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By Beth Stultz-Hairston | August 1, 2020

If your business is like most pet-sitting businesses, vacation pet-care visits or daily dog walks—or a combination of both—have likely been the bulk of your pet-sitting requests…and the main source of your company’s revenues.

Like many other pet-sitting businesses, however, you may have also recently seen requests for vacation pet sits and daily dog walks drop quite dramatically as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many would-be vacationing clients to cancel trips and many daily dog-walking clients to now work remotely (and walk their own dogs).

If your business is experiencing this decrease in requests, it’s time to think outside the box—and beyond your standard services—to identify other reasons your clients need your services and how you can generate more revenue.

Why do pet owners use your services?

In a January 2017 survey, PSI asked members to indicate the reasons clients had booked their pet-care services. Nearly 1,330 members responded.

Based on the survey results, the top three reasons clients use pet-sitting services are:

1. Client out of town on a personal trip/vacation (98%)
2. Client out of town on a business trip (90%)
3. Client working long hours (82%)

No surprises there—but the survey also indicated those are not the only reasons. As you’ve built your client base, you’ve likely also discovered that many of your clients have found a variety of other times outside of their annual beach trips and long workdays to request pet-sitting visits.

More than half of members responding to the survey indicated these additional reasons pet owners had used their services:

1. Client in town, but at a special event such as a concert, party, etc. (66%)
2. Client has special-needs pet that needs medication or fluids administered at specific times (63%)
3. Client has puppy in need of more frequent visits (63%)
4. Client is hospitalized and/or sick/physically unable to care for pet (58%)
5. Client has senior pet in need of additional care (58%)
6. Client is busy caring for a sick family member—either in town or out of town (55%)
7. Client away from home for children’s sporting events/tournaments (55%)
8. Client away on honeymoon (52%)

How can you market other services to gain new business?

Just as you anticipated providing pet sitting for vacationing pet parents when you first started your business, pet owners may be thinking of your pet-sitting business as one they’d only need if they take out-of-town trips. As PSI’s survey indicates, vacation pet care is only one of many reasons pet owners can benefit from your services—so you need to let them know!

With vacations cancelled and long hours at the office replaced with remote work, many of your current (or even potential) clients simply aren’t thinking about needing a pet sitter. Because of this, promoting your business is more important than ever!

Successful advertising identifies a problem and then offers a solution. As a professional pet sitter, you likely offer a great solution…but sometimes you need to educate clients about the “problems” you can solve!

Using the eight reasons (other than out of town travel and long work hours) listed above, you can pose these questions to get pet parents thinking about reasons they still need your services—even if a pandemic has them sticking close to home:

1. Do you need someone to check in on your pet while you attend a local event or enjoy a staycation?
2. Does your pet have special-needs and can a reliable pet-care provider help?
3. Do you have a new puppy in need of extra attention?
4. If you are sick or hospitalized, who is going to care for your pets?
5. Would your senior pet benefit from extra check-ins?
6. While you are busy caring for a sick family member, do you need someone to care for your pets at home?
7. Your child’s sports tournament means long days at the field away from home—who is letting the dog out?
8. Getting married? While you’re away on your honeymoon, who is going to care for your pets?

Let’s take a closer at a few of the reasons for using pet-sitting services listed above. How can you incorporate them into your advertising to better market your business?

Pet owners who are in town, but will be attending a special event such as a concert, party, etc. (66%): If you are a pet owner yourself, you know that nothing ruins a good time more quickly than worrying about your pet(s) at home—but many pet owners may never think to contact you for service when they are in town but away from home for several hours. While COVID restrictions likely still prohibit large concerts where you live, you may find clients are beginning to attend more intimate functions, such as outdoor graduation or birthday parties. Or, even more likely, you may find that many are looking to enjoy staycations, taking advantage of local outdoor activities such as hiking or boating that offer a fun adventure while still socially-distancing. 

Thinking of local staycation options in your city (or a nearby city), for example, how can you use this to generate business? It’s likely your clients (and other local pet parents—your potential new clients) will be searching online for safe activities nearby. What are those activities/locations where you live? Perhaps there’s a state park, campground or outdoor adventure venue nearby. People will be posting on social media for staycation ideas and looking up information about it online, etc., so you want to make sure your content can be found in their searches as well.

Let’s say you are in Colorado, where Hanging Lake in Glenwood Canyon is a popular tourist destination. How could you incorporate this into your promotions on Facebook or Instagram? While some pet parents choose to take their dogs hiking, many may opt to leave their dogs at home if the terrain is particularly rocky or if they have senior dogs who may not be up for strenuous hikes. You could share a cute photo of a dog on a walk with a post like “While you’re exploring #HangingLake, I can make sure your dog enjoys a safe adventure as well. Contact me to schedule a pet-sitting visit for your dog while you’re away.” People planning a trip to Hanging Lake are likely to post using the #HangingLake hashtag and search for other related posts using that hashtag as well—which gives an opportunity for your post to be found.

Or if you have a blog for your business, consider writing a roundup blog post of nearby staycation ideas (and of course, highlight your pet-sitting service!) so that it could potentially show up in Google searches by those looking for local activities.

Pet owners with special-needs pets that need medication or fluids administered at specific times (63%): As some pet parents return to work (even for limited hours) or plan local trips, those with pets who need specific medications or care at specific times will need a reliable pet-care provider. If you offer services to pets needing medication, fluids, etc., focus on building strong relationships with your local veterinarians. While building these relationships takes time and effort, being the go-to pet sitter that vets in your area recommend will be invaluable in helping you increase your pet-sitting requests from pet owners with special-needs pets. Ask about placing business cards or brochures in vet’s offices and veterinary hospitals. Because many veterinary offices are currently still implementing contactless/curbside pickup and drop off (with clients not going into the office), you may ask them to give your business card to clients who may benefit from your services.

It’s also a good idea to follow social-media pages of your local veterinary practices and comment on and share their posts, when applicable. However, it’s important that you never take advantage of their pages to overtly promote your services—it’s unprofessional. Simply engage with their pages and it will help make their page followers more aware of your business. If you specialize in special-needs pets or want to start building this segment of your business, be sure you highlight this on your website and social-media pages as a service you offer. You may even occasionally share a sample of the medication logs you complete at visits (be sure you are only posting a sample and not a medication log that reveals client information) or, with a client’s permission, share a “success story” of a pet you’ve sat for that required regular medication and has now recovered, is doing well, etc.

What services will you promote to boost business?

If your business continues to be impacted by the pandemic, it can be easy to get discouraged. But now is the time to employ the same perseverance and creativity you used to get your business started. As the survey results described above show, there are many reasons pet parents need your services—even if they aren’t scheduling vacation sits or daily dog walking. In recent months we’ve also heard from many PSI members who have found pet parents requesting other services they hadn’t thought of previously, such as deep litter box cleans or cat enrichment visits. Others have found that while they’d always been willing to offer pet transportation, the service has just become in-demand as many clients—particularly those that are elderly or immunocompromised—would rather not venture out to take their pets to the veterinarian or grooming appointment. For more tips on pet sitting during the pandemic, read this recent blog post from PSI.

As you plan out your upcoming promotional efforts, take some time to review the reasons shared in PSI’s survey and shape some of your social-media content or advertising efforts to provide solutions to these specific pet-sitting needs.

Are there specific “segments” of pet parents that you are increasing your advertising to now—those planning staycations, those with children in sports, etc.? How do you tailor your advertising to reach them and gain their business? Share your feedback in the comments below.