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Your Personal Secret Weapon to Attract More Pet Sitting Clients

By 11 Comments

on target photoI was reviewing a pet sitter’s website recently and I read a very intriguing part that was hidden on her About page.

She currently lives with three wonderful rescue dogs.

Can you imagine not highlighting this front and center on your website?

Why would you want to do that? Because this could become your niche – and could increase your client base!

The word niche is defined as a specialized market.

A niche market for a wedding planner, for example, might be specializing in weddings on a budget.

Another example might be found in someone who teaches public speaking techniques. Public speaking is a very big market.

However, someone may choose to target a smaller, yet still profitable segment, like public speaking for students. This would be very valuable for graduates getting ready to enter the work force.

So, How Can Pet Sitters Use A Niche To Land More Clients

You are a pet sitter. Your ideal client may be anyone with a pet.

Unfortunately, you and every other pet sitter want to target anyone with a pet.

Let’s go back to the example of the pet sitter who owns three rescue dogs.

Certainly, other pet parents who have rescue dogs would relate to you perfectly on a level other pet sitters in your area (your competition) would not.

So what would happen if you took what you personally know well and focused on that on your own pet sitting website?

What do you know very well?

Here are some examples of niche markets for pet sitters:

  • Rescue dogs
  • multiple rescue dogs from different shelters
  • small lap dogs
  • Greyhounds
  • Pit bulls
  • nervous/shy dogs
  • playful/energetic dogs
  • puppies
  • difficulty on leash
  • separation anxiety
  • pure breeds
  • “mutts”
  • show dogs
  • multiple dog homes
  • dogs and children
  • introducing new dog into home
  • dogs that prefer women

Think about your very own personal experiences and highlight those. What kind of pets do you currently own, or grew up with?

The goal is to connect to your ideal client one to one. Speak directly to your ideal client and you practically zero out any competition.

For example, think about how you would feel in this situation.

You own a wonderful and playful Pit Bull. You go online to find the perfect pet sitter. You perform a typical search and review a small handful of qualified pet sitters in your area. The real differentiating factor is price. But you are not price shopping. You are just searching for the best fit. Then, right before you give up for the day, you see a pet sitters website that talks about how much she loves pit bulls and how she grew up with Frankie – her awesome pitty. She shares photos of her other pit bill clients and you read reviews from other pit owners. You are sold even before you pick up the phone to call.

You can substitute “pit bull” with any niche you can specialize in. The list above will act as a guide to get you thinking in the right direction.

You might be thinking “but won’t speaking like that limit the amount of potential clients I can serve?”

Absolutely not. In fact, you will be surprised at how your client base will increase by doing this.

You will receive more clients directly within your niche, and you will surprisingly attract other clients.

Think of it like this. Does an Italian restaurant only offer pasta? Of course not. They may specialize in serving pasta (their dining niche) but there is plenty on the menu including fish, chicken and meat to make all hungry patrons happy.

Remember: this is not about removing the current services you offer, but rather about highlighting a specialty that will attract more of your ideal clients.

So, What Is Your Niche?

Think about what you can specifically highlight from your own personal experiences. And then see how you can prominently display it on your web page. Speak directly to your perfect client.

Let us know in the comments what your niche can be.

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Further Reading:

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About Joshua Cary

Joshua Cary is an all around good guy. He is a filmmaker, web builder and business owner. He is a pet sitting business trainer, coach and instructor and has a passion for helping pet sitters build a strong business through a strong website. Joshua is also the co-founder of the Association of Pet Sitting Excellence (you should really check that out).

  • Julia Cranford

    Great idea, Josh! You rock!

    • Joshua Cary

      Well thanks, Julia! Hope it improves your business.

  • http://twitter.com/SacPetSits Rachele L

    Since I’m the Director of a pending non-profit focusing on Education & Advocacy for the American Pit Bull Terrier, I think it’s safe to say that Pit Bulls are my niche. In addition to that though, I also work with a lot of rescue groups, volunteer for my local shelter, the local chapter of the House Rabbit Society and I foster. My clients often come to me for all manner of Pit Bull and general rescue related issues, as well as refer others to me with those issues so I guess the word is out :)

    • Joshua Cary

      Hey Rachele, Great comment. I love all things pit bull. Can you keep me in the loop with the progress of your upcoming non-profit? I’d love to hear all about it!

  • http://www.facebook.com/lily1013 Lily Marie Plasse

    Great idea! Our niche is farms and farm animals. Many horse, chicken and sheep owners, but not a lot of pet sitters who do that around here. We also have a rescue Pit Bull that we adopted, and I am a huge supporter of the breed. So I will be putting some more focus on that, also, since there are quite a few pit bull owners around.

    • Joshua Cary

      Hi Lily, Awesome. I can’t wait to see how it helps your business moving forward. (And I love hearing about other pit bull advocates around here!)

  • Teresa

    So, do you highlight this niche on the home page, on a service page set up for that niche or on the about us page . . . just trying to see how to best put this great advice into action :-)

    • Joshua Cary

      Good question Teresa. Personally, I would do a combo of all of the above. Simply put, any way that you can get your message in front of your users, the better. So, perhaps begin with a small blurb and image prominently on your home page, with a ‘read more’ link. I would also create a special menu item that links directly to it (IE. ‘For Pit Bull Owners’ as the menu item, or ‘Have a Rescue Dog?’ on the menu…). Make sure that the main page you list this on speaks directly to that ideal client. Give stories, share experiences, show pictures, add video, etc! Let us know how you implement this one.

  • Amy

    Any opinions on a cat only niche? I know it diminishes the overall number of clients and overall profit potential (no multiple visits/day, overnights, etc) which has me torn.

    • Joshua Cary

      Hey Amy, I know some pet sitters who are very successful in the cat only niche. I do not have personal experience with it, but I know it can be quite successful. Why not try it and see how it works for you. Then you can choose to add more services going forward. Here’s a pet sitter’s site I know to review for cats only: http://www.cats90210.com/cms/

    • ritareimers

      Hi Amy,

      I run a cats-only sitting service, as Josh mentioned. Most of our clients DO want twice days visits, and quite a few ask for overnights too (we no longer offer those for a variety of reasons). We hit 6-figures last year so it is possible to make a living sitting only cats. Meow!

      Rita