Web-SEO Content & Consulting For Pet Industry Marketers
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Wildly Profitable Marketing for the Pet Industry
Finally — a how-to Marketing Success Guide for all pet and veterinary businesses. Co-written by PetCopywriter.com's Pam Foster.
PetCopywriter.com owner
Pam Foster is a SuccessWorks
Certified SEO Copywriter
Pet Marketing Works Better If Your Solutions and Benefits Pop
May 3, 2012
You may have noticed by now that PetCopywriter.com’s website design has been updated. Thanks to the wonderful skills of graphic designer Jason Spooner and web developer Joe Dolson, we’re thrilled with the results.
The reason we did this is… I didn’t feel the website was showcasing what we offer pet and veterinary companies in a quick and overt way.
I took a fresh look at the site from the visitor’s perspective, practicing what I preach in this blog. 
PetCopywriter.com's site redesign helps visitors find pet marketing solutions and benefits at a glance
I said to myself, “When someone arrives here, what should be the first impression they get in mere seconds?”
It’s simply this: You can race ahead of the pack and attract more customers with help from a skilled pet-industry copywriter.
So the web team reworked PetCopywriter.com’s home page with a clean and logical design, simple customer-benefit messages, a video introducing our services to potential clients, and clear invitations for visitors to explore our many services.
That’s it! Much better when it comes to clarity that helps visitors know what to find here. I hope you agree. (Please let me know.)
Having said that, if you scroll below the first screen, you’ll see more content about featured solutions and benefits. But if you choose not to scroll, you can quickly access specific sections of the site you’re interested in.
I’m telling you this because you may want to consider whether or not your pet or veterinary website solutions “pop” in a clear and inviting way for your prospects.
You could be missing opportunities with hundreds of potential customers, so it pays to take a hard look at your site.
Pet Marketing Success Begins and Ends Above the Fold
April 25, 2012
Quick — what’s the first thing your website visitors see when they arrive at your site? This is a very important question; more important than you’d ever imagine.
That’s because your pet website’s first impression is EVERYTHING.
If people don’t like what they see on that very first screen of your site, they probably won’t stick around and buy from you.
Consider the following two findings from Website Usability guru Jakob Nielsen*:
- “Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold.”
This means if people don’t understand the benefits of your products or services when they land on your site — they’ll move on without scrolling down to see more information.
- “The first 10 seconds of the page visit are critical for users’ decision to stay or leave.”
If your content isn’t immediately helpful to visitors, giving them a reason to do business with you… it’s very likely that you’ll lose them.
Here’s one more new finding that may shock you. We found this in a recent issue of Website Magazine:
“When viewing a website, it takes users less than 2/10ths of a second to form their first impression,” according to research at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Wow. So, what do you think? Does your website’s Above-the-Fold impression instantly help visitors understand the following need-to-know information about what you offer?
- What company is this?
- What do they offer me?
- How does this website solve my needs?
- How do I see how the product or service works… get more details… or contact them?
- Would I feel comfortable doing business with them?
That’s a lot of information to project in just seconds at the top of your website. But it doesn’t have to be hard. When you focus on the questions listed above, you can clear out all the rest and keep it nice and simple. I recently redesigned PetCopywriter.com to enhance my first impression for visitors, focusing on those questions listed above.
This pet website's first impression is very clear, helpful and easy to understand.
Here’s an excellent example of a pet website that provides clear, “what’s in it for me” messages and a great user experience above the fold.
There’s no question about what this website offers, how to get more information about its services, and how to get started with them immediately.
In addition, it uses SEO keywords in a smart and smooth way.
If you’re not sure about your first impression, perhaps it’s time for a professional, objective assessment that reveals your gaps and opportunities to improve (and boost sales!).
Questions? Comments? Please share.
Here’s to a prosperous pet website!
Cheers,
Pam Foster
PetCopywriter.com
*Jakob Nielsen findings can be found at AlertBox.com.
Best Days to Publish Pet or Vet Marketing Content
April 12, 2012
Why not try your pet or veterinary marketing posts on Thursdays?
Breaking news from social sharing widget Shareaholic:
“Thursdays are by far the best days to post content that will be shared on social networks, especially between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. ET.”
This is what Shareaholic discovered when it reviewed its 2011 metrics for content that yielded the most traffic and social shares, as reported in Website Magazine.
Therefore, why not publish the type of content that’s typically shared — such as your blog posts, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, etc. — on Thursday mornings, just to see what happens? That’s what I’ll be doing for a few weeks… just to see.
When to publish new pet marketing content on your website
The Ear Hug Approach to Pet Website Content
March 14, 2012
OK, there’s really no such thing as an ear hug. Or is there…?
This photo provides clear evidence that ear hugs exist.
Isn’t it sweet? To me, it’s the ultimate image of a warm and loving bond between two best buds.
Imagine your pet website visitors feeling this welcome when they read your content. Thanks to Jon Payne for the lovely photo of his pups.
So why should you care about ear hugs?
Well, as the owner of a pet or veterinary business website — your mission is to make visitors feel special and welcome so they’ll stick around and do business with you, yes?
What kind of web content helps you do that?
Here are 3 examples of “ear hug” content you can use on your pet or veterinary website: (more…)
3 Blog Topic Ideas for Marketing Your Pet Business
March 5, 2012
By now you may know that a pet business blog can be a very powerful way to add fresh content to your website and bring more customers to you via the search engines.
But “Blogger’s Block” (What do I write about this week?) is very common. Therefore I’m happy to provide you with some blog topic ideas to use for marketing your pet business or veterinary practice.
As you consider using these topics, have fun working them into a relevant angle for the pet services or products you provide. I have a few suggestions to help you tie these ideas to your unique offering. (more…)
Quality Content Defined for Pet Internet Marketing
February 13, 2012
With the mission of helping you keep up with the challenging world of search engine optimization (SEO) and how pet web content works best today, I try to follow the latest guidelines, trends and events that make a big difference in search results.
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. (more…)
Must Love Blogs for marketing your pet business
February 4, 2012
If you’re frustrated with your pet business website and you’re thinking, “What can I do to bring in more traffic and sales?” — consider the blog.
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: (more…)
Fascinating Facebook Facts for Pet Retail Marketing
November 28, 2011
This weekend, I was browsing through some pet retail magazines and came across a new report that might interest you. It’s called Strategies for Effective Facebook Wall Posts for the Retail Industry, and it includes a number of fascinating facts that may well be worth considering for your pet business Facebook page, whether you’re marketing pet products or services.
- Posting 1-4 times a week produces 71% higher user engagement than 5 or more posts for retail brands: quality trumps frequency
- Posts containing fewer than 80 characters produce 66% higher engagement than longer posts (wow!)
- Posts containing questions generate more than double the amount of comments, even if they may get fewer “likes,”
- Top retail sales keywords that produced more user engagement: “$ off” and “coupon” worked best (55% higher user engagement rates); while the words “sale” and “percent off” (or % off) produced the lowest; even posts about offers less than $10 off produce 17% higher engagement than percent-off posts
- The 2 most effective types of retail brand posts contain a single photo attachment or use only words. Posts containing only words produce 94% higher engagement than avg.
- Wednesday is the best day to post, although you obviously shouldn’t post ONLY on Wednesday.
How to optimize your pet website photos for visitors and SEO
October 7, 2011
Last spring, I was driving my dog to doggie day care and came upon this hilarious scene in a neighbor’s driveway. I had to pull over and snap a quick photo from my phone.
Turkey lessons about optimizing your pet website images
Everyone I’ve shown this to gets a big kick out of it, so I thought I’d share it with you.
What do these turkeys have in common with your pet business or veterinary practice website?
And what lessons can be learned from this photo when it comes to optimizing the images on your site?
I see 2 key take-aways for you.
1. Try to use distinct images for marketing your pet products or services.
This quartet of Tom turkeys are strutting their stuff in full regalia to attract the lone female who happens to be strolling by. Sadly, it’s hard to tell them apart, except the one on the right has some torn tail issues.
So how does the female know which one is her soul mate, or if any of them belong by her side? Hmmm. I wish I knew how that works. All I know is, it leads to an important point. (more…)
More WOW ideas for marketing your local pet business
September 20, 2011
I was just reading Entrepreneur (October 2011) and came across a fabulous article about Animal General Hospital in Port St. Lucie, FL.
It seems that the owner of this veterinary practice figured out how to engage local-community clients and prospects online, using the practice’s website in combination with free social networking, email and YouTube plus a modest paid-search advertising campaign (Google Adwords and Facebook ads).
The result: instead of spending $27,000 over 18 months for Yellow Pages and getting lame results, his online strategy only cost $3,600 plus staff time, but his business grew with 250 new clients and $75,000 in additional annual revenue. Can you say “WOW”???
Here are 3 ideas your local pet business can take away from this as you plan your fall and winter pet marketing strategies: (more…)
Posted in Marketing pet products by PetCopywriter