No pets deserve to be homeless. But unfortunately, over 6 million animals enter shelters across the United States every single year. To help more pets find their forever homes, here are five effective ways to promote your animal shelter.
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Create Adorable Graphics
Nobody can resist a good pair of puppy dog eyes. And most modern marketing campaigns start with some amazing graphics. Merge the two to create marketing content that masterfully blends the cuteness of adoptable pets with the marketing power of a professional, eye-catching design.
Take some photos of the animals in your care and add them to posters and graphics to promote your shelter. Then, fill the rest of the poster with helpful information about your shelter and the process to adopt one of the adorable animals featured. You can then post the graphics to social media, your website, or even hang them around town for all to see.
Of course, you’re busy caring for homeless animals and likely don’t have time to design graphics from scratch. Luckily, there are thousands of free pets templates available online from websites like PosterMyWall. Simply choose the one that best fits your shelter, customize the information, and you’re ready to upload to all your various platforms.
Optimize Your Website
Over two-thirds of online experiences start with a search engine. That means when people think about adopting a pet, there’s a good chance the first thing they’ll do is head to Google and type in “Animal shelters near me.” If you’ve optimized your website properly, it’ll show up at the top of the search results.
There are many ways to increase your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). Here are just a few of the most effective:
- Upload plenty of high-quality and helpful content
- Simplify navigation
- Decrease page load times
- Use proper formatting with headings
- Limit image file sizes and use alt text
SEO takes some time to gain traction, so you won’t see immediate results. But over time, your website will climb its way to the top of the search engine results, and anyone looking to adopt an animal in your area will likely find your site first!
Share Helpful Pet Care Advice
Pets can’t tell their owners what they need. But that’s where your animal shelter can help. By posting helpful pet car advice to your various channels, you can help owners know how to best take care of their four-legged friends and encourage others to adopt from your shelter.
When you provide valuable information, people will come to your channels for advice. The more people you get to view your content, the more marketing reach you’ll have for future promotions.
It’s also a good idea to start a blog on your website about pet care best practices. Share in-depth information about how to care for pets that your followers can read and share with their pet-owning friends. Plus, all the extra content will help with your search engine optimization, too!
Host a Live Q&A Session
When you go live on social media, it alerts all your followers and encourages them to tune in. It’s a great way to get more eyes on your content. And working at an animal shelter, you probably know a lot about caring for pets. Why not host a live Q&A session for your followers?
A live Q&A session helps you get more face time with your followers and build engagement with your business. Not only can you answer pressing pet-related questions, but it also establishes you as an expert in the field. When people are ready to adopt a pet, they’ll want to come to your shelter because they know all the pets are well taken care of and that you can give them all the best advice.
Participate In Local Shows
Dog and cat shows are a popular pastime for pet owners. Even if someone doesn’t have a furry friend they want to show off, they might want to go just to see all the animals. A large room filled with animal lovers is the perfect place to promote your animal shelter.
Whenever a pet show comes to town, see if you can hang some marketing flyers around the building. This is a great way to use your adorable graphics you made from templates! Then if someone is attending the show and is thinking about adopting a pet they can enter into next year’s show, they’ll see your flyer and want to come to your shelter.
If you have the marketing budget, you might also be able to take out a vendor booth and talk to showgoers directly — and maybe even bring some of your adoptable shelter pets. Also check to see if any of the pets in the show were adopted from your shelter. That would be an amazing way to promote your animal shelter!
Get More Pets Adopted From Your Animal Shelter
Animals shouldn’t live in a shelter. And the best way to help furry friends find their forever homes is to promote your animal shelter with effective marketing strategies. Design some amazing graphics using pet templates, optimize your website, share plenty of helpful pet advice across your channels, host a live Q&A session on social media, and participate in local shows.
The more you get your shelter out there, the more people will want to come to you when they’re looking for a pet. Hopefully it won’t be long before your shelter is completely empty!