Any pet business out there faces a number of different and unique challenges, for instance, how do you stand out from the others and how can you compete with the large shops in the field such as Petco and Petsmart?
The first step of many is to get the attention of a pet owner. Marketing has always been a tricky business and has been made even more difficult as the choices that customers have been multiplied a great deal. When people are presented with a large choice of options they become overwhelmed and take longer to make a decision. This is one of the challenges you’ll have to try and work with. So if you’re wondering how to improve your business, whether you’re just starting out or have been running for a while, we’re going to take you through 5 tips that work wonders.
1. Positive Reviews
It’s important to your business to receive as many positive reviews as it can – it’s the first step towards getting pet owners to your online store and converting into customers. Pet-related shops with the most and highest average rated reviews are the ones who are going to get the most digital traffic compared to those that have weak reviews which may discredit their business. If you have a niche store, you may want to think about your branding, because it’s no use being the best-kept secret in town if no one’s going to review you.
2. Conversing With Customers
Just because you’re online, doesn’t mean that you can’t talk to your customers. Talking to them is the fastest and most efficient way of getting online reviews. Over 70% of online searches for local businesses. Make sure that you’ve got great social media presence so that you can talk to any prospective customers and reply to any negative reviews that customers may leave. This will significantly help your business.
3. Visual Social Networks
Making use of sites such as Instagram can really help you out – it’s a matter of fact that pets are cute and any pictures of them are always going to draw in eventually a massive crowd, much larger than any new online casino out there. Use this to your advantage and focus on dominating visual networks where videos and images dominate. Having a presence and sharing adorable pet content is something people online will appreciate and come to your page for.
4. Ways to Improve Business – Run Competitions Online
On social media, competitions have been a popular business idea for many years – great for pet business opportunities. Offer your audience the chance to win one of your great products in exchange for something to boost presence, e.g. a retweet or alike. Soon you’ll be able to grow your following and get an enormous amount of free traffic towards your site.
5. Create Informative Blog Content
Blogging is one of the best ways in which you can grow your brand and reach out to prospective customers, so do get blogging as soon as you can. Focus on producing the highest quality materials you can – things that people will find informative and want to share around. As you offer advice that people find helpful, they can come to your pet business for solutions to their problems.
Do you run an online pet store? Do you have any online pet business ideas?
We’d love to hear more from you. Send us your comments below.
| About the Guest Author: Chele
Chele is an animal lover and has two pets, a cockatoo and a German shepherd. She helped to run an online pet store for many years and has 10+ years of experience working as a business consultant, coming up with different ways to improve business. She now works part-time as a freelance writer.
