Is blogging something you’d like to do as part of your pet business marketing?

If the answer is yes but it’s something that you haven’t got off the ground just yet, then sitting down and planning can help.

Back in 2017, I was in this position when I started my pet blog www.thepawpost.co.uk.

I’d been working as a professional writer for nearly 20 years and had a website where I would upload my stories to the blog section.

But actually blogging – coming up with my own ideas that I thought my audience would be interested in – seemed like a mammoth task.

In this post I’m going to talk about how to take away the overwhelm from blogging.

I’ll explain how you can break it down into easy, manageable chunks and set yourself up for success.

What do your customers search for to find you?

These are the key words to pepper throughout all of your content. Think of it like a spider’s web where everything fits together.

For example, if you run a cat hotel, like Jenny Harris from The Great Catsby, words potential customers might put into a search engine could be cattery, cat sitter, cat boarding and also holiday.

You would create content that provides solutions to their problems and shows your cat hotel is the ideal place to care for their cat.

What are the key services or products you have to talk about?

If one of your most popular items is a snuggle sack for a dog to keep warm in, this might feature in a lot of your posts.

You could write a post about winter essentials for your dog and include it, but a really helpful piece of content would be ‘How to care for your snuggle sack.’

This would explain how to wash it and keep it in pristine condition to ensure your customers get the most from their purchase.

Are there any questions that people ask regularly about these services or products?

Similar to the example above, think about something your clients ask about a lot because if they’re asking you, chances are they’re asking Google too.

This might be ‘What do I need to bring to my dog training class?’ or ‘What do I need to take to the cattery or kennels for my pet when I go on holiday?’

By answering them in a blog post, not only do you bring traffic to your site, but you can send the content to clients too.

What do you do that sets you apart from the competition?

What do you do that’s different to other dog walkers, groomers or trainers, or what makes your product stand out?

Do you have a special method, programme or system in place?

People can be put off sharing this because they worry about being copied but you don’t need to go into intricate detail, just give a flavour of what people can expect.

If you have a dog adventure field like Katie Guastapaglia from Dogwood in Stockton On Tees you can talk about what inspired you to create the field.

You might have personal stories to share and it’s an opportunity to talk about what you have to offer without feeling selly or that you’re boasting.

What do people need to know before they use your product or service?

Is there anything people need to know before they use your product or service?

In the case of a cat or dog hotel, it’s vital your clients have their pets vaccinated and treated for worms and fleas.

They might need to prepare their pet’s food, medication, toys, beds and blankets before they come to stay. You can put all this in a blog post.

You might want to consider creating a downloadable checklist where people tick off each item.

What transformation does it give?

How does your product help people? You can break down what it actually does and create a post around this and link back to your keywords.

If you’re a service business, when you talk about transformations it can be a bit cringe, so instead ask your client to share their stories.

For example, if you work with anxious dogs and you have a pet who went from being scared to leave the crate, to enjoying Canicross events, ask them to share their journey.

What initially might have felt like a sales pitch is transformed into an engaging and heartwarming story.

Conclusion

This is the process I follow in my blog planning session if I’m working 1-1 with clients.

If you’d like to begin blogging or to chat about working together on your blog, book in for one of my consultancy sessions here: Work with me one to one.