PET STORE
Event marketing

Part of our philosophy at Pet Engine Marketing is that as far as retail goes…your store isn’t special. Sorry about that. People can buy products anywhere. They can go to another store, they could go to a big-box retailer, they could purchase it from any number of online or eCommerce businesses.

But they go to your pet store because they love the experience there. Something you do, something about the way that they or their pet feels when they come into your store, makes them keep coming back.

Your pet store is more than your products, your promotions, or your prices. There’s a highly emotional aspect to building brand loyalty and part of that comes from having events at your pet store. These events bring people into the store for reasons other than retail (although they’ll spend money while they’re there), they make people and pets happy, they build or add to your community, and they are fun for you, your staff, and your customers!

Ready to host events, make money, and become a true pillar in your local community? At Pet Engine Marketing, we are able to provide pet store event marketing as part of our Full-Service Pet Store Marketing Partnership. You can always book a free call to get an audit, some quick recommendations, and a meeting with one of our pet store marketing experts absolutely, 100% free. Just contact us to set that up!

Pet Store Event MARKETING

Pet Store Event Marketing for the 21st century

Our team at Pet Engine Marketing has used primarily digital tools and strategies to be successful (check out our work and case studies!)in building awareness, driving conversions, and getting feet in the store when it comes to pet store events, but we aren’t against using the occasional traditional or print media to help. We work hard to help our pet store clients manage, organize, and promote their events that drive sales and build customer loyalty.

We have met pet store owners that hold events every week and do it so well that they are constantly having people come to visit for these events! Ultimately, it takes some creativity, partnerships, and promotions to make something like that happen.

But like any skill, it can be improved and ramped up over time. Let’s dig into these three areas of pet store event marketing:

1. Pet Store Events That Drive Sales

2. Promoting Pet Store Events

3. Partnerships for Pet Store Events

A little bit more information on these three should get you off and running to start organizing and launching your own events! We love events because they increase sales, build customer loyalty, bring new people into the business, provide access to new channels, and promote direct interaction with customers.

Pet Store Events That Drive Sales

Yep, this is what we’re after. The main goal is to get people in the store, although virtual events are certainly on the rise. Browse through some of these ideas that we use with our pet store marketing clients to drive sales:

• Customer Appreciation Day or Anniversaries

• Puppy Playtime (or Bark in the Park)

• Photoshoots (Pawpurratzzi)

• Adoption Events

• Educational Events or Workshops

• Yappy Hour

• Holiday Pawties or Sales

• Vaccinations and/or Microchipping

In tandem with these events, we utilize a handful of promotional strategies and tactics to ensure that we get the word out to both current customers and potential new customers. In order to run a highly successful event, we strive to provide value in several ways. We like retail incentives like coupons, discounts, sales, double points, or freebies. We also stay cognizant of the fact that we’re catering to both pets and people so we stay prepared for both parties: water for the pets, coffee or snacks for the humans is a great touch. Events build on the idea of community and provide additional opportunities to display your brand or exceptional customer service habits.

Don’t forget to promote holidays and pet-specific holidays! The yearly sale for Scoop Your Poop Week can drive some business too!

Promoting Pet Store Events

When it comes to marketing your pet store events, we try to get well ahead of it, especially if it’s a big event. Keep in mind that not all events have to be big! You can cobble together a quick event that will work primarily for walk-ins and people that naturally visit the store, but it doesn’t allow for a lot of ramp-up time from a promotional perspective.

When it comes to throwing pet store events, it really comes down to planning, planning, and planning. Through your planning, you can work in promotion.

• Plan way ahead of time. For big events, work on a 30/60/90 day calendar with goals and checklists for each month.

• Select an event that properly caters to your clients. This will make it significantly easier to promote and get signups or RSVPs.

• Use multiple marketing tactics and channels. In general, your marketing efforts should be multi-channel and you should use a variety of ways to get the word out about your events.

• Promote your event before, during, and after!

We can’t give away all of the secret sauce to our pet store event marketing strategies, but just know that it consists of both digital and traditional methods! At a minimum, you should add it to your pet store website and hype it up on your pet store’s social media channels.

Partnerships for Pet Store Events

Building relationships with local businesses or organizations that share your audience can be crucial in determining the growth and success of your pet store! We love emphasizing and maximizing these partnerships through events.

Based on some of the event ideas above, you realize that you might not be qualified to provide vaccinations or microchipping, or that you probably don’t have a ready list of pets that need to find their forever homes.

But you know organizations that can do that! And they’re probably looking to achieve those goals or get that business as well. By partnering with those local businesses and utilizing each other’s marketing channels, you achieve cross-promotion into new, relevant audiences and channels.

We also like to encourage our clients to branch out further and get involved in the community. We like popup shops and other partnerships that provide opportunities to meet more local pet parents and hand out free samples, business cards, and coupons.

Measuring the Success of your Pet Store Events

Ultimately, this is pretty straightforward and doesn’t require a lot of marketing jargon or big math to understand the success of your events. Did people show up? Did they have a good time? These can be rather subjective, but this doesn’t mean they’re less important. Some of our most successful pet store events were events where the client didn’t make a boatload of money because of promotions! But they had huge attendance, and the atmosphere was infectious and positive and fun.

Regardless, you can count on your pet store marketing partner to keep track of the important metrics for you:

• Conversions: If your event required signup slots or appointments, how many were there? Did you sell out?

• Return on Investment: Chances are, you spent some money promoting your event, whether that’s through social media, a local ad in the paper, or otherwise. When determining ROI, you have to factor in these promotional costs.

• Sales: How much additional revenue was gained from this event?

• Conversion Sources: You can determine the success of your various marketing tactics by understanding where your conversions came from, whether that’s your partnerships in action, your pet store email marketing campaigns, or your staff in-store selling the event!

At Pet Engine Marketing, your account manager has their finger on the pulse of these metrics, campaigns, strategies, and knows how to meet your pet store events planned, promoted, and executed!