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By Beth Stultz-Hairston | Updated 2024

As a professional pet sitter or dog walker, you likely see your clients’ pets more than any other pet professional (i.e., groomers, veterinarians, etc.), particularly if you are offering daily visits. Because of this, your clients see you as a trusted pet-care advisor and look to you for a variety of pet-related information.

Being the go-to resource for pet-care information doesn’t just benefit your clients—it can also benefit your business. By establishing yourself as a local pet-care expert, you can introduce your services to a much wider audience of potential clients.

So, how exactly can you become your city’s local pet-care resource?

First, you must do the work. Stay up to date on the latest in pet-care trends, pet nutrition and pet-care information by reading pet-related magazines and books, attending animal-care workshops, and participating in online trainings.

PSI offers a variety of online courses for pet sitters and dog walkers, including Pet First Aid & CPCR for Pet-Care Professionals. You may also want to pursue additional credentials, such as earning your Certified Professional Pet Sitter-CPPS^® designation. Fellow pet sitters, dog walkers and other pet-care professionals can also be a great source for recommendations for classes, trainings and other resources that they've found most helpful.

Next, you want to be a resource and share your knowledge—with your clients and with the community at large.

Not sure how to do that? Consider these ideas:

1. Make sharing information a standard part of your pet-care services.

While there will be times your clients will contact you seeking advice or with a specific pet-care question, you do not have to wait for them to reach out to you to share valuable pet information. You can keep the lines of communication open and offer timely pet-care tips with client handouts/leave-behinds, as well as online and through email and text.

Because you don’t often see your human clients during a pet-sitting assignment, client leave-behinds can be a great way to share information with clients with little effort on your part. You’ll already be at their homes, so it’s easy to simply leave a brochure or flyer on the counter. In addition to a daily pet report card/notes about the visits, consider leaving behind announcements about upcoming pet-related events, seasonal tips such as summer pet safety, or even fun resources like a list of enrichment games to play with their dog or cat.

While handouts/leave-behinds can be a great, printed materials are not the only way to share important information with your clients.  Whether your company tries to be as paperless as possible, you simply find the printing costs of brochures/handouts prohibitive, or you know your clients would prefer not to receive printed materials,  you can also regularly share information electronically with clients. You can share the same type of information described above in your company’s newsletter that you email to clients, with your emailed pet visit updates or on company's social-media accounts (check out tip #5 for social-media ideas).

2. Reach out to the local media. 

Do you want a quick way to let your entire community know that you are a professional resource on pet care? Get quoted in your local newspaper or interviewed by a local news station. Your business can reap many benefits when you are able to position yourself as an expert in the local media and catch the attention of local pet parents and other influential pet people in your area.

While we often hear pet sitters and dog walkers ask, “Isn’t newspaper dead?”, it’s important to remember that news outlets are increasingly using their websites and social-media channels to effectively reach their audiences—and you want them sharing news about you and your business!  

So how can you get started? As shared by Rob Nager, presenter of the session Media Matters at PSI’s 2021 Pet Sitter World Educational Conference, don’t think you need national coverage—your focus should be on local media. Send timely, relevant press releases to your local media contacts. If your area is experiencing a heat wave, send a press release reminding pet owners that their pets are affected too, and offer tips for protecting pets from the heat. You can also send press releases about national/international events such as Professional Pet Sitters Week™ and offer to be a local media contact.

To establish a relationship with local reporters, you can also simply provide them with backgrounders that give information and explain various topics pertaining to the industry. The backgrounder paper can encourage the reporter to take a closer look at pet sitting. Even if they do not write a story right away, you have introduced yourself as a local resource for pet-related stories. If you are ready to begin reaching out to local media, check out these tips on how to get your pet-sitting business featured on local news outlets.

3. Participate in community events. 

Participating in a local tradeshow, fair or festival is an excellent way to make face-to-face contact with local pet owners—your potential clients. As more and more communities are finally able to host in-person events again in the coming year, participation may be at an all-time high!

If you will have a booth space at a local event, pre-planning is vital to make sure you make the most of your participation. Have something to draw visitors to your table—maybe a DIY photo booth, treats (if the event is pet friendly) or even a prize wheel or giveaway. Also, don’t simply sell to your booth visitors—educate them! Be sure to have plenty of materials available that they can take with them, including pet-care tips, pet-health information, and similar resources.

Event participation is not only a chance to advertise your pet-sitting services, it also provides you with the opportunity to highlight your professional knowledge of companion animals. As with client handouts, be sure that any materials you make available at events includes your company name, logo and contact information. You want these pet owners to be able to easily reach you when they are in need of pet-sitting or dog-walking services in the future.

A raffle is also a good way to collect prospective client contact information so you can be proactive and follow up with them as well. Consider creating a prize pack or pet-themed gift basket that visitors to your booth can enter to win by signing up for your email list or filling out a free raffle ticket. Select and notify the winner in a timely manner (likely the day after the event), but also email everyone who submitted their information to thank them for visiting your booth, and to provide more information about your pet-care services.

4. Host workshops and seminars for local pet parents. 

If you are comfortable participating in local events, it may be time to take the next step. Host your own event to educate local pet parents. You don’t have to plan your event alone. Consider working in conjunction with local partners including pet store owners, veterinarians, and other pet lovers to make an event that’s informative and educational to the public, while supporting your goal of achieving higher recognition for your pet-sitting service.

Some ideas for event topics include:

• Pet care tips: Demonstrate best ways to clean, groom and care for pets with real life pets as models (or you can use stuffed pets if this is not practical).
• Training tips: Consider including a local pet trainer to demonstrate ways to begin the training process with a new pet or an old best friend.
• Pet first aid: Share basic first aid tips if you are trained in pet first aid or reach out to a local pet first aid instructor to offer more advanced training at an event you sponsor.
• Humane Society, ASPCA and rescue groups public education: If your town has an advocacy group appropriate to include in the event, speak with their leaders about offering a presentation to educate people on their particular local mission. As this previous blog post suggests, you may also offer to host workshops for their new adoptees on pet ownership and getting to know their new pet.

5. Harness the power of social media.

If your pet-care company is active on social media, you already have a built-in audience that likely includes clients and others in your community. Whether you use Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or another social-media platform, there are so many options for sharing your knowledge and establishing yourself as a local pet-care expert. Even better, the knowledge you share on social media can be easily shared with others—expanding your reach in your community!

Not sure how to share your pet-care expertise on social media? The possibilities are endless.

Here are just a few ideas:

• Share articles from reputable sources on important pet-care topics, such as pet nutrition, enrichment and more.
• Regularly post infographics and/or tips images that share relevant, timely pet information. These can be your own or from other sources, but always remember to properly attribute any infographics or images that are not your own.
• Use Facebook or Instagram Lives or Stories to host a pet-care Q&A, demonstrate a pet first aid skill, share seasonal pet tips, etc. Let them see you!
• Create a private Facebook group for local pet parents to share pet-related events, pet-care tips and more.
• Highlight your pet-care credentials, continuing education you participate in and any certifications you obtain on your company’s social-media pages. This blog post from PSI shares additional tips on how to highlight your pet-sitter credentials.

PSI members, if you are looking for inspiration for tips and resources you can post online, don't forget that PSI provides custom social-media images, suggested captions and trending articles to share in your free Monthly Member Toolkit.

Have any of these ideas worked for you? 

Have you employed any of these ideas for your pet-sitting service? Have you found that sharing your pet-care knowledge has built credibility with your current clients and attracted new ones? Share your experiences and tips in the comments section below.