Marketing should never be an afterthought, no matter what type of business you’re running.
Effective pet store marketing should help you earn more money than you spend on it — but many store owners find it difficult to understand and use marketing in the right way. If you want to compete with the big-box stores, you need an online presence — and more than just a basic website.
Luckily, a modern point of sale (POS) system has the tools you need to take your pet business online, and they’re far easier to use than you might think. A solid POS solution can help with email campaigns, social media, content creation, promotions and discounts, and data reporting.
Let’s take a closer look.
9 Pet Store Marketing Tools That Make a Difference
The marketing tools built into a robust POS system give you a fast and simple way to increase your pet store’s sales both online and offline. Whether you’re just getting your business listed, marketing through social media, or getting customer reviews to bolster your reputation, a POS system streamlines and simplifies the process.
1. Email Marketing
Don’t overlook the importance of email marketing — it’s a great way to communicate with existing customers and let them know about the sales and deals you’re offering.
But what can you expect from a POS system’s email marketing tools?
First, you won’t have to create emails from scratch, thanks to email templates. This is an easy way to get emails to customers quickly. Plus, some POS software has segmentation features, so you can send the right emails to each of your customer groups.
For example, if you’ve collected reliable data about your customers, you can send one email campaign to customers who buy online and another email campaign to customers who buy in-store. You can also create one email campaign for dog owners and another for cat owners.
These campaigns help you deliver the right messages to the right customers — an A/B testing feature helps you determine which emails are the most effective. This improves results and reduces wasted efforts.
With a POS system, you also have access to analytics and reporting features. You can see whether customers are opening emails, and which kinds of emails they’re more likely to open — this way, you can send them the most effective emails possible.
Related Read: 4 Pet Store Marketing Ideas To Boost Business
2. Social Media Marketing
If you want your business to thrive, you need to get in the social media game. Don’t just set up accounts — you need to consistently engage with your audience.
Social media is the ideal place to find pet owners who may be interested in your products and services. But it can be difficult to handle multiple social media channels without the right tools.
With a POS system, you can easily schedule all of your social media posts across the most popular platforms.
Consider launching social media accounts on platforms like:
- Twitter/X
In addition to convenient scheduling tools, your POS system gives you access to a content library, making it easier to put your posts together.
Consider creating a video to demonstrate how a pet accessory works, or invite a pet professional to discuss the health benefits of an organic pet food you stock. These videos familiarize your followers with your products and increase your pet store’s brand authority.
Analytics and reporting tools also extend to social media, so you can see how your social media efforts are faring, including which posts are getting the most traction.
Related Read: How To Leverage Social Media for Pet Stores: 7 Tips
3. Content Marketing
They say “content is king” — and it’s true.
Content is what helps you appear on search engines like Google, and it’s what draws in potential customers and keeps your current customers returning. To help with this, POS systems offer a suite of content marketing tools. Some offer a blogging platform. Here, you can create and post articles in your specific niche.
If you run a reptile shop, for example, you can create articles on the different species you carry and how to care for them. If your pet store is focused on dogs, your articles might offer training tips. The possibilities are endless. This is the sort of content that helps you rise through the search engines and get people to your site and store.
Of course, not everyone has the time or ability to keep a blog up to date on their own. Luckily, your POS system can help you with this content creation.
4. SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of using popular search terms to make your content rank higher in search engines. You can use these popular keywords in your online content to make it more searchable. The higher your business ranks in search results, the more people can find it — leading to more customers.
Some examples of popular keywords might include “pet food,” “dog collars,” or “interactive pet toys.” Your POS’ SEO tools can help you identify these keywords so you can get your pet store ranking higher.
SEO tactics are also useful in e-commerce. When you create product names and descriptions for your online store, use these SEO-friendly terms to generate more traffic to your website.
Related Read: How To Create a Successful Pet Store E-Commerce Website
5. Promotions and Discounts
Everyone likes to save money, and that certainly includes your customers. Discounts and promotions are a great way to keep your current customers loyal and bring in new buyers — these discounts incentivize people to shop at your pet store rather than one of your competitors.
To help with this, POS systems have some fantastic and easy-to-implement promotional tools. You can easily create discounts and coupons, which you can post on social media, send via email, or put on your site. You can also utilize automated promotions and limited-time offers. Limited-time offers create a sense of urgency — people don’t want to miss out on a deal, so they’re more likely to buy as soon as they can.
At your pet store, consider a limited-time discount on pet food around a holiday or a buy one, get (BOGO) deal on pet toys. To advertise these deals, you can create images or videos to post on social media and send out email campaigns.
Related Read: How To Manage Pet Product Clearance Sales: 6 Sales
6. Analytics and Reporting
Your pet store marketing strategy should never rely solely on intuition — you need to dig into the data. Data gives you the facts, so you can see what is and isn’t working. This way, you can make smart, informed decisions about your next steps.
POS systems offer robust analytics and reporting tools for pet businesses, including sales reports and marketing channel performance reports. Best of all, these reports make it easy to find, understand, and use this information using a dashboard overview.
When you look at sales data, identify your top-selling products. Are you running out of these items before you can get new shipments? If so, you may want to increase your orders of these products. If there are products that are sitting on the shelves and turning over slowly, you may want to decrease your orders of these products.
You should also take a look at which marketing strategies are yielding results and which ones aren’t. If you’re getting a lot of interaction from email campaigns and less from social media, focus more on email campaigns, or vice versa. Paying close attention to your data and modifying your strategy accordingly helps you be more efficient.
7. Integrations
You might currently be using different platforms for your marketing efforts. Did you know that some POS systems can be integrated with external marketing platforms? These integrations include email marketing services like MailChimp and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
You can still use the platforms you’ve been using, but when POS software is integrated, you have more features, options, and control.
8. Business Listings
Some POS systems allow you to manage business listings. This refers to the listing of your pet store on external sites.
Some of the most important sites you want to be listed on include:
- Google Maps
- Yelp
- Apple Maps
An accurate, complete, and high-quality listing helps your pet store show up higher on local search results. With a POS system, you can update listings across multiple platforms with one click, helping you gain more customers.
9. Customer Reviews
A POS system helps you get more positive customer reviews on sites like Google and Yelp — you can automate review requests through SMS, a QR code, or email. When a customer makes a purchase, they’ll receive a request to leave a review. You can even offer incentives for those who leave reviews in the form of discounts.
When you have more positive reviews, you can build a positive reputation and trust with potential customers. Your business will rank higher in search results, leading to more online traffic and an increase in sales.
Improve Your Pet Store Marketing With eTailPet
A lot goes into your pet store’s marketing, and it might seem impossible to compete with larger businesses when you have a smaller team and budget. But with the right tools, you can.
eTailPet is an all-in-one POS platform designed specifically for pet stores. Our software offers a full suite of marketing tools, created so you can increase sales online and in-store. Features include integrations with popular platforms, analytics and reporting tools, email marketing, social media creation and scheduling, content marketing, and SEO tools to boost your e-commerce website.
The marketing tools offered by eTailPet can be a game-changer for your business, helping you get the word out to your ideal customers.
To experience eTailPet for yourself, contact us today to schedule your free demo!
