Marketing Dog Walking Business By Nayanthara & Nalaka Daundaratne
Printed Flyers and Brochures
Marketing your dog walking business effectively from the beginning is a main factor for your success. Basically, how are you going to earn if you don’t have enough clients who will pay for your services, right? Therefore, make sure you invest a fair amount of time to build an effective marketing plan right from the beginning. No matter how deeply we are connected to digital media today, good old fashioned printed marketing materials as business cards, flyer, brochures, and other hand outs still work like a charm in reaching many clients as possible. You don’t have to spend lot of money at the beginning or ever for printing. Use your home printer if you have a one or check any free or low-cost printing services offered by some organization like you community library. Your flyer should include your business name, contact information, social media profiles information (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), what services are offered, the areas or towns you are covering. Also, mention that you are Pet First Aid certified as well as holds a dog walking liability insurance coverage. Make sure to be short, catchy, and concise when you form your flyer. Refer to many templates that you can find on web or contact Nalaka Daundaratne and Nayanthara to guide you through better marketing processes or simply to review your work. We will be happy to assist you in any way possible. Now that you printed some of your brochures it’s time to start distributing them to right people at right places to get your clients. Your community and friends will be a good place to start. You can also give them some extra to give to anyone that they know who are looking for a pet sitter. This way the people that you know are more likely going to be engaging in your marketing plan as well. Have a walk around your local dog walking parks and introduce your self to people in a very polite manner. Explain bit about what you are doing in few words and handover your flyer. Then, as discussed in word-of-mouth marketing section, if you get an opportunity to promote your work at a church or similar, ask permission and give away your flyers to people.
How to use social media to market Dog Walking Business
There are so many ways that you can use social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Linkedln, and similar ones to build your clients. Start creating e-brochures about your dog walking business to publish as posts. Include the same contents described in how to make printed flyers section. Always make them attractive as possible. There are numerous free designing software and apps available on the web that you can use to create marvelous Facebook and other social media posts. For a suggestion the app Canva is a great starting point as you can do plenty with their free templates. you can get free online marketing suggestions by reaching out to Nayanthara Kumar or Pravitha Nalaka Daundaratne if you want to get many more tips on how to get more clients. Further, there are general rules of thumb to consider when your online platforms to market your dog waking business.
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Start dedicated social media accounts for your dog walking or pet sitting business. While at fist you current Facebook or twitter account with many contacts are the best place to start marketing your business, think of promoting your business accounts with all relevant platforms gradually. Send invitations to your existing network to build the foundation of creating a community.
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Focus the area or the geography that you will be doing your business. For example, try to connect with people and groups in your city or country. This will help the algorithms to optimize your network relevant to your business area as much as possible.
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Creating posts regularly and frequently will help you reach more clients as these social media platforms are helping active accounts to connect with more people. Remember, broadening your network is one of the key things in e-marketing of your dog walking business
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Joining many appropriate fakebook and other groups can help your work being popular and give access to more individuals that seek dog walkers in your area.
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Let people see glimpse of your work through daily posts. People will build more trust and connection when they get familiar through your accounts. It is a great way for anyone to reach and contact you easily as you are not a stranger for them anymore.
How to use word-of-mouth to promote dog walking business
The best place to start is spreading the news of starting your dog walking business is your community and around the people who knows you. Reach out to your neighbors, friends and church and ask if they want dog walking services or simply request them to pass the message along to others or refer you to anyone that is looking for a trustworthy pet sitter. We will soon discuss how you can intergrade social media and printed materials to improve marketing efficiency of word-of-mouth process.
There are few fundamentals of this traditional way of marketing. Be pleasant, presentable, and respectful when reaching people around you to ask about possibilities of making clients. Use effective communication skills as both verbal and nonverbal. Explain them about your experiences or what you have learned. Mention about your training on pet-first aid skills and the god walking insurance that you possess. Give them few of your brochures or business cards to pass around or for them to think about taking services from you. Try to make each interaction an informative one about how you ae dedicated to providing safe and effective dog walking and pet sitting service. If you are part of community as a church, cultural or any group, talk to the person who heads the events about introducing you and your business during certain occasions. If can take an opportunity to speak to people who are there for few minutes. It’s going to be very impactful to spread the word about your business even among the people that you already know.
Word-of-mouth marketing not just for at the beginning. It’s an ongoing process throughout your dog walking career. So, make sure you provide a great service to all your clients in a way building trust in you to hand over the care of their loved dog and pet family members. Then, they will automatically tell others how good you are which will lead to a build of a steady clientele.