How To Get More Clients & Bookings To Your Dog Business Even On A Low Budget

If you can’t afford paid traffic for your dog business, then I guarantee that by the time you read this short newsletter, you’ll have another free option, and it’s not social media or SEO.

Most business owners tend to post on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, or write SEO posts, hoping to bring traffic to their business, which is fine, but...

It’s painfully slow.

One like, maybe one comment, the odd share, and that’s after spending a fair amount of time creating the post, editing it on Canva or Capcut, messing around with formats and so on.

Take Instagram as an example.

It’s a slow burner for getting clients in the dog business world. It can be faster with paid ads, but if funds don’t permit, it’s a trickle of genuine clients coming in. Many of your followers and likes are from similar business owners wanting to see how you do it, and they're in the same boat.

You need to do more, and it’s best to think outside the box with offline marketing that can supplement this slow build and drive more sales and bookings.

To demonstrate, I'm going to tell you how I did this while working for a company that sold energy-efficiency measures through a government-backed scheme, and how you can do the same for a dog-service business.

It won’t cost you much money; in fact, you can do it for free, and you don’t need to be pushy.

This approach has a good response rate because you don’t ask anyone for money up front; in fact, they earn money simply by doing as you ask.

And they don’t need to be pushy either.

It’s a win-win situation, as they say.

Sounds too good to be true, so let's explain.

This company I worked for was like many others struggling with the slow burn on Instagram. They hired me to bring in more leads. The products offered were efficient measures for their home for free if they met certain criteria.

The company carried out the work, and the government paid the company.

All we needed to do was find these people, which wasn't as easy as it should have been due to natural scepticism and a too-good-to-be-true attitude that put potential clients on the back foot when cold calling or through social posts. 

It became a trickle, so I went offline to boost it, since the company had a low budget for paid traffic.

As this was a scheme aimed at low earners and those struggling financially, I decided to contact local churches, community charities and local food banks.

I scraped a list of email addresses, wrote a message highlighting what we did and who we help (for free), and offered the owners and organisers of these communities a cash incentive for every successful lead.

This incentive was around 5% of what we would earn if it became a successful job, and for them, it was much-needed income for what they were trying to do.

And all they had to do was highlight the service by blasting an email out, putting up a flyer, and mentioning it to their congregation.

I gave them everything they needed to make the process simple — email content, flyers, and a script for what to say.

Simple but effective, because within a week, the phone started ringing more than ever.

You can do the same in your dog business.

Let's take a dog taxi service as an example.

Who needs this service that can take their dogs to the vet and the groomer the most?

Mostly older people who no longer drive and those with restricted movement.

Here’s what I would do.

I would visit, write, call, and email every place where older adults congregate. Think bingo halls, local church groups, old people’s institutes, and so on. Then make the organisers an offer to share what you do (using similar methods I mentioned earlier), and they receive a cash incentive.

Most of these organisations are barely breaking even; in fact, most are struggling, so an offer like this will pique their interest. Those visiting these community places trust the people running them, so their message carries more weight.

I would also do the same for private surgeries, supermarkets, chemists, and ask them to put up a poster with a QR code.

If the person using the service provides a unique code (the one you gave them), they receive the incentive you offered. You can also make this even more valuable by offering the new client 10% off their first taxi run.

You can do this for any dog service or product.

Just think outside the box.

A half-price groom and 5% to the referrer = almost no money made on the first job, but then you have another repeat customer.

Shop selling dog beds 10% off and 5% to referrer, still makes you a profit that you wouldn't have made before, and you can grab their email and sell more down the line.

The options and benefits are vast.

Just be sure to honour your agreement.

Any questions, hit reply; I’ll be happy to answer them.

And if you’re looking for another free traffic option to work alongside this, check out my dog visibility system.

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