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.
1. Follow pet-industry news and trends with an eye on ideas for your business.
For example, PetFinder.com recently reported on the most popular names for adoptable dogs and cats. Buddy is the top dog name, and Lucy is the top cat name. The top uni-species name is Max. So if you sell personalized pet collars, dog beds or other products, you could talk about the most popular pet names you’re asked to add to your products. Do your customer orders follow the trends reported by PetFinder? For example, do you get a lot of requests to put the name Buddy on your dog beds? Talk about the trends you see in your business, and include a product photo with BUDDY or MAX on it. Each month, more than 72,300 people search online using the phrase “dog names.” You could find a big new audience if you tie your product to pet name trends.
2. Piggyback a hot cultural topic that has a throng of followers — even topics not related to pets.
As I write this, some of the hottest topics in American culture are politics (Super Tuesday), St. Patty’s Day 2012, March Madness, NASCAR season, the new Dancing with the Stars cast, , etc. And while these topics may not seem relevant to your products or services at first, let’s say you’re a dog trainer/behavior expert and you have a video or photo post showing a dancing dog you trained. You can get creative and write something like, “A New Season of Dancing with the Dogs” — how to train your dog to dance. Could be very powerful.
3. Answer the most common questions you receive from your customers.
If your business is like most, you probably get certain questions over and over again. Why not answer each of them in a series of blog posts? This gives you a chance to be seen as a helpful resource, and perhaps even set you apart from the competition. For instance, if you have a veterinary practice and you get questions about skin allergies, write a series of posts explaining the tricky aspects of skin problems, the various causes, and why it takes time to determine the problem and successfully manage it. You could also turn your series into a handout or eBook to give clients who bring their dogs in for help with a skin problem. Be sure to mention your town/city in the blog post, to local pet parents find it.
Another option is to hire someone to write your blog posts for you — freeing you to focus on other aspects of your business.
What pet business blogs do you follow and enjoy? We’d love to know.
Until then, here’s to a prosperous pet website!
Pam