There is a plethora of dog-walking businesses displayed in the digital world. But why does your social media stand out from the rest? You don’t want to be just every other dog walking page, but rather stand out by showcasing unique and different content. Your social media page is most likely the first thing potential clients are going to see about you, do you think it is enough to make them hire you?Maybe you don’t know what to post, and I understand it, there are no changes almost daily in the digital world and it can be hard to keep up on. Or maybe you are spending too much time reposting other companies’ content.
Whether you have no clue where to begin or are stuck somewhere in the middle, I want to help you move your social media marketing to where it needs to be.
This week I am giving you tips on how to achieve uniqueness that sets your business apart from the rest.
Biggest Takeaways:
- 8:15 Plan out your buckets
- 9:35 What are their pain points?
- 11:50 Focus on one thing
- 13:15 Do not put all social pages on website
- 16:40 Consider investing in equipment
Recommendations:
Don’t fall victim of the times and let your social pages become outdated. Doors for Better Marketing With Bella are open, and only for a short time. Twice a year doors open to the program to enroll new and existing members to the next semester. Social media is always changing, and we are keeping up on the changes to help you and your business succeed. Choose from two different programs to fit the needs you are looking for.
Links:
Better Marketing With Bella
Episode 231: 13 Biggest Mistakes Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers Make on Social Media
Blog: The Secret To Knowing What To Post On Social Media
Bella Vasta Instagram
Mastermind Group
Transcript
This is episode 313 of Bella in Your Business. Hi there, I’m Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you’ve seen me speak on stage or read my book, The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you’re about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin’ in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.
So what do you say? Let’s get ready and jump. Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. You guys, I love the feedback that you send me on Instagram or in my DMs or in my email. It’s just awesome. I just want to give a big shout out right now to Paws Oasis, Ceela, who is in the mastermind and also a great podcast listener. She requested that we have longer episodes.
The thing is, she’s training for a marathon. You go, girlfriend. That’s amazing. And while I can’t give you a very long episode because it’s just not the format, I really appreciate that I get to be in your ears while you are training. And I don’t take that lightly. And that’s funny—my phone just binged on cue. I’m not going to record this again. But I’m also wondering if when that stuff goes off, if you have an iPhone or you have the similar tones, if that kind of makes your brain go like, “Is someone contacting me?” Because that happens with me. I don’t know about you guys.
Also, most recently, I saw Becky from Paws Around Motown post this incredible video and it was her and her husband, I think it is, dancing on their porch with the dog. And it was hilarious. I just shared it to my Instagram story with the caption just talking about how I’m just so amazed at how far Becky has come. I’ll never forget when Becky first came into the Jump Consulting Orbit. She came in like she has arrived.
She came into Better Marketing with Bella, she joined the mastermind, and we did intensives and we restructured her business. And I always think back to August of 2021, when I was in Chicago, meeting with some other clients and Becky came in from Michigan and stayed the night and just did an intensive with me. And I brought like my selfie sticks and my setup, you know, just to kind of show her how to use Instagram. And it is just so amazing to me to see how far she’s come.
If you want to see what I mean, go to @pawsaroundmotown and you guys can check her out. It’s super amazing. At the time of the recording, it is October 2nd. As my daughter loves to tell me, “It’s a new month, mom! It’s a new month! What are we going to do? Let’s decorate for Halloween.” And she’s autistic and she’s very much into calendars and what day it is. I barely remember the whole “30 days hath September, April, June, and November” saying, but she always knows.
And it’s pretty funny because, you know, this weekend she’s all like, “Hey, let’s decorate for Halloween.” And I’m like, girlfriend, my brain’s already been there for a couple months because we have already created and approved and distributed all of the Halloween content. Our clients got it in the Better Marketing with Bella program back on September 15th, but we were working on that stuff back in March.
So I always have to kind of like stop my head into, what’s today’s date? What are we in? Right before I started this, I actually had just sent a message to the team about, “Hey, we need to get graphics concepts going for January through June for Better Marketing with Bella,” which, two points here—one leads me to remind you that, hey guys, by the time this is recording, everyone who is in the program has probably already told us that they’re staying because our retention rate is usually between about 75 to 80 percent each semester.
I’m very, very proud of that. But we also probably have the doors open right now. So if Better Marketing with Bella is something that you want to get on, if it’s something that you want to be like a Becky, where you’re like, “I don’t know what I’m doing with social media” or “Social media really annoys me,” or maybe you’re like Leia in Florida—who I hope Hurricane Ian didn’t disrupt too much; it doesn’t look like it from your IG—you know, she used to be sitting on Canva for an hour a day before she started Better Marketing with Bella.
And she’s also in the mastermind too. And she just hired her first two employees and things are going good. She also did Pet Care Team Training too. Like, that’s the thing, you guys. We’re going to get into this episode in a second, but I’m on a roll. I just really want to celebrate and elevate those people who come in and take everything by storm—the ones that just really come into the Jump Consulting orbit, I don’t know what else to call it, the ecosystem—and just go all in.
And they’re like, “We want all the things.” It is so exciting for me to see them have so much success because I have basically created Jump Consulting especially for the people who are wanting to start with employees or maybe have started with employees but just feel like they’re prisoners in their own asylum. And they want to be that boss in control, that boss in charge.
We have basically created programs. My company’s goal is to help you guys, right? We’ve helped you get the clients with Better Marketing with Bella and all the social media training. And then we’ve helped you get the employees by all of the training, like let’s say in the Mastermind or Pet Care Team Training, which is the online training system and under two hours videos that are exciting and peppy.
We get feedback on that all the time. Like when they actually go train somebody, they refer to the videos and they get excited about it because they’ve already been able to see what it’s like. So there are all of these elements that are going on, that everything that I create, I’m trying to help solve one of your problems.
And that’s something we’re talking about today. Today we’re talking about The Five Most Effective Social Media Tips for Dog Walking Business Owners. And I don’t want you to tune out because I know that isn’t the sexiest title, but I really am going to give you actionable things that you can think about.
Like everything I do, I want you to think about one of the five—what is one thing that stands out to you that you can go and get yourself that quick win today and focus on? Because I don’t want you to take all of it and listen to it and be like, “Yeah, Bella, that’s great, but Bella, you don’t understand. I just don’t have time for all of this.”
No, I do understand. Because guess what? You have the same 24 hours that I have, okay? So I do understand. It’s the way in which we all spend it that matters.
If we’re going to be together for the next few minutes here on this podcast, my homework for you is to be intentful while you’re listening. I want you to see which of these five gets you excited. And I want you to implement them. And then, of course, I want you to DM me, tag me, message me, email me—whatever you gotta do—and let me know that you did it and how it worked. Or if you get tripped up on it, message me, email me, DM me, and let me help you.
All right, so without further ado, we’re going to get right into it. Gosh, I love just being able to talk to you guys. This is so great.
All right, so the very first of the five is—this is obvious. We’ve dedicated entire podcast episodes to this before, and maybe Gillian can actually put it in the show notes—but the first one is plan out your buckets accordingly.
So really, truly think about what is your pillar content? What are the five major topics that you’re going to be talking about that you’re known for? These are things that eliminate you having to think, “My God, what do I post on social?” and instead shift your mindset to, “What do I already have to share?”
When you’re walking around, or you’re in life, or you’re walking dogs, or in a pet store, or scrolling on social media, you’re alert for those five major topics. And when those come across your desk, you’re saving them in a swipe file—that’s what I call it. You’re just saving them in whatever method that works for you: in a notepad on your iPhone, in Evernote, or in a saved folder on Facebook or Instagram, whatever it might be.
Because when you have these pillar contents, people know what you’re known for. They see something come through and they’re like, “That must be XYZ Pet Sitting Company,” because that’s something they always talk about or stand for.
If you want to be effective, you have to have these five buckets. Without them, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall and wondering which piece will stick. You’ll feel overwhelmed and unauthentic, and it’ll be really, really hard to stay consistent.
The second one is figure out what people’s pain points are.
Now, I’m not talking about their problems. I’m not talking about “I need a dog walker because I’m away for eight to ten hours.” I mean, what is their pain? What do they lay awake at night worrying about?
Things like—“Am I really that good of a dog mom?” or “I feel so bad; I feel guilty. I should never have gotten this dog because I’m never home.” Or, “I really do want to go out after work, but I have to come home and get the dog, and I know once I get home, I’m going to be really tired and not want to go out again. But I really want to see my friends.”
For those anxious people out there, I know you are picking up what I’m throwing down right now.
I want to know—what do they lay awake at night worrying about? Is it things like, “Will the dog walker show up?” Maybe they have a dog walker, but they’re cheap. Or they think that they could get a dog walker for $12 a walk or something, but they really don’t trust that dog walker. So they’re like, “My God, I really hope that Sandy comes tomorrow because if she forgets again or she cuts it short… she is my outsource of guilt and love.”
That’s what we are, guys. We’re not just a dog walker or a litter scooper or a dog feeder. We are an outsource of love and guilt. That’s what they’re doing—they’re buying off love and guilt.
What about things like, “Will the dog walker lock the crate?” or “Will they lock the front door or leave it open?” or “Will they remember to feed the dog?” All of these things—they could be lying awake thinking about them because their existing dog walker right now sucks at that.
So you’ve got to think about what their pain points are, because when we’re talking about ways to be effective on social media, we need to be talking about it. We need them to see our posts and be like, “My gosh, get out of my head. You know exactly what I think about.”
Knowing their pain points is going to be part of your buckets. All of this rolls together—it all coexists.
The third one: focus on one thing.
Don’t be everywhere. Again, see how all of this interrelates? Many people might say that you need to be like a generalist. No—don’t be a generalist. Be an expert on a particular thing. Are you an expert on walking dogs in the middle of the day while people are at work? Are you an expert at always saying yes and having a team that can pick up last-minute business travelers?
Do you guarantee that you always say yes? What is your one thing that makes you different?
What is your one thing that, if I were to copy it off your website and put it on mine, it would be so obvious that I copied you?
If you want to stand out and be effective on social media, not only do you need to know your topics and your clients’ pain points, but you have to be laser-focused in your messaging and what you do.
Don’t be everywhere. Focus on the one thing you do really well.
And that ties into my fourth point: do not put all the social media pages on your website.
Do you know that Google+ went away a couple of years ago? And do you know that some of you still have Google+ on your website? Ouch. If that hit a nerve, I’m talking to you. Get your web designer to take it off.
And if you have Twitter on there and you’re not on Twitter all day, take it off. You do not need to be everything, everywhere, all at once.
If you only focus on Facebook and Instagram, then only put Facebook and Instagram on your website. You work so hard to get someone on your website. And you know what people do—you do this too—when you’re looking for businesses, you Google. You always Google: “pet sitters nearby,” “dog walkers near me.” That’s what people are doing.
Look at your Google Analytics—I dare you. Do you have Google Analytics? (That’s another show.)
People go to your website and make a judgment immediately: “Does this look professional? Can I get a solution to my problem? Do they understand me?”
If any of those are “no,” they’re bouncing right back to Google. And most likely, it’s even on their phone.
How’s your navigation? How is your design?
If you’ve worked so hard to get them to your website, why would you give them a click to something that’s not valuable—like Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn even? They don’t need your LinkedIn. And if you do want to include it, add it in your About Me section, not on the front page.
Anything clickable on your homepage should move visitors closer to the sale—convincing them more.
If you’re taking them to your Facebook page, make sure it’s updated—recently. Like, within the past 48 hours, at most. It’s so easy, but you have to make sure you’re enhancing their impression of you.
The other thing I’ve said many times—and I want you guys to remember this—is that people aren’t going to find you on social media and then just buy from you. That might happen for that pair of Amazon pants or shoes or shirt that you found, but not for someone who’s going to give you access to their home—to their sanctuary.
They have to trust you.
They’re going to find your website, then go to your social media to see if they can know, like, and trust you.
So what you’re saying on social media matters. Sometimes it hurts you. Sometimes it helps you. Sometimes it does absolutely nothing—because there are pet care companies out there who only share everyone else’s stuff, which is terrible (not to mention the copyright laws they’re breaking).
So to recap so far:
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Have your buckets planned accordingly.
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Figure out what people’s pain points are—what they lay awake at night thinking about.
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Focus on one thing.
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Don’t put all social media pages on your website.
Now, the fifth and final one: consider investing in equipment.
What? Yeah.
Facebook has Ray-Ban glasses. Snapchat has Spectacles. You guys might’ve heard me talk about this a year or so ago. I’ve shown tutorials in the Mastermind. The point of view—when you get a different point of view on video—it looks different. Not just the colors or how you edit it, but the perspective.
If you’re walking a dog and I can see both your hands, my brain gets curious—“Where’s the camera?” The camera’s in your glasses.
It’s like Go-Go Gadget—you press a button, and it starts recording. What? Yeah, that happens. Look it up—Snapchat Glasses or Ray-Ban Stories.
That kind of content could make you so much content for days.
You could even have a “company pair,” and every week a different staff member uses them. Those are the sunglasses they wear, and they upload the content. Boom—new footage every week.
They’re also waterproof. I did one with my daughter when I first got them—I was testing it out—and I swam underwater with them on my face, getting shots of her underwater. And do you know that kid smiles even underwater? She truly is the happiest kid.
Anyway, point of view is powerful. A different visual perspective can stop the scroll.
Imagine you’re scrolling and you see a leash in one hand and a poop bag in another. You’re picking up poop. Wait—what? You’re going to stop scrolling.
And I know some of you listening right now are like, “Bella, I’m going to do that.” And you’re going to tag me—and I love it when you do. The last time that happened, it was Connie from Above & Beyond Pet Care. I miss you, girl! I haven’t heard from you lately—if you’re listening, what’s up?
I’d love to see anyone take that idea and run with it—or your own version of it.
Considering investing in equipment can change your content. You could use GoPros on dogs or collars. There are so many creative ways.
So, to recap:
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Plan your content buckets.
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Understand your audience’s pain points.
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Focus your message.
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Eliminate distractions on your website.
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Experiment with equipment to stand out visually.
You guys, I hope this episode has been fruitful for you. That’s my goal every single time—to deliver value.
If you want to learn more about marketing, our doors are open right now for Better Marketing with Bella, but not for long.
If you miss it, it only opens twice a year. I cannot tell you how successful this program has been.
Let me leave you with a story. I’ve had multiple people actually not re-sign—and when I say that, it’s because those who don’t re-sign either sell their business or their staff has gotten so good at it that they’ve taken over in-house.
We’ve taught them so much that they can go fly on their own—which is honestly the biggest blessing. That’s my ultimate goal. If I’m still teaching you the same thing five years later, something’s wrong.
The program works if you work it—just like anything in life.
So if you’re interested, go to jumpconsulting.net/marketing. You’ll see the two different tiers we offer. One is $197 a month, and you get 10 graphics—simple, generic ones. The other is the full program—the “whole Monty.”
Go check it out at jumpconsulting.net/marketing, or email me at [email protected].
And I’ll see you again on the next episode.
You guys, remember—when life gets you down, always keep jumping.
So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you. The best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcast and leave a review.
I just might read it on the next episode. I also want to remind you that when life gets you down, remember to always keep jumping. Thanks for listening.