For animal keepers, pet boarding can be a lucrative business venture. And generating dog boarding leads for your business is easier than you may think. The best part is that this industry is booming, turning many people who started this as a hobby at home into a profitable venture that generates a substantial full-time income.
When you are going to put yourself in a business, a marketing team is essential regardless of the niche and whether you are looking to open one or increase your visibility.
Dog owners expect more personal service from dog boarding facilities than the traditional kennel. Good marketing and excellent service will result in repeat clients that will choose you over new and experienced businesses in the area.
According to a Forbes report, pet ownership is on the rise. This growing demand means competition and more businesses for you when you carefully work around your lead generation process.
Most clients use the Internet to search for, find and hire services. Online reputation and presence are essential. So, where should you begin?
A needs analysis is the leading step in your ultimate generation process. It would help if you determined the area that you will serve. You cannot simply say you will cover a 25-mile radius. To see the demographics of your area, such as upscale neighborhoods and convenient locations, you can view a map.
If your local government requires you to be licensed, statistics may be available to test if this is accurate. Also, it would help if you searched for other border animals in your locality. You can find this information on the Internet, on yellow pages, or contacting local veterinarians.
Place an AD in Your Local Newspaper & Go for Digital Options Equally
Although it may seem the most basic type of advertising, it is one of the best!
Local newspapers can be a great lead generation strategy to target the younger audience. You can hire a graphic designer to create a banner advertisement and run it in your local newspaper for a few weeks.
Track your results to determine if you have a good ROI. You are probably a dog-daycare owner and have likely received calls from SEO companies trying to sell you their products. Could you not listen to them? It would be amazing to see how old fashion advertising still works.
You can also use Google AdWords to do location-specific advertising in your city.
Google AdWords can be a seamless way to get sales-qualified leads for your doggie daycare company. It allows you to place your ads only in your business’s area.
While you will likely pay one dollar per click on your Google ads, if thirty clicks result in a new client that is thirty dollars, that is thirty dollars per acquisition.
Google advertising is a money-making business. Although you will need to pay for the service, the results can be pretty good. You can reduce your cost per acquisition, and you won’t have to worry about getting anything out of your investment.
Sponsor a Local Sports Team for Young Adults
This is one of many old tricks to make cheap advertising for your business.
Find a local sports league, and ask to sponsor a team. Their jerseys will be printed with your logo and URL, and they will likely require you to pay the league’s entry fee, but it will all be worth it. Your brand will be seen by hundreds of people every week.
These people want to see your business, with many young couples choosing to have pets over children.
You will also generate leads with word-of-mouth advertising. Your logo will be noticed by anyone playing in the league or just watching.
You never know; they might even look up your website from their phones at the game and become customers.
To Find Pet Owners, Use Facebook Geo-Targeting or Like-Focusing
Facebook is an excellent tool for small businesses. It allows you to focus on people who have particular interests.
Geo-located advertising is a great way to start with a small marketing budget, thanks to the platform. It would help to target users who have dogs and live within a radius of your zip code, so you know they are likely to choose you.
You can target specific users by doing some testing and running different ads to determine which ones are reaching them and if they are clicking on them.
It is affordable and can yield a substantial ROI if used strategically. Digital advertising has the best advantage of choosing the demographics you wish to target with your ads.
This means that you can tell Facebook about your target market, and they will only show ads to those people.
Find ‘Bring-Your-Dog-to-Work-Companies’ and Offer Them a Deal
Many tech companies now offer employees the option to bring their pets to work. This is a great perk for employees and an excellent opportunity for you as a business owner.
Tell the HR department that you would like to be their official doggie boarding facility partner. You can give employees a discount when they travel out of town and have their employer pay the difference.
Imagine that you charge forty dollars per night at your facility. Company ‘X’ employees can be charged twenty dollars per night, and their employer will pay the twenty dollars. This is a reliable way to offer your employees a benefit and result in much new business.
You might be able to work with Zestful to get your company listed among their business perks. Tech companies have much money.
This will allow you to generate new revenue, and it will also give your business a unique bonus for your employees.
Offer to Pick-up, Delivery Dogs, and Wrap Your Vehicle
Although this lead generation strategy may be more effective for dog daycare than doggie boarding, you still get lots of value.
We thought it was worth mentioning because your business works well with both. Pet owners are often very busy in the morning. If you give them the option to handle the transportation, you will solve their problem and bring more businesses your way.
You can arrange for pets to be picked up or dropped off at a specific time by hiring a pick-up and delivery driver (a pet taxi) for a small fee.
Your clients will be grateful that you can provide the needed service and may even refer you to others.
On the other hand, wrapping your pick-up truck in marketing materials is an excellent idea if you have the money.
This is an excellent way for your brand to be seen by hundreds of people every day. A dog owner might see your van and say “Pick-up and Delivery” at the stoplight. They may remember your name and contact you in the future.
Get & Promote Your Website
Many pet owners we have spoken with have said the same thing: “I do not want to invest right now in a website.”
What they don’t know is that this is where you can use referrals, social media, and networking. It is a great idea to invest in a website, especially when starting, as it is your digital place to bring people.
If you want to market your business online, a website is essential. It is like your online business real estate. You can include your contact information, FAQs, and pricing.
In it, you can also implement other lead strategies like maybe considering starting a blog or collaborations with other sites that complement yours.
You can think about it this way: Pet owners want to know why they should choose you for dog boarding or other business opportunities, and your site is the best option to provide them with the info without being invasive.
Start Blogging for Better Search Engine Ranking
A blog is one of the best ways of getting to the market and giving yourself high-quality leads.
You should include a blog section since blog content can be an excellent way for companies to show that they are experts and bring keywords to their site that will improve SEO.
Answering customers’ most common questions is an excellent idea for blogging. To show potential customers that the business is qualified to care for their pets, you should consider animal First Aid and Food requirements.
Offer more details about how you take care of their pets and how they could improve their lifestyles at home.
There are hundreds of ideas you can find with a simple Google search to write content for the blog.
Start Building Your Email List
An email list is a top tool for many pet businesses. Regularly sending out a newsletter to customers can help build brand loyalty and increase sales.
Email is one of the most direct and personal ways to reach customers. It is the heart of the business and cannot be taken away by social media apps.
Mailchimp, a free app and website that sends emails, is excellent for staying in touch.
Pet businesses do not realize the importance of an email newsletter. Monthly newsletters can increase brand loyalty, sales, engagement, and client spending.
You own your email lists, which is a significant advantage over social media. While Instagram and Facebook can quickly remove your followers and accounts, you will still have your email list. Profit from that.
You should provide prospective clients with a Welcome Packet to be familiar with your facility and what to expect from working with you.
This will save you much time and eliminate all the back-and-forth via email. It is now time to make one.
For Your Business, Create and Use Social Media Accounts
You will notice a shift in your followership if you regularly post content to social media, and yes, it is necessary to have your accounts so you can reach more people.
Your numbers will increase gradually, and people will become more aware of your brand. They will become more familiar with what you do and how you do it, which will increase their likelihood of generating qualified leads.
Pets may not have internet access; their owners do!
Be sure to diversify your content. You do not have to share pet photos every day with only captions.
You can share entertaining, educational, informative, or promotional posts. There are many things to share, and every post should have a purpose.
Special Activities for Pets Are a Great Way to Show Your Appreciation
You can host training classes, celebrate birthdays, and even take holiday photos. If they are loyal clients, they will be happy that you care for them. If they are not, they will become loyal due to your service.
It would help show them you care about their pets and treat them well. These clients love those extra touches.
It will be easier to attract new customers and do lead scoring if you have those extra touches. Positive reviews and referrals will help you expand your customer base, and they come naturally thanks to those efforts.
A business can offer its customers special activities such as pet parties, photo opportunities, animal-themed parties, and pet fashion shows.
Be Found & Reward Loyal and Existing Customers
It is estimated that loyal customers make up around 80% of your revenue, compared to new customers who take the other 20%.
What can you do to keep your customers loyal? You have many options, including gift cards, loyalty points, and rewards. This is a reliable way to show appreciation to your customers who return.
People use search engine optimization on Yahoo, Google, Bing, and Google to improve lead quality. You want them to be able to connect with you quickly if they are looking for assistance. If someone searches for “dog boarding,” they will likely search for your business first.
Google My Business is one way to do that. All search engines have something similar. Each search engine allows you to “claim” your business to get your basic business information online.
Tell Your Story to Everyone!
Storytelling is the best way to market today. This is a new way to welcome customers to your brand and connect with them beyond being a simple business offering a service.
Consumers are tired of being sold too many times a day. It is wise to reach your target market using more than digital advertising.
Marketers should always use storytelling to reach their customers. If done right, clients can easily connect to businesses through different stories; it is a well-researched fact.
The essential thing in this world of countless ads is that stories stand out amongst the sea of others.
Engaging stories are about why you are in business, your staff, their specialties, customer feedback, and other details behind the scenes.
Another great idea is to show your everyday routine. You can engage by showing them how pets are having fun and enjoying their time away from their parents.
Marketing on multiple fronts can be like trying different things. Some ideas may not work for dog boarding businesses.
After these ups and downs, a company can determine what works best for them. Consistency and visibility are crucial factors in this process.
These ideas will allow any dog boarding company to go on the market and see their clients rise quickly and, in turn, increase revenue.
Customers want to know that your staff and you are experts. Your website should feature their biographies, photos, and credentials as well.
Your target market will also be interested in the “dog experience.” They want to see the pets’ daily activities while in your care. Think interactive photos/videos of dogs walking, playing with toys, and giving treats.
Do not be afraid to share your feelings—it is okay to be vulnerable!
Your personal stories and behind-the-scenes are great places to start. Many people would love to know how and why you started your pet business.
Promotion of the Business
Traditional lead generation tools include yellow page advertising, flyers in the mail, and brochures left at local veterinarians. Although they are not as popular as using digital resources, they still work.
Worry about them and move with the digital alternatives.
As of the latter, your website should be a hub for information about your business and general information about dog care.
Google Places is a great way to promote your business. Post photos and information to attract customers.
Past customers can also leave comments and reviews. You can offer discounts for new customers. Word-of-mouth marketing is also possible through social media, such as blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.
Take a Look at What Does Not Work
We have already discussed how online reviews can be a great way to improve your business. However, if you ask for them wrongly, it can lead to a fine.
Avoid these mistakes when asking for reviews:
- Fake reviews purchased from customers.
- Customers are bribed to leave positive reviews.
- Spamming customers with review requests.
These may sound like great ideas for generating leads, but they will not provide genuine reviews for your company.
Google and Yelp have become more adept at catching fake reviews and penalizing companies by removing them. Potential customers may also see these reviews and choose to go to another business to care for their pets.
Get a Booking Software
There are many lead generation processes for dog-boarding businesses, with many apps available. The best way to attract customers is to create your app.
The app will automate appointment bookings and keep all accounts.
It can also build a marketing database used in lead capture. Apps like PetBaker, which allow you to showcase your services and generate revenue, are great options for those who do not want to build their app.
There are many other apps available for Android and iPhone.
Always hand out business cards to people you do business with. You should also leave a tip card with the local restaurant you eat at. Remember the tip! You should not tip your server if you do not want to leave a business card!
To receive, you must give. Consider donating a certificate of free dog-sitting services at a local charity auction. This is a reliable way for you to support a local charity, get free advertising for your firm, and spread the word about your services among a new client base.
Keep your business cards close at hand, no matter where you are. Dogs make great conversation starters and icebreakers. It could even lead to new business opportunities for generating leads.
Look out for signs that a pet-owning family is around when you walk your clients’ dogs or in your backyard. Outdoor dog runs, fencing, and other signs are all signs of dog ownership. If you have invisible signs or flags, leave door hangers.
Check with your local authorities for any ordinances. In some places, fliers and signs are not allowed. It is against the law to place fliers, posters, etc., in mailboxes.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Dog Boarding Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Dog Boarding Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Dog Boarding Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.