4 Creative Ways to Promote Your Dog Grooming Business

As a certified dog groomer and business owner, you enjoy many benefits including total independence, flexibility, and the ability to choose your co-workers. Now that your dog grooming business is up and running, you have certain routines in place that keep things running smoothly – but that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative!

Variety is the spice of life, and this applies to businesses as well! Your dog grooming business can be totally creative and fun through the use of social media, special events, contests and more. Read on for our full guide on how to get creative and attract new clients in the process!

Newsletters

Dog groomers have both human and furry clients which are vital to their business’s success! Marketing is key when it comes to generating buzz for your business, and creating a website and proper advertising of your services will bring clients your way. However, you need to keep those clients interested and engaged, which is where a newsletter comes in!

This is where you can get creative — keeping your business brand in mind, use fun images and text to draw the reader in, and don’t be afraid to be colorful and bold! Include special offers and coupons in each issue that provide your clients with incentives to visit your location, and mix content up with reviews of your services and fun facts.

Encourage your clients to “stay in touch” by signing up for your newsletter through your business website – this is convenient, as they will simply enter their email address into a text box and be added to your mailing list.

Your business newsletter is all about your relationship with your clients, so be sure to show them exactly how your services will benefit their pet and themselves, and do so in a way that is fun and unique to your brand.

Special events

You’re proud of your dog grooming business (as you should be!) and always welcome clients, new and old, into your work space. In order to keep things interesting, and bring in clients that you may not have the chance to meet otherwise, consider holding special events within your studio. On a regular rotation (once a month, or once every two months), invite anyone interested to the following:

• Open house: A chance to showcase your dog grooming studio and meet potential new clients (dogs included!). Have some refreshments and marketing collateral on hand to share with visitors, as well as an elevator speech which outlines your dog grooming background and the services you can offer clients as a groomer.
• Seminars: As a certified dog groomer, you likely have some knowledgeable industry connections. Consider hiring experts to host helpful seminars in your studio for pet owners on topics such as first aid, bathing, dental care, and how to care for older dogs. These seminars can be informal ways of teaching dog owners best practices, and are a wonderful opportunity to welcome potential new grooming clients into your studio. As the business owner, you can choose how much you want to charge for these seminars, but a lower fee can result in higher attendance and more clients for you as a groomer!

• Dog walks: During warm seasons, invite both your grooming clients as well as all local pet owners to join you on a dog walk! This will allow the dogs to get some exercise, and will be an opportunity for you to chat with your clients and potential clients while walking around the neighborhood. End the dog walk at your business location and offer refreshments, which will allow you to provide information to new guests about the services you offer as a groomer!

Make good use of your website, social media channels, and print mediums such as newspapers and magazines to advertise these events. Encourage your current clients to tell their friends about them, as well!

Social media

As a business owner, you know the impact of a great social media presence! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest are excellent channels to share information about the services you offer, photos of your furry clients (and work), and encourage reviews from happy customers.

When it comes to creativity, Instagram was designed as a means of visual expression! Use this social media channel to showcase your grooming work, sharing photos (with permission, of course) of your clients, events you’ve held at your studio, and even reposting photos of your clients at home (shared from their Instagram feed). Be sure to encourage your clients to follow you on Instagram by placing it on all your business cards and on your website, and follow clients as well. This will build a highly creative community for you in which you can showcase your work, attract potential new clients, and have fun!

Contests and giveaways

One sure-fire way to keep your clients engaged with your services and promote your dog grooming business is to hold regular contests and giveaways. Choose some great pet accessories, such as automatic feeders, dog collars, and travel bags to name a few, and either give them away as a gift set or one at a time over a period of several months.

You can select a winner at random, or you can get creative and ask trivia questions to entice participants. You can even hold photo contests where you ask clients to share a photo of their pet in a specific outfit or doing a trick and the best photo wins your prize.

Alternatively, you can hold giveaways that provide free services to the winner, such as a free bath for their dog or a free grooming consultation. You choose the rules for each contest, but be sure to tie them in somehow to your bottom line – require participants to sign up for your newsletter, follow you on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or come into your studio for a meet and greet!

When it comes to setting up your dog grooming business, branding is extremely important – read on for some tips on designing a great logo!