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By Beth Stultz-Hairston | January 1, 2021

As a pet-sitting or dog-walking business owner, you’ll compete for clients with boarding facilities and dog daycares, as well as pet parents’ family and friends, or even the “kid down the street.”

You also are often vying for the same business as other pet sitters and dog walkers in your service area.

So, how do you get the pet-care assignments?

This is where your USP comes in. Your USP—a term commonly used by marketers—refers to your Unique Selling Proposition. In short, your USP is the reason, factor or characteristic that makes your service better than the competition.

Defining, understanding, and promoting your pet-sitting service’s USP is extremely important, particularly as competition around you increases.

Define your pet-care business’ USP.

Determining your business’ unique value proposition may require some extensive thought—and creativity. There are very few businesses that are truly one-of-a-kind—and in the pet-sitting/dog-walking industry, the basic services are often the same across the board.

So, let’s walk through a process to determine what makes your company unique.

First, let’s start with an easy one: What is the benefit of in-home care (at the pet’s home)?

While some dogs do well in (or may even need to be in) a boarding facility or doggie daycare when their owners are away or working, your pet-sitting services have unique benefits.

The PSI website notes these benefits to in-home care:

• Pets are happier and experience less stress at home.
• Diet and exercise routines are uninterrupted.
• Travel trauma for both owner and pet is eliminated.
• Pet's exposure to illness is minimized.

Next, what makes your services better than a pet owner using a friend, family member or neighborhood teenager?

Again, this is another easy one. Using a professional pet sitter or dog walker like you means pet owners won’t have to call untrained or unwilling friends, family or neighbors—and the peace of mind a professional provides is priceless.

Plus, as a professional pet-care business owner, you should have pet-sitter insurance, bonding and training that these others—friends, family, etc.—do not have.

These advantages of using your service are all ones that you should highlight in all your marketing materials and your conversations with potential clients. You can list these advantages on your website, in your printed materials and in social-media posts to share with pet parents why it’s important to use a professional pet-care business like yours. An important element of building your business will be how well you educate pet owners on the unique advantages of choosing professional pet sitters over less ideal (or less qualified) options.

However, here’s where it gets tricky. Once pet owners are educated on the various pet-care options and understand that using a professional is the best option for their pet-care needs, you still have one more challenge: convincing pet owners to use your service over other pet-sitting businesses in your same area.

To figure out what truly makes your pet-sitting service unique and how to effectively promote that, you’ll need to take a step back and look at the big picture. Of course, you try your best to provide quality pet care and feel the services you offer are second to none—but are they really? Is that how your customers feel?

Going through this process can be a little tricky if you haven’t done any pet sitting yet, but if you have done some pet sitting already, you can begin answering these questions. If not, be sure to keep these questions “on file” so you can refer to them as you begin to build and grow your business.

Remember, even once you’ve built up a successful business, the ebb and flow of your local market and

the competitive climate will be reasons for you to regularly revisit these questions.

Why should your business be the go-to pet-care provider for local pet parents?

To determine your USP—and why pet owners do and should choose you over other pet sitters—you’ve got to think like your local pet owners:

Put yourself in your clients’ shoes. Many pet sitters pride themselves on treating their clients’ pets just like their own. But, what if your clients don’t want you to treat their pets like you treat your own? Perhaps it’s more important that you treat their pets like they do. While singing to the dog while she eats may not be important to you, it may be a major issue to your client. Or, maybe, a few crumbs of stray litter around the cat’s litter box is no big deal to you, but your clients may pride themselves on a spotless home.

You must understand what your clients really want in order to provide it—and cost is typically not the only (or main) factor. To many clients, customer service, cleanliness or convenience may be major selling points. If your competition beats you on price, make sure that you are offering the specific services (and have the desired characteristics) that address your clients’ needs and wants—then build your promotions around those key services or qualities.

For example, if you want to highlight that your business caters to your clients’ specific requests, your USP may be: “ABC Pet Sitting cares for your pets just as you do. We customize each pet-sitting visit to your specific requests.”

Trust and security are always big selling points for pet owners. Your USP could be: “Rest assured your pets and home are in good hands with ABC Pet Sitting. We provide proof of insurance, bonding, and a clear criminal history verification.”

Find out why your current clients actually chose your pet-sitting service. Understanding why your current clients decided to use you in the first place is one of the keys to garnering new clients. You never know what you’ll find out just by asking your clients how they were referred to you and why they chose you.

Perhaps you will find that many of your clients heard about you (and subsequently chose you) because you volunteer with local pet-rescue organizations. If this is the case, capitalize on your volunteer experience. Highlight it in your promotional materials—and partner with your local animal shelter or pet-rescue group to offer coupons to pet owners who adopt their pets.

Or, you may find that most of your clients chose you because they had friends or family members who had used your service. This can be used as your company’s USP as well—and you can bill your company as “the pet sitter your friends and family trust.” If you take this approach, consider offering special referral cards your clients can share with family, friends and co-workers. This is a great way to increase business in neighborhoods where you already have clients.

Identify what’s lacking in your local market. We recently heard from a pet sitter who said that when she became certified, she was the first pet sitter in her entire state to earn the CPPS-Certified Professional Pet Sitter^® designation. What a way to capture the attention of local pet parents!

We’ve also spoken with many pet sitters and dog walkers over the last several months who were able to highlight they were the only (or one of only a few) local pet-care businesses that had completed the COVID-19 Certification for Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers during the pandemic.

If you have a professional background or experience in areas such as the veterinary field, pet behavior or training—or even grooming—that your competition does not have, find ways to incorporate this into your USP. For example, wouldn’t your business stand out if basic grooming was included with all pet-sitting visits that lasted a week or more?

Continuing education is very important as you look for ways to identify your USP as well. Obtaining the CPPS designation, getting trained in pet first aid, taking classes in pet behavior or becoming trained in disaster preparedness for pets are all ways to make your pet-sitting business stands out from the competition.

Put your USP to work for your pet-care business!

Once you’ve determined what your unique selling proposition is, don’t stop there! When you figure out what you can promote that will make pet owners want to choose you over other local providers, you’ve got to let them know!

Fully incorporate your USP into your company’s brand. Make sure your USP is highlighted across your marketing efforts and platforms, including your:

• Company tag line
• Presentation book
• Business website
• Business cards
• Other marketing collateral (e.g., brochures, magnets, pens, etc.)
• Social-media channels (i.e., highlight your USP in your social-media posts, Facebook Live videos, etc.)

Also, highlight your company’s USP any time you have a chance to talk about your business—whether you are speaking before a local community group or just giving your elevator speech to a pet parent you meet while running errands.

Make sure that anyone who hears about your business knows exactly what sets you apart from the rest!