Having an online presence is necessary for the success of the business, and the pet industry is no different. You must go online to take your brand name to a wider audience. There is numerous pet business in the world, trying to compete with each other, along with internet giants like Amazon.
It is not a miracle to convert visitors into clients. It is all about creating a better website and attracting the right audience to your site.
Here are some of the top online mistakes that local pet business owners commit. These mistakes might look like simple errors but these errors can turn a potential customer towards your competitor’s site.
Top 5 Local Pet Business Website Mistakes To Avoid
1. Lack of contact information
Google rates your website based on several factors. The physical address, contact information, and area of service are some of the major elements of ranking. If you assume that the customers would mail you using the “contact us” page, you are gravely wrong.
If you do not make it up to the first page of Google, you are invisible. Try to add contact information and areas of service on almost every page. Do not hide your phone number within paragraphs of information about the history of the website.
Make it big and visible on every page. After all, you want your customers to contact you to do business. If you are not sure about managing content on your website, you can hire website promoters or content management services to assist you.
2. Lack of call to action
Say, you have a pet food website. You have created a good design and provided enough information about pet services, products, and so on. What should the customers do next?
Do you have an e-commerce site where they can buy these products? Should they call you to get delivery? Customers need to know what to do next. Be blunt with this information. Do you want the customers to call you to avail of the service?
Ask them to call you. If you want the customers to visit the product page, where they can buy, mention it unequivocally. Your call to action button or message should be on every page.
If possible, add one at the top and bottom of the page. Humans take less than three seconds to switch from one website to another.
Asking them to search the page for clues is not a great idea if you want to stay in business. Only a near-perfect website can highlight all the important details without causing chaos on the page.
3. No distinction
According to recent research in 2018, 21% of pet food purchases take place online. The online pet products and services industry is thriving, and there are numerous players in the world. Unless you showcase why customers should choose your product or service, you will get lost in the crowd.
The reason may be that you use specialist groomers with certification or the fact that you use organic products. Your website should show that you have a unique selling proposition. If you cannot find a distinction, there is nothing for you to attract customers to retain.
List your services, talk about how they are different, give details about value-added services, etc. If you are not sure how to begin, the best place to learn is your competitors. Visit their websites and learn how they showcase themselves to the audience.
4. Not taking social media into consideration
Do you know that there are millions of Facebook pages dedicated to pets? It is the era of millennials. If you want to promote your pet business, you should target the younger crowd. Millennials spend their time on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites.
You ought to introduce relevant hype on these platforms. The very common trend is posting tutorial videos for pet parents using your products or services. Remember that the capacity of being patient with the viewers is nil, and the viewers want 1- minute videos instead of an elaborate lecture on pet caring.
Load pictures of your services and products on social media, create pages for your business like DogExpress, and be available for potential customers to contact you.
The e-commerce of pet products and services has raised 3.4 billion dollars in 2018, and the traditional store-based pet business had just 317 million dollars in growth. The statistic gives you an idea of the number of competitors online trying to get the attention of pet lovers. It is time to ‘raise’ your game.
5. No visual media
As mentioned before, gone are the days when people read pages to learn about a concept or product. Today, people expect you to spoon-feed them information. Create videos about your product, and use images, and other visual aids. Visual media can also impart trust.
Owners add their pictures, pictures of their stores (if any), pets, and so on. The pictures and videos can create a story, which would emotionally attract the customer. Do not pull some stock images from the internet for your website. Be authentic if you want to attract more customers.
If you want your name and contact details to become visible to a huge chunk of the population, you need to have a good website. When you are a local business, you compete within your community. Thus, it is better to get all the attention possible.
More than eighty percent of the searches made on the internet are from people who use the first three results on the page. Thus, if you do not make it up on that list, you do not exist.
If you planning to recreate or start a website for your pet business? Get in touch with pet industry consultants! Contact us and let us help you create a perfect business site and strategy, and take over the attention of your audience.