Successful media pitching for pet businesses.

One of the most frequent requests I receive from pet businesses is assistance in writing a press release with the goal of having their product or service appear in a variety of publications or media.

What many don't realize is to have your product or service written up in a publication or appear in the media isn't as easy as writing a press release, posting it online and then sitting back and waiting to magically appear in the media.

There is much more involved in getting out a story of your business, your product or your service. Much more.

Consider this...

• Journalists and editors receive 100's of emails a day from companies looking to have them write about their product, business or service. Even my dog who has a blog receives well over 25 mails a day from pet companies looking for him to write about their information.
• People are busy. Journalists are busy. Editors are busy.
• Editors and journalists are working on stories every day. Some publish daily, some weekly, some monthly. And they have ideas of what these stories will be ahead of their deadlines.
• Each journalist generally focuses on certain specialties within their respective niche. 

Now that you understand and consider the above points, what do you do? Here are a few tips in helping your product, service or company get more notice and attention from the media:

Pitch a story, not a product or service

Sorry folks....your product or service isn't usually big news. What is news is the story behind the product or service, how it benefits pets or people with pets, how people have used it for success, how your product/service fits within the broader perspective of life, etc. Put yourself in the shoes of the journalist and think about the story behind your product/service and what may be of interest to their readers.

Target the right people and get to the point

Find out the journalists that cover the subject you are pitching. Not all journalists cover all stories, many specialize in specific areas. Those that match your pitch are the ones you want to target.

Get to the point! Remember these journalists are very busy. Don't just send them a press release; instead, why not suggest a few story ideas that will fit within the realm of your targeted journalists beat? And, getting to the point quickly, simply and succinctly will increase your chances of getting noticed within the sea of emails they receive daily.

Don't expect overnight success (yep, I said it)

Despite the fact that you may have the best story, product or service on the market, it's not a guarantee that journalists will write about you right away. Think of public and media relations as a journey. One press release does not a PR program make.

What you need to do is build a relationships with the media for long term success of your public relations and media relations program. By building a relationship with journalists you are showing that you are a reliable source who understands their needs and are there to help them when they need you.

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If you are looking for assistance in starting or improving your public or media relations program, feel free to contact Pawsible Marketing via email to schedule a time to discuss your needs.

Our top seven sites to find free use images for your pet business marketing

Eye catching, strong, luring, powerful images can make or break your brand.

Purchasing photos for your pet business can be expensive if you need them for a wide range of uses from your website and blog, to your marketing materials, social media and more.

There are some wonderful free use image sites that we use for a wide variety of projects for our clients, and for our own use.

Here are our top seven websites where you can find free use photos, for personal and commercial use, with no attribution required:

Pixabay is our favorite site to use. They have a wide range of wonderful images (vector, drawings and photos) of all types of animals, all public domain, all for use in personal or commercial applications, without attribution.

Free Range Stock has high quality stock photos for commercial and non-commercial use. For free.

Pickupimage allows free download of high quality premium free stock images and public domain photos. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. 

Pexels allows copying, modifying and distributing photos. they are free for personal and commercial use.

MorgueFile - On occasion we'll use this site, also with images free for use for personal or commercial purposes. But remember you cannot claim ownership of them.

Flickr Creative Commons provides access to all Flickr photos sorted by license. When searching remember to select 'public domain' to find images that don't require attribution.

PDPics provides public domain images taken by their in-house team of photographers. All free without attribution.

Remember, that photo at the top of this post? You can't use that. It belongs to Leslie May, Founder of Pawsible Marketing; and it is not allowed to be shared, copied, utilized or amended unless provided with permission of use and approval.

To learn more about what photos you are allowed to use and which photos you are not, refer to our blog post and learn more about copyright issues and image use.

How to make the most of your involvement following Global Pet Expo

Your wading through all the information, samples, business cards, photos and more from Global Pet Expo, so what's next?

After spending thousands of dollars it's imperative that you act now to make the most of your involvement whether you are a retailer looking to add new products and/or services to your business, or a manufacturer wanting to increase the sales of your products, or a service provider looking to gain more clients.

What you do now will make all the difference in reaching the expectations you had when your committed to attending Global Pet Expo.

The following are our top six essential things you need to do now to make the most of your involvement and recoup the marketing expenses you incurred to attend:

Thank everyone.
Sort through all the contacts you made at the show, review your notes and send thank you notes to visitors to your booth; whether they be high level current prospects or prospects for your future. Contact now will keep you top of mind with every visitor to your booth and help you begin to build a relationships with those you hope to work with soon and later.

Follow up, follow up, follow up.

I can't stress this enough with my clients to make following up with prospects and leads a top priority. According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), nearly 80% of leads generated are never followed up. Start by focusing on the top leads first, the most important prospects you made and those most seriously interested in what you have to offer; then progress through the remainder of your list. Remember you don't have to completely 'close the sale' at this point, the important thing is to 'close to the next step'.

Keep your promises.

Were you asked to send a sell sheet? A brochure? An order form? A replacement order? Did you receive new orders? Throughout the show, it's my bet that your top level and other prospects asked for something. Fulfill all your promises and requests as soon as you return to the office to positively maintain current and new business contacts, and build and solidify your relationship.

Measure your success.

We always recommend to our clients to perform a complete evaluation to gauge the success of involvement in Global Pet Expo, immediately following the show and six to eight months later. When evaluating your involvement measure the number of qualified and unqualified leads you received, the number of contacts and orders placed immediately and at later dates, the number and quality of other contacts you made, i.e., media, partnerships, private label ops, etc. Then weigh those potential and current sales against the cost of attendance to see the value of your involvement.

Get social.

If you haven't already we highly recommend you immediately post and talk about your involvement on all your social media sites. Hopefully you did this throughout the days of the show, as well. Show off your booth, talk and post about those you met, post photos and repost any important announcements you made at the show, go through your contacts social media and repost their involvement, and engage with your prospects and contacts, ask questions and more.

Keep top of mind.

The most important thing you can do is keep top of mind and do not let your contacts and leads forget about you. Remember, they are busy too. So, keep up with them over time. Sales don't happen overnight.

For more information about how you can get the most from your the trade shows you attend for your pet business, contact us today for a 30 minute free consultation.

Leslie May featured in new book about Entrepreneurial Women

Along with Oprah, Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray and Lillian Vernon, Leslie May, founder of Pawsible Marketing, is included as a contributor and highlighted in a new book, Entrepreneurial Women: New Management and Leadership Models, available on Amazon and Google Books.

In the chapter, 'You Are What You Brand,' author Louise Kelly reviews the history of personal and individual branding beginning with Lillian Vernon in the 1950's, through Oprah and Martha Stewart today, and explores the downside of creating a personal brand with the individual as the 'face' and the name of the brand.

Kelly highlights Leslie May as the creator of a brand that is positioned as an extension of the individual, rather than the individual herself, and why this positioning will help the company evolve and grow beyond the individual.



Entrepreneurial Women: New Management and Leadership Models explores how women everywhere are empowering themselves socially and economically through entrepreneurship and business ownership. The work draws on empirical studies, data sets, case studies, and descriptions of career trajectories to portray the realities of women entrepreneurs today.

Author Dr. Louise Kelly is a professor of Strategy at the School of Management at Alliant International University in San Diego, California. She has a PhD in Strategic Management from Concordia University, Montreal. She specializes in international strategic entrepreneurship research- looking at top management team leadership, from a social networks perspective,

Read more excerpts from the book.

Does shock advertising/marketing work?

Individuals are bombarded by advertising and marketing messages on a daily basis.

How many? If you Google the question you get a wide variety of answers with the most prolific information indicating individuals are exposed to anywhere from 247 to 3000 ads (via TV, websites, the Internet, radio, paper media and more). My estimate is more in the 250-500 range.

With all this bombardment, it's difficult to stand out in a sea of ads and get noticed by prospective and current customers.

This is why shocking advertisements have become 'popular.' Their aim is to "deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startle(s) and offend(s) its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals," according to Darren W. Dahl, et. al in a report from 2003 entitled "Does It Pay to Shock? Reactions to Shocking and Nonshocking Advertising Content among University Students."

Shock advertising may seem like it has it's advantages. It can be done with a lower budget, helping a company garner more attention per dollar spent. It can increase the chances of going viral on social media. And can be stickier to those targeted.

But the downside or disadvantages of shock advertising includes a high amount of creativity to pull off a successful shock campaign that may take a lot of targeted marketing research to estimate if the creative accomplishes the goal. And, if not done correctly, it can damage a brand if the ad 'crosses the line,' sometimes even to the point of inviting legal and regulatory issues.

Shock advertising may be effective and possibly lead to increased brand awareness and sales, but it may also be so negative with some consumers, that it creates a negative impression toward the brand.

In addition shock advertising is and has become 'ubiquitous,' losing it's 'shock' value and going out of favor by those who have become 'shell shocked,' leading to ineffectiveness, and potentially creating a negative impact, as well.

To understand how advertising works you have to understand that individuals react to advertisements from many perspectives, leaving their 'take away' varied in many ways.

The principle measure of ads and marketing communications is the recall of the commercial content. To make an ad effective individuals need to remember the brand as well as the product/service advertised.

If individuals feel anger, their anger may overshadow their memory of the ad message. If the ad is overly sexual for those that are offended by sexual content, the memory recall of the product/service may wane. If the ad isn't memorable at all, then the product and service will not be recalled. You see where this is going.

Matching the emotion of the ad to the specific target individual's potential emotional response to the ad is the key to memory recall and consequently allowing the individual to remember the product and/or service.

One of the biggest risks a firm takes in using shock advertising is that it can alienate its consumers and create a negative image in the minds of consumers. Studies have shown that consumers are less likely to buy products from a brand who uses offensive advertisements if similar products are available from a firm who does not make use of this type of advertising (An & Kim, 2006). 

What one person sees as offensive, another may find funny. Take the GoDaddy Super Bowl commercial for example. While the rescue and pet related community online (primarily baby boomers) was very offended and up in arms over the ad, many of the Gen Y, Gen X generation individuals I talked with who don't frequent the dog loving community online (but are dog and pet lovers) thought the ad was funny and meant to be a parody. Which is what I believe GoDaddy intended it to be.

These individuals also said to me that the ad didn't influence whether they would purchase the service providers products or services. Why is that?

These younger individuals have grown up on shock advertising. Nothing is surprising them anymore. Whereas the 'baby boomer' generation didn't really have shock advertising come into their lives until the 90's. So shock advertising may still be 'shocking' to them.

Is this a generational 'thing?'

I remember well the Brooke Shields Calvin Klein ad in the mid '90's. Showcasing a very young girl in a sexually suggestive ad was deemed 'blasphemous' by some. What individuals saw as shocking in the 90's would not even phase most people today.

Shock advertising really began with the fashion industry, utilizing sexual connotations within their ads to get attention. Soon advertisers saw that shocking individuals garnered more attention leading other industries to follow, including Volvo with their controversial crash ads, to several charitable organizations utilizing shocking images of AIDS patients, starving children and abused animals to get attention and consequently more donations.

Now shock advertising is nearly everywhere from BuzzFeed's 'shocking' attention getting headlines for mundane articles, to pet related websites geared toward the younger generations utilizing teaser and shock headlines to garner more traffic.

This movement is one reason that Dog Fancy and Cat Fancy have made their way to the rainbow bridge when taken over by I-5 Publishing, and have now gone the way of the new Catster and Dogster (more on that in a later post).

But the real question is does shock advertising/marketing work? Does it sell more product and services?

Advertisers, marketers, professors, university students and the media have debated that question for years. And as far as I know there are no scientific studies to say that they work or don't work.

Here is my advice if you are thinking of utilizing a little shock advertising and marketing for your pet business:

The one and only thing to really consider is your brand. Do you want your brand to be shocking, controversial, and potentially risk a negative connotation? Some pet businesses do and utilize shock advertising. But if you want to have a well-respected, well made product, provide the ultimate in customer service and showcase your brand as such, then shock advertising is probably not for your business.

The current demographic that purchases the most pet products and services (baby boomers) likes warm and fuzzy, they like funny with 'taste,' they like cute. However that will change with the move to millennials and the Gen Y & Z generations. You will have to utilize more attention-getting advertising and marketing tactics to stand out from the crowd. Remember, they have seen a lot of 'shocking' things, much more at their age than baby boomers.

But the key will be how to garner their attention without creating a negative connotation to your brand. Creativity will be key.

For more information about how you can be more effective with your advertising and marketing, email us to schedule a time for a free 30 minutes consultation.

Sources:
Journal of Advertising Research
AAAA 
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 
Business Perspectives

Photos courtesy of Leslie May (her Gracie is always shocked by something, usually a squirrel.)

A little known Instagram trick that will drive traffic to your pet business website.

If you use Instagram to help market your pet business, you are probably aware that when you post there isn't an option to add a click-able link in your Instagram post that could potential drive traffic to your website and potentially increase sales.

But one thing you can do to help drive more traffic and utilize Instagram further as the wonderful potential marketing tactic is to do what Mashable has been doing for several months with good results.

Every time you post on Instagram, add a message to your post to remind individuals to click the link in your profile for more information. Then customize the link in your profile to a tiny url (utilizing Bit.ly or your own tinyurl) to drive traffic to specific related information on your website or blog.

You can see an example from Mashable here:

It seems that Mashable is seeing a good amount of increased traffic to their site through this method. And, it could be a great marketing idea for your pet business as well.