There is no secret to be found when you’re looking to increase your client base.
It’s all about providing exactly what you’ve promised and building a top class reputation.
However, there are some additional actions you can take to build your business faster in the early stages. After all, the more satisfied clients you have, the more chance you have of gaining word-of-mouth referrals, and that’s what the success of your future years in business will be based upon.
Alternatively, you can check out our full guide to starting a dog walking business here.
So let’s take a look at what I consider the top 3 dog walking advertising ideas which really work.
Table of Contents
Top 3 Ways to Find More Dog Walking Clients
| Methods | Description |
|---|---|
| Create a Website – It’s not as hard as you think, I promise | Establish an online presence by creating a professional website to showcase your dog walking services. |
| Create Social Media Presences Targeted toward Your Ideal Clients | Utilize social media platforms to reach your target audience of potential clients who are interested in dog walking services. |
| Network with Other Dog Walkers – Both Professional and Owners | Connect with fellow dog walkers and engage in networking activities to build relationships and referrals within the dog walking community. |
Create a Website
How to create a website
Pay someone to do it
A web designer in the UK could charge anything between £10 and £100 per hour and it will take at least a day’s work to set up a simple website, longer if you want anything that is optimised for google and stands out above your competitors’ sites.
Do it yourself
If you’re just starting out you’re likely to be time rich and money poor so why not use the time learning how to do it yourself?
There are countless videos on youtube showing how to set up a website, even for complete beginners, and some videos are aimed specifically at users of certain providers, so it’s really easy to follow.
We like Namecheap for both your domain name and hosting.
Your domain name is the address you choose, e.g. our domain name is https://dogwalkingcoach.co.uk and the hosting package is storage space on a server where your website files live.
How to make sure yours is the first website shown in searches
When people take to google to search for a local dog walker the most common search term is “dog walker near me” and the second is “dog walker + city/town”
So you can see how important it is to make sure you include your service area when you present your business on google.
Gone are the days of ‘keyword stuffing’ where you could just use the name of your town as many times as possible and that would be enough to persuade google to show your website on page one.
Google will penalise your site if you try to cheat the system these days.
Instead, google rewards ‘helpful content’.
Helpful content is a website that matches the user’s search intent. For example, if I’m looking for a dog walker in Clapham, I want Google to show me a site from a dog walking service in Clapham, not Dagenham, Not east London as a wider area, not London.
Use your website to not only give your business address to help people locate you, but also use photographs of actual walks (google recognises backgrounds and will locate them without you having to use geotagging).
Connecting your Instagram account, Facebook and other social media accounts will help google see you as an ‘entity’, a real brand a business that has a wide reach across the internet, and not just someone who set up a website last week.
The last thing that helps your website show first to people is how old it is.
An aged website which is at least 6 months old is more likely to show up in Google. This is because Google sees many new websites come and go, so won’t really take any notice of yours for at least 6 months and even then you’ll need to make sure it’s updated regularly, at least one new page a month.
Social Media
It’s a great place to show existing clients what you’ve been up to with the dogs but you’ll also find new customers through social media too.
Matching your socials to your target clients is a sensible approach.
Set up Facebook and Instagram first.
Why? Because your clients will be people of working age and these two social media accounts will overlap all age ranges.
70% of Facebook users in the UK are in the age bracket of 25 to 65 which will be your core demographic group.
54% of Instagram users are in the age bracket 18 to 34 and this will catch any non-Facebook users in this younger demographic.
Don’t forget Google My Business!
When you search for businesses, on the results page google presents you with a map of where they are.
These businesses have added themselves to google maps by registering with them.
You can register with google here, it doesn’t take long and you don’t need to show your exact address on the listing.
Networking
Networking with other businesses is an excellent way to get your name out there and get business referred to you.
But don’t worry, networking doesn’t mean business breakfasts and suits.
Networking is as simple as popping into your local dog groomers, introducing yourself and leaving a few business cards or even a poster if they’re receptive to it.
Networking can also mean stopping to chat with other dog walkers, both professionals and owners. A great icebreaker is to ask them if the dog (or dogs) are theirs or if they’re a dog walker.
Established dog walkers should be happy to make a new business connection as they’ll be keen to refer enquiries to someone they know. Other newly started businesses might not be so keen to chat, but don’t take it personally, they are just trying to build their business there the same way you are.
It takes time
Keep in mind that it’s going to take time to build a new business, how long will depend on your area and how saturated it is with pro dog walkers.
Good luck with your business and I hope some of these tips help you.
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