That’s why I call it a “Dog Eat Blog” world. The pet businesses and veterinary practices that blog get more attention online (if they follow a few simple guidelines). And those who don’t… well… sell themselves short.

But don’t take my word for it.

Here are three strong reasons to look at blogging as a fantastic strategy for your pet business.

• 65% of B2B (business to business) marketers are using blogs for effective content marketing. Blogging is the third most popular content marketing strategy, according to a recent Content Marketing Institute study involving 5,000 marketers. If 65% of these marketers find blogging to be a valuable marketing tool — that’s nothing to sneeze at! (The first two most popular content marketing approaches are 1) articles and 2) social media excluding blogs. More on these strategies in upcoming posts.)

• Blog posts are proven to help websites rank well in search engines, which leads to more traffic and potential sales. The website Social Media Examiner advocates that, “One of the best ways to gain that top spot is by blogging. Incorporating a blog into a website can have a huge impact on the overall website’s search engine rankings.” The Internet is filled with examples of blog posts that help boost search traffic. I’m living proof as well! And so are my clients.

• Blogging is a great way to compete locally if your pet business or veterinary practice relies on community traffic. When I was creating a webinar recently to help veterinary practices improve their local search results, I found it very hard to locate great blogs that would appeal to local prospects. The few that I did find were dominating the Google results for searches! For example, when I typed in “animal hospital [town],” the hospitals with frequent, local-themed blog posts came up first, second, sometimes third and even more in the results — all for the same hospital. You can do the same thing.

Thoughts on this? Questions? Do you know any successful pet business bloggers?

Next time, I’ll provide some blog topic ideas for marketing your pet business. In the meantime,

Here’s to a prosperous pet website!

Pam

PetCopywriter.com

Using the following formula last fall, I started blogging tips for a pet-business services company, and just after 6 blog posts — voila! The blog appeared on page one, second spot in Google results. Not bad for only 6 posts.

Would you like to generate results like this for your pet business or veterinary practice marketing?

Try these “best practices” guidelines and see what happens.

Please note that while these pet business blogging tips are seriously helpful, I’m using a fun, fictitious website/product — PoodleTapShoes.com — to present examples in an entertaining way.

1. Start by identifying the top 1 or 2 SEO keyword phrases you’ll use on the post.

Choose 2 unique, multi-word keyword phrases for the page; phrases your prospects and customers are using to find solutions in search engines, such as poodle tap shoes and poodle dance shoes.

2. Put one of the top keyword phrases in your blog title.

Here’s an example using our Poodle Taps Shoes blog example:

How to keep your Poodle Taps Shoes squeaky clean

3. Put that keyword and the other top phrase in the “key” content areas.

These include subheads, links, photo captions, etc., making sure the content on that page is 100% relevant to your audience. Again, here’s the example from the fictitious blog post:

If you’re frustrated that your dog’s poodle dance shoes are always getting dirty, here’s an easy way to keep them clean.

• First, be sure to spray a protective coating, specially formulated for poodle tap shoes, on the shoes before your first use and again after a couple dozen uses. You’ll find poodle dance shoes spray in our store.

• Next, use a dry cloth to wipe any loose dirt off the shoes.

• To wipe off a stain or scuff, start with plain old ammonia, vinegar or club soda and rub the shoe’s surface with a microfiber cloth (to avoid lint buildup)

• Let the shoes dry completely (about an hour) and repeat if necessary.

If you follow these steps, your poodle tap shoes will look great after repeated use!

4. Put the top keywords phrases in your All-in-One SEO Pack (if you use WordPress).

Whether or not you use WordPress, your blogging platform provides fields for the SEO Codes listed below:

• At least 1 in your Title/Page Title (up to 70 char/spaces) – the same/similar as your blog headline/title:

Title: How to keep your Poodle Taps Shoes squeaky clean

• 1 or 2 in your Meta Description (up to 150 char/spaces, keyword first)

Description: If you’re frustrated that your dog’s poodle dance shoes are always getting dirty, here’s an easy way to keep them clean with poodle tap shoes spray.

• Include them in your Meta Keywords or Tags (up to 10, start with top 2; lowercase – no punctuation)

Keywords: poodle tap shoes, poodle dance shoes, poodle tap shoe spray, poodle dance shoe spray, poodle tap shoes clean

• Alt Image Tag (for any photos — try to include original photos in your blog posts)

With just a few simple steps, you can keep you poodle tap shoes super-clean.

5.     Don’t overdo it with keywords!

Make sure your post is written for PEOPLE FIRST, weaving the keywords into your content in an elegant, ethical and natural manner as part of the content. Instead of using your blog as a sales pitch, imagine it being a friendly conversation with the pet parent.

For example, if a friend asked you about keeping her poodle tap shoes clean, you’d answer back in a natural way – such as, “Here’s what I suggest doing to keep your poodle tap shoes clean all the time. First, you’ll want to…” Therefore, make sure you have more “you” sentences then “I” sentences. Make it all about the benefits and results your prospective clients are looking for.

That’s it! A simple blog formula for your pet business or veterinary practice blog.

Questions? Please ask. I’d be happy to help. Until then, here’s to a prosperous pet website!

Pam

PetCopywriter.com

P.S. I should also mention that if you rely on local business, include your town, city or region at least once in every blog post and its SEO code.

But what do Golden Retrievers have to do with successful blogging for your pet business? Everything.

Mimosa the Golden Retriever pup. Thanks to Lee Schwarz for this lovely photo.

The unwritten credo of Golden Retrievers is this: I love everybody and I live to please.

The best business blogs have a similar credo: I care about my customers, and I’m focused on pleasing them by solving their needs.

If your pet business or veterinary practice blog follows that credo, you’ll improve your search engine results, attract more prospects and build a loyal following. Ultimately, this will help you grow your business.

Here’s how to think of this in a Golden Retriever way: Your blog posts will work very well if you…

• Greet your readers warmly with a conversational “this may help you” tone,
• Provide useful tips, insights and solutions that please them,
• Fetch and report on important information your readers are seeking and will appreciate,
• Ask a question that shows you truly care about your readers
• End with a warm invitation to explore the solutions further (such as your products or services) — but in a friendly way, not by jumping on them with a “hard sell.”

In my next post, I’ll provide simple, specific guidelines on how to do pet business blogging the Golden Retriever way — how to use messages, keywords and formatting that lead more prospects to your door.

Have you seen any pet business or veterinary practice blogs that follow the Golden Retriever method? We’d love to see them.

In the meantime,

Here’s to a prosperous pet website!

Pam

PetCopywriter.com

Finding quality websites for searchers has always been the goal of Google and other search engines. But just what does “quality” mean?

Last year, several strides were taken to clamp down on “thin” pages that offered very little information, keyword-stuffed articles that offered nothing of value, and duplicate content you can find on dozens if not hundreds of websites. So one definition of quality has been “original, useful and highly relevant content,” which I talk about a lot.

Today I read this new definition of quality, and it helps clarify things for us further, to a point.

According to Google, “High quality content is content you can send to your child to learn something.”

Hmmm.

Here’s how I interpret that for pet-industry marketers, whether you’re marketing pet products, pet services, veterinary care, pet business consulting or anything else related to this industry.

1. Be sure your content is very, very clear and simple; easy to understand.
   This is where the “send to your child” part comes in.Avoid using jargon that most pet parents or other prospects wouldn’t understand. (Ask someone if they understand your content.) Use a clear headline: what will the visitor learn here? Format your content in a clean layout, with headlines, subheads, bullets and captions that make it very easy to grasp your messages. Make sure people can read your content and it’s not buried within graphics.
2. Deliver content that helps solve a need or a problem, or clarifies a confusing topic.
   This is where the “learn something” part comes in. Here’s an example. Let’s say I’ve never had a cat with diabetes before, but suddenly my cat needs daily insulin shots and other specific care. I’ll want to know how to take care of my cat, what to feed it, what symptoms to watch for and much more. Content that helps me understand all this — and perhaps also provides a helpful solution (product, service, how-to video, etc.) will be considered quality to me, the cat owner. I may even need to find a new veterinary clinic if I move to another town with my diabetic cat, so a veterinarian located in that town, who shares clear and helpful content on their website about treating diabetes, will be an obvious choice for me.

This seems simple enough, yet most marketers I talk with are stumped about their content: why it’s not working to get better search rankings or attract more customers. In the next several weeks I’ll be talking about that. In the meantime, browse through my previous blog posts for lots of clues.

What do you consider quality content in the pet-marketing world? Share examples!

In the meantime,

Here’s to a prosperous pet website!

Pam

PetCopywriter.com

In spite of the explosive social networking platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others, blogs are still extremely helpful for attracting customers via the search engines.

Here’s proof. A client I now work with was unhappy with his search engine rankings for certain important phrases related to his services for pet professionals. Simply put, he was upset that, “My ideal prospects aren’t finding my website.”

So we started blogging tips about his pet-business services, and just after 6 blog posts — voila! The blog appeared on page one, second spot in Google results. Not bad for just 6 posts.

Is this a fluke? No way! I’m getting the same results for THIS blog, and many of the blog experts I follow are enjoying similar results or better.

Consider these 3 reasons why blogging is a fantastic strategy, whether you’re marketing to pet owners or other pet businesses:

• Blogging gives you a chance to let your brand’s personality shine through. Think of your blog as an excellent place to present your brand’s unique “voice.” If your blog is written by you or someone equally excited about your company, it’s truly a unique and fresh voice in the sea of similar companies. No-one else has your personality and communication style. And when you’re passionate about your business, your audience, and the solutions you provide… people can tell. They feel they “know” you as a friend or problem-solver who truly cares about helping others, and are therefore more likely to buy from you.

• Blogging helps establish your brand as a go-to authority on topics related to your business. Over time, as you post more and more topics related to your business category, you’ll build a reputation as someone to follow. A website filled with blog posts that help prospects and customers is essentially a “catalog of solutions” for them. For example, let’s say you sell healthy, all-natural dog treats and you blog about the extraordinary nutritional properties of the ingredients you carefully select for your products. Your audience will be grateful to learn about these nutrients and think,  ”Wow – this business really cares about my dog’s nutrition and health! Look at all this helpful content on why they choose certain ingredients over others.”

• Blogging that includes a smart keyword strategy can move your website up in search engine rankings very quickly. If you’re a local bricks-and-mortar business and you talk about local pet community events, local weather, local dog parks, etc. — your local prospects will find you. Especially if your local competition is not providing content that’s focused on local solutions. These days, it’s absolutely necessary to blog about local topics if you own a doggy daycare or boarding facility, a dog grooming business, a cat-only veterinary practice, a pet supplies store or other local business, and you want people to find you when they type in “[town] dog groomer” (for instance).

Blogging is fairly easy, too! Simply open up your blog page and start talking (typing).  :-)

If you need help with a blog strategy or setup, contact me for assistance.

In the meantime, here’s to a profitable pet website!

Cheers,

Pam

PetCopywriter.com

Happy Holidays! This photo of Brandi, in her lovely holiday sweater, is from my friend and fellow copywriting colleague Sean McCool. (Thanks for the photo, Sean!)

This is my last blog post for 2011 because I’ll be traveling cross-country with my faithful companion Louie (the Westie pup) the week between Christmas and New Year’s. We’re spending the winter in the warm and sunny southeast.

I hope you’re doing something fun this winter, too, such as growing your business by leaps and bounds!

I’d like to wrap up the year with 12 ideas to get you blogging in early 2012. Perhaps these ideas will spark a series of blog posts that captivate your audience and even motivate them to share your blog with their friends and colleagues.

Ready? Here are 12 blog topics and categories to help with marketing your pet business in 2012:

1. Provide How-To Tips

People are always searching the Web for tips on pet care. Offer a whole series of how-to- tips related to the solutions you offer, whether you’re marketing pet products or services. For example, if you sell reflective dog collars and leashes (one of my favorite examples), you could offer how-to tips on dog-walking safety at night.

2. Present “What if?” Scenarios

Offer suggestions on what to do in different scenarios relevant to your products or services. For example, if you offer emergency veterinary care, you might list the Top 5 Pet Emergencies (food poisoning, foreign objects, frostbite, etc.) and what to do if they should occur… including “contact us immediately.”

3. Dispel Common Myths

Pet owners and pet businesses are overwhelmed by information overload these days, and sometimes it’s hard to know what to believe. You can help by dispelling common myths people have about their pets or pet businesses.

4. Answer Common Questions

Is there a list of questions you hear over and over again from customers or prospects? Consider doing a blog post on each one. Include the question and provide the answer. You’ll also want to have a helpful Frequently Asked Questions/FAQ page on your website. Your blog post(s) should link people there in case they’d like additional information.

5. Reveal a Day in the Life

If you own a doggie daycare, grooming facility, dog-walking service or other type of pet-service business, it could be great to talk about the experience prospects can expect their pets to have with you. Make it fun, include a photo or two, and find other ways to bring your business to life for them.

6. Report on the Trends

You can serve as a source of useful knowledge for your busy customers. They’ll appreciate you for alerting them about product trends, new medical techniques, product recalls, business opportunities, local news items affecting pet care… anything newsworthy that’s relevant to your business and your audience.

7. Tell a Compelling Story

I’ll bet that many of your customers and prospects don’t know why you started your business, how your extraordinary staff goes the extra mile to help customers, or something funny that happened the other day. People love stories about pets and pet-fans. Why not tell stories about your business?

8.  Give out Awards

I heard about this brilliant approach the other day. The Women’s Horse Industry Network gives out Whinny awards each year to celebrities who support horses in remarkable ways. The celebrities are so honored, they show up at the group’s annual meeting. Excellent, right? You could give out your own awards to honor and recognize your customers, clients, colleagues or others… and attract attention for your business at the same time.

9. Present Mini Case Studies

People are fascinated by before-and-after stories. I’m sure you can name a number of specific cases where your business helped solve a problem or need for customers. Tell others about what happened and include a comment from your customer (ask permission first, of course). Mini case studies in your blog can lead readers to full-blown case studies on your website. (Let me know if you’d like to know more about the power of marketing with case studies.)

10. Do a Countdown

Are you about to launch a new service or add a new product to your business? Create an eager audience for it through your blog. Start a few weeks before your announcement and talk about the development of the new solution, what it will do for customers, how it will help them, how it’s unique, etc. For example, if you’re adding an automated dog wash system to your local retail store, build up the excitement leading up to the big day it becomes available.

11. Reveal a Secret

This is always a popular category because people love discovering secrets and getting the inside scoop that others may not know about. For example, let’s say you’re about to offer an astounding service that nobody in your area or industry offers. Let your blog readers know before everyone else. Give them first dibs on getting access. Give them a reward for checking it out or signing up.

12. Entertain Them

It’s just plain awesome to post or share great videos, photos and stories with your audience. After all… dogs, cats, horses and other animals exhibit all kinds of entertaining traits that are loving, funny, inspiring, clever and purely entertaining. If you do a great job of entertaining your audience, readers will share your blog posts and spread the word about your business.

Got some ideas about your blog now? Please let me know. I’d love to read your posts starting in January.

Until next time,

Here’s to a wonderful holiday and an exciting 2012 for your pet business.

Cheers,

Pam Foster

PetCopywriter.com

Before I reveal what it is, I’m happy to share some staggering facts with you regarding this video and a few others featuring pets… and then provide some ideas to boost your pet business outlook in 2012.

First, the facts:

• I first saw this video in May 2011, when it was the number 1 video on YouTube. At that time, it had over 26 million hits and was a viral smash, with unprecedented sharing. I shared it too!
• 6 months later, its popularity has nearly tripled to 73 million hits (72,825,983 hits as of today,12/9/11)
• When I went to the movies the other night to see HUGO, an ad came on during the previews, asking movie-goers to shut down their cell phones. The ad featured… you guessed it… this popular YouTube pet video as one of the things people watch on their phones.

You might enjoy checking out a recent pet industry marketing forecast that a colleague just shared with me. It bodes well for all of us who are marketing to pet owners, pet businesses, veterinary practices and others.

I’m very thankful to be working in such a thriving and fun industry, and I’m honored to work with an incredible variety of dedicated marketing professionals and business owners who love pets as much as I do.

First of all, original web content is an absolute MUST these days for marketing to pet owners –whether you’re marketing pet products, pet services or both.

Here are a couple of examples of what I mean.

1. If you manage a pet ecommerce website and you’re using the manufacturer’s content for each product you carry… I’m afraid your online store’s content might be invisible to search engines. You’re missing out on oodles of traffic from potential customers.

That’s because Google’s Panda update has clamped down on “copycat” websites that have the same content as others. Their latest search algorithms are focused on finding original, fresh content for people searching online for answers… and Google rewards websites that offer something unique and highly relevant.

What you can do right now. 

Find ways to offer original content on your website so you can attract more pet-friendly customers via SEO. This means revising each of the manufacturers’ product descriptions with your own spin.

For example, if your online store includes a particular line of pet products because they’re eco-friendly and they reflect your commitment to green products – say so! Tell your visitors why the products are favored by you and treasured by your customers. Make a point to add your own brand voice to the copy. No-one has the same brand voice as you, so this will help make your content unique. Customer reviews can also help, but if you’re just starting to offer those, start revising the product descriptions ASAP.

2. You need to find a way to add fresh, original and highly relevant content to your site each week.

You’ll be delighted and amazed at the search-engine traffic power of writing helpful blog posts, for example. I just started helping a client add blog posts each week, and suddenly after 6 posts or so, the client’s site is turning up on top of Google’s page one for the keywords we targeted. These blog posts are getting attention and driving site visits — all with just a few posts for starters. Great stuff, right?

What you can do right now. 

Map out an Editorial Calendar for blog posts or new articles that you commit to adding at least once a week. You could start with a “how-to,” “best-of” or “seasonal tips” blog series that drives people to check out the products on your site.

This can work in the following way. Let’s say you write a blog post about Daylight Savings Time and the importance of pet safety. You could mention that the arrival of shorter days/darker commutes can spell trouble for pets being walked at dinnertime. You might list the top 5 reflective dog products that can help pet owners solve this problem… and link to the reflective leashes, collars and vests you offer in your store. See how cool that could be? And then, when someone types “reflective dog collars” in Google – voila! Your blog post could be smiling right at them on page one of Google. It’s certainly worth a shot.

If you’re marketing pet services such as dog walking, you could have the same type of blog post about Daylight Savings Time except discuss the ways you pledge to keep dogs safe during their walks. Then link to your services page where you feature your dog-walking options. Be sure to include a mention of the towns you serve so your local prospects find you.

Are you stumped about adding original content to your pet website? Or do you have a tip to share? Please let us know. I promise to respond.

Until next time,

Here’s to a profitable website!

Cheers,

Pam Foster

PetCopywriter.com