Ever find yourself scratching your head, wondering why your marketing isn’t hitting the mark? Wish you had a blueprint to dodge the common marketing mistakes that are holding your pet business back?
In this week’s episode, I’m unlocking the secrets to effective marketing as I dive into the top five marketing mistakes that I see pet businesses make. This episode is especially for anyone feeling overwhelmed by their current marketing efforts.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- The ONE major misconception: Thinking everyone is your client—learn why this could be draining your resources and focus.
- Online Presence pitfalls: Why lacking a robust online presence can make or break your business.
- Branding Blunders: The do’s and dont’s of consistent, effective branding.
Imagine finally understanding why your marketing efforts haven’t been converting. Picture turning those weak spots into areas of strength that drive your business forward.
Think about it…What if you could spend less time guessing and more time executing tactics that actually work? How would it feel to have a crystal-clear understanding of your target audience? What difference would a consistent and compelling brand make to your bottom line?
Time Sensitive Invite:
There’s also an exciting revival happening in our Jump Start Your Pet Business community on Facebook, and I want YOU to be a part of it. I’ve been going live once or twice a week to teach and give valuable tips.
We are still entering people into our FREE 20-minute 1:1 coaching session giveaway.
Simply join the group and tag me (Bella) in your post – I’d love to hear which episode inspired you the most!
Timestamps:
[02:09] Marketing Mistake #1
[07:12] Marketing Mistake #2
[14:25] Marketing Mistake #3
[16:25] Marketing Mistake #4
[21:35] Marketing Mistake #5
Notable Quotes:
“If everyone was your client, then that means that you’re competing with rover, or you’re competing with, like, these big national corporations that are just a logo and, like a website, right? You are a unique individual, servicing a very small area. If you really zoom out, look at the entire world, you know, you are the expert in your area.”
“If your website is stale, if it’s sterile, if your marketing on your website or your social media is literally something that I could copy and paste and put on someone else’s therefore it’s not personal, then you miss the mark.”
“Are you measuring engagement? Are you measuring ultimate conversion rates? Are you measuring just page views on Google? Are you measuring click throughs in emails? What are you measuring?”
Resources:
- Email Bella: bella @ jumpconsulting . net
- Jump Start Your Pet Business Facebook group
- FREE 20-min Consult with Bella
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Transcript:
Welcome to another episode of Bella in your business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today we’re gonna talk. We’re gonna talk about top five marketing mistakes that pet businesses make. And, guys, I know you’ve been loving these, like, really personal episodes, and trust me, I’m gonna stay personal. We’re gonna keep it going because this is literally me talking to you and keep all of the questions coming. I love getting them. I love the DM’s.
I live for them. Honestly, I always love finding out, like, you know, what your biggest takeaway was. So feel free to ask me anywhere. Instagram, Facebook, where else? I don’t know. Everywhere, really. Or bellaumpconsulting.net. olivia was so excited and loved all of your comments. So thank you so much for her little, um, her little debut last week.
If you haven’t listened to it, she dropped some positivity bombs that were pretty cute. I was very proud of her. Um, all right, so without ado, let’s get started. Actually, no, there’s one more thing I want to tell you about. Um, keep coming into the jumpstart, your pet business Facebook group. We’re going to be doing a lot of stuff in there. It’s starting to really ramp up. I went live in there once or twice this weekend.
Um, just kind of teaching or giving some tips. I’m going to do even more. And we are still entering people into our free coaching session. So all you got to do is just post on the wall. Tag. Mella. Hey, Belle. I heard you on the podcast, entering to win one of the free coaching sessions.
Um, and, uh, and let me know, and we’ll get you in there. Okay? So just go to Facebook and just type in, jump start your pet business. You might already be a member and just forgot because of the greatest, a logarithm. Um, and, uh, it’s just. It’s fun in there. So come on and get in. It’s one way you can be part of a community. It’s free.
It’s free. Costs nothing. And the difference about this community is it’s actually led by me. Right? So it’s not like a, um, another, um, group where it’s just a random person doing it, or maybe it’s a coach doing it, but they don’t actually show up or they don’t actually teach, and they just. It’s kind of like person led like mine. I really take pride that I try to start a lot of conversations, or I try to give you guys value weekly, and. But I want you guys to join in the conversation, too, now. All right, so let’s get going because this is also kind of in ties with what we’re talking about.
The top five marketing mistakes pet businesses make. Again, I’m Bella Vasta from jump Consulting. If this is one of the first times you are listening to me, I’ve been in this industry since 2002 when my parents told me that they wanted to put a curfew on me and I realized that I could get paid to sleep over people’s houses with their pets. What? Back then, the industry was not well known. So a lot of our marketing was a lot about telling people that they didn’t have to go put their dog in a boarding facility that they could actually bring them to or that they could stay at home and that we could come to their home. And getting the public, like, knowing that that was an option, obviously now in 2024, at the time of this recording, that is nothing, I think, anymore. Now we’re just really trying to explain to them how great and positive and trustworthy and likable and professional we are. Right.
Because they already know what’s going on. And so I want you to think about something. I know a lot of pet sitters make this big mistake. The first one is they think everyone is their clients. Now that sounds pretty obvious, right? But if I go to any one of your Instagram or Facebook or maybe your email marketing, if you do email marketing, which you should be, by the way, it’s like the best form. It’s like email, Instagram, Facebook. That’s where I would actually like, put my, um, my money where my mouth is if I were a business owner right now. Um.
Oh, I didn’t even finish my story. See, here we go. Add again. Um, anyways, all right, I’m going to slow down because I’m getting really excited. It’s in the morning. I’ve had a lot of coffee. Um, okay, so everyone isn’t your client. Everyone is not your client.
And I want you to realize that because it’s like, you know, if everyone was your client, then that means that you’re competing with Rover or you’re competing with like these big national corporations that are just a logo and like a website, right? You are a unique individual in a servicing a very small area. And, you know, if you really zoom out, look at the entire world, you know, and you are the expert in your area. You are the expert when it comes to pets. You are the expert when it comes to dog walking. You are the expert when it comes to your, your weather and the different nuances that are there. Right. If I were to drop someone from, like, Edmonton, Canada, in the middle of the sonoran desert, they would have no idea what a javelina is or, or to look out for certain kinds of cactus that can, like, jump on you or, like, coyotes. Right.
Nor would I understand, like, the fact that my walkers are gonna be walking and their eyelashes are gonna end up with icicles on them and it’s perfectly okay. And that the dogs up there are okay with it like it is. You are such an expert, and if I can at any point put whatever you’re saying on anyone else’s, then you’ve lost. Right. And so I really want you to think about, you have to define your target audience. Okay? You have to know your ideal customer. You have to provide tips on, on how to, you know, care for your pets in your specific area from your specific expertise. And so the way that you understand your target market is you can do it a couple different ways.
One, you could be reactive. And by that, I mean you can think about everyone that you actually service right now, who you’ve attracted. And I think the number one thing you have to think about is, are these the clients I want? Right. So sometimes maybe company a has attracted a bunch of people by having coupons everywhere. And so they’ve, they’ve attracted a lot of, like, um, uh, coupon minded people that will probably jump to the next coupon or best deal, um, possible. They’re not typically loyal. Um, and, and they really care about price. They’re trying to constantly nickel and dime you up.
You, you know, you increase your prices, they’re, like, freaking out. And then there’s like, you know, company b, that’s just like, you know what? We’re going to be $10 more expensive than everyone else, and we’re not going to have as much volume, which means we’re not going to have as many employees. But our profit margin is going to be, like, popping. It’s going to be amazing. And I would rather work less for more money than my ego and make it a popularity contest. Right, and have a low profit margin and a high volume. And so I think a lot of people don’t stop and think, like, what do I really want? And neither one is better or worse. Right.
It comes down to, like, what you want. Um, and so if you want to dominate the market and you want to say, hey, we have 50% of the market share, then you want to be really competitive and you want to appeal to as many people as possible. But if you really want that boutique style, then you want a niche of a niche. I mean, I have some companies that are only, um, dog walking. I have some companies that are only dog walking small dogs, you know, I mean, how much of a niche, of a niche. Of a niche can you get? So I want you to define your target audience, and that’s really, really important. You can look up online or you can at me, and I can give you some resources and. And to really go through, like, a customer avatar.
Who are they? And you’re gonna. You might have a couple of different avatars, too, and that’s okay. So the second mistake that people. So the first mistake was not defining your target audience. So really think about it. People either do it reactionary based off of what they’ve got, or they say, this is what I want, and then they go out to attract that kind of person. I think it’s much better when you attract it kind of freaks a lot of people out, though, because then they’re like, oh, no. Like, they get scared because they’re not, like, reigning in the clients and the money, because they haven’t, they don’t appeal to everyone.
So it’s a little scary because it’s a little bit more of a slower build. Okay. But you have to define your target audience. If I had to tell you right now, I would love for you to message me right now and tell me exactly who your audience is. The reason why this is also important is because for number two, not defining, I’m sorry, lack of online presence, a lot of times, people online, they’re like, well, I don’t know what to say, really. If you say you don’t know what to say, that basically tells me you don’t know who your target audience is, because the people that know what to say, they. They have these avatars in their mind that they’re, like, literally writing these, like, love notes to these people. So, like, I know.
I’m writing to Katie, who is a 34 year old single dog mom who is dating a lot, and she has boyfriends in and out, and sometimes she’s going away with her girlfriends. She has a lot of disposable income. Her dog is her baby. She’ll spare no expense. She just wants to know that. She wants the feeling that, oh, I’ve got a dog walker, and I’ve got a pet sitter, and they’re there for me whenever I want. And it’s like a. It’s like having someone on staff, it makes her feel really good, but it also makes her feel peace of mind, because fluffy is taken care of.
So when you lack an online presence, you need a really strong website and you need strong social media profiles. I cannot say this enough, you guys. I feel like I’ve been a broken record on this, but what I’ve realized is that not everyone hears everything I say. So I’m going to say it again. Your website people, the way that things mostly work, people think that people are going to find you on social media, or they’re going to find a post from you and they’re going to be like, oh, my God, I love you. Let me hire you. That’s not the way it works. The way it works is that people are driving down the road and they say, pet sitters near me.
Hey, Siri, find a pet sitter near me. And my siri is probably going to go off now, and. And that comes up. And then they click the first couple of things. They look at the websites, and if the website looks friendly or professional, they’re going to keep going. They’re going to probably go down the road of how to sign up. They get to the signup spot, they might back out a little bit and say, let me see their social media. They go to their social media and then they see, like, okay, when was the last time they posted? Was it personal? Can I see who the people are? Can I envision this person in my house with my dog? Can I envision myself giving myself, this person, my keys or my codes or whatever it might be? And can I really know, like, and trust these people? That’s how it all works.
And so when you don’t have an online presence, when you can’t make people feel the warm and fuzzies online, then you’re dead in the water. If you’re. If your website is stale, if it’s sterile, if your marketing on your website or your social media is literally something that I could copy and paste and put on someone else’s, therefore, it’s not personal, then you miss the mark. And so that is a big marketing mistake that people make. In our program. In our marketing program, better marketing. With Bella, what we do is we give you the professional images, right? We show you how to use those images across many different platforms, like email, like Facebook groups, uh, like getting other veterinarians and partners in your area to share your stuff, okay? Because it’s not enough just to post it for yourself. Like you want to bring your community into it.
when you have that kind of online presence, now, all of a sudden, people are seeing your brand, your logo, through someone else they trust, maybe the veterinarian, and they’re like, oh, wow, guys, this doesn’t take much to actually achieve. And in my program we teach you all about that, which by the way, the doors are going to be opening very, very soon. So, um, I be on the lookout for that. Or send me a DM and I’ll tell you more. Okay, so the first one was not defining your target audience. The second one was a lack of online presence. The third one is inconsistent branding. Okay, first of all, let me just talk to you about this.
If you have a black and white logo and your entire branding is not like an upscale black and white, like, you’re missing out off the bat. Like, let’s add some color. Color has a psychological meaning. What you wear, what, which also goes into branding, right? Because whatever you’re going to be branding yourself with, you’re probably going to have t shirts are that same color, but the colors mean stuff. Like blue. Like a certain shade of blue is trust, a certain shade of purple is royalty. And like upscaleness. Right? Yellow is bright and sunny.
And again, different shades mean different things. Right? So I’m being very generic right now, but please have a consistency in branding that’s not just colors, it’s also your font. If you have more than three fonts on your website, and I would actually say two is is best, then you’re like way overboard. Um, it’s just too much like, I want your stuff to show up on my feed. And I’m like, oh, my God. I know that’s oregano’s, I’m going to say. And it’s not just by the way it looks, but it’s also by the way it sounds. What words do you use? What, um, emojis do you use? You know, is it consistent? Are you always calling them animals or pets or for babies? Are you calling them, uh, animal owners, pet parents or parents? You know, there’s all these different vernacular.
And a brand guide can really, really, really help you. And we definitely talk a lot about that and build that out for our marketing clients. We have that as an add on service. But do not be inconsistent in your branding. That is a big thing. You know, does your logo appear the same way everywhere? Do you have different versions of your logo but it’s still true to your brand? Is what I see on your website the same thing that I see on your social, the same thing that I see in your email, the same thing that I see on your people and when they come and they meet me, is your branding, like cute and fun and professional? Or is it just scattered and unorganized? Which honestly, some of you guys do give that off. And so that’s, you know, don’t be. Mistake number three is inconsistent branding.
Mistake number four. This might sound really weird, but ignoring customer reviews and feedback. So I want you to highlight the impact of reviews and the credibility of customer trust. The days of putting customer testimonials on your website. Sure, you can still do that. I would put that at the bottom, though. If anyone actually scrolls to the bottom, they can see that, because where people really go are Google reviews. And if you do not have a system to get people to automatically Google review and then you automatically reply, then what are you missing out on? Guys, I had a pest control company come to my house yesterday, actually two days in a row.
And so one was for termites. I have termites. We have those in Arizona. And then the next day I had, um, I had them spray because I, every night have been killing like five crickets. I have no idea where they’re coming from. And, um, I don’t usually do pest control. I just usually just let it ride. But, um, I had to do it.
And, um, I was so impressed by this company. Um, not only did well, they did a lot of other things. I’ll just skip to the most important part is that, like, within 20 minutes of them leaving, they sent me a recap and an email with the picture of my service person and a little bit of the bio of the service person, which was amazing. And then they asked me, like, do you have 30 seconds to review us? Click here. So I clicked, like to review this person. And they also said, if you. I review them, then the company will give them a five dollar tip. And I was like, oh, my God, that’s amazing.
And let me just say, like, side note, in this culture, this tipping culture, where everyone’s now pet sitters and dog walkers should be tipped, but if you take my coffee order, I don’t think that you should be tipped, like, unless you’re actually, like, bringing it out to me and all that other stuff. But this was really sweet because I feel like they took a page from, from Amazon, you know, like, especially during the holidays. It was like, hey, Alexa, tip my driver. You know, after you got a thing and they’re like, thank you, we’re gonna tip your driver. And Amazon was tipping them. So I thought that was really cool that this company did that. And so it made me want to leave a review because the company was gonna tip him. So I was like, hey guys, thanks so much for being like communicative, reliable and trustworthy.
And I’ll tell you, I wasn’t even expecting a reply back. And do you know that they’ve replied back to my Google review within 1 hour? And they said, hey Bella, thank you so much for your reflection or whatever of. And they repeated my words back to me and they were like, you know, have a great day. I was like, wow, that was effortless. That was so easy. And I could tell that they had a system and a process and as a marketer, I almost wanted to call them up and be like, wow. Now, interesting side note again is the only reason why I knew about this company was because one of the gals that I follow locally, she spoke at a conference with me and I’ve followed her and she’s super good at, you know, like being an influencer and talking about stuff. She’s talked about this company forever and she had like a discount code.
Hayden, 50 and so when I thought about, oh, I needed a company that I could trust, I’m like, well, this girl has been talking about them forever. Did she talk about them once and I hired them? No, but she’s been talking about them forever. And so I said, okay, well, if Hayden likes them, then I’m going to like them. And I was blown away. I was like, no wonder why this girl is like, you know, putting her name on the line and promoting this company. So when we talk about the mistake number four of ignoring customer reviews and feedback, I want to challenge you. What kind of process do you have for this and is a personalized one or is it one of those cheap, generic, annoying ones? Because there are some. There was 1.2 years ago where pet sitters was using this like one company and it was, it was obnoxious.
And so like, are you doing it in a way that is amazing and then taking that feedback and putting it on your social media? I don’t know what to say. We got a new Google review. This is what you said, this is what you post. Like, it’s so easy. Guys, like, don’t overthink it. And this is what we teach you in our program all the time. Alright, so to review number one was not defining your target audience. Second is a lack of online presence.
Third is inconsistent branding. Fourth is ignoring customer feedback. And review number five is not measuring the marketing effort. Well, I know if you’re in the better marketing Bella program you are, because I get screenshots from you all the time telling me that your engagement is up by hundreds of percent. And you should be, you should be measuring your marketing efforts. The return on investment, the ROI is going to look different for everyone. Are you trying to increase, first of all, increasing followers is just the most, the worst idea that you can do, okay? Unless, of course, you’re at like ten followers. But that’s vanity metrics.
That is ego driven. It does not matter. What I want to know is that the people that are following you, are they engaging with you? Do you know the really easy ways to get people to, they’re so easy to get people to engage with you these days, but most people don’t know it because they’re not up to date on the, all the mark, the social media changes. I’ve, I told people about this like a month ago in our, in our group session, and it was funny because a bunch of them did it and they were like, oh, my God, it worked. And I’m like, no kidding, it worked. And it takes no additional effort. Like, it’s so easy. But you need to be measuring your marketing effort.
At the end of the day, you want to get in front of as many people as possible. That’s what marketing is about. And so are you measuring engagement? Are you measuring, are you measuring ultimate conversion rates? Are you measuring just, you know, page views on Google? Are you measuring click throughs in emails? What are you measuring? And I don’t think many people are measuring it. And then are you also tallying it up weekly or monthly and then analyzing it? So figure out what you want to, what you want to measure, start measuring it, and then analyze it. Most people are just like, oh, I don’t have the money for that. And it’s like, really? Do you really not have the money for that? Because if we can get more eyeballs on your brand, would that not make a big impact to your business and end up with 40 new clients a month like Angela did, or five to ten new clients a week like Nicole did? Yeah, probably. But when you, when you’re not measuring it, right, it’s you. You come from a lower mindset of, like, it’s an expense, not an investment, right? And ultimately, you should be getting back everything on anything you ever spend.
And that is always, if any. I mean, the jumpers know this, right? The people that are my clients, I call them jumpers. They all know that. I am so committed to making your money come back to you exponentially. It is no pride of mine to take your money and then be like, oh, well, I don’t know. No, like, your success is literally my success. If you don’t have success, I take that personal and granted, I can’t do everything for you, but I can literally tell you step by step what you need to do. And the best part as a coach is that that looks different for everyone.
Some people literally want to sit and screen share with me and like type in a Google Doc. Other people are like, all right, give me homework and I’m going to come back next week and I’m going to have the homework done. I love the accountability. And then I want you to give me the next step. And so, and then there’s everything in between. Everyone’s different. There’s no right or wrong, you know, but you should have an ROI on your marketing efforts. So, all right, to recap, once again, you need the mistakes are not defining a target audience, a lack of online presence, inconsistent branding, ignoring customer reviews and feedback, and not measuring marketing efforts.
I could give you so many marketing ideas for this. I just thought of three more for number four about customer reviews and feedback. But I will probably write that down and put that in the next better marketing with Bella group coaching call because this podcast is already getting long enough. Whoo. That was exciting. All right, you guys, I love showing up every single week for you, but what I love even more is when you tell me what you want to hear about or you ask me a question. Like the question that was sparked last episode when Laura asked, how do you stay so positive? So please don’t be bashful. Anything that you’re thinking about, use this as your free coaching session and do that.
In addition to that, if you want to talk to me one on one and we’ve never met, please go to jumpconsulting.net forward slash 20 and join. Get on my calendar and let’s do a 20 minutes call. Think of one challenge that you have in your business that you have not been able to solve, something that has been going on for more than a month that you have not been able to overcome. Maybe it’s not necessarily just a how to. Maybe it’s just your own stinking thinking and your own feedback. And you just need a little bit of Bella in your business to motivate you to action, whatever it might be. I would love to hear from you. Jump consulting.net forward slash 20 and if you want to hear more about that marketing program or be on the list of the first people to know when we do launch in a couple of weeks, shoot me a DM at Bella Vasto or [email protected] dot I want you guys to remember, whenever life gets you down, always keep jumping.
Bye, now.