Complete guide to pet boarding marketing

Every pet boarding or doggie daycare business plan needs a solid marketing strategy. No business owner can keep their boarding business open for long without ensuring a steady stream of boarding service bookings.

Besides having the right pricing strategy, you need to gain the attention of potential customers to convert them into new customers.

In this guide, you’ll get insights on how to:

• Leverage top digital marketing ideas and channels to reach your target market
• Connect with potential clients
• Generate new business for your company

Importance of creating an online presence for your pet boarding service company

Pet owners’ spending is projected to grow significantly over the next decade, with the global pet services market expected to total $50.1 billion by 2030, up by 9.1% from 2020. In 2021 alone, pet parents in the U.S. spent a staggering $9.5 billion across a range of services, including pet boarding, dog grooming, pet sitting and dog walking, up nearly 4% from 2019.

Trends like these are predicted to continue as birth rates drop and people have more disposable income to spend on their pets. That’s a tremendous opportunity for small business owners with a pet care business.

If you want to bring in more bones for your pet care business, then the first place to start is by investing in an online presence for your dog daycare business, dog kennels, dog boarding facilities, pet sitting company or pet store offering boarding services.

Top pet boarding service marketing channels and tactics

As you create a marketing plan for your dog daycare business, here are the most effective marketing channels and best marketing ideas to consider. Put these into action and turn more cat and dog owners into new clients.

1. A mobile-optimized website

Building a website for your business should be one of the very first steps you take to create an online presence for your pet boarding business. Here are some essential tips to maximize your website:

• • Use mobile-optimized website templates for a smooth user experience across devices
  • Provide details about all the boarding services and other pet services you offer (such as adoptions, dog grooming, pet walking, etc.) and the pricing for each
  • Add lead generation forms on your website to collect contact information from pet owners interested in joining your SMS or email list and receiving special offers for your boarding services
  • Link to your social media accounts in the footer of your website so potential clients can see your online reviews and company posts on channels such as Facebook and Yelp
  • Make it easy to find your contact information (phone number and email address) so potential and existing customers can reach out to your team when needed

• Highlight customer testimonials and positive word-of-mouth reviews about your pet boarding business

• Encourage customer referrals by offering discounted pet boarding services to customers who refer friends and family

2. Blogging and other content marketing to drive local search engine optimization (SEO)

When pet owners look for dog boarding options near them, you want your company website to appear within the top results on search engines like Google and Bing. According to the leading search engine, Google, content is one of the most influential factors that can help improve your SEO.

Specifically, Google recommends creating “compelling and useful content” that follows these key do’s and don’ts:

• Do know what your customers want to learn about and make fresh, unique content that meets their needs
• Don’t post content that’s full of typos and grammatical issues
• Don’t create content about topics that you or your team aren’t experts about
• Do provide enough information about the topic
• Do publish content that answers questions potential customers have, using search engine keyword research

3. Social media marketing

Investing in social media marketing offers a variety of benefits. Depending on your business objectives, you can leverage social media to:

• Acquire and retain customers
• Boost customer loyalty
• Monitor and respond to customer care issues
• Evaluate your overall online reputation
• Manage, respond to and get more online reviews

If you’re successful at organically building a following among your target audience — cat and dog owners in your area — there’s the potential for a significant return on investment. Research shows that about 90% of consumers say they spend money with companies they follow on social media.

4. Online reviews

Want to get more potential clients to choose your pet boarding facility over the local competition in your area? Then invest in getting more online reviews for your business listings on platforms such as:

• Facebook
• Yelp
• Google Search and Maps (using a Google Business Profile)
• Online directories, like Angie’s List and Nextdoor

After all, online reviews sway nearly all customers. Researchers have found that 93% of consumers say reviews influence their purchase decisions.

Broadly offers email review request templates and SMS review request templates that you can use to automatically ask customers to leave a review for your business after they pick up their pet from your doggie daycare.

5. SMS marketing

Texting — everyone does it, and businesses do, too. If you aren’t sending text messages to your customers using an SMS marketing platform, consider this growing marketing channel. SMS campaigns boast unmatched engagement rates, as high as 98%, making this a powerful tool for staying top-of-mind with pet owners in between boarding services.

6. Email marketing

This marketing channel has one of the highest returns on investment. For every dollar companies spend on email campaigns, they see an ROI of $36, on average. Use these email marketing tips as you get started or to improve your efforts:

• Be sure each email you send offers value for the customer, whether that’s providing helpful information or special promotions
• Pay attention to your email marketing metrics, such as your unsubscribe rates and click-through rates, to monitor engagement and evaluate what’s working and what’s not
• Personalize your email campaigns by addressing your customers by name and sending them targeted emails based on their customer status (dog owner vs. cat owner, loyal customer vs. new customer, etc.) and demographics

7. Web Chat 

A potential customer lands on your website and can’t find what they’re looking for. What happens next? They might check out your social media channels or call your phone number for more information. But they might also check out the competition’s online presence instead.

Thankfully, there’s a solution to this very problem: Adding a live chat box to your website.

Researchers have found that 42% of customers prefer to use Web Chat services, and most companies that use live chat services say it helps improve customer loyalty, revenue and sales.

8. Partnerships

Team up with other pet care industry companies that offer complementary — non-competitive — services with a similar target audience and demographics. This could include grooming services, dog walkers, veterinarians or nonprofits offering pet adoptions. You can send referrals to each other and promote each other’s businesses on social media and email lists.

9. Online advertising

Whether you’re opening a new dog daycare, launching new services (such as grooming or dog walking) or going through a dry spell, consider investing in paid marketing channels. Online ads can typically help you get more referrals faster than organic channels. With online advertising, you have several options to consider, including:

• • Online advertising platforms: Paid or sponsored social media campaigns on networks such as Facebook and Yelp, search engine marketing (on search engines like Google and Bing) and online publications
  • Types of online advertising: Video ads, banner ads and text-based ads

• Types of payment models: Popular payment types include pay-per-click (PPC) ads, where advertisers pay for every click their ad receives; pay-per-lead (PPL) ads, where advertisers only pay for referrals who share their contact information; and pay-per-conversion ads, where advertisers pay based on how many customers book a service from an ad

Test different options to determine what generates the best results based on your goals. For instance, video ads of animals may be more effective than text ads at capturing attention. Pay-per-click ads on social media might raise brand awareness, while pay-per-lead and pay-per-conversion ads could generate high-quality leads that convert into paying customers.

Pet boarding service marketing FAQ

How do I generate more pet boarding leads?

You can generate more pet boarding leads by using channels and strategies shared here, including:

• Building out your content marketing and SEO
• Establishing a social media presence
• Optimizing your website
• Growing your word-of-mouth reviews
• Testing various paid advertising channels
• Developing an email and SMS marketing strategy
• Building partnerships with local pet care industry companies

How do I improve my pet boarding business’s reputation?

You can improve your pet boarding business’s online reputation management by:

• Listening to what customers post about your company on social media channels and online reviews
• Analyzing this customer feedback to understand the sentiment and uncover your strengths and opportunities for improvement
• Responding to positive, negative and neutral reviews about your business
• Monitoring changes in your overall online reputation across channels over time and using strategies to improve customer sentiment about your pet boarding company

Where should pet boarding companies advertise online?

It’s difficult to suggest the best platform for advertising your pet boarding business. You may find success in testing a combination of channels (paid social media versus search engine marketing), ad campaign types (banners, videos or text-based ads) and payment models (PPC, PPL or pay-per-conversion) to see which advertising options support your pet care marketing goals.

Grow your pet boarding business with Broadly

Broadly offers several services to help pet boarding businesses reach new leads:

• Campaigns: Create impactful email campaigns and SMS campaigns that increase your pet boarding bookings
• Website: Launch a mobile-optimized website and convert website visitors into new customers
• Web Chat: Answer your website visitors’ questions in real-time
• Reviews: Manage your online reviews from across channels all in one place

Ready to see how our digital marketing tools help small businesses across the pet care industry achieve results?