How do I market my new pet products?

Australian pet owners are increasingly demanding a wide range of pet products to keep their fur babies happy and healthy. Of course, developing new pet products is one thing, but how will you market them?

Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world. More than 5 million households own a pet. That’s a whopping 62% of the population!

Without a doubt, we Aussies love our pets. In fact, a growing number of us treat our pets like children. Our pets are our pals. They are our exercise buddies and even our holiday companions.

As such, pet owners are spending a growing amount of money on pet products and services that ensure their pet’s health and happiness.

To satisfy pet parents’ demand for new products, more and more pet products are entering the market. From pet fashion and pet pampering products to artisan pet food and fancy dog collars — the list goes on.

Create it and they will come

Remember the 80s film Field of Dreams, which included the famous phrase ‘If you build it, he will come’? If only selling pet products was as easy as this.

Unfortunately, designing and developing a new pet product is just one part of the sales mix. You may have the best pet products around, but if you don’t market them well, your sales will not grow.

Certainly, most product sales are related to emotions. Luckily, engaging consumer emotions works particularly well for pet products—given that we see pets as part of the family.

Emotions you might tap into include the following.

• Responsibility. Most pet parents have a great sense of responsibility to care for their pets to the best of their ability.
• Happiness. Pets make us super happy. Tapping into this emotion can encourage a person to buy a product associated with happiness or happy times with their pet.
• Love. Feelings of love towards our pets can influence pet owners to purchase a product that they know their fur baby will enjoy. For example, they might buy special food or a toy.

In short, emotional marketing inspires pet owners to act and encourages purchases.

Marketing ideas for pet products

Social media is the perfect marketing tool for pet products. Not only can it be fairly inexpensive, generally most people like seeing pet posts in their feed.

Pet images and videos are a great way to gain an emotional response. Therefore, social media is an awesome way to introduce and sell pet products.

Don’t forget to make posts shoppable, so that people can easily click through to your website to purchase. Use easy-to-remember hashtags and create a social media plan to ensure frequent posts.

Team up with an influencer

There are many insta-famous pets. Start by contacting the account owners and offering them your pet products for free. It’s likely they’ll give you a product mention out of kindness and gratitude.

Alternatively, you can pay to run an influencer campaign. Depending on the influencer and the number of followers he or she has, these sorts of campaigns can range in cost from a couple of thousand dollars to $10k or more.

Offer samples

Depending on the type of pet product you’re selling, you can develop a range of samples or minis. Get in touch with local vets, pet shops and rescue shelters and ask if they would be happy to give them away to their customers.

It’s a great way to get your products into the hands of potential customers and generate brand awareness and conversation.

Engage customers through events

Another way to attract potential new customers and market your pet product is to hold an event. You might use the event to share information on a particular pet topic (including your brand) or invite an expert to talk.

It’s possible to start small and grow the event, based on consumer interest. Just be sure that the event has something to offer the audience, other than to promote your brand.

The other way to market your pet products is to get involved in other pet-related events, such as pet shows, dog festivals and pet and animal expos.

There are numerous different ways to market pet products, the key is truly understanding your target audience and thinking outside the box.

Have you come across any genius pet product marketing ideas?

Related posts:

• How to market your pet business online
• 10 branding tips for your pet business
• How to create a pet community for your customers (and why you’d want to!)

Image source: Unsplash.com