In today's digital age,
having a strong online presence is crucial for any business, especially for those in the pet care industry. If you don't have an online presence, you're missing out a a lot of possible business. People google everything these days, and if you're just relying on word-of-mouth for your business, you're definitely missing out on potential revenue. Among other things, a dog daycare and boarding kennel with a strong online presence can attract new customers, increase customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive more sales.
Here are just a few of the many benefits of having a strong online presence for your dog daycare or kennel:
Increased Customer Visibility
Having a strong online presence can help your dog daycare or kennel to be easily found by potential customers. By having a well-designed website, social media profiles, and online directories, you can
increase your visibility to people searching for pet care services in your area. This increased visibility can help to attract new customers who may not have known about your business otherwise. Let's imagine that someone in your city is looking to go on vacation and they need to find someone to watch their dog. Where's the first place they're going to go? Most likely Google. If they search "your city name + dog daycare" and your business doesn't show up, you just lost a potential customer. Not everyone is going to know about the existence of your business, so having an online presence will help. This is especially important for new businesses that don't have much community capital (locals know about your business and can tell others).
Building Trust wit Potential Clients
A strong online presence can
help you build trust with potential customers. By having a professional-looking website, detailed information about your services, and positive reviews from past customers, you can show potential customers that you are a reputable and trustworthy business. This can increase the likelihood of them choosing your daycare or kennel over a competitor's. It's 2023 at the time of writing this blog post, and I still stumble upon truly ugly websites everyone once in a while.
If your website looks like something from 1999, you need to update it. Maybe you're one of those people who's stubborn and thinks it doesn't matter what your website looks like, but I have to be honest, if I'm going to drop off my dog for a week and I have to decide between two businesses, I'm definitely going to go with the one that has the most professional website. A professional websites means you care about your business's appearance and that also means you probably take your business seriously.
Better and Faster Customer Engagement
Having a strong online presence can also improve customer engagement. By having an active social media presence, you can
keep customers informed about the latest news and promotions, and encourage them to leave feedback and reviews. You can also use social media to answer customer questions and concerns, and provide them with more detailed information about your services. Most of your clients aren't going to check out your website every day to see if you're posting anything new. Most websites tend to be quite static. However, there's a good chance that they'll be scrolling Facebook for at least 30 minutes a way, and if you're creating content and posting it, there's a good chance that your clients will see it. Maybe you're offering a special or something similar. By posting it online, you're giving yourself the chance to earn some more money.
Truly Cost-Effective Marketing
Compared to traditional advertising methods, building a strong online presence is a
cost-effective way to reach potential customers. Creating a Facebook page doesn't cost a penny. You can set it up within about 10 minutes and you're well on your way to building your digital presence. By using social media and other online platforms, you can reach a large audience without having to spend a lot of money on advertising. Additionally, by having a strong online presence, you can improve your search engine optimization (SEO), which can increase your visibility in search results and drive more organic traffic to your website. Use your social media profiles to send traffic to your site. Let's say that you're offering a 20% discount for new clients. If you post that on Facebook with a link to your website, you'll drive traffic from FB to your website, and Google likes to see inbound social media traffic.
Increased Customer Loyalty
A strong online presence can also increase customer loyalty. By providing customers with a positive online experience, you can keep them coming back to your daycare or kennel. Additionally, by using social media and other online platforms to engage with customers, you can
build a strong and loyal community of followers who are more likely to recommend your business to others. Of course, you're always going to have those clients that want to call you to schedule every single appointment. It's just how it is. However, by giving your other clients an easy way to book appointments on your website, you're making their life easier, and they'll appreciate it. If it just takes them a few clicks to schedule an appointment, they'll keep coming back for more.
Having a strong online presence is essential for the success of any dog daycare or kennel. If you haven't already, now is the time to start investing in your online presence and reap the many benefits it has to offer! Get out there and create a nice website. Wix and SquareSpace are both easy to use and have beautiful templates. Once your website is up and running, set up a Facebook page and you're set. You can think about Twitter and TikTok afterwards, but for now Facebook and a website should be just fine.