PR for Pet Products: 5 Things You Need to Build Brand Awareness
Written by Jennifer LaVoie-Trimble, Publicist
If you are a business in the pet industry you are one “lucky dog!” Your playful and practical products help us care for our beloved pets daily, and we thank you for that. It takes great innovation to stand out in an industry packed full of products designed to make a pet and pet parent’s life a little easier.
As a dog mom and publicist, everyday for me is a “walk in the park.” I love to share the products I represent and please know that I use them myself when walking daily in my neighborhood. It’s great to work with solutions that make me happier, and make my dog happier too.
Here are some ways you can build continuous brand awareness and PR for your pet products.
Identify Your Audience
First you need to know your demographic, audience, target market and note your most loyal customers. Are they families with children? Are they couples or singles? What age are they? How many pets do they typically own? Do they live in the city or a rural area, home or apartment? What’s their income level? Do they like to learn about new products from their phone, their desktop computer/ laptop, apps, or from TV, radio, magazine, newspaper, digital sites and social media mentions? This will help us understand how to most effectively reach your customer base. You may have multiple audiences targeted, in which case the key will be using the right messaging to appeal to each one.
Raise Visibility with PR for
A public relations campaign can elevate the visibility of your pet products. In addition to building brand awareness, PR can give you valuable insight into which types of publications and websites your audience is most engaged with. Not every PR mention is going to result in a measurable sales increase, but it will result in more quality backlinks for your SEO, more credibility for your brand, and more eyes on your product. We encourage companies to stay positive, be optimistic and also realistic in joining a PR campaign. PR is often a long game strategy and should be recognized as such. You know the old marketing saying, it takes 8 touchpoints to lead to a sale? Well, PR is able to provide those touchpoints.
Partner with Complementary Businesses
Another great way to spread brand awareness is to align your business with other complementary businesses. This allows you and your PR team to reach out to share a variety of products that add something into your daily routine with your pet. The media enjoys learning about groups of newly released products that have a solution for pet owners to help care for their pets and once securing their interest can play a large role in the branding of your business. At Orca Communications, we have perfected the group pitch, which allows us to introduce multiple brands to the press simultaneously. At Orca, we match you up with complementary products for PR, but there are many other ways you may find to build out partnership relationships including cross-promoting on each other’s websites and social media, bundling products for sale together and/or reselling each other’s products.
Grow Your Social Media Presence
Social media can play such a big part of marketing for your business. Everything from your brand logo, to product demonstrations, to customer success stories, to noteworthy posts about your most reputable media placements – these types of posts all lead to more enthusiasm and trust in your brand. The content you provide on social media can also guide potential customers back to your website to make a purchase.
Foster Loyal Returning Customers
Your biggest brand enthusiasts and ambassadors are your customers. Use them to spread the word about your company. Share their feedback and success stories with your PR team so they can brag about your brand to the press. The more positive news your PR team can share, the better! Manage and link your connections with your loyal customers through email communications, newsletters, social media shoutouts and more. Invite them to be part of helpful feedback for your business. Encourage them to share photos of their pets enjoying the experience with new products. And offer incentives for their own pet if they refer a customer to your company.
We have no doubt your product is the “cat’s meow” and at Orca we love to help inventors and entrepreneurs get the word out about their amazing products through PR for pet products. We hope these tips will give you some areas to focus on to build up awareness…and please know we are here to help!