These are the 8 pet product marketing must-haves to grow your sales. And, yes, these apply to services, too!
How can small pet food, pet care, and pet service businesses grow sales on a tight budget?
It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the pet industry or if you’ve been around for decades, figuring out how to grow pet product and service sales remains a constant on the pet marketing to do list.
But if you’re a small business, it comes with an additional challenge: How do you increase pet food sales, sell more accessories, or land more pet grooming appointments with a limited budget? It’s always a question of, what’s the best way to utilize available resources to get the most out of your marketing and promotion activities?
Spoiler alert: A lot of it involves building a robust online presence.
Marketing pet products (and services) online: These are the tools you’ll need in your arsenal
From boosting awareness and growing brand recall to attracting the right audience and converting purchase intent into actual sales—use these all-important tools to help you succeed in today’s pet marketing landscape.
💡 Build a website for your pet business
If you want to be taken seriously and play in the proverbial ‘big leagues’, then you need to evolve from social media (Facebook and Instagram) and invest in an attractive website—even if you’re a Millennial- or Gen Z-oriented pet brand!
I’m sure you already know this but just in case you need that extra little bit of convincing, here’s why you need a website to market your pet business.
1. It improves your credibility and professionalizes your brand
As you grow, you’ll inevitably want to build your network of business partners and contacts. You may even want to reach new markets. A website shows that you’re committed to your brand, that you take your clients (and business) seriously, and that you’re in it for the long haul. In other words, you’ll be seen as more reliable and trustworthy compared to being a social-only business. That’s something social media simply can’t do for you.
2. A website boosts your online presence
A website makes you accessible to people anywhere, anytime; to different customer groups and markets. And with carefully planned and well-thought-out content, your brand can be discoverable for all the right search terms. That means you get to be present at all stages of a customer’s purchase journey, which improves the likelihood of increasing pet product sales!
3. Websites are convenient
A website is inclusive. It’s easy to find, use, and access. Put another way, you can serve anyone—not just those with a social media account! That’s important because not all shoppers or clients are comfortable with or know how to “do business” on social networking sites.
4. It’s great for branding
Everything from design—layout, colors, fonts, images—through to brand voice and style and even the type of content you feature is exactly what you want and as you want it. What I mean is, you have total control over how you present your brand; your story, what you stand for, and how you address customers’ immediate needs and questions is entirely in your hands.
5. A website multitasks
A website performs multiple functions. It acts as your product showroom, customer service hub, online store, help desk with customer-oriented resources, the latest news and information and so much more. In other words it markets your brand and promotes your products even while you sleep.
6. Customer data belongs to you
There’s a wealth of information web analytics will give you about the visitors to your site. You can use all that to get to know your audience better and, of course, improve your marketing efforts. Furthermore, the customer data collected via your website, for example through web inquiries or online purchases, belong to your company and not the platform you’re using.
Tip: Be a responsible business owner. Handle personal information collection with the utmost respect and care. Read more about GDPR guidelines and ensure you’re compliant.
💡 Be e-commerce-ready
If there’s one thing the pandemic taught us, it’s how important online sales channels are. So since you’re investing in a website, go ahead and make it e-commerce-ready! You’ll be able to sell to customers without any middle-men (as a direct-to-consumer brand) and increase pet product direct sales. Plugins like WooCommerce or platforms like Shopify make setting up an online store easier than ever.
Encourage repeat purchases
Once you have e-commerce enabled, think about the different ways you can up-sell and cross-selling plus encourage repeat purchases. Packaging inserts and email marketing campaigns can have a large impact in bringing about repeat customers.
💡 Pay attention to your product descriptions
Product copy plays a key role in successful pet product marketing. If you want to sell more, you need high quality and SEO product and service descriptions. What you write has to be discoverable on search engines but it also has to set you apart, appeal to the pet parent, and inspire action.
💡 Invest in paid ads and landing pages
Another way to get your products in front of target customers is with paid ads on search engines or social media sites. Just don’t forget: Always link to a focused landing page—not a general page on your website.
Landing pages are like the secret weapon of your pet product marketing strategy because other small pet businesses don’t know how to use them or don’t have the time to build them!
Paid ads + landing pages = a boost in direct sales for pet companies!
Because rather than the home page or some other general page on your website, a landing page gives the searcher exactly what he was looking for—no need to dig around for it.
💡 Create awesome content
From videos to blog posts, great content enhances your brand’s online presence. But that’s not all: It also lands your brand in front of a wider audience (people who may not otherwise find you); encourages engagement; nurtures relationships; and helps you build a loyal following. The key, though, is quality content that remains on-brand.
💡 Hang out on social media
Social’s not enough but you sure as heck still need it! People have short attention spans; they love visual content (pretty pics and fun videos); people also love the personal connection and interactions.
💡 Send emails
If you’re not building an email list (as part of your pet product marketing) from day one, you’re probably going to regret it later on. That’s because marketing emails and newsletters are a great way to:
- advertise existing as well as new products;
- excite subscribers with promotional deals and special offers;
- highlight product benefits and proper use;
- and educate readers on pet-related topics of interest.
In other words, your emails can inspire and prompt recipients to take action thus increasing the chances of conversion and securing a sale.
Make it fun with giveaways and contests
Giveaways and contests are another great way to get people interested – and eventually hooked – on your products. Once they’ve tried it out risk-free, they’re more likely to come back and purchase it on their own in the future. Make your newsletter subscribers feel extra special by letting them be the first to know of upcoming giveaways and contests that they can enter.
Don’t forget holidays and special events
We’ve humanized our pets, which means there’s no shortage of holidays and special events worth celebrating with them! Benefit from this behavior by marketing special themed products to appeal to such pet parents.
💡 Make your packaging stand out
This one isn’t related to your online presence but it’s just as important: Don’t skimp on packaging design and the corresponding copy.
If you want to increase sales of your pet products, then your product must first grab shoppers’ attention. And that’s not easy to do on a crowded shelf of pet food products, grooming products, toys and more.
So eye-catching is the first part; convincing is the second part of the equation. (Price considerations excluded.)
That’s where powerful pet packaging copy comes in—it must persuade the shopper that the product he’s holding is exactly what he wants and needs.