According to one recent study, about 46% of all Google searches last year had some type of local intent. This means that people aren’t just searching for “pet spa.” They’re specifically looking for pet spas located in the same areas that they are.
Not only that, but they’re increasingly doing so on mobile devices – which makes sense, given that it’s almost strange to find someone who doesn’t own some type of smartphone these days. Based on that, you should know that roughly 80% of all local mobile searches convert – meaning that prospects turn into paying customers.
If you’re a pet spa, you’re facing increasing competition all the time. People love their furry little friends and want the best for them, but also have a lot of options available to meet that need. How do you not only attract their attention but make it increasingly likely that you do so while they’re on a device like a smartphone where they’ll be more likely to give you a call or walk through your door?
Thankfully, the solution is simple: you put together a local search marketing strategy built from the ground up with your pet spa in mind.
Embrace Your Local Community
In marketing, never forget that you’re always trying to get the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time. Therefore, you need to know as much about who that “right person” is as you can. That’s why it is critical to get to know your local community.
Conduct a thorough demographic analysis of who your “best” customers are. The more you know about what they’re looking for in a pet spa, the easier it will be to give it to them.
During this time, also identify key local trends, interests, and preferences that matter most to your customers.
While you’re at it, be sure to take a look at what your competitors are doing in their online marketing efforts, too. After all, they’re going after the same pet spa audience you are so don’t be afraid to learn from their successes AND their failures.
Local Search Marketing Tactics for Pet Spas
Google Business Profile Optimization
Since most people will discover your pet spa for the first time via Google, one of the first things they see will be your Google Business profile. Because of that, you’ll want to claim ownership of it and make sure that all the information is correct.
Work to optimize your pet spa’s profile with business information and accurate details. Include things like your pet spa’s hours, its address, your contact information, photos, videos, reviews, your service areas, the services you offer, and more. You can also include a helpful “Question and Answer” session to start establishing your pet spa as a local authority.
When you have successful experiences with satisfied pet spa customers, encourage them to leave reviews that call attention to the specific areas that you service.
Localized Content Marketing Creation
Throughout all of this, you’ll want to work to create location-specific content that resonates with your customers. Incorporate as many local keywords as you can – but do so as naturally as possible. Don’t just copy and paste the same keywords over and over again. Include those keywords both in written pieces like blog posts and in any visual content that you may create.
To get an idea of where to start, look at local events, news, and trends in your area. Use them as the basis for blog posts, social media updates, and other types of content.
Local SEO Strategy Development
As your pet spa website continues to grow and evolve, be sure to implement on-page SEO tactics with a focus on the locations you want to rank highly in. If there are five cities surrounding your business, it stands to reason that you would want to rank highly in each one.
During this period, acquire high-quality backlinks from other local businesses. They don’t have to be pet spas, mind you. Do the same with directories and even community websites.
You also need to optimize your website to not only be mobile-friendly, but fast to load as well.
Local Online Advertising Success
The main idea here is that you should be creating targeted online ads through platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads that speak directly to what someone wants to know when they go searching for a pet spa. You can set specific parameters to target potential customers within a certain radius of your location.
You should also monitor and analyze ad performance on an ongoing basis, all so that you can continue to optimize and make improvements whenever possible.
The Impact of Local Branding
If you ever have the opportunity to partner with a local business for cross-promotional opportunities, you should do so. One example of this would be your pet spa partnering with a business that sells pet clothing. There’s a great way to turn things into a mutually beneficial situation if you’re willing to look for it.
You should also connect with local charities or community leaders to help get the word out about your business. It’s a great way to get the attention of someone else’s built-in audience and, hopefully, turn a bit of those people into your audience, too.
Always be on the lookout for local events that you can participate in – particularly those with a strong online presence. Don’t be afraid to sponsor a children’s sports team if you need to.
Why You Should Monitor and Analyze Performance
Finally, make sure that you’re always tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) like website traffic, conversion rates, local search rankings, and others. You can’t improve what you’re not measuring and if you want to gain a strong local presence online and keep it, you need to be measuring and improving constantly.
You can use tools like Google Analytics to do this. They’ll help you gain insights into local customer behavior and will tell you how someone found your business, what content they interacted with while they were on your website, what actions they took, and more.
All this is an incredible level of insight that would have been unthinkable even as recently as a decade ago. But once you have it and learn to understand what the data is telling you, you’ll be able to make data-driven adjustments to your pet spa’s marketing campaigns based on cold, hard facts. Every decision you make will be purpose-driven with improved performance in mind.
Taking Your Pet Spa to the Next Level
As a pet spa, the goal of your marketing campaign needs to involve more than just getting your name in front of as many sets of eyes as possible. You need to improve online visibility, yes – but you also need to attract more local customers as well. Thankfully, local search marketing tactics for pet spas like those outlined above are a great way to do it.
By increasing visibility in specific zip codes, you also put yourself in a better position to offer higher levels of customer engagement. This almost always leads to sustained business growth as well.
At Surefire Local, we help pet spas and other small businesses like yours follow effective local online marketing strategies every day. We’re all about helping you establish your online presence by creating local signals across platforms and profiles, all to make it as easy as possible for new customers to find you.
Our all-in-one marketing platform offers website and local SEO optimizations, for example, that create geotagged content to publish on your website, blog, and social media profiles. We offer online review management, including the sending of review requests, the writing of responses to reviews, and the analysis of your brand sentiment to learn what customers think about you.
We also offer a bevy of useful features like:
- Directories management. We’ll claim, edit, and publish new content like photos or special offers across more than 80 online directory listing platforms.
- Content marketing. We put the tools in your hand needed to create locally targeted and relevant content for your pet spa’s blog, Google Business profile, business directories, and on social media.
- Social media management. We can help schedule posts, track engagement metrics, and even respond to comments.
- Local online advertising. Our ads are designed to attract only the attention of customers within your pet spa’s service area.
- Analytics and reporting. We offer total transparency into your campaigns’ performance so that you know beyond the shadow of a doubt how much revenue your marketing dollars are generating. With AI-generated recommendations, you’ll even learn what specific actions you need to take to see improvements.
- Educational resources. We offer webinars and blogs that are designed to help small businesses like yours learn everything you need to know about local online marketing.
If all this sounds like exactly what you’ve been missing in terms of taking your pet spa to a bold new audience, please don’t delay – contact Surefire Local today. You can also click here to attend a Surefire Local demo to get a closer look at exactly what the power of our platform can do for you.