PetBiz Branding - Helping Pet Businesses Stand Out In A Crowd - by Laura Togerson

Let’s get right too it shall we?

1. Inviting color scheme - make sure your website has a nice flowing color scheme that doesn’t take over your whole website. In the Pet business, you need to create a welcoming , warm and fuzzy feeling when your clients land on your page. Over powering color schemes if too bold and strong may not create the sense of warm and fuzzy, but rather bold and harsh.  Remember, color says everything and it’s just not the color alone, but how you combine the colors to flow and become eye pleasing and not create a sense of hysteria!
2. Logo and Branding - along with picking the right color scheme you pet sitters and dog walkers MUST MUST MUST have a logo!  Your logo must crisp, clear and not a fuzzy pixel picture found on the internet.  However, you can find many wonderful and professional logos in some cool places on the net for business branding – but if you can afford it – you should think “original”.  A basic logo starts at $50 and up – a completely personalized logo – hand drawn and or individually computerized will start at $150.00 and up.  This is WORTH every penny! The most important investment is your BRANDING!
3. Organization - Oh my – this is something often seen  ( not organized with a purpose ) with websites of all kinds. Have a purpose for your material on your website. Don’t just place it somewhere because it’s something you want others to see. Ask yourself – What purpose does it serve? Is it important to my pet website purpose? Is it going to make the sale? Organize your material. I’ll write another article on this!
4. Purpose – As per above, you need to be organized with your website and it’s material, but here you also need a purpose for each page of your website and the material you place on it.  Ask yourself again, what is the purpose of this page? What is it’s function? What will it do? Will sell my services? Or does it just make me look busy? Have a purpose for everything.
5. More Is Not Better - We want to keep clients at our pet websites, but I can tell you , they won’t stay forever.  It’s important that you capture your client, but then you must DELIVER AND DELIVER QUICKLY! What do I mean? – Give the information they want to know. They want to know your prices, your services. Make sure they can get there easily, make sure this information is easily found and your website is set up in such way that you know you captivated, now you need to deliver.  Do not fill your websites up with junk or with posts and pages and information that rambles on and on. It won’t work, it won’t keep them and if anything, it will exhaust.
6. Don’t Repeat Stuff - sometimes people create website and every page seems to have the same information, or is another explanation of another post, or another page. It’s almost like you can’t get away from the same words, phrases or explanations. Ever seen this? ahhhhhh – it’s like being in a maze.  Each page again needs to have a purpose. Deliver it, but do it in a way that gives the information without using excess words and unnecessary explanations.
7. Short Pages -Minimize scrolling - What I mean by this is that each page created on your website should ONLY be relative to what the page is about.  In our line of business, ( pet related ), we don’t need to explain with a 1050 pixel long post.  Again, keep in mind that people want to be “CAPTURED and CAPTIVATED” and then they want to call you. Deliver in short pages when possible.
8. Call To Action – Quite a common problem. Make sure your phone number is either in your header or  have your CONTACT link as the last link on the right of your navigation bar for straight navigation bars and either on top or on bottom of side navigation bars.   Keep it simple, do not become repetitive where you have your phone number and links EVERY WHERE! Clients will see it at the top, bottom and in your footer and this is enough.
9. Think Out Of The Box - Why is this number 9? Because I believe that we need to always be thinking about our website – especially it’s function for the lifetime of the website.  Once your branding and color scheme and layout is perfected you don’t need to think too much about this anymore – but your pet website function you do and should always analyze.  Why? To ensure it is working for YOU. Is it doing it’s job? Is it delivering your information? Is CAPTURING AND CAPTIVATING and it’s not always about design, it can be about the layout, the order of material, too much information on the front, feelings of being overwhelmed with unnecessary material and information.  We want to build our websites with quality – especially if you are blogging using our CMS type website design.   Even this needs to be done with purpose.  What isn’t working needs to change.
10. UPDATE YOUR WEBSITES – no need to be static – the most impressive websites I believe are the ones that create fascination through ever changing and updating of information.  This could be a new blog post, events in your community that your business is involved in. Taking all the above into consideration, you can constantly create a spark between your website and your current and potential clients through changes that are RELATIVE, AND HAVE A PURPOSE.

Analytics whether by Google or another company is a great source of knowledge for your website – yes it is true – but doesn’t always tell the full truth about  how your website is working for you.  I truly believe that if you are receiving the expected calls for new inquires for your pet services – this will be the truth you should be looking for. If you have been reading my posts here at PetBiz Branding, you will understand that there is are so many important factors that go into your website in order to “capture and captivate” your visitors who land on your website.  The goal is simple. You want your visitors to STAY at your website and call you for pet services. But how do you make them stay?

First, you must have a fabulous, inviting design for your pet website.  You are after all, selling pet care services, the warm and fuzzies and therefore, your website should reflect this. You don’t need to be a cartoon, nor do you need to make child like websites to accomplish this, but you do need to plan carefully as to just what type of design will do the work for you. Who is your audience? What do you want them to feel when they land on your page? After they feel what you want them to feel, what do you want them do? How do you make them do it? See where I am going here?  Does your current website do this for you? I dare you to go to your website right now and have a look. Can you pretend you are client looking for services and pretend to be a potential client?  Do you follow this general path when you land your website?

Gail REAL Feedback!

Keep track of your calls coming in, be sure to ask your potential clients how they found you and ask them even what they liked or disliked about your website once you are in a comfortable position during your consultation. Tell your clients as a part of your “tie up” in a consultation that as a part of your “Constant Improvement Plan” for your company you would like to gain feed back about your website. Create a few easy and simple questions about your website to ask your client at the end of your consultations. Gain the REAL feedback!

Is your website working for you? How can it be improved?