Content marketing can be a powerful tool for your pet business.

Content marketing can be an amazing marketing tool for your pet business.

What is content marketing?

"Content marketing is a marketing activity revolving around the creation and distribution of relevant and valuable content and information to engage, attract, and acquire a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of increased sales."

For pet businesses, with millions of pet owners, content marketing can be very powerful as this audience is always on the hunt for information to help their pets with health and wellness issues, new and innovative products, activities and fun things to do, the latest news and information, and more.

By providing rich, original content to your target market and audience, you have the ability to attract and draw this prospective audience right to you virtual or physical doorstep, if you do it right.

Here are a few key thoughts that I've found to make a content marketing program for pet businesses the most successful:

• Content marketing is not an 'island.' By integrating your content marketing into your marketing mix and utilizing all your marketing resources together and effectively can greatly increase your marketing efforts and stretch your marketing dollar.
  
  
• The content you provide needs to be original, geared and targeted to your specific audience, whether it be national or local in scope, and designed to engage and attract.
  
  
• There are various ways to provide content marketing including via a blog, YouTube, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, email newsletters or via your website, all designed around your brand and your expertise.
  
  
• Experimenting with your content, and consequently gauging acceptance and response from your target audience can provide valuable insight into what your customers and prospective customers want and need from your pet business.
  
  
• Your content needs to be the best in your pet business niche to stand out from the crowd, and as a result can effectively build your brand and increase sales.
  
  

• The planning of your annual content marketing is imperative, and delivering on that plan is very important to providing a reliable and consistent program that your pet business audience can rely on and trust, and come back for more, often.
  


• To outsource or not to outsource? That's a big question. You may be able to outsource your content marketing program, but if you do make certain that your provider is creating original content (not content copied from other sources) and be sure that the content your outsourcer provides is powerful, extremely relevant to your audience and provides a consistent voice for your brand. Outsourcer must be experienced, and fully understand and have the ability to speak to your audience.
  


• Content marketing can be time sensitive. Pet parent issues often are seasonal in nature, revolve around holidays, and can be reactive to national and local news related issues. Be prepared to move quickly with your content when the need arises.
  

If you do decide to add content marketing to your marketing mix, be sure you are ready for task, plan your program well, deliver original, relevant and powerful content that helps your pet business stand out from the crowd to provide the most effective informational program to increase sales for your pet business.

For more information about how to add content marketing efficiently and effectively to your marketing mix, feel free to contact Pawsible Marketing for assistance in building your program for the highest level of effectiveness for your pet business.

Photo credits: DougWoods and Angela N.