Why you are failing to grow your pet business on Facebook
When I was a young Dom I spent many a summer at a boys camp on Holy island. This was organised by the local parish, and it essentially involved us being packed off in a bus to spend the week in dorms with other young lads from all over the North East.
I have really fond memories of crabbing in the harbour (if you’ve never been crabbing you really need to get out more), watching seals and dolphins off the coast, collecting Cuthbert beads and listening to truly terrifying ghost stories that the guys who were taking care of this used to tell us each night before bed (My bum is going fifty pence, five pence just thinking about it now).
I guess for better, or worse those weeks helped mould me into the man I am today…
And all those memories came flooding back to me when I saw an article on the BBC which said accidents involving cars being caught on the causeway to Holy Island hit an all-time high this year.
In case you didn’t know Holy Island sits 1 mile off the coast of Northumberland and is only accessible via a causeway which is uncovered during low tide for 6 hours twice a day.
Back in 2012, in response to increasing concerns from islanders and rescue teams, Northumberland County Council installed flashing message signs to try to alert drivers to the dangers. This year, as well as posters they have produced coffee cup covers, paper bags and drip mats with the images for use in businesses where they will be seen by visitors.
Figures reported by HM Coastguard’s Martin Lowe at a meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Council on Tuesday, July 16, revealed there were just four rescues in 2015 from April until the end of the year.
There are also a handful of incidents each year of vehicles getting stuck in the sand beside the causeway.
He said that those caught out were almost always holidaymakers and that 90 per cent were people heading back to the mainland who were ‘not wanting to be stuck on the island for six hours’.
Read that again. This is people who understandably don’t want to stay on Holy Island, but they are deluded enough to think they can beat the tide.
Beat the tide, FFS!
They think because they are in a hurry, they can beat nature.
The moral of the story is….people are dumb.
Not everyone obviously, but most people are dumb.
Racing the causeway and deluding yourself you can ‘beat the tide’, just because you are in a rush, is an extreme example of how people construct a false reality about their situation.
They see the world as they wish to see it, not as it actually is.
I talk about this in my Perfect Puppy Project, and cite Robert Ringers law of reality. which is ‘Actions have consequences’.
This applies to dumb ass drivers who fail to realise that if the water rises and they are on the road they will drown.
It applies to inexperienced puppy owners who by attending puppy classes inadvertently create a dog who is obsessed with running off to play with other dogs (this often happens due to a lack of training knowledge, AND receiving bad advice from fluffy bunny dog trainers).
And it also happens to pet business owners who continue to spend the majority of their time marketing (A.K.A. messing around) on social media.
You see there are some laws of business that you must adhere to, if you want to have a business that is stable, profitable, protected (from your ever growing list of competitors) AND fun.
You must have a target market (an ideal customer, hopefully an affluent one)
You must have a unique marketing message. (This will allow you to cut through the crappy competitions gyrations on social media, and make it easier for your ideal customer to find you – see point one above)
You must have a consistent follow up method in place that takes your prospetcs through the know,like, trust process (ideally this will have an online AND offline element to it)
You must have upsells and ‘other things’ to sell your clients once they’ve crossed the rubicon and gone from prospect to customer. (It’s very difficult to get rich or even ‘get by’ selling just one thing.)
Ignoring any of these can have disastrous consequences for chances of success, and make you look as dumb as the hopeful and hopeless Holy Island tide dodgers.
The lesson is obvious, if you are serious about success, then you need to get serious about marketing.
You can kickstart your marketing education by signing up for my FREE Ultimate Pet Business Plan Audiobook HERE
Click the photo to find out how to work with Dom
In 2011 Dom Hodgson revolutionised the pet service industry with his first business Pack Leader Dog Adventures, the UK’s first, award winning ‘dog adventure’ company. Now a respected dog trainer, author, speaker and mentor to pet business owners, Dom’s calling is to help dog walkers, trainers and groomers to excel with their marketing, so they can help change the lives of more dog owners with their amazing skills.
Take that leap today. You won’t regret it.