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Pet care is a competitive industry, so you should plan and execute your marketing campaigns really well to keep pace with your competitors.
Pet care email marketing is a powerful tool for reaching your customers that can bring your company the following benefits:
Creating an email marketing strategy might be both challenging and exciting. Follow the steps below to make the best out of your experience with the process.
The first step is to identify who your customers are. To do so, follow these steps:
You may also use surveys to identify your customers’ preferences and use the results to create more relevant email marketing content for your subscribers, encouraging more people to purchase from you.
After identifying your target audience, you can proceed to shape your buyer persona aka marketing persona. This is a more detailed description of your customer, including such aspects as their age, gender, purchasing history, interests, and other relevant information.
Although these details will vary from one customer to another, you can still identify similar traits your audience shares. This step will help you understand and meet your customers’ needs and offer them products they would want to purchase. If your brand offers several different products or your audience is very large, you might want to create a marketing persona for each buyer segment.
Buying email lists is an unsafe practice — moreover, sending emails to people who haven’t consented to receiving them is illegal in many countries. Luckily, you don’t need to buy contacts to expand your email base. Instead, try to attract subscribers organically.
To do so, you can offer something valuable for subscribing to your newsletter. It might be gifts, coupons, promo codes, useful content, or anything else that can show your value to the customers. You can also offer a reward program to your existing customers to encourage them to spread a word about your brand.
Want to learn more about how to expand your mailing list? Subscribe to our blog digest and get our detailed guide on email list building for free — plus lots of actionable tips on email marketing in your inbox every couple of weeks.
Email service providers are tools that help you manage your email marketing campaigns. There are many ESPs on the market, varying by features and prices. We recommend looking for a service that provides automation workflows, integrations, segmentation, personalization, A/B testing, analytics, and other useful features to make the best out of your experience with email marketing.
You can even find a platform with a free plan or a free trial to test the waters and decide if it’s a good fit for your company. For example, Selzy’s free plan includes up to 1500 emails per month and 100 contacts. It also gives access to all essential email marketing features such as personalization, automation, email builder and templates, analytics, and more.
After you’ve created your buyer persona(s), you can segment your contact list based on your subscribers’ characteristics. Since your company is a pet care brand, you can segment your list based on pet type to ensure that you always deliver relevant content to all your subscriber groups. This way, you can ensure that dog owners won’t receive any cat-related newsletters and vice versa.
Other characteristics to consider are the pets’ health needs, location, stage of the customer journey, etc. By segmenting emails based on these factors, you can offer the most relevant products to your customers at the right time.
There are many different email types, such as welcome emails, newsletters, transactional emails, special offer emails, etc., and each type serves its own purpose. With an email service provider, you can make the most of every type you use and find out the kind of content your subscribers prefer.
Also, keep in mind that sending emails too often may lead to higher unsubscribe rates because customers don’t normally enjoy receiving too many promotional emails. However, they may not be as engaged if you send too few. So, make sure you identify what types of emails you should send and how often, and determine the right time to send them to achieve the best possible result.
Another important point to keep in mind is the performance of your email campaigns. After sending each campaign, evaluate the results. The main metrics to track are open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and engagement rates. ESPs offer comprehensive reporting and analytics, so you won’t have trouble collecting the necessary data if you use professional software. Assessing the performance of your campaigns regularly will help you create cost-effective email marketing strategies and boost their effectiveness.
After you are done with preparations, it is time to create an effective email for your campaign. Below, we’ve gathered some tips for making a creative email newsletter on pet care.
What is the first thing you see after opening your inbox? Right, it is the subject line of an email. This is why it is highly important to make it catchy and engaging. Here are some tried and true tips:
Another element that can catch your customers’ attention is your email’s design. Here are some points to consider while crafting an email:
Simply put, interactive elements in emails are anything that makes subscribers do something — tap, swipe, play, etc. For a pet care company campaign, try quizzes on pet breeds, care routines, or other similar specifics; include videos, games, rollover images; add a survey about pets and their preferences.
Sounds complex, so why do it? Interactivity increases click-through rates.
Every subscriber and subscriber group has some unique characteristics, so work on personalizing your emails to fit them. Consider your customers’ purchase history, survey data, and other information to create relevant content that will resonate with them. For example, you can offer discounts on particular products or give them exclusive promo codes based on their browsing and purchasing history. To take your email personalization even further, use transactional emails and merge tags.
Pet owners love learning more about their pets, their behaviors, and preferences. So, in your newsletters, you can include some educational information and expert insights. You may even collaborate with vet professionals to make your content more trustworthy and reliable.
Ready for some inspiration for your pet care email marketing campaigns? Here are the best examples from popular brands.
Subject: Hey Smiles Davis, did you forget something?
This email by Homes Alive Pets is an abandoned cart email. The purpose of such emails is to remind customers about their incomplete purchases and encourage them to come back and complete the order.
This particular email features a personalized subject line (“Hey Smiles Davis, did you forget something?”) that appeals to the customers’ FOMO and anxiety, suggesting they might have forgotten something. Such lines are typical for this type of email, and they usually work well too.
The company also made a good move by using relevant wordplay and referring to the customer’s own pet in the heading (“Don’t worry, we won’t tell your pet!”) in the email. The brand also made sure to personalize the email and include a clear call-to-action designed as colored buttons, making it easier for the recipient to engage with the email.
Subject: Dean, here’s 10% off your first purchase for your pet.
This example from Petco is a simple yet effective email offering a discount for the first order and the first repeat delivery order. Rather than adding too many unnecessary details, the email is precise and straight to the point. It also features a “More Ways to Save” section where they list other benefits for their customers, making the brand’s offers more desirable.
Subject: 👻 Halloween toys your dog will love 🎃
Rover decided not to miss the opportunity and launched some Halloween products to celebrate the holiday. The email’s design matches the holiday aesthetics, and it also features some images and CTA buttons, making it engaging and eye-catching.
Subject: BarkBox ✅ Birthday BarkBox? ✅
This personalized email by BarkBox offers a dog cake to the recipient whose dog is having a birthday soon. Besides the fact that the company “remembered” the dog’s birthday, the email works due to its clean layout and convenient CTA buttons. Not only that, but it also features some frequently asked questions and contact information in case the recipient has questions to ask.
Subject: Get your paws on Black Friday savings from Petplan
In their Black Friday email, Petplan is offering special gifts. The email also uses a fitting wordplay and a CTA button. A simple yet bright design and a convenient layout make it even easier to engage with.
Subject: Welcome to Banfield: your pet’s health care resource!
Banfield Pet Hospital is a veterinary clinic. In this welcome email, the company briefly states what messages the recipient can expect from it. The email also offers a coupon, which highlights the newsletters’ value and other information that might be useful to the subscribers. Each block features a CTA button, making it easy to navigate and engage with.
Subject: There’s a reason dog food is always on sale
Scratch is an Australian dog food brand. In its email, the company explains how it keeps its products affordable while using high-quality ingredients. Although being information-heavy, this email is effective at building trusting relationships with the customers. The content is easy to follow, great for dispelling doubts, and leaves a good impression about the brand’s product.
Subject: Cute cats love Smalls
Smalls is a cat food brand. In this email, it is sharing some of their customers’ stories and their experiences with the brand. Although the email features a lot of information too, it has a convenient layout that makes it easy to follow along. The brand’s customers are likely to trust the company more after reading these testimonials, and receiving a discount at the same time is a nice little detail that will warm them toward the brand even more.
Subject: Smiles Davis how are you treating yours on International Dog Day?
Troo Health Care is a company specializing in health and dietary supplements. The company also offers a selection of pet supplements, so it decided to launch an email campaign for International Dog Day. In this email, the brand explains the importance of keeping pets healthy and offers 10% off for their pet supplements. The email is quite simple, yet it effectively highlights the importance of pet supplements and uses clickable calls to action.
Subject: Hello to June’s Pup of the Month! 🏖️
PetPlates’ email features information about a contest among the brand’s customers, “Pup of the Month” and invites subscribers to enter to compete for the prize (gifts from the brand and a feature in its newsletter). In this email, the company announces June’s winner and shares some facts about the puppy. What makes this email stand out among other pet marketing emails is its format and engagement potential. Many pup owners would want to share some facts about their furry friends with others, and the brand provides this opportunity along with other benefits.
Pet care email marketing is a great way to promote your pet-related product or service. To create a good pet care email you need to:
Follow our tips and get inspired by examples in this article to enhance your pet care brand’s email marketing campaigns. Good luck!
