Connecting With Your Community Using Your Blog and Email

Connecting with your community is one of the keys to success for local pet businesses.  As an active member of and resource for your local community, you will receive more referrals and trust from pet parents.

Your Blog

One of the ways to connect with your community is through your blog.  You should consistently post to a blog on your website.  Consistency is key, but it doesn’t mean that you need to do it daily or even weekly.  Simply be consistent.

If you start out and are able to post one good blog topic a month, that’s what you should be doing.  By consistency, I simply mean that you shouldn’t post every day for a week, then every 6 weeks, then every 3 months.  Pick a blog posting schedule that suits you and stick to it!

If you’re looking to improve your Local SEO, consistently posting to your blog will most definitely give you a boost.

Blog Topics

Determining a content strategy before you begin your blog will help you in the long run. Start with a 3-month content calendar, but ideally you want to end up with a year in advance.

Brainstorm the topics that your local community wants to hear about pets.  You should be a local resource for pet parents.

This means that when a pet parent is looking for an answer about a pet question, they look to you and your website for answers.  They’ll also refer their friends to you and recommend you online.

Use your blog to discuss local happenings and events in the community that your customers and potential customers would be interested in learning about or participating in, especially with their pets.

When you post this content consistently and then optimize the content on your blog, you will improve your visibility in the local community and also your SEO, search engine optimization.

Bark it from the Rooftop! 

However, you can’t simply post on your blog and hope the community stumbles upon it.  You need to let the local community know about it!  Once your blog goes live, the first thing you should do is email your list to let them know your blog is live and the valuable content you’re providing.

You do have an email list, right?!? You should maintain a way to contact all of your current customers and potential customers.  Let them know about your valuable resources you’re providing online, current and upcoming specials and promotions.

Don’t worry if your open rate isn’t what you expect it to be.  An average email open rate is between 15-20%, however, check your click rate, or the percentage of those that are opening your email and actually clicking on links in the email. Determine if different wording could improve that click rate.

It’s also important even if you have people that aren’t opening your are getting “tapped” by you. This means that they are still seeing your email and may not need the information now, but when they need your products or services, you will be in their minds!

Social Media

Once you’ve scheduled your blog to be sent out to your email list, also schedule it to post numerous times to all of your social media channels. This will helps spread the word.  You can also create images that your community will want to share on social media, like infographics.

Remember that if you service a local community, you should incorporate connecting with your local community into your marketing strategy.  An easy way to do this is to share valuable resources and information with them through your blog and email marketing.

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