Now that many millennials are beginning to have families of their own, they have quickly overtaken their baby boomer parents in being the most significant generation of pet owners. But what exactly does that mean for business owners like you? Simply put, it means having a potential new market to promote your offerings to. To capture their attention, here are a few ways you can advertise your products and services to them:
Bespoke Pet Toys
There’s always something special about receiving personalized items, especially if they’re meant for pets. Indeed, any pet parent would love the idea of getting personalized pet products for their animal companions. This is also an opportunity for your company to create custom dog items based on the owner’s interests, allowing them to express their personality while providing their fur babies with something fun to play with.
As an example, makeup lovers and pet owners rejoiced when Glossier collaborated with BARK to create dog toys that looked like plush versions of their best-selling products. Even if Glossier isn’t necessarily a pet or animal company, they still found a way to get the attention of the pet owners who were already in their existing audience. So not only will your audience purchase your main product, but they’ll also spend more on your brand by purchasing stuff for their dogs, too.
User-Generated Advertisements
Aside from consuming pet content, many owners actively post photos and stories on social media to talk about their adorable fur babies. They may even post reviews or impressions about products that they’ve tried out for their animal companions. Hence, you can save quite a bit of your marketing budget by letting these social media-savvy pet parents do some advertising for you.
Start a hashtag campaign and invite them to take part in it or ask your previous customers to post something related to your products. They don’t even need to be celebrities or influencers to participate; the surge in posts alone can already help get your business noticed. Additionally, user-generated content is often more effective in terms of conversions because they are seen as more authentic.
Indeed, many millennial pet owners turn to these influencers for information on what brands to avoid and the best place to buy custom pet supplies, among other things. Hence, taking advantage of user-generated content can have a significantly positive impact on your sales, if done correctly.
Curated Subscription Boxes
Subscription boxes have become popular over the years for their cost-effective method of letting people try several different kinds of products at once. In many cases, the products that are included in these boxes come from small businesses that are trying to get their name out there.
As more millennials see value in supporting small businesses instead of large corporations, it stands to reason that they would be more open to signing up for subscription boxes. This idea also extends to pet-related subscription boxes.
If you want to create a product range that’s specifically for pets, you can provide samples of them as a subscription box promo for your ideal customers. You also have the option to partner with an existing subscription box company so that they can include your products in their pet-friendly offerings.
Pet-Oriented Events and Activities
Another way to market to millennial pet parents would be to organize an event where they can meet like-minded people and their fur babies. For example, cafes can hold dog owner meet-ups by providing a space for people to chit-chat over coffee while their dogs interact with each other in a designated play area. Parks, restaurants, and other kinds of businesses have also found success in holding similar activities exclusively for pet owners. You can even go one step further by giving out pet-related freebies such as branded treats, apparel, and even poop bags.
Just make sure to set some ground rules on what is and isn’t allowed at the meet-up, and encourage people to keep an eye on their fur babies at all times.
Influencer Marketing
If user-generated content can help you save money on marketing, imagine what a pet influencer can do to boost your brand awareness. Think about it: posts about animals already have a higher engagement rate on social media, resulting in pet influencers having sizable followings. And millennials are partly the reason why animals are so famous on social media in the first place. Hence, reaching out to a pet influencer to post a review of your company’s products or services can is a more cost-effective way to bring in new customers compared to paid advertisements.
That said, there are a number of ways that you can go about working with pet influencers. You can send out PR packages, make them an affiliate for your brand, or collaborate with them on a new offering. Just go with whatever method is most suitable for your type of business.
When it comes to getting the attention of millennial pet owners, standing out from your competition can be challenging at times. Fortunately, marketing to these young pet owners is more than possible if you know how to engage with them on a personal level. Try out these tips and see the results for yourself.