Marketing Tips And Strategies For A Mobile Pet Grooming Business

On todays episode we talk about: 

• Give away freebies
• Before and after pictures
• Community events

Aaron: [00:00:15] Hello.Hello. Hello. That's three hellos, guys. Thanks for tuning in to anotherepisode of our marketing podcast. This is a pretty cool episode because- Idon't know. I just was randomly thinking about mobile grooming companiesbecause one drove by the other week, and I was like wow, I wonder what they dofor their marketing. So I did some research and want to help those people out.So today's episode is all about marketing tips and strategies for mobile petgrooming businesses. We're going to talk about freebies that they should bedoing, why before and after pictures are a must, participating in communityevents, and giving away free pet care classes. And Christian's making me aweird face like he's a puppy or something over here. So.

Christian: [00:01:01] Yeah,we're definitely dog people. So wait, can you give grooming to cats? Is that athing?

Aaron: [00:01:07] Ibelieve you can groom anything with fur, but you know, cats groom themselves.So you know, we're dog lovers here.

Christian: [00:01:14] Yeah,that's true. I wonder- I mean there might- There's probably like a cat groomingservice strictly for cats out there.

Aaron: [00:01:22] Yeah.

Christian: [00:01:22] Therehas to be.

Aaron: [00:01:23] Thereis. Have you seen that BuzzFeed- That tongue that went viral where you put itin your mouth, and you could like-

Christian: [00:01:29] Thatwas really weird.

Aaron: [00:01:30] Yeah,very, very weird. If you know what we're talking about, then you think this isfunny. If you don't, go Google it. It's appropriate. It's just very odd.

Christian: [00:01:40] Yes,very weird.

Aaron: [00:01:41] Socats that act like dogs are cooler.

Christian: [00:01:43] Definitely.For sure. So the first thing here that we have for a mobile pet groomingbusiness is to give away freebies. I think that's a great way to get people inthe door, but you have to be sort of careful sometimes when, you know, you'regiving away freebies. But a great idea is to give a free groom to any pet thathas been adopted from a local shelter or a rescue group. So that would be- Imean, that's a great way to sort of give back to the community and give back tothe local shelters which they always, always are in need of help.

Aaron: [00:02:18] Right.And this not only positions you as somebody who cares, but also whenever theshelter is looking for somebody and they suggest somewhere like to take care ofthis dog because the first thing that an owner wants to do is say hey, look,you know, this puppy has been abused or maybe it's really old or something likethat. And it just wants a- You know, everybody feels better about a goodhaircut or grooming. So they are probably a good recommendation to send them topeople out there. So it's twofold. You have a great cause, but you alsopotentially could get business from that as well.

Christian: [00:02:51] Exactly.So you put in here a quiz. Can you elaborate on that?

Aaron: [00:02:57] Well,I was just thinking that if they took a quiz like what kind of- Maybe before peoplepurchased the dog. So it's kind of like beforehand. Like hey, I'm thinkingabout like my first dog or something or the best dog that fits me. So like oh,I'm a runner.

Christian: [00:03:11] Soyou're talking about like those social media-

Aaron: [00:03:14] Yes.

Christian: [00:03:14] Quizzesthat you see all the time. Like what type of dog is the best for you.

Aaron: [00:03:18] Right.Like I'm an active person. I don't stay at my apartment all the time, or I havea house. I have a backyard. So it's like oh, your dog's, you know, is going towant a lot of energy so it can run around all the time. Are you going to beable to walk it? Versus like, you know, buy Chihuahua, and it could run aroundthe house. And that's, you know, a marathon for it.

Christian: [00:03:36] Gotcha.Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Okay. Got it. So the next thing here is- To behonest, I think this is important for any business is to have before and afterpictures and have good before and after pictures. I mean that just speaksvolumes, and I think we've spoken before about maybe fitness companies andseeing the before and after results. Like those are always like just veryinteresting to see, and definitely, the before and afters are just, you know,pieces of content that are one, easy to do. If you have a cell phone nowadays,it's just really easy to take good, high-quality pictures, and it's somethingthat, you know, creates pretty good engagement online.

Aaron: [00:04:19] Right.And it's like okay, this is what the dog looked like before, and you're likehey, that's- You know, it looks like a regular dog, and then afterwards likewow, this dog cleans up nicely. But it also just kind of shows that, you know,if this person obviously has to purchase it, not a dog, are they going to spenda decent amount of money on keeping their dog, you know, groomed if it doesn'tlook good? So it's kind of a proof in the concept there, and also allows you todo like some shareable content. So people love to share their pictures of theirdogs, you know, when they look good. So I see a lot of contests of like hey,who wore it the best? And it's like Halloween, and they get all fixed up. Andthey have, you know, an outfit or whatever, but they're groomed. And it's likeshare with your friends, and that's a good contest idea which is technicallynot on our notes. But it does go along with the before and after.

Christian: [00:05:06] Yeah,I think a good and funny way to do this also is, you know, to add some contextto the pictures, and you can make up these. I just about is actually, but youknow how, you know, you go to the barber, you go to, you know, your beautysalon or whatever, and you start talking to your, you know, stylist. Youalways, you know, end up in just weird conversation sometimes, but it would becool to just make up these conversations and post them with the before andafter pictures. Like oh, Trixie. You won't believe Tracy's story today. Youknow, she was telling me about- And just make something funny, and I think thatwill definitely grab people's attention.

Aaron: [00:05:42] Right.I finally caught the squirrel. It's been like three weeks now. I've beencatching this one black squirrel that's just been running around the house, andfinally caught him. And then I caught them, and I had no idea what I was goingto do with him. But, you know.

Christian: [00:05:53] I'venever seen black squirrels, but yeah.

Aaron: [00:05:55] They'rein Canada and like Colorado and stuff like the mountains.

Christian: [00:05:58] Really?

Aaron: [00:05:58] Blacksquirrels. Yeah, look it up.

Christian: [00:05:59] Neverheard of that.

Aaron: [00:06:00] Soyou guys are all educated now. There are black squirrels. They are not just allbrown.

Christian: [00:06:07] That'sfunny. But yeah, just give the dogs some personality to them. I know Megan,

Aaron: [00:06:21] Thirdperson or whatever.

Christian: [00:06:22] Yeah,to the dogs. And they make voices for them. Like Harley is a little-

Aaron: [00:06:26] Ithink everybody that's a dog-

Christian: [00:06:28] Theydo that?

Aaron: [00:06:29] Yeah.

Christian: [00:06:29] Allright. I didn't know if it was just them, but yeah, they make unique voices.Like Harley's a Mexican dog for some reason. He's like. "Hola, homes. I'mjust right here. I'm a low rider." And he's like a little wiener dog. It'sjust really funny.

Aaron: [00:06:42] That'sa great visual. I can actually see- Yeah. So it sounds like he's a little bitof like a gangster wiener dog.

Christian: [00:06:48] Yeah,yeah, yeah. It's pretty funny. So.

Aaron: [00:06:50] MexicanCartel.

Christian: [00:06:51] Imean, things like that are things that you can definitely incorporate with youronline strategy when you're posting pictures or even doing videos.

Aaron: [00:06:58] Well,I was going to say if you do the pictures or if you do like a little gif or Iguess you would have to be like a little video, but like you could just havesomebody- Like the picture of the dog or the video the dog, but somebody'svoice in the background. That would be like over the top but hilarious.

Christian: [00:07:12] Yeah,exactly.

Aaron: [00:07:15] Allright. So big one here is again we're talking a lot about giving back, andpeople love animals. So you already have that going for you. So pictures aregood, but getting involved with community events and just getting awareness.People need to know who you are first and foremost, and doing something likecommunity events or, Christian wrote on here, a free pet nail trims or handingout bottles to a 5k. So handing up the bottles with your logo or your brandingon there, but also offering free pet- Like I know that my mom would never cutmy dog's fingernails because she was so afraid of like cutting into thecuticle. So my dad would, but I know a lot of people that are really afraid ofcutting their dog's nails. So if you did that for free, I mean, that juststands out. You could do like a little community event for that, but yeah,that's a really good idea.

Christian: [00:08:03] Yeah.Now you'll also be surprised on the amount of events that are centered aroundpets too. I know- I think in Frisco, they did something recently where it was -I don't know - it was like the Biggest Dog Day or something. They opened up apark, and they had a bunch of sponsors and bunch of tables. So definitely be onthe lookout for unique niche-down events like that exclusively for pets. That'ssomething that you definitely want to be a part of.

Aaron: [00:08:31] Right.And if you live in a- You know, this is- Mobile grooming really makes sense inlike a metroplex or like a city. So there's a lot of places you could betraveling to depending on the amount of vans you have. So there should be- Imean, every weekend- Well, maybe a couple of times a month or something, therewould be something for a dog. Like there's also like restaurants and like petfriendly places that you could also go to and talk to the owners and say hey,is it cool if I, you know, park here?

Christian: [00:08:58] Parkhere. Yeah.

Aaron: [00:08:58] Sothere's a food truck which, you know, I don't know how far away you have to be,but like maybe in the parking lot. Hey, this is going on. Your dog's alreadyhere. You're at the dog park or you brought your dog to this restaurant, andthen afterwards, you know, you enjoy yourself. And then you go, you know,pamper your dog basic.

Christian: [00:09:13] Yeah.That's pretty good. The last thing we have here as far as marketing tips andstrategies is to give out free pet care classes. You can do this online, or youcan do this in person. Either way you should treat this, if you do it online, justlike a type of webinars where you're collecting e-mails. I mean, yeah, it'sgoing to be free, but you definitely want to be collecting e-mails in marketingthis class really, because the point is not to just give out free classes. It'sto get a customer base and get some actual clients out of this.

Aaron: [00:09:48] Onelast thing that I just thought of is there are specific pet photographers. Gomake friends with those people. They're going to be taking pictures of thedogs, and the dogs need to look good. So when a person, the owner, contacts theperson who's taking the pictures, they're wondering hey, how do I- You know,where do you recommend to take care of my dog? So that can be a really goodsynergy partnership. So you take them, you know. You take care of thembeforehand, or they come to you. And then you refer them to a photographer, butit can be a really good partnership for you.

Christian: [00:10:20] Yeah.Okay. Do you have anything else?

Aaron: [00:10:23] No,this was a fun episode. We should do more stuff around animals.

Christian: [00:10:27] Especiallydogs.

Aaron: [00:10:28] Especiallydogs. Yeah, for sure. Maybe if we ever put on an event for a dog, completelyunrelated to our marketing company, but it would be really fun.

Christian: [00:10:35] Yeah.Anyway so just to recap here number one, offer free grooming to any pet that isadopted from a local shelter or rescue group. So sort of partner with some ofthose local shelters. Make sure that you take before and after pictures. Makesure they're good. Incorporate some humor into them. Participate in communityevents like 5K or sometimes they do conferences or events strictly around pets.So those would be great opportunities. Offer maybe some free pet nail trims inthere. Also give out free pet classes either online or in person, and make surethat you're collecting e-mails.

Aaron: [00:11:14] Allright. So we think we gave you- I know we gave you guys a lot of information togo with, and if you enjoyed this episode, go ahead and click that subscribebutton. Share this on social media, and if you have a friend who's looking tostart a pet grooming business or may even benefit from knowing somebody who'sstarted a pet grooming business like a photographer we talked about, share thisepisode with them to get some ideas to help them grow their business. A goodway to do this is to click those three little buttons in the right hand cornerof your iPhone, Android- I need to get an Android in the office so I know whatto do, but anyway you clicked those three buttons. Click share the episode.We'd love for you to share it on any social network and share it with a friendwho would benefit from it, and we will talk to you guys next week.

Christian: [00:11:59] Bye.