The pet industry is booming. As a business owner with an eCommerce store, there has never been a better opportunity to take advantage of these trends.
67% of households in the United States own a pet. That’s 85 million families. This article will teach you how to market pet products online.
The population of pet owners has been growing at a steady rate for the last 30 years. As a result, the total sales related to the pet market have been growing as well.
At this rate, total pet spending will eclipse $80 billion annually in 2020.
While food makes up the largest category in this niche, there are still plenty of other product types that can be successful in this space.
Your products might be outstanding and superior to the competition. But without an effective marketing strategy, nobody will know about what you’re offering.
Marketing for pet products shouldn’t be treated the same way as just any other type of product or service. This is a specialty category, which requires special attention to be successful. A cookie-cutter marketing plan won’t get the job done.
As an expert in the eCommerce marketing space, I’ll show you exactly how to successfully market and introduce new pet products.
Leverage Consumer Emotions
Using emotions to guide sales is an age-old marketing hack. But this strategy can be taken to the next level when we’re talking about pets and pet parents.
There is an emotional aspect to selling pet products.
Your customers love their pets. Pet owners treat these animals as part of the family.
This is a huge selling point. You can use this information to trigger an emotional response from your pet parents’ customers.
For example, let’s say you’re introducing a new food product. You can run a campaign showing the health benefits of your food compared to other inferior products on the market.
Customers can’t put a price on food that will extend the life and quality of living of their animals. So you’ll be able to charge higher rates for this type of product.
In fact, studies show that people are willing to spend more money on pet food than food for themselves. More specifically, pet owners under the age of 30 are more likely to buy healthy and premium pet food, even though these pet owners have lower incomes than older generations.
All of your marketing campaigns need to trigger these emotional aspects.
I’d recommend starting or partnering with a pet charity related to helping animals. 63% of pet owners are more likely to buy from brands that support social causes. Pet owners are even willing to spend more money on those types of products.
Why? Donations and socially conscious branding drive emotion.
Pet owners tend to love animals such as dogs and cats in general, not just their own pets. They’ll feel better about making a purchase knowing that a contribution is being made to help an animal-related cause.
Trending Pet Products
In order to have success in the pet industry, you need to make sure that you’re marketing products that people actually want to buy. Your products will be useless if nobody has a need for them.
Based on pet industry trends, these are some of the hottest products in the pet industry right now:
- Healthy pet foods
- Pet electronic devices (videos, pictures, tracking, etc.)
- Pet grooming brushes
- Pet cleaning products (shampoo, conditioner, balms, oils, etc.)
- Dog collars and cat collars
- Pet beds
- Pet car seat protectors
- Leashes
- Treats
- Pet clothing and costumes
- Water and food bowls
- Vitamins and supplements
- Pet training devices (pee pads, whistles, shock collars, etc.)
- Food containers
- Slow feeders
- Ball launchers
- Chew toys
- Pet CBD Products
- Pet Cannabis Products
As we talked about earlier, food makes up a large percentage of the overall market share in pet spending. So your pet business needs to offer food products in order to appeal to your customers.
From there, you can have supporting products like some of the other items on the list above.
Social Media Marketing in Pet Industry
Your business can’t survive in today’s day and age without an active presence on social media. The best part about using social media to market and introduce your pet products is that it’s free.
If you have the budget, you can always pay for ads on social channels as well. Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and Instagram story ads are my top recommendations.
While every business needs to be using social media for marketing, brands selling pet products have an advantage when it comes to this strategy. That’s because people love to see posts related to pets on social media.
This increases the chances that people will follow your account. If you’re posting content related to pets and pet care market, then users will engage with your posts. Increased engagement rates ultimately improve your pet brand awareness and translate to higher conversions.
Furthermore, if you’re planning to run ads on social media, there’s less of a chance that your ads will be perceived as spam.
Here are some of my favorite social media strategies to increase sales for pet products in the target market:
Create Shoppable Posts
You want to make sure that your social media traffic converts. But if you have too much friction in the conversion funnel, this goal will pose a challenge. That’s why shoppable posts are so effective.
Without a shoppable post, you need to rely on customers seeing your product on social media, navigating to your website, and then searching for that product. That’s just too many steps.
With a shoppable post, you can tag your products in images by syncing your online catalog on Facebook and Instagram.
The tag will show the price, name of the product, and allow pet owner to purchase the item directly through that social platform. This eliminates friction in the process.
It may sound simple, but hashtags are a great way to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your social pages. Every post should have multiple hashtags related to your niche.
Use broad hashtags related to the type of products you’re selling, such as #dogfood or #catfood. But you should also use brand-specific hashtags as well.
Make a point of re-sharing posts from users with your branded hashtags. This is known as UGC (user-generated content).
Encourage your customers to post pictures on social media of their pets using your product or pet food. As a result, you’ll get free advertising. People related to the pet industry will see those posts from users that they follow. You’ll get brand exposure to prospective customers who may not even know who you are right now.
Run A Giveaway
Contests in the pet market are one of my favorite ways to build awareness for products on social media. It’s a great way to create suspense before you launch a new product in the pet care industry as well.
To run a profitable giveaway, you’ll need to offer something of value for free. The bigger the value, the greater the participation will be.
For example, a year’s supply of pet food will draw more attention than a free shirt with your company’s name on it.
Once you determine the product or pet supplies remind your followers about the promotion on a regular basis. Contests and giveaways draw the same type of results as hashtags because they encourage UGC.
People are more likely to post about your brand on social media if there’s a chance that they can win something in return.
Some of the most viral videos to ever circulate on social media have been related to pets. As a business that sells pet products, it’s in your best interest to share those videos as well.
Anything that you think could go viral should also be shared on your profile. Whether it was created by you, your staff, or a customer—share it.
At times, these videos can generate millions of views across different channels. Obviously, you can’t expect this type of success with every piece of content you share.
But the possibility is there. By sharing content and encouraging your followers to share your content, it increases your brand’s exposure online.
Reply To Customers
You may not realize it, but your social media profiles double as customer support channels. If you fail to recognize this reality, it’s going to hurt your marketing campaigns.
Let’s say you share a post about a new product on Instagram or Facebook. A customer might ask a question about how the product works or its availability.
You need to be prepared to answer those questions as fast as possible.
Comments, direct messages, story replies. You can’t afford to ignore any of these.
People are trying to connect and engage with your brand. By providing them with timely and professional replies, you’re increasing their satisfaction as a buyer.
Unique Dog Marketing Ideas
More than 60 million households in the United States have a dog. That’s more than every other type of pet.
In order to have a successful business selling pet products, you must have an effective strategy for targeting the dog ownership market.
There’s an old saying that dogs are a man’s best friend. Well, they are also best friends of anyone selling pet products.
To give you an edge in the dog market, here are a couple of unique strategies that specifically target dog owners.
Partner with an animal shelter
Build a relationship with different animal shelters. You can donate a percentage of your sales to keep their doors open and animals healthy. You could even donate things like food, treats, or other products as well.
Promote dog adoption events with these shelters.
This relates back to what we talked about earlier in terms of leveraging consumer emotions. It’s also an example of socially conscious branding.
In addition to doing the right thing and helping these animals, you’ll also get some free advertisement out of the deal as well.
The shelter will promote your brand and products on its website and social pages in exchange for your help.
Influencer Marketing Campaigns
You don’t need to have a huge budget to run a successful marketing campaign. Unlike TV, radio, print, or other traditional advertisements, influencer marketing is cheap and effective.
With influencer marketing, you pay social influencers to promote your products on their own channels. But you can put a spin on this category by targeting dog accounts.
30% of pet owners follow “celebrity pets” on social media. 65% of people post about their dog at least two times per week on social media.
Obviously, there are humans behind the profiles, but there are tons of dog accounts out there with thousands of followers. It’s a safe assumption that the people following those dogs are also pet owners.
You can probably even get away with advertising without having to spend any money here. Just reach out to popular dog accounts and offer to send them free products if they post about it.
This is a win-win scenario for both of you. It’s a highly effective way to market your dog products without spending a fortune.
Pet Product Marketing Agency
Another way to gain a huge advantage when you’re introducing new products is by partnering with a marketing agency that understands pet product marketing strategies and your unique needs.
This pet product marketing guide is a great starting point with helpful tips, but you’ll need an agency that’s familiar with niche markets to bring your pet products to the next level.
Here at Optimum7, we’ll provide you with all of the tools you need to make sure that your brand is poised for success.
We specialize in eCommerce SEO and eCommerce Content marketing. Our strategists will help make sure that your brand is visible online when consumers are searching for the pet products that you’re selling.
Our team at Optimum7 also handles custom eCommerce development.
We can build you an eCommerce platform for pet products that will turn your website into a conversion machine. We know the best tools and platforms to provide your visitors with a smooth shopping experience.
On average, we increase traffic to websites by 50%. More traffic paired with an optimized eCommerce solution is the recipe for more conversions and higher profits.
Contact us today for a free consultation. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have about the process and explain everything you need to know about marketing pet products.
FAQ – Pet Product Marketing
How do I market my pet products?
You can increase sales for pet products by creating shareable posts, using hashtags, and running a giveaway.
In order to be successful though you should also engage with your audience on social media in the following ways:
- Reply regularly or create an account just for customer service responses
- Respond directly when someone comments about their experience purchasing one of your items (you’ll see how this will benefit both parties)
- Partner up and offer discounts/freebies
- Influencer marketing campaigns
What is the target market for pet products?
In 2021, pet store revenue in the United States is projected to increase by 7.1% due largely to shoppers aged between 45 and 64 who account for half of all discretionary income spent on pets each year making them an important market segment worth targeting with advertising campaigns.
Those aged 25-44 also have high spending power as they make up 32 percent share respectively followed closely behind at 31%.
Are pet products in demand?
The pet industry is reaching new heights, with total sales of $103.6 billion in 2020 marking a historic high for the American Pet Products Association (APPA) State of Industry Report!
The 6% increase over 2019 retail figure lands at an all-time record-breaking level that shows how popular pets are becoming as more people become aware and caring about them – whether they have one or many at home.
What do pet owners spend the most money on?
Pet owners will spend a lot of money on veterinary visits for their pets.
When polled, 90% said they call the vet when something’s out-of-the-ordinary, and 79% make an appointment to come to visit at least once per year or more often if necessary.
Do pets cost a lot of money?
The ASPCA estimates that the total first-year costs range from $1,314 and $1,843 on average for new pet owners. This includes emergency care as well as necessities such a food and bedding material (which you can purchase separately).
In addition to these basics, there are various other things which need to be bought depending upon your type of animal’s personality!
