Build a Pet Business Blogging Strategy That Converts / Ep. 451

 

Wondering why your pet business blog isn’t driving leads or sales even though you’re posting regularly?

You’re not alone. Most pet sitters, dog walkers, and pet care pros are wasting time on blogs that look good but don’t work. This episode is for you if you’re tired of creating content that disappears into the internet void. I’m going to break down the exact pet business blogging strategy that actually grows your local authority, drives traffic, and gets your ideal clients to take action.

Whether you’ve written 40 blogs or haven’t started yet, this episode will give you the mindset and method you actually need.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover…

• Why your blog needs to be more than a “random tips” article
• How to use a pet business blogging strategy that builds authority
• The power of interlinking and visual formatting for higher engagement
• How to repurpose one blog into multiple content pieces
• Why a good blog strategy will outperform Google ads every time

Timestamps:

1:04 – Why I’m switching podcast formats (and how that benefits you)
4:55 – The truth: More blogs ? more traffic without strategy
7:12 – How to turn blogs into hyperlocal, conversion-ready content
8:44 – Smart interlinking: The most overlooked SEO power move
11:00 – How to promote your blog so it actually gets seen

Notable Quotes

“More blogs do NOT equal more traffic—especially if you’re not being intentional.”

“You’re writing from the heart, but your audience needs a map to follow you.”

“If you’re paying for Google Ads but not blogging with strategy, you need to call me. You’re wasting money.”

Resources & Links

• Connect on IG: @bellavasta

• Free Consultation: jumpconsulting.net/20

• Email: [email protected]

• Marketing With Bella: Email Bella for details!

• Marcus Sheridan’s Big 5 Content Strategy – Google it or ask AI, seriously.

Watch all our Podcasts on YouTube

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Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and welcome to Episode 451. Okay, so I took last week off, as some of you may or may not know. And one of the things that I’ve decided, if you saw the email that goes out on Friday, is that I’m gonna start going to every other week.

Now, that doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be a podcast or I’m not going to be still feeding you guys. What that means is in the off week, since we have 451 podcast episodes, what I’m going to start doing is serving you up like series. So let’s say you’re starting with employees. And I’m gonna say, “Hey, if you’re starting with employees and you want to learn about employees, listen to these 3 episodes.” Or “Hey, you want to learn some content marketing hacks? I have 3 episodes on it here.” And so that’s kind of how we’re going to do this on the off weeks, and it’ll also give you guys a little bit of a chance to catch up, because I know some of you are in the middle of a major…

Something else I want to talk to you about before we actually get into the topic today, which is about blogging with a strategy — which I do not see a lot of people doing — I want to share with you a clip and let me set this up for you. I alluded to it on the last episode. This is a coaching session with Becky from Paws Around Motown. And she wanted to take her entire phone script, and she wanted to build it out — and build it out with like, why are we saying this? What is the impact psychologically? You know, like, all of it. So it’s not just a bullet point script that her office staff follow and they don’t know why. So we really went into it, and it ended up being more than 30 pages. And what I said to her was, I wonder if we can get AI to do this with us to role play? Because guys, you want to role play, or you say you’re gonna practice, but do we ever really practice? No. What are we gonna do? Hand the script to someone, and then kind of feel awkward and be like, “Hi, um ring! Ring! Thanks for calling.”

Well guess what — now that we have created all of that foundation for her, we can now give it to AI and tell AI to role play with us. And not only can they role play with us, but they can also follow this script and understand what their role is. And we pretend that we’re literally answering the phone and talking to them. Not only does the AI sound completely realistic, but it also can critique you at the end and tell you like, how you did based off of the script that you give it. How amazing is that? So wait, wait, listen. Right now. I’m gonna play it. Okay Chris, right there. Why don’t you put that in there?

Alright. And so what do you guys think? Isn’t that absolutely amazing? I mean, it’s truly remarkable what we can do with AI. And it’s so much fun in these consultations that I — the intensives — that I do with my clients, because we’re not just talking about things. They’re like leaving with tangible, concrete tools that they can use in their business, and what else is better than that?

Alright. If you’re interested in working on that, or maybe there’s a problem you’ve been solving in your business and you’re not quite sure — I’m not literally just saying this, but like, for some reason, maybe it’s because it’s the end of the year or school’s back in session — my intensives and my schedule are blowing up. So if you want to get on that by the end of the year, I would suggest that you get into it now and on the flow before I run out of time on my calendar. If you want to learn more about that, let’s jump on a call. We could talk about your specific needs and how I can help you with the solutions so you can get a good vision of what that looks like. Just go to jumpconsulting.net/20 and you can get on my calendar so that we could have a conversation, and I’ll tell you straight up what you need or if you’re ready for it. Because there are different stages of things, and I think it comes a lot down to mindset. But we could talk about that later.

Okay, let’s get into the show today. So guys, I have literally been like racking my brain. Because what a lot of business owners don’t understand is that people read one blog post, they get what they need, and they leave — unless you give them a compelling reason to stay and explore more. Okay, it’s not just that compelling that it’s your website, because nobody cares about your baby like you do.

Most of you are treating blogging like throwing spaghetti up against the wall to see what sticks. You’re writing “10 Tips for Happy Dogs” one week and “Why Your Cat Needs Exercise” the next — with zero connection between them. And you’re wondering why your blog isn’t driving clients or building your authority. But today I’m going to break down why blogging isn’t about more content. It’s about smart strategy.

Alright. So I’m talking about turning each blog post into a hub that pulls the reader deeper into your expertise and actually converts them into paying clients. If you’ve been blogging for months or years without seeing results, or maybe not at all, this episode is going to be for you, no matter the game you are in right now.

So let’s start with the biggest lie in content marketing: “Just keep writing more blogs, and the traffic will come.” Well, yeah, it could come. But is it gonna help you? For example, my most… In a 10-mile radius of me. And you want dog walking, and that’s what brought you in. It’s the fat chance that that’s gonna happen. You understand what I’m saying?

So it was just like — writing more blogs is wrong. It’s like dead wrong. Okay? And so I see pet business owners publishing lots of blogs and then patting themselves on the back for being consistent — which is great, okay — but there’s no strategy behind it. Their website traffic stays flat. Or they have the blogs, but they’re not promoting them. Okay? And there’s a lot to do with promotion.

All right. More blogs do not equal more traffic, especially the niche of the niche kind of traffic you’re looking for. You’re not just looking for pet owners. You’re looking for pet owners in your area who need a dog walker or a pet sitter who are going away or who are out of their home a lot, right?

And so search engines don’t care that you just published 47 blog posts last month. But you know what they do care about? Relevance. Clarity. Authority. Okay?

And don’t even get me started on AI with this. Let me paint you a picture. You write a blog called “5 Signs Your Dog Has Separation Anxiety.” It’s a great topic, right? But then what happens? Someone reads it, thinks that was helpful, and they leave your website. Why? Because you didn’t give them anywhere else to go. And it wasn’t pointed directly in your local area. So something that you could change that really easily would be like, “How to Know If Your Scottsdale Dog Has Anxiety and What to Do.” And then that’s a really great spot where you could say, “Use Bach Flower Remedy, and you can get it at XYZ Pet Store” or “The pet store owner says about that,” right?

Or maybe it’s a blog about anxiety about your dog going to the groomer. And then you can quote groomers in your area, right? This is helpful stuff, but it’s local. All right. But your blogs aren’t libraries. Nobody — and I mean nobody — goes to your website thinking, “Gee! I wonder what other brilliant content this pet sitter has. Let me go search their blog.” Like, that doesn’t happen. Okay? They won’t do that. People don’t have time to consume it. They see it either in an email or on social, something catches their eye and it brings them in.

Now we’re going to move on to the second one, which is interlinking. Let’s talk about the strategy that’s going to come from your blogging results, which is smart interlinking. So every single blog should be linked to another blog of yours — and obviously have some outside sources too — but linking, interlinking about things is going to be really great. And in order to do that, you need to know what blogs you’ve already published. And this is where most pet business owners are missing massive opportunities.

So remember the separation anxiety blog I just mentioned? Instead of letting readers bounce off of that once they’re finished, you could strategically link them to your related content. Okay, maybe like “The Best 5 Pet Stores in Scottsdale,” right? Because you can get thunder jackets, and you can get all these stuff. If your dog is showing signs of separation anxiety, you might also want to read “Calming Enrichment Ideas for Anxious Dogs” — boom, there’s a link to another blog. Many pet parents find that hiring a professional dog walker can help reduce separation anxiety. And here’s a link to “How to Choose the Right Dog Walker for Your Anxious Pup” — boom, another link. There’s so many different ways that we could do this. But that’s also how you build authority — by interlinking.

So I want to ask you, when is the last time you published a blog that you had interlinking in?

Now, the next thing is why your blogs need to look good and not just read good. Okay. So let’s talk about the visual strategy. And I hate to break this to you, but people also don’t read. They don’t — they scan. So the more headings, subheadings, and bullets and things like that that you can have, the better. People are not reading every single word. They’re not. It’s online. It’s on their device. Okay? And it’s also where graphics and calls to action become game changers.

If I go to your website and it’s just a wall of words and there’s nothing breaking it up — there’s no pictures, there’s nothing to draw my eye to — probably not going to consume much of it. So consider having call-out boxes in the middle of the blog, saying like “Struggling with this? Check out our guide for this.” I have one about guerrilla marketing, and I was talking about ways to do cheap marketing in your area. And halfway through it there was a 20-page guide to guerrilla marketing that pet sitters have actually used. And then you sign up for it and you get it. Okay?

I’m a little different — you guys are doing a service; I am selling education essentially. But it’s the same premise. And every single blog post should have a clear path to the next step in your customer journey — whether it’s reading another blog, or signing up for your newsletter, or downloading a free guide, or booking a consultation. You don’t want to just put the blog out there and then that’s it.

Now let’s talk about another one: writing them and then hoping that people will magically find them. If you write a blog — this is really important — and you don’t actively promote it, you might as well have not written it at all. Your blog sitting on a website is like having the world’s best conversation in your basement with the doors closed and no one can hear you. You don’t want that.

So if this is — we’re repurposing a blog across every content platform. Let’s talk about the anxiety one again. Maybe we have a Facebook post with 3 tips. This just goes on your Facebook page. It goes on your business Facebook page. It could go on local Facebook groups or Nextdoor groups. You could have an Instagram carousel breaking down the signs, because honestly, you should never be posting just one picture on Instagram. You could do a short video for TikTok or Reels or YouTube Shorts. And you could post the same reel on each one of them.

And that could literally be as simple — and I just did episodes about this two times ago — you could just have B-roll and then you could just put the words on it and then add some music. It does not have to be time consuming or backbreaking. You could do a LinkedIn post positioning for the pet industry professionals. You could do the content in your next email that goes out. And you could just repurpose it as that.

So one blog becomes five or six pieces of social content. This is exactly what I do in Marketing with Bella. People either give me “I want these assets” or they say, “Hey, these are the two topics that I want you to dive into.” I’ve had algae in lakes, then hurricane season,  started a new nonprofit.” I’ve had “we added poop scooping.” And so I take these topics, I make them hyper local with a really big, long-form blog that I can create so many pieces of content from and translate it all around. Do you see what I’m saying? Like, I’m not just telling you to do this. I literally do this for my people.

And guys, I still want to remind you — I have one spot left in Marketing with Bella. If you want to join, just go ahead and shoot me an email and I’ll get you the details. It’s [email protected]. Never have to worry about making things look or sound or be cohesive. Never have to worry about, “I’m just posting random graphics and random questions that don’t really interlink anywhere.” This is a strategy, a whole ecosystem. So if you’re not promoting your blog, then you’re doing it wrong. And I have posted many times the graphs — when you have a blog and you don’t promote it, it’s just dead. You have a blog and you start promoting it and you use my strategy, your website hits go way up. And all you have to do is keep doing that every week on a different blog. Be valuable to people. Be social. Add value to the conversation. Start the conversations.

So building authority that actually matters — the real reason that you should be blogging. And it’s up to you to decide that frequency. It could be once a month. It could be four times a month. It’s completely up to you. I’m not saying that I’m giving you something else to do, but gosh darn it — if you are not posting blogs and promoting them but you are paying for Google ads, I really want you to call me for a 20-minute consultation because you’re wasting your money. There’s so much more that you could be doing right now before you go pay for something. You just need to know about it.

And so when a potential client is deciding between you and three other pet sitters, what’s gonna make them choose you? “Oh, because you’re the best!” I know. No, no, no. But listen — it’s not. Is it your logo, your prices, your cute Instagram feed? Maybe. But you know what really, really builds trust? It’s seeing you consistently share valuable, expert-level advice at the exact problems that these business owners are facing, which means understanding their avatar.

When they Google “how to help my dog with thunderstorm anxiety” and your blog comes up and it’s local, and it’s comprehensive, and it’s a local guide — you just became the expert in their mind. That is huge. When they see you posting helpful tips in Facebook groups week after week after week, you’re going to become the person that they think of as the local expert.

All right. Consistency over volume. I can’t stress this enough. If I could get up on a soapbox right now and stand up on one, I would. So picture me up on this soapbox.

Now this is the last thing I’m gonna say. You have to have strategy first and then content second. So let’s bring this home with a mindset shift — because you know I love doing these mindset shifts. Strategy first. Content second. Here’s what I mean. Most pet business owners do it backwards. They sit down and think, “What should I blog about this week?” And then they write whatever comes to mind. That’s not strategy. It’s just content creation. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, I want to make you guys lethal.

Strategic blog starts with understanding your customer’s journey. What problems do people have before they realize they need your services? What questions do they ask when they’re looking for someone like you?  I mean, Joey Coleman talks about this whole entire thing in the customer experience. Your blog content should map to every stage of that journey.

Top of the funnel is very educational content that helps them solve problems. Middle of the funnel is content that shows your expertise and builds trust. Bottom of the funnel addresses objections and showcases results.

Okay. So here’s your homework. I want you to go audit the last five blogs that you did. Or if you haven’t started blogging yet, I want you to consider the first five blogs that you’re going to do. And how can you apply these things that I’ve just given you?

Another secret tip that I’ll tell you: definitely go Google Marcus — or go to AI — and ask them to teach you what Marcus Sheridan’s “The Big 5” is. That will change your life. It’s changed my life numerous times. I’ve done book clubs on his book. It is amazing. And it will drive home all of these points that I just said.

So if you’ve been cranking out blog after blog after blog, hoping for magic to happen — I need you to stop. Okay? Stop. Hold up. Wait a minute. Let’s get some strategy in it. I want your blogs to work together. They should look good. They should read well. And they should be something meaningful.

So your action step is to pick your best blog from the last three months, or whenever it’s been that you’ve been blogging. I want you to add three strategic links to promote it. I want you to check your Google Analytics. And shoot me an email when they shoot up — preferably with a screenshot. I’m telling you guys — literally — I will bet you money that this works, because I know it works. Because I do it for my clients and I do it for myself.

All right. Well, this has been another episode of Bella in Your Business. Also, shoot me back and tell me what you want to hear about, because I’d love to give you a shout out and say, you know, “Molly was asking about how to do marketing on a shoestring budget, so here are three episodes for you.” Next week will be the off week, but I take requests on what you want me to feed you.

You guys, thank you so much for being a great listener of the show. I encourage you to please subscribe. What’ll happen is when you think about — or when you’re brain dead, right? Like I just did — like on whatever device you listen to. Every time there’s a new episode, it will just pop up. And it will remind you, “Hey, there was a new episode posted of Bella in Your Business.” So please, please, please subscribe. Please leave a comment. I would love to see that.

And of course, sharing is caring. So if you found this episode useful, please feel free to share it in any groups or on your feed or wherever you like to share things. In the meantime, when life gets you down — always keep jumping.