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Summary
READ ITOf all the zettabytes of data stored on the internet, the total amount dedicated to pet videos probably doesn’t bear thinking. Countless hours of pet videos are uploaded to social media and video hosting sites every single day, possibly more than anyone can watch in multiple lifetimes. It’s hardly a new phenomenon either, as some of the earliest motion pictures produced in the late 19th century had cats and dogs as the primary subjects. For whatever reason, it seems that we humans just have the urge to pay tribute to our furry companions and share them with the world.
It should come as no surprise, then, that in the age of social media and smartphones, pet businesses have overwhelmingly turned to video marketing to promote themselves. Though pet businesses are hardly the only ones to do video marketing, this marketing approach has a few things going for it that make it an exceedingly good match for this industry.
Why Pet Videos Are So Effective for Pet Business Marketing
The most obvious reason behind the resonance of video marketing for the pet industry is the high engagement rates. Americans, in particular, are in love with pet videos, with these types of ads generating significantly more clicks than static images or text posts. These clicks can also lead to increased reach, as most video hosting and social media sites prioritize serving content that people click on.
Most importantly, however, video is an especially powerful storytelling medium, making it a perfect match for naturally charismatic cats and dogs. Whether you’re selling grooming services or custom dog poop bags, pet videos tend to create a strong emotional pull as well as high conversion power.
Tips for Making Your Pet Video Marketing Campaign Work for You
To get the best out of your pet business’s video campaigns, you must use the strengths of the video format and your furry subjects wisely. Try these simple, actionable tips to take your business’s video campaign further:
1) Focus on Authenticity
Highly scripted videos can have their place, especially if they’re funny. However, we all have to remember that most pet owners respond positively to animals because they’re as real as it gets. For that reason, it should be one of your goals to communicate authentically so that you get a good response.
To further highlight your authenticity, be sure to showcase real pets and their owners. Genuine moments, like a dog enjoying a toy or a cat lounging in a custom-made bed that you designed, can generate positive associations with your viewers. Similarly, giving your audience a peek into your business operations can serve to humanize your team and your business, thus building more authenticity and trust in your company.
One immensely successful example of this is the Girl With The Dogs grooming service out of Niagara Falls, Ontario. The business’s YouTube channel embodies this strategy to a tee, giving outsiders a truly authentic look into its grooming services and its fuzzy clientele.
2) Get to Know Your Audience
Though there are broad similarities among pet owners, their differences are worth exploring as a pet business entrepreneur. For instance, we can all probably acknowledge that people who have only had dogs can have appreciably different personalities as a whole from cat lovers as well as from those who prefer more exotic animals. Over the years, different academic studies and social media research have added credence to the idea that certain pet owners have predictable personality traits.
Naturally, this means the themes and values presented in your video content must match the specific needs and interests of your target audience. Avoid making rash assumptions about your buyers, and take the time to dig deeper before regularly publishing videos.
As an example, this popular bully breed advocacy group focuses strictly on issues related to American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and American Bullys. The type of content they put on there would be completely out of place for a hunting dog or toy breed business. Still, they clearly know their audience, which explains their consistently high viewership and engagement.
3) Try User-Generated Content (UCG)
If your business has been around a while, you may already be sitting on a treasure trove of useful marketing content. After each sale, encourage your customers to share videos of their pets using your products. Highlight these clips in your marketing campaigns to build trust and show off your authenticity.
One notable user of this strategy is Bark, an NYC-based pet subscription service. Their marketing leaned heavily on user-generated content to bring the word out on their latest offers. They were so successful that even Meta took notice, featuring them as a positive example of building authenticity through UCG marketing.
4) Use Short-Form Videos for Social Media
More than ever, short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels are driving engagement and conversions to smaller pet businesses. If you’re on these platforms, try to show fun snippets of pets playing or interacting with your products at least a few times a week to keep your brand relevant. A cursory look at the term “pet business” on TikTok reveals a massive torrent of interest in this type of content.
5) Create Long-Form ‘How-To’ Guides
Longer, in-depth videos can be used to demonstrate how to best use your products. Tutorials like “How to Fit a Harness Properly” or “Best Ways to Use a Grooming Tool” give value even to casual viewers and are regularly searched by real pet owners. Great videos can draw new people to your business for years, so consider allocating more resources to these assets so that they turn out right.
Check out this pet business’s cat tower assembly video as an example. Based on the comments, it's clear that not all the visitors were necessarily existing customers, with many commenters voicing a more general interest in cats. Given that they have multiple how-to’s on their channel with tens of thousands of views each, the business probably found that making the videos helped their bottom line.
6) Invest in Quality Production
While authenticity matters, clear visuals and good audio quality are still essential for hooking viewers in and keeping them interested. Thankfully, producing videos with good picture quality is not as much of a problem these days, thanks to better phones. If you have problems getting good results, you may want to invest in proper lighting as well as a decent microphone to give your videos a more professional and engaging feel.
It takes time to develop solid production skills, so it’s a good idea to start now. Pet portrait photography is a good starting point for creating good videos since the skills are largely transferrable. As a bonus, you’ll be able to use your original portraits in your marketing. Check out these excellent dog photography tips from the B&H Photo Video Pro Audio vlog to get started.
7) Define and Measure Your Success
Lastly, you must have an idea of what a “successful” video marketing campaign is. The goal of all marketing is ultimately conversions, but you should also consider other things like engagement, customer advocacy, and community impacts.
These aren't just things to consider in your videos, but also in other kinds of pet-related marketing. The American pet industry spends billions of dollars each year just gathering market intelligence so that businesses understand what metrics they need to hit to move forward. The fact that the top players are spending so much in these areas underlines just how important metrics are all for pet businesses.
Every business is different, so you’ll want to decide what your short- and medium-term goals are and what content approach makes the most sense for achieving them. Once you decide what your goals are, you can begin looking into key metrics like views, shares, and click-through rates to evaluate the performance of your videos. From there, you can use your learnings to improve future videos and supporting campaigns.
Generally speaking, pets can handle themselves just fine in front of the camera. They have oodles of charisma, and getting them to look cute or do something interesting is probably going to be the least of your problems. All the same, if you want to gain a competitive edge in the pet industry, you’ll want to be purposeful about your approach to video marketing; use these tips to craft campaigns that will put you at the top of today’s pet parents’ minds.
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