If you’re wondering what’s the secret behind a successful pet business, chances are they have a robust marketing, promotions and events calendar. For a lot of pet professionals, marketing tends to be at the bottom of their list of priorities when it should really be at the top! At Pet Boss Nation, we’re always talking about finding ways to help you work on your business rather than in it all the time, because we understand the challenges of pet business ownership. In this article, we’re breaking down the differences between marketing, promotions and events and how having a calendar for them all increases your sales.
1. Marketing
Marketing includes the product and/or service you’re selling, the price or rate, packaging and display, promotion, how people talk about it, the copy… it’s all marketing! When you think about it, you’re always marketing yourself and your pet business, but you need to do it strategically in order for it to have an impact on your sales.
To start, you need a plan of what you’re going to tell your pet parent customers. It should outline all of your methods of communication, which may include social media, email marketing, paid advertising, phone calls… everything. The frequency of communication should be as often and consistent as you are able to do so sustainably while running your pet business. Your plan should have strategic phases, such as the build up, in the moment, and recap. This will enable you to look back and see what you did well and what you could improve for next time, whether it’s the type of communication, supporting materials, team delegation, etc. We recommend building a marketing plan for the year or quarter.
2. Promotion
A promotion is a discount or bundle strategy that serves a designated purpose. It can be one-time or ongoing and recurring, and it can happen for one day or last an entire month. At Pet Boss Nation, we advise independent pet retailers to try to have at least one promotion a week. For pet service providers, one promotion a month or quarter will work better for you.
Planning promotions is part of your overall marketing strategy. Promotion is the act of talking about something and letting your target market know that something exists. You can have marketing without promotion. But you can’t have promotion without marketing.
3. Events
Events may come in various shapes and forms, but they should always have a theme and serve a specific purpose for your pet business. Purpose driven events will activate existing customers, get new customers, help you acquire email addresses and phone numbers and build relationships. On top of that, events strengthen your core strategies, create opportunities for publicity, generate cash and reduce inventory.
You can organize events in several ways depending on your theme and purpose. An event can be in person at your location or in your community or be virtual on social media or Zoom. You can make it a paid or free event and have only a few people or many, it’s up to you! We suggest planning to have at least one event a month, and it doesn’t have to be large scale every time.
How Your Marketing, Promotions and Events Increase Sales
Having a robust marketing, promotions and events calendar of purpose driven activities increases sales. Period. It gives you something to talk about in conversations with your customers, in your email newsletters, and on your social media posts. Also, it encourages customers to come into your pet business location more often, which ultimately increases their frequency of purchases! Plus, an exciting promotion or special event gets your customers talking. We all know “word of mouth marketing” is powerful!
Want an example of a pet business successfully planning and implementing a marketing, promotions and events calendar? Listen to Episode 5 of Boss Your Business – The Pet Boss Podcast with Pet Boss Club members Amanda and Flo of Pure Pet in Carbondale, IL. In our interview, they dived into their strategies and experiences with their independent pet retail store, and how their Club membership supported their path to success.
To help you plan your marketing, promotions and events in your pet business, we developed annual, monthly and weekly marketing planners for our Pet Boss Club members. In addition, we also create marketing toolkits with a new theme every month, and it has ready-to-use content to help you promote your own marketing activities. You can get all this and more as a member of the Pet Boss Club, and you can join the waitlist here for when we open enrollment!
Learn more with us!
- Need 1:1 support to make massive action now? Book a discovery call with us to see if working 1:1 with Candace is the right fit for you.
- SAVE THE DATE! Pet Business Coaching Week is coming February 20, 2022! In this pop-up experience, discover 20+ promotions that the best pet businesses use in their shops and online. Learn how to easily bring them to life to meet new customers and increase visit frequency of your regulars. Hear the specific marketing techniques to make all your events a success and practice first hand, how to execute them. Join pet business coach, Candace D’Agnolo, and her awesome community of pet professionals for a week of inspiration, taking action and true connection.
Episode 5 | How a Pet Store Owner Works with a Marketing Assistant
