How Do I Market Myself As a Pet Sitter?
If you’ve been dog sitting for a while and are considering becoming a professional pet sitter full-time, welcome! Pet sitting professionally can be a rewarding and flexible career that not only lets you meet interesting people — but more importantly — their wonderful and unique pets.
However, as you’re probably realizing, there’s a lot more than dog walking to do when it comes to creating a small business and a reliable client base. If you’re uncertain of how to start marketing yourself as a pet sitter, keep reading. We’ll walk you through it in four easy steps.
Step 1: Branding Yourself Correctly
Branding is the first step to marketing; you need to have a coherent presentation for your business before you put any ads out. While there are thousands of aspects that can go into branding, when you’re starting out, it’s best to focus on the basics like your company name, logo, fonts, and color palette.
You can build these out for yourself using free or affordable tools. Some of them, such as Canva, also provide a wealth of free design advice and training. You can also outsource steps like the logo and color palette creation to professionals using Fiverr or similar marketplaces. When you’re ready, you can even engage with a marketing or brand agency to take your brand to the next level.
When you create your branding, known as a “Branding Kit,” it needs to be memorable, evocative, and accessible.
Memorable | The name you use should be unique (not in use by another company) and easy for clients to remember. Consistency is also important; once you settle on your branding, use the same choices across all your platforms.
Evocative | Everything from the color to the fonts should support the vibe of your business and client base. Remember that some clients will only have a brief exposure to your marketing, so think carefully about how you want it to make your potential customers feel.
Accessible | It doesn’t matter how cool your font is if no one can read it; always choose legibility over style. You should also consider how your design and color palette will look to colorblind people (You can use tools like Color Oracle or Sim Daltonism to check your work.) Depending on where you live, accessibility could also mean advertising in multiple languages.
Step 2: Establishing Your Web Presence
When building a web presence, the main avenues you need to cover are an official website and social media. If you can make a larger investment upfront, this could mean buying the URL for your company’s name and designing a website. However, there are also sites like Wix that allow you to create a site with limited functionality before purchasing a URL.
If you’re just starting out, it may make more sense to stick with just a social media presence. You’ll need to make an account for your business across all relevant social media platforms. Even if you don’t plan to post on every platform, it’s a good idea to reserve your “official” handle.
Protip: Check to see if the name you want is available everywhere before you make the first profile.
Another facet of your digital presence, whether it be on social or your website, is how you talk about your expertise. Highlight your experience and certifications so that your clients know how well you’ll be able to care for their pets.
If you have any of these certifications, talk about how this training influences your work (and if you don’t have them, look into it!):
NAPPS (National Association of Professional Pet Sitters) Certification
Pet First Aid Training
Ask at your local vet or check out the Red Cross for online training.
Step 3: Networking with Local Pet Owners
Once you know what your marketing will look and sound like, it’s time to spread the word! Start from whatever network you have, and work out from there. If you already have clients, you can ask them for reviews or to pass along a business card to their friends.
You can also make fliers with your new branding that quickly encapsulate the services you offer and how to contact you. Try out print and online versions to see what works best for you, as there are likely lots of places that you can advertise for local clients for low or no cost.
Think about where your ideal client spends their time, and put your ad there; try places like:
community boards at your local dog parks, library, grocery store, church, or cafe.
local Facebook groups for pet owners, neighborhood groups, or Facebook Marketplace
local street fairs, holiday festivals, or small business events
ask for referrals from your local pet stores, veterinarians, or dog trainers
Pro Tip: Build a relationship with the store, vet, trainer, Facebook group, or community before asking for referrals. Going in cold lessens your chance of referral and could be a waste of time. Socialize, get to know people, and let them experience your professionalism and expertise firsthand.
Step 4: Social Media Marketing
Social media can be a great way to let the world know about the good work that you’re doing and enable new clients to find you. But like many aspects of marketing, it can become a full-time job on its own, so create a plan for your posts and stick to it.
We suggest you start with posting on only one platform, and choose that platform based on the demographic of clients you want to target. Primarily work with older customers: Facebook is the way to go. Gen X and Millennials? Instagram. Gen-Z? TikTok.
Choose wisely and don’t fall into the trap of trying to post on all platforms at once. You won’t be able to reach everyone, and that’s ok. Trying to be everything to everyone means you will become nothing and no one.
Even posting once per week is enough to show that you maintain an active social media presence and will likely respond if a prospective client were to message you with a question.
Try to keep your posts related to the core aspects of your pet-sitting business, but don’t be afraid to have a little fun. This lets the algorithms know what to expect from you and helps your followers get to know you as well. Also, always ask before posting a picture of someone else’s pets.
How do I become a successful pet sitter?
Successful pet sitters know how to ease anxieties in pet owners as well as pets. They communicate professionally and ask proactive questions about the animals’ needs. Emergencies are rare with successful pet sitters, not because of luck, but because they care as much about safety as they do about playing with dogs and keeping them happy.
The things that make you a great pet sitter don’t necessarily make you a great marketer. If you’re not ready to go it alone as a small pet-sitting business, but feel ready to move on from a mass-marketplace like Wag! or Rover, we encourage you to look to local pet-sitting agencies for hiring opportunities as well.
Professional pet-sitting agencies help maintain a high level of quality for both the pet sitters and clients. They’ll handle things like licensing, insurance, marketing, client vetting, and other red tape, while you can focus on pet care. If you’re in the San Francisco, CA area, we hope you’ll reach out to us at G&G Pets. We bring together professional pet sitters with reliable clients and build long-term pet-sitting relationships. You can learn more about our open positions here.
The information provided by Grand & Graham Pets (G&G Pets) on https://www.grandgrahampets.com is for general informational purposes only. It does not represent medical or training pet care advice. All information on the blog is provided in good faith, however, we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, or completeness of any information on the blog. Under no circumstances shall we have any liability to you for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of the blog or reliance on any information provided on the blog. Your use of the blog and your reliance on any information on the blog is undertaken solely at your own risk. All text content of this blog is the property of Grand & Graham Pets and is therefore subject to copyright protection and not for reproduction or reuse. By accessing or using the website, blog, any materials, content, or intellectual property owned by the Owner, you acknowledge and agree to the terms of this Disclaimer. For more information, please see our full Disclaimer.
