As a pet business owner, one of your primary goals should be to attract and connect with your ideal clients. Effective communication plays a crucial role in achieving this objective! We here at Petfluence want to delve into strategies and tips that will help you effectively talk to your ideal clients, specifically those looking for the expertise of a pet professional. 

By following these suggestions, you will be looking to build stronger client relations, increase conversions, and ultimately grow your business.

Understand Your Ideal Client

Before you can effectively communicate with your ideal clients, you have to dig deep and understand who they are first. Conducting comprehensive market research and creating detailed buyer persons can help gain very important insights into your target audience. Consider aspects such as demographics (age, location, gender), psychographics (lifestyle, behaviors, preferences), and most obviously, pet ownership characteristics (type of pet, breed, age).

By having a deep understanding of your ideal clients, you can tailor your communication approach to resonate with their specific needs and preferences. 

Here’s an example: if your target audience consists of busy, urban professionals, you’d want to focus on the convenient and time-saving aspects of your pet services. Are you equipped with the tools and/or staff to pick up a client’s pet on their behalf to taxi them to their destination? Market and emphasize it! 

Another example: if your target audience consists of pet owners who prioritize naturally, organically-made products, push and emphasize how eco-friendly and health-conscious your offerings are in turn. Showcase reviews and testimonials of how your products have positively benefited your client’s pets and their specific needs.

Define Your Unique Value Proposition

Let’s face it: the petcare market is saturated with competition. Unless you’re lucky, you probably have local and regional businesses vying for your audience’s attention as much as you are. That’s why it’s crucial to differentiate your pet business from those competitors. Define your unique value proposition – what sets your business apart – and communicate it clearly to your potential clients!

Highlight any special services or features that make your business stand out, such as personalized approaches, specialized pet care techniques, or use of high-quality, natural products. Through effectively conveying your unique and diversified selling points, you can and will attract clients who may align more with your values than your competition. 

We like examples, so here’s one more: if you offer personalized one-on-one training sessions for dogs, try promoting the benefits of individual attention and tailor-made training plans that address specific behaviors or training goals. This can really resonate with potential clients who are looking for trainers that know the importance of focusing on one dog at a time.

Use Pet-Friendly Language

When attempting to communicate with your potential clients, you will want to consider something obvious but sometimes often overlooked: using pet-friendly language. You need to speak in a way that really resonates with the emotional connection your clients have with their beloved pet companions. You aren’t selling just some material item for themselves – your service is something very important to the furried members of the family.

Incorporate terms and phrases that demonstrate your understanding of pets and their owners. For example, instead of using generic phrases like “customers” or “clients”, use words like “pet parents” or “fur baby owners”. According to a survey conducted by BarkBox, 93% of people refer to themselves as “pet parents” rather than “pet owners.” 

If you’ve taken a look at the verbiage on our own website, you might notice we practice what we preach! 😉

This kind of engaging and empathetic language should be used throughout EVERYTHING related to your business and brand. All of your marketing materials, your entire website and each and every social media post should represent the same consistent kind of talk. Communicating and highlighting the joy, love, and companionship that pets bring to people’s lives is practically a universally connected affair. Do your best to take advantage of that as honestly as you can.

Personalize Your Communication

General information is valuable. When is it NOT? But personalizing that information to your brand is what can truly set your pet business apart. By addressing the specific needs, concerns and preferences of each individual client, you can tailor your communication accordingly. 

Some easy wins to consider are doing things like customized email marketing campaigns, personalized responses to inquiries (not just automated or scripted), or handwritten notes to show your clients that you genuinely care about them and their pets. 

You can also collect data about each client’s pet and ensure that information is present whenever you are conversing with them. By using important statistics specific to their pet, you can personalize your communicated message and offer relevant recommendations, tips or even surprises if you want to go the extra mile. This will go a long way towards making your clients feel valued and understood, and it can often be the easiest way to foster a strong connection while building client loyalty.

Have a Consistent Brand Voice

Your main objective as a brand is to become recognizable and memorable to your audience even when they aren’t in front of your business and its messaging. To do this, you need to ensure your pet business maintains a consistent brand voice that carries through any and all communication channels. 

The best thing is to have a client reach out, say they saw something in a store that made them think of you. Creating this kind of cohesive experience through consistent branding allows you to reinforce your business values and diversify yourself among your competitors.

You want to define your brand’s tone first and foremost. Determine if you’re friendly and approachable or the professional and authoritative figure they’ve been needing this whole time. Go light-hearted and playful to match all of those spastic puppies you are hoping to take care of. Whether it’s through your website, social media, or individual customer interactions, your brand voice should reflect your unique personality and positioning in the market.

We’d like to think Petfluence knows a thing or two about digital communication. That’s why we are writing this! Online presentation is not going anywhere anytime soon – in fact, take a look around and you will notice its importance and presence rising with each year. Now is the time to jump on the boat. 

This article is effective advice for ANY pet business looking to improve in 2024, and we hope you can take some or all of these tips to boost your relations and conversions with the many pet parents out there. Remember, though… it never hurts to rely on professionals yourself. We love when we have the opportunity to learn about your brand and “become a member of the team”. 

Give us the opportunity to represent you and we can guarantee we’ll follow all of our own advice and then some. Contact Petfluence today to discuss our services and packages so that we can make you the best, most engaging brand in your market!