Use Social Media to Reach Pet Parents

Many of my customers struggle with low cost effective ways of reaching pet parents. Social media is a great tool to utilize in outreaching to pet parents to gain awareness for your pet product or service. So how do you do this with measurable sales results? Here are four things you can do today to start the process:

Get to know the pet lifestyle bloggers. Pet lifestyle bloggers are writers who write and maintain blogs, either as a hobby or, in some cases, as a way to make money. Some pet lifestyle bloggers accept products for trial and then post reviews on their blogs. Bloggers who have written pet product reviews include www.petproductsreviewed.com and www.miscellaneousfinds4u.com.

Engage pet parents on social networking sites. You have opportunities to engage with pet parents without needing to spend a ton of money. Dogster, Catster, Petfinder, MySpace and Facebook all provide opportunities to engage with pet lovers to discover what they really want and need for their pet. For example, if your an after market car safety manufacturer, you can create a Facebook page to promote safe use of canine seat belts, divider racks and ramps. If your a vet, I’d create a page that promotes flea and tick care, spay and neuter or summer safety tips for pets. If you feel you still don’t have the time, then I would recommend seeking professional help. Socialbees is a company dedicated to helping small businesses utilize Facebook to its full potential in order to increase their bottom line.

Lights, Camera, Action! Pet parents are notorious for sharing their own videos and viewing others’ clips of their pets in action. How many of you remember the funny pet videos people shared on”America’s Funniest Videos”? Well, now we’ve moved onto sites like YouTube where anyone, any pet or any product can be made a star. There are many ways to use online video to reach out to pet parents. If you have a product to sell, I would post an instructional video clip demonstrating the use of the product. This demonstration would serve as a means of erasing any apprehension of purchasing the product. The viewer would see that the product does what you say is does. Another option is to set up a fun contest to engage your audience as well as increase awareness about your company. Another option is to “interview” past customers and have them give testimony about your product/service solved a problem for them.

Offer an experience. What can you give pet lifestyle bloggers to persuade them to write about your product/service? Free product sample or a trial version of your product/service would give them a “taste” without much commitment. Another idea is to offer tours of your facilities, creating an opportunity for educating bloggers on how you maufacture your product (i.e. ingredient selection, process, packaging, etc).

Tracking your success. The best method of tracking how successful you are in reaching pet lifestyle bloggers and pet parents is to use Web site analytics. These software programs allow you to track where online purchasers come from…eCommerce site? Facebook? Blog? Google has a free one that you can embed into your site. Or you can check out Omniture, Visitat (7 day free trial), or Yahoo.

Another method for tracking is to use a coupon code for each designated site (i.e. Facebook would have its own code as well as any special run on your Twitter account). You can also ask your customers where they heard you from, then provide a list of options in a drop down menu. If you post the special on your own blog or Web site, then use an embedded download link to easily track the number of downloads. All of these techniques will give you numbers to track how successful you are in your strategy. If you’re not recieving the amount of hits you want, then adjust your strategy. Just remember to always track your success!

About the Author Dara is a brand identity and marketing design strategist at 7 Lucky Dogs, a leading consultancy in marketing to “pet parents”. Through customized marketing and brand identity packages, 7 Lucky Dogs helps you discover what makes your company, product or service different from your competitors. We then translate this differentiation visually into a logo, product packaging, an E-commerce site and promotional materials to reflect those unique attributes. We make our clients look credible and memorable to their prospects while they increase their bottom line. As the owner of 7 Lucky Dogs, Dara is passionate about helping independent pet businesses stand out in front of their competitors and attract more clients. She blends business smarts with creativity with over 13 years of design experience with formal education in both graphic design and marketing.