while waiting at their vet clinic, for example.

If your website is performing well a Google search can be another common entry point, making investing in good search engine optimization, or SEO, worthwhile.

Entry Point Pointer: The more opportunities dog lovers have to come into first contact with your business, the better. Take a moment to count and assess your current entry points. Where can you make it easier for people to find you?

2. Marketing Rest Stops
If you’re old enough to remember life before smart phones, you’ll recall when highway rest stops weren’t just places to go for a restroom and leg stretch. They were also where you stopped for maps and travel brochures to get information on where you were going and what you might find when you get there.

Similarly, you can think of each instance of your marketing as rest stops or information kiosks for your potential clients. Think of your marketing projects as opportunities to move potential clients along the path toward a purchase with you.

Your most important marketing rest stop is your website. Some dog lovers will land here first via an online search. Most, regardless of their first contact point (whether a referral or a piece of marketing material), will make a stop here for more information before deciding to reach out or purchase.

Marketing Rest Stop Pointer: To do the job well, your marketing must provide good information and clear directions. Your marketing pieces should be designed primarily to direct people to your website. Your website should be designed primarily to answer important questions (like how your service works and what it costs) and to encourage people to take action. That action might be to make a purchase (for example, register for a class) or take the first step toward becoming a client (such as reaching out to schedule a dog training consult or dog walking meet-and-greet).

3. Purchase Points
Your purchase points are the spot on the journey at which potential clients become actual ones.

Purchase points might include online sign-ups such as registering for a group puppy training class or on-demand tricks training course.

Other purchase points may be more interactive, such as a phone screening conversation in which a dog guardian schedules a walking meet-and-greet, an initial consult training appointment, or the decision at the end of an initial consult to purchase and commit to a training package.

Purchase Points Pointer: Keep your purchase points simple. Make it as easy as possible for potential clients to become actual ones by cutting any steps that aren’t absolutely necessary. Don’t risk losing people just as they’re jumping in!

4. Client Experience Points
A dog lover’s journey with you doesn’t end once they purchase. In many ways it’s only just begun as your clients move on to experience your services.

The center of that experience is the service they’ve purchased—such as you walking their dog, or their time with you in basic manners class or one-on-one training—but there are many more potential client experience points.

Every interaction, both remote and direct, is an experience point. The notes or texts you send after a dog walk, for example—and how clean or dirty you leave the dog. The appointment reminders you send, training homework handouts or videos you provide, Zoom drop-in Q&A sessions you make available between training sessions, etc.—all of these are part of your client’s experience with you.

Client Experience Points Pointer: Add points to enrich your clients’ experience with you. Is there opportunity to add more support spots to their journey—perhaps online office hours or emailed homework reminders for training clients, for example, or leaving their dog with a stuffed Kong post-walk?

Keep the Journey Going
Ideally your client journey includes opportunities to re-engage in additional services if appropriate. For example, moving on to the next training class in your program or choosing a post-training support package. Keeping clients longer reduces your marketing and sales and admin pressure while serving them more fully.

Also build in steps for gathering feedback, including reviews or testimonials for use in your marketing. You get the information you need to make your services stronger while helping bring the next wave of potential clients to your door to begin their own journeys with you.

 

Want help building successful journeys for your clients? Grab your spot on the THRIVE! waitlist to be first in line next time we open enrollment.

Last month we looked at the client journey—the complete experience a dog lover has with your business, from first exposure (entry points) through learning all about what you do (marketing and information-gathering “rest stops”) to becoming a client (purchase points) and then their time with you as a client or student (their client experience).

Not all potential clients make it to a purchase point. Some just aren’t the right fit. But too often potential clients simply get lost along the journey you’ve laid out. This is a loss not just for your business, but for the dog lover and the dog, too.

To ensure smooth traveling along your client journey, avoid these marketing “rest stop” mistakes:

Missing Directions
As R+ dog pros we’re leery of overpromising in our marketing. We’re careful not to come off pushy or salesy. These are good and ethical business practices, but they can be taken too far.

You don’t need to be loud, pushy, or tacky to be effective in getting clients. But you do need a marketing message that communicates why dog lovers should choose you and how you can help make life with their dog better. You do need a call-to-action (or CTA) encouraging them to take the next step, whether that be to register for class, reach out for a consult, or visit your website to learn more.

It’s your job to guide your potential clients along the journey to becoming actual ones. If you’re too shy about doing so you’ll lose them along the way.

Unclear Directions
The directions you provide along your client journey must be clear and easy to follow. This includes a strong, effective marketing message aimed carefully at your ideal clients, one that convinces them to stay and begin their journey.

The next step is making navigation along the journey simple. Take a look at your website—is it easy for a first-time visitor to find their way to your service page(s)? If you offer choices, are those choices clear and easy to pick between? For example, say you provide multiple services like walking, training, and sitting. Can I quickly find my way to a separate page with details about the one I need, without having to scroll through information about the others? Or if you specialize in all things puppy training, is there an at-a-glance summary of some kind helping me to understand the difference between, say, classes, private training, and done-for-me daycare-and-train, plus an easy way to learn more about the option I’m interested in?

Tip: Too many choices often lead to making no choice. Decision paralysis is a primary reason potential clients quit a journey before reaching a purchase point. Narrowing your offerings often increases conversions—and it can make running your business easier, too!

Dead Ends
Dead ends are just that—a spot of no return where potential clients’ journeys stall. Most dead ends are a failure to provide the next step, usually access to a purchase point. This happens more often than you’d think.

Take a hard look at your website. Better yet, ask a friend to help. Give them a task, like registering for your basic manners class or scheduling a reactive rover consult or dog walking meet and greet. Don’t tell them how to do it—just ask them to go on your site and try. You’re looking to make sure the journey arrives smoothly at a purchase point. You’re checking for missing CTAs, sign up buttons, or contact information that bring the journey to a halt.

Give your marketing materials the same hard look—everything from your social media to your print pieces. Is it obvious how and where to get more information or take the next step?

Empty Gas Tank
We live in a busy world. Potential clients are adding looking for a dog pro to already full plates. Don’t let them run out of gas while checking you out.

The most common spot for potential clients to end up stranded on the side of the road is on your website. Take another good look to be sure you’re answering all the central questions a dog lover might want answered before reaching out—and make sure those answers are easy to find. If you make it too hard to get the answers they need potential clients can run out of energy for you and turn elsewhere.

These are the key questions your website should answer:

Who? Who are you and what makes you qualified? Who is this service for?

What? What is the service? How does it work? What does it cost?

When? When does it happen? What days and times? How soon can I start?

Where? Your place or mine for training? Where do you take dogs on walks? Where is your daycare or boarding or training facility located?

Why? Why should I? How will this service help me? How will it make my life with my dog easier or better?

How much? This is such an important question to answer that we’ve included it twice. Fail to answer this question and you are without doubt losing potential clients before they reach a purchase point. (Yes, we mean you should list your rates on your website. Here’s why.)

Road Barriers
You can also lose clients right at the point of purchase. Don’t assume your job is done when someone decides you may be the dog pro for them. Help potential clients travel smoothly through your purchase points by removing barriers between their decision to take action and their ability to do so.

Dog pros have a bit of a reputation for poor customer service. Don’t let that include you. You don’t have to pick up the phone every time it rings or become a slave to your email inbox. But you do have to get back to people in a timely manner so they don’t give up and turn elsewhere.

Use outgoing messages and email autoreplies to give potential clients the peace of mind of knowing when they’ll hear back from you. Wherever appropriate, set your website up to allow potential clients to become actual ones as soon as they’ve made the decision. Class registration and payment is the most obvious example here. Allowing dog lovers to book a consult or a short screening call (perhaps after guiding them through a short online self-screening process) is another way to move them smoothly into the purchase portion of their journey with you—while saving you time as well.

Not every dog lover will be the right fit for your business, but it’s a shame to lose those who are. Make it easy for people to navigate their way toward you by laying out a smooth client journey with no unintended off-ramps.