Make Your Pet Business Stand Out
on Social Media with These Tips
Social media has proven to be a powerful promotional tool for businesses, given how easy it is to spread the word to a large audience in real-time. But as of late, many businesses have struggled to get new engagements with their target market. Since so many products and services are being marketed at the same time—and pushed very aggressively by bigger retailers—it’s quite easy for small, boutique businesses to get drowned out.
A company that deals in pet products must be wondering: what’s the best way to get out of a social media rut? What more can the company’s social media team do to get attention, foster a good relationship for the brand, and achieve higher sales of the company’s products?
If you’re part of a pet business and are currently facing such a conundrum, here are five good social media strategies that you can use to promote your specialty pet products, like PrideBites custom dog collars. See what difference these make in driving up your organic engagement with your pet owner customers!
Tell Pet-related Stories
Luckily for pet businesses, pets make awesome brand ambassadors. There’s a huge population of animal lovers in America alone, and many of them will stop scrolling through their feeds to look at a cat video or dog photo.
You can use that popular appeal to your advantage and feature content like this on your brand’s Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter pages. Accompany these with captions or short descriptions that tell riveting stories about the pets featured. These can serve the same function as human interest stories, which are very effective at helping audiences connect with brands.
Share Authoritative Pet-related Content
Another highly effective social media strategy is to share authoritative content that pertains to pets’ health, wellness, and welfare. You can share local news stories that have to do with changes in pet laws, create infographics that illustrate a healthy diet for a pet breed, or release how-to articles for training pets.
Members of your target audience will gravitate towards these because they are useful and relevant to their lives as pet owners. These types of content will also establish your reputation as an authority in the pet world, and thus help you build trust among pet owners.
Open Up Conversations Among Pet Owners
Yet another strategy you can implement is to motivate pet owners to converse with you and with each other. You can post questions on your social media pages, then invite them to share their thoughts in the comments or tag you in their own posts. Great topics for conversation include memories with pets, personality quirks that are unique to individual pets, and the ups and downs of pet ownership.
Think of conversation starters that are either fun to answer or that will provoke meaningful responses from your audience. If pet owners associate your brand with thoughtful conversations, as well as a sense of community among fellow pet owners, then it’s highly likely that they will continue to engage with your brand.
Hold Online Contests or Raffles of Your Pet Products
Contests or raffles remain effective social media strategies because people always like having the chance to win something. That may be especially true for pet owners, who will be extra grateful for small rewards like a discount coupon, an extra bag of food, or a brand-new collar.
That said, you can try opening up contests or raffles that are a breeze to join. It will be all the better if there’s a variety of prizes to win, like a grand prize paired with several consolation prizes.
Be clear about the contest or raffle mechanics, stipulate a deadline for entries, and announce when you’ll be releasing the results. You can then add to the suspense, and keep your customers’ attention on you, by spreading out your announcements.
Drop Teasers for Upcoming Product Launches or Events
Lastly, you can stoke your audience’s interest by releasing teasers of your next product or event. These can be in the form of photos or video trailers with captions. Schedule your posts and ensure there’s enough space in between them to keep your audience curious, but also prevent them from getting an information overload.
You can also give your followers an incentive for responding to your teasers. For example, you can offer a discount coupon to the first responder who correctly guesses what your new product is. The more involved your audience feels, the more they’ll anticipate your next release.
Final Words:
Striking a Balance on Social Media
Pet business owners will always be in for a challenge when it comes to thinking up fresh, relevant, and engaging content for social media. It can actually be quite difficult to establish an authentic, consistent brand voice, and to also be present to an audience without being spammy or hard selling.
The brand’s social media team will need to find the perfect balance in other to catch the attention of pet owners—and most importantly, build positive relationships with them. Here’s to resonating with your followers and making your pet business stand out among all the others promoting on social media!
