How To Use Pets In Your Marketing

“Small Business Stacey” shares marketing lessons learned from her dog Sami and how to use pets in her marketing. Followed up by  “Small Business Stacey” going on a rant about that pacifier in your hand. #SmallBizMarketingSpecialist

Episode Summary:

Hello everybody. Welcome to the Small Biz Life Show. I’m “Small Business Stacey” and today I have three very important things I want to talk to you about. First I want to share my doggie here, Sami.

Many of you know Sami. She’s been on our shows for many years, but unfortunately, I think today’s going to be the last day. She’s here with us live on the show. Sami’s not doing very well. She has cancer in her mouth, which as you can see has spread to her eye, and so, unfortunately, it’s getting harder for her to eat and Sami, I think, she is just ready to move on. So I’m so grateful to have had a dog in my life.

You see, when I grew up, I never had a dog. But I’ve learned that dogs, they help you personally and they help you professionally. They’re a great tool to actually use as part of your marketing strategy. Now, Sami came into our life a 10 and a half years ago because this was a time, 2008, when… if you know my back story… my world fell apart. $500,000 in debt. All these stores, didn’t know where my next customer was coming from and my husband, Digital Dave, he said, “You know what Stacy? We’re going to get a dog. It’s going to bring our family together and change things for the better. And he was absolutely right. I now know why they call them man’s/women’s best friend. Sami has been there every day for me. She sits outside of my office, guards me like a hawk, and my employees love her to pieces. Her job was to make people smile and that’s exactly what she’s done. So I am so grateful to have had Sami in my life.

And dogs/pets are a great tool. I hate to call them a tool, but you can use them in your marketing because everybody loves pets, it seems. And I was actually reading some materials that showed that even millennials, they’re actually having more dogs than they are children. So I’ve been helping one of my clients leverage the power of dog marketing/power of pet marketing. She has a dog as well, and she loves her dog. She takes this dog with her everywhere she goes, on appointments and such. So, I’ve been helping her leverage this and want to share with you a picture that I’ve been posting on social media. So hold on one second and I’ll share my screen.

This is a graphic that we came up with for my client, Kelly and her dog, Marley for National Take Your Dog to Work Day, right? I’m all about the power of holidays and leveraging this in your marketing. So Kelly literally took her dog, big Marley, to work. So think about how you can leverage pets. It doesn’t have to be a dog. Cats, fish, lizards, snakes, whatever your favorite pet is. Leverage that in your pet marketing because people love that, especially on social media.

Okay, I’m back. Oh, I’m coming to you with a rant, but I’m missing my prop. Darn it. Alright, my rant today was about that thing called a cell phone. I know you have one. You might even be on it right now. So my rant is about how so many small business owners treat this as a pacifier. It’s almost like it’s a baby thing, right? And the problem with it is, is that every time you go on it, you get this little dopamine burst, right? It makes you feel good. It boosts that adrenaline because people and makes you feel important because you have an email or you post something on social and then people like it. So you want to post more crazy, obtuse things because then more people like it.

Well, what it does is take you away from focusing on what you really should be doing. Marketing your business. This is really just such a problem. I mean, look at people walking down the street. They’re glued to their phone. Almost… and this is true, I don’t know the exact stats, but so many people are literally getting hit by cars because they’re not paying attention. They’re glued to this thing called a cell phone. Now, I think it’s a great tool. It has a purpose. Yes, you can pick it up and talk to somebody. And yes, it’s okay to log on and it has some great apps and things that make us more productive, but it shouldn’t be a pacifier, and you shouldn’t use it as an excuse to not do your marketing or run your business because you want to run on and check your phone, your social media, and get another burst of dopamine. So that’s my rant for today. Let me see. Does anybody agree with that?

Yes. Thank you. I agree. All right. I think Sami’s little bit passed out here. She’s sort of had a rough, rough day. So thanks for tuning in today, this is Small Business Stacey, your Small Biz Marketing Specialist, here to help you get your marketing into A-C-T-I-O-N and help you become a #SmallBizMarketingWiz. Have a great week everybody. Bye Bye.