Besides providing quality merchandise such as pet food, grooming supplies, and personalized dog toys that pet parents will love, it’s crucial to attract more potential customers that will help your business grow. To do this, your company must reach out to a broader audience and maintain an active presence in the market.
Fortunately, there are numerous ways you can market your business through the internet. And when you employ effective marketing strategies, they not only promote awareness to more potential customers, but also enhance your relationship with existing patrons that support your business.
To amp up your marketing strategies for your pet supply business, here are five effective promotional tips you should try:
Enhance Your Social Media Presence with Relevant Pet Content
Many pet businesses commonly use adorable dog and cat images to get likes and followers on social media. This is a good strategy since many people are drawn to watching and liking cute animal photos and videos.
However, you can take your promotional strategy further by posting more relevant and emotionally appealing pet content on your Facebook and Instagram pages. Even better, your business can take on charitable projects and then share the results on social media. That way, you’re not just using adorable photos to gain likes, but you’re also showing how your brand extends help to your community, improving your reputation in your customers’ eyes.
For example, if your business designs custom dog beds, you can create a video about how you make them for pups. It can include detailed information about your product’s features and the reasons why they’re beneficial for pets to use. To make it more inspiring to watch, you can take videos of your company donating custom dog beds to animal shelters.
Another great content idea is to sponsor the renovation of local animal rescues in your community, and then posting before and after photos of these projects. More pet parents are bound to patronize your business when you openly share your advocacies.
Host Giveaways and Contests on Social Media
Organizing giveaways and contests on social media are effective ways to market to more pet parents online. Providing freebies now and then will help you reach out to more customers and keep your existing clients interested in giveaways and new products. It also allows people to actively engage with your brand for a chance to try your products.
One great idea is to give customers a chance to receive a free pet basket with treats, dog toys, and other pet supplies. They can win by simply following your page and tagging a few friends on Facebook or Instagram.
You can also organize a contest where participants must submit the funniest dog or cat photo they have. Contestants that get the most photo votes on Facebook can win the grand prize. If you want more pet parents to join your contest, you can boost it with paid ads to reach a wider audience.
Offer Free Branded Products to Other Local Businesses
Besides online marketing, it’s beneficial to network with other pet-friendly businesses in your area. Get in touch with your local coffee shop, restaurant, daycare center, and other local establishments. Ask them if they would like to work with you to promote your business. In exchange, your company can also promote them online and in your physical stores.
If they agree to work with you, you can create branded promotional products and give them for free to customers at coffee shops and restaurants. This strategy not only lets you reach more customers in your area, but also allows you to establish a good relationship with other businesses in your locality. All in all, it’s a great way for you to help each other grow.
Partner with Other Pet-related Businesses
As a pet supply business owner, one of your best avenues for promoting your brand is to connect with other pet businesses such as pet kennels, dog boarding hotels, and animal grooming services. If you don’t, you’re losing out on a fantastic opportunity to network and expand your audience reach.
To start, you can write a carefully crafted proposal and email them to the companies you’re interested in partnering with. Here, you can emphasize the benefits of promoting each other, For one, pet parents are more receptive to recommendations from businesses they already trust. So if another pet business gives a good word about you, you have a higher chance of gaining new customers, and the same goes for them. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Collect Reviews from Satisfied Pet Parents
Getting good reviews from customers is another way to boost your brand’s image. When other potential customers see a high business rating on Google and Facebook, they immediately know that other people trust your brand. And the more good reviews you collect from customers, the more reputable your business becomes.
You can also take advantage of good customer reviews on your social media page. When a satisfied customer posts about a purchase from your store, you can repost it on your Facebook or Instagram account.
For example, if your customer took a picture of their pup wearing the dog hoodie they bought from your store, ask them for permission to share it on your brand’s Facebook page for your followers to see. Most customers are happy to see their fur baby garnering more likes on social media and will likely oblige. Sharing their posts is also an active way of thanking them for buying your products.
Running a business will always require effective marketing and promotions to reach your target audience. That said, it’s crucial to constantly improve on how you reach your customers, especially when you’re marketing to pet parents. We hope the tips mentioned above can improve your promotional strategies and help your business thrive.
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