Introductory offers are a great way to get new customers to try out your services and voluntarily offer their information as a means for you to contact them. According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, it is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one so once you get someone in your door, you want to make sure you are nurturing that relationship to turn them into a regular customer. Intro offers draw in the customer but often that is not enough. Below are 4 emails you should be sending to keep them coming back!

1. The “How was your experience?” Email: After your customer’s first service or first day (a discounted overnight stay or a grooming package), ask them how it went.

This is where you will try to learn about your customer and gain constructive feedback from the beginning. If it was their first visit to your facility you want to make sure they enjoyed the experience and address any concerns or questions they may have. If a customer has purchased a package, you want to make sure that each visit just gets better! Send out an email or block out time in your schedule to give customers a call to gain feedback on their experience.

Be prepared with questions such as: Did your dog seem to enjoy his first day? Was he tired out by the time he got home? Did the grooming come out as you pictured it? What could we have improved on?

If you don’t have the bandwidth to call each customer, at least create a quick 5 question survey that asks similar questions and uses a rating scale as opposed to “Yes” or “No” answers. A popular positioning is to ask “How would you rate your experience on on a scale of 1-10?” followed up by “What could we have done to make that a 10?” with a textbox for them to offer specific feedback.

You can use free survey websites such as SurveyMonkey or Survmetrics. All reviews, even negative ones, will help you grow.

2. The “Would you like a treat with that?” Email: Make sure they receive an upsell during their pet’s stay.

Upsell new and popular add-ons. It will be easier convince customers of the value of add-ons if you can boast that other customers love it too! Pictures and descriptions are a must! A visual will boost each add-on’s value because they will be able to picture their pet enjoying a bedding upgrade or getting some extra cuddle time. Here’s a fun fact: 30-50% of revenue is generated from add-ons. There is a miniscule price gap between the standard appointment and the extra $2 for a treat or $5 for a walk, so most customers will think “Why not?” especially if makes their pet’s stay a happier one. Having PawLoyalty kennel software will make it easier to manage what days a dog should receive what service during their stay.

3. The “When will we be seeing you again?” Email: On your customer’s last day of discounted services, make it easier for them to schedule a new one.

It’s important to ask every customer if they want to renew their package. PawLoyalty kennel software makes this easier for you! When customers have a specified amount of days (i.e. 2 days) remaining out of their 10 day package, you can set up configure your account to automatically send out an email reminder of their low remaining balance. This will prompt them to renew the same package or upgrade to the next package level.

Booking a customer for their next appointment lessens the risk of the customer forgetting to request an appointment. Immediately after or right before the end of a customer’s experience is the prime time to follow-up with them with a link to your online booking widget.

4. The “Did you think we forgot about you?” Email: If you haven’t heard from your customer in a few weeks, say hello.

This is especially critical for customers who have not restocked their package credits even after their email alert. With PawLoyalty kennel software, you can pull a report that shows you what customers have not had recent appointments within a specified date range. Nudge them in the right direction with a follow up email that let’s them know you miss them! Don’t assume your customer is lost; assume your customer just needs a little reminder to come back and enjoy your services.

In addition to sending out automatically triggered emails, PawLoyalty kennel software will keep your client’s contact information on file and has an email marketing feature built right in! Once you are ready with your arsenal of follow-up emails, you’ll easily be able to nurture the leads from your introductory offers and hopefully turn many of them into repeat, loyal customers. Make sure to maximize your marketing efforts by having a well-thought our email marketing plan in place for every individual who walks through your door!

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What strategies have you found to be successful when following up with customers who bought introduction offers?

Photo Credit: www.aef.com

4. Place dog bowls outside of your business

This one is easy! Buy a dog bowl or two and place it outside your door. When a dog stops to take a drink, their owner’s eyes will linger at your storefront and perhaps they will stop to take a look inside.

5. Shopping bags with unique designs

Do you have retail products or send your customers home with shopping bags? Make the investment in bags that have eye-catching designs, like dog ears as handles.

Photo credit: www.designyoutrust.com

6. Post a funny quote or philosophical question about dogs that customers will stop to laugh at, ponder, or take a picture of.

“Keep calm and wag on.”
“Wag more. Bark less.”

Another idea could be a “Caption This!” picture. Again if you have any staff members who are great with art, have them draw or paint a whimsical picture of a thinking dog with a blank thought bubble over it’s head and ask your customers to think of a funny caption for it. For example, “What if I never find out who’s a good boy?”

Customers gravitate towards interactive designs and creative ideas! Pinterest is a great source of inspiration if you are having trouble thinking of ideas. There, you can find pictures of what other businesses have done, which you can re-use yourself.

The ideas listed above focus on foot traffic on but there is a dogpile of creative ideas that you can come up with to boost your marketing campaigns. Just think! No really, just sit down with a pen and paper for 10 minutes and keep that pet moving the entire time. Once you have a list of ideas, you can filter through it and select the best ones, or just the ones you want to try first. Save the rest for the next quarter. Happy guerilla marketing!

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What is the most memorable way you have seen a business try and take advantage of foot traffic?

We all know that when people are looking for new information, one of the first places they go is to the internet. In fact in 2014, there was an average of 6 billion google searches made per day. There are tons of pet resorts on the web, so how do you increase your ranking in search engine results and place yourself above the fold?

1. Back-links

A back-link is a link to your website that is strategically placed on other sites. These links will not only increase your search engine results, but will generate the right kind of traffic from potential customers. The best places to put back-links are industry specific:

1. location based directories (Google Places, Yelp, Insider Pages) 
2. basic directory listings (Manta, Yahoo Business, Bing Business) 
3. forums 
4. guest blog posts 
5. social media 

2. Onsite Optimization

You can optimize your web page internally through:

H1 & Page Titles

An h1 tag in HTML code, otherwise known as the Header tag, is usually the title of the webpage. For example, if you have a page on your website knows as the Services page, “Service” is most likely your header tag. You can optimize these webpage titles to include keywords that you are targetting by simply putting “Dog Daycare Services” instead of just “Services”.

Meta Tags

Meta tags can be used in different forms. For now, we’ll focus on meta description tags. When search engines generate results for a keyword, websites will show up with a webpage title and usually a description of the content right beneath it. This description is known as the meta description tag. You can type out your own description to include your focused keywords, making your more like to show up in the top search results.

On-page Content (Blog)

You can scatter your keywords several times throughout the information placed on your website or through the content on your blog. Be aware: You do not want to have the same keywords posted too many times on the same page. This could put your website on Google’s blacklist--a list you do not want your website to be on. Have a goal of placing your keywords two to three times on one page.

3. Social Media

Having a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social media sites for your business can give you the opportunity to build your online presence. You can optimize your social media accounts by:

1. having complete profiles (video, images, products, content using keywords) 
2. being active (1 to 3 posts per day)
3. networking within industry groups
4. responding to industry related questions 

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services

Compare 3 quotes for SEO companies that specialize in on-going services. If you have no time or human resources to keep up with SEO, but you have the budget for it, then hire a company to research and spend time optimizing your website for you. 

5. Kennel Software

Just like with your social media, you can work on completing your PawLoyalty kennel software profile. Add your Facebook and Twitter accounts, business description, and 2-4 photos.

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What else have you done to optimize your website for SEO?

Tip #2: Before downloading, ask your graphic designer what resolution your pictures have to be in order to look good and not pixelated.

Tip #3: If you’re concerned about having photos that don’t look cohesive with each other, you can manipulate them with a little Photoshop magic. Fine-tune them all a similar brightness or use filters! Images will enhance the personality of the blog overall, so don’t put so much thought into having images that all look similar as long as they are all high resolution and are relevant to your articles.

Tip #4: For finding photos, try typing in descriptive words (adjectives, feelings, etc) when searching for images. For example, instead of just “dog”, type in “smart dog” if your article is business related.

Tip #5: Before downloading, make a list of all the publications (blog, newsletter, email blasts, website, etc.) and topics that you need photos for. You don’t want to download the same types of photos. Build a collection that is versatile so that you’ll have stock photos for every occasion.

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What other free image websites can you add to this list?

5. Join pet industry groups

The pet boarding and daycare industry has support groups for people who are in the same boat as you. One of the best ways to find information about running your pet business is to ask the experts who have already “been there, done that”. They’ll gladly share advice, trade out of the ordinary doggie experiences, and ask questions that may have never crossed your mind. It’s a well of industry-specific know-how that is all yours for the taking.

6. Scope out your competition

What seem to be your competitions’ most popular posts? What do their five star reviews say they do best? Take notes! You can analyze their business pages to enhance yours. It’s all fair game on Facebook because the information is public, so learn to utilize these resources.

7. Interact with your customers

Social media is a tool for customer service, which means that customers will expect a response from you if they message you privately or comment on your Facebook Wall, the same way they would expect a response if they emailed you. Show your customers that there is a real human running your Facebook page and of course, add in a few Thank You status updates every now and then. Customers always appreciate gratitude.

8. Integrate your page with PawLoyalty kennel management software

If you find that you don’t have much time for implementing even the simplest of Facebook strategies, PawLoyalty kennel software does some of the marketing work for you. PawLoyalty prompts your customers to share with their Facebook friends when they have just joined your facility. Signing up with PawLoyalty kennel software means social media marketing made easier for you.

Don’t forget to add Facebook to your customized referral list on PawLoyalty to track your success. PawLoyalty creates a Referral Report that tells you how many customers you are getting from each referral source and which referral source is generating the most income so that you understand what your best marketing strategies are and where your future efforts should be going!

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What’s the best Facebook strategy you’ve used?