Pawsible Marketing Blog

Tools to more efficiently and effectively run your pet business.

There are a lot of tools, apps and websites that I use to help me be more productive throughout the day.

Today I thought I would share them with you in the hopes that they may help you be more effective and efficient in running your pet business.

Let's get started...

Hootsuite.com - A great Twitter tool that helps me manage three Twitter accounts, plus my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Not only does it message my social network accounts, it allows me to schedule those messages ahead of time. And I can view analytics associated with those messages as well. The free version allows a total of five total social network profiles. The Pro paid version starts with additional capabilities starts at $5.99 per month.

Twitter - For my Blackberry I have both Twhirl and UberTwitter installed to help me Tweet and keep up with Tweets. And I just recently installed Hootsuite for BB to post and schedule messages to all of my accounts.

Evernote.com - One of my favorite tools to keep track of notes, planned tweets and Facebook messages, and ideas for clients and blog posts. I can use it on my computer and on my Blackberry. It's completely searchable and a great little tool. Free too.

Pixlr.com - A great little image editing tool when I don't want to open up Photoshop, and Microsoft Picture Manager isn't enough.

Tether - When I'm on the road, or the Internet goes out, I use Tether with my Blackberry. A version is also available for the Android. Just purchase ($49.99) an app (or try 30 days free) to your computer and mobile phone, connect via usb or bluetooth and you've got connectivity to the Internet for your computer. I use it on my Netbook. Works great and the speed is just as good as cable. Great for when you're on the road.

Google Reader - I subscribe to a lot of blogs. To catch up on my blog reading I turn to Google Reader to quickly scan all available new posts from those blogs I follow. Keeps me up-to-date quickly and easily.

Google Alerts - Helps me keep track of all the news and internet buzz and info available that I watch and want to keep up-to-date with on a daily basis. I just enter a search term, set the alert and Google automatically finds and delivers articles about the subjects I care about to my inbox.

Remember The Milk - One of my favorite tools for creating and managing reminders and to do lists, beyond using Outlook.

YouSendIt - My favorite way to send very large files that my email provider can't handle. Free for up to 100MB, pay as you go for additional MB's.

SlideShare - The best way to share and provide a way to embed your presentations, pdfs and documents. Also integrated with FB and LinkedIn.

Prezi.com - My new favorite presentation tool. Love the customization, fun and interesting way it allows you to cover a subject and present it in an interesting way. Embedding and YouTube integration as well.

Skype - The only way I keep in touch with clients via video or outside of the US.

Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premiere Elements - My favorite tools for editing photos, creating graphics; and for editing and creating videos.

Instant Eyedropper - If I ever want to find out the color (and the corresponding HTML number) on a web page, it's Instant Eyedropper to the rescue. Free download.

Firefox/Chrome - I use both Firefox and Chrome as my Internet browsers. Love the Firefox add ons, and Chrome extensions that you can install to really get the most out of web browsing be more productive.

Xmarks - A must for keeping my bookmarks sync'd across all the web browsers I may be using throughout the day on my two computers. You can also access them via mobile phone through their mobile website.

Fireshot - Great Firefox add-on tool for capturing web pages in image format as full pages or screen size.

flickr - My favorite site for storing images online and photo sharing. I've been using this site for over five years and have never had any issues. Also has short video capabilities. Perfect for adding photos to the side of my blogs or on Squidoo, or sharing a quick video.

Blogging - Blogger.com is my choice for a blogging platform. It's easy to use for a beginner, yet very customizable for the advanced user. I use it for all four of my blogs, including this one. I've been using it for over five years and love it.

That's a start...most all of these sites, programs, apps and tools I use everyday to save time and money!

Before you flip that switch...

Today I was thumbing through a consumer dog magazine and found an ad for a product that I thought was interesting...maybe something for my dog, Johann.

First thing I did was type in the url for the website I found in the advertisement. Then clicked on the product that I was interested in.

Guess what I found. "Error: page not found."

Very discouraging. Would I save that url and go back another time to see if the page was working? Would I press the contact button and let the company personnel know their website page wasn't working? Would I come back and maybe purchase that product another time?

Nope...just too busy, have to move on. And it's such a shame, isn't it? I'm sure the company paid a lot of money to advertise their product in this high-gloss, high circulation dog magazine.

Remember: You only have one shot, one opportunity to grab your audience and sell them with any marketing tactic you undertake. Sad to say they missed this opportunity, and probably many others that saw the ad.

Moral of the story? Before you flip that switch on a new advertising or marketing campaign, check and make sure everything is in place for the best opportunity for potential customers to see, and hopefully buy, your product or service.

What are your expectations for your pet business this Holiday season?

All indicators show this will be a good holiday season for retailers and other businesses, especially for the pet industry. Tell us...what are your expectations for your pet business this holiday season?

Get the most out of your Holiday season!

Now is the time for Holiday sales!!! Are you ready?

"The majority of online retailers expect strong sales this holiday season,"according to a recent survey by the National Retail Federation’s Digital Division, Shop.org.

In another recent article, a USA Today analyst indicated, "purchases of TVs, jewelry, recreational vehicles and pet supplies are growing robustly, government data show."

"Organic dog food, timed cat food dispensers and other high-end pet items are driving healthy increases in spending, says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Association. "People are cutting back on themselves more than they're cutting back on pets."

"Pet products illustrate how some consumers are going high end and others low end. Cheap pet food is selling briskly, reflecting the weak economy, at the same time costly items are thriving," he says. "It's the middle of the market that's shrinking," he Vetere.

All very good news for our industry!

Hopefully you've prepared all your Holiday products in the stores, you've worked with retailers on product displays and promotions, you've lined up all your clients, and more...so how do you get the most of your Holiday season? Make it work! (as Tim Gunn would say). But how?

The Holidays are all about grabbing attention, getting noticed above the noise, and deals, deals, deals...especially in this down economy. Here are my favorite Holiday promotion tips for retailers, service providers and manufacturers:

Promote, promote, promote! Whatever you are offering, make sure people know about it. Remember that it takes many touches for someone to actually even notice you. Don't be shy, but don't overdo your promotion either. Walk the fine line.
Hold a contest or event to draw people to your store or product. Photo contests are very overdone at Holiday time. Come up with a creative, fun and enticing contest or event to drive traffic. Start with a Holiday theme promotion that will carry you through the entire holiday season and help you market utilizing all the tactics in your arsenal.
Don't forget the less fortunate this holiday season. Work in a charitable element to your promotions or events if you are a retailer or service provider, it will help the pets in need and get you noticed as well. And if you're a manufacturer, work with your retailers in helping raise funds for unfortunate pets within their area or community!
Work with brick 'n mortar retailers if you are a manufacturer to offer coupons and deals to their customers....build that loyalty that will last over time.
If you're online, offer free shipping. Free shipping will be 'the deal' all pet lovers will be looking for to save them time and money during the busy Holiday season.
Use Facebook to promote a contest, event, coupon deal or special offer! Incorporate them 'liking' your page to build a strong base of long term followers.
Offer deals on Twitter. A short sweet coupon code will draw attention and drive traffic and sales.
Don't forget your email list...use it to offer special deals, offers and promotions to past and future customers.
Work your social media sites together to take full advantage of getting the word out. Start with your blog or Facebook to announce your deal, special offer, contest or event. Then promote though your other sites. Remember to drive them to your website to purchase!
Cross promote your Holiday promotions through all types of online and offline marketing tactics to further your reach.
Don't forget the "would you like fries with that" upsell marketing tactic that can increase the incremental individual sale.
Limit your deals and promotions to convince potential customers to act and buy now.
Make your website a special holiday door that opens to amazing deals, offers, education and fun! Create a holiday destination just for pets and draw people back time and time again though the Holiday season.
Promote your events and contests through the local and online media. Ask a media celebrity to be a judge, and/or work with your local media to do an onsite broadcast.
Set up a calendar to organize your promotions throughout the Holiday season, it will keep you on target, organized and make promoting easier during this busy time.

Now, get busy and make this Holiday season your best in years!

If you need assistance, we're here to help you create a last minute, all conclusive, holiday plan that will help you maximize your sales for the best potential holiday season possible. Just send us an email to get started.

Here are a few things we can specifically help you with:

Learn how you can effectively communicate with your individual audience through the holiday season and drive more sales.
Get a great list of creative, fun, traffic building promotions and suggestions for your individual business.
Receive a review of your currently holiday plan and learn how you can improve to maximize your sales and services; and get the most of the holidays.
Get unique and individualized marketing tips and ideas to focus your holiday plan specifically to your audience and build traffic to your site, your product and your store.

Measuring your pet business social media program

You blog, you post, you comment, you tweet, you stumble, you Facebook...you've been using it.

The real question is....is it working?

"How do I measure my social media investment?," is one of the most asked questions from my clients...as it should be! Social media may not be as expensive as other forms of marketing, but it does take time and time is money.

I've been measuring marketing programs for over 20 years; everything from advertising, direct mail, pr, to trade shows, events and more. It's a must for any marketer to determine a marketing activities' value and worth in increasing the bottom line of their company.

So how do you measure your social media program? We've put together a presentation to help you understand the elements of determining the goals of your social media program, how and what to track, and how to trend, evaluate and analyze your program in relation to your goals and objectives.

Measuring your pet business social media program on Prezi

The most difficult part of social media measurement is interpreting and evaluating the data. Once you have gathered all the data, input it into a bar chart or graph and correlate it to your objective. For instance, if you want to track increased sales, determine your quantitative markers, i.e., fans, followers, traffic, comments, interactions, etc., in relation to your sales.

Do you see trends? If so, you will be able to tell in some relation what brought upon that up-tick in sales...was it Facebook? Twitter? Blogging? Then by taking this information you can best

revise and refine your social media program accordingly to increase it's effectiveness.

This is the key to measuring ROI (return on investment) and ROE (return

on engagement).

Successes and disappointments in conducting a social media program may not be immediately visible when measuring your social media. You need to evaluate both quantitative and qualitative data (see presentation) and evaluate it based on the present, to help you act on the future.

If you're not seeing the results you expect, evaluate and be sure to ask yourself:

Are you targeting the right people?

Are your messages speaking to them?

Are you engaging your audience?

The companies with the most successful social media programs are those that answer yes to these questions and act accordingly and with vigor.