The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Summer 2020 | Page 22

THE BUSINESS END OF THE LEASH EMERGING STRONG Why Marketing Your Training Business Is More Important Than Ever By Veronica Boutelle, M.A.,CTC Wherever we are in the COVID-19 crisis when this article goes to print in June and finds its way into your hands, I hope you are safe and well. I also hope you’re marketing. I’m writing this in late April, from my home office, sheltered-in-place. At dogbiz we’ve been scrambling to help dog trainers find ways to weather this storm, and to put out as much guidance as possible. Through our Survive & Thrive program we’ve been teaching a number of topics toward this end—making creative adjustments to services, taking care not to devalue those services by underpricing them, being more flexible enforcing policies, staying in touch with clients and your community, and making all decisions with an eye both on surviving the crisis and setting up to emerge from it as quickly and strongly as possible. Regarding that last bit, marketing is key. It is common during times of crisis, particularly those that involve economic hardship, to pull back and tighten up. There are areas in which this makes sense. Marketing is not one of them. This is a time to redouble or even triple-down on your marketing efforts. When I have time… It’s a common marketing refrain in our industry. You’ve maybe said it to yourself in the past, that you’d get to your marketing plan or a particular marketing project “someday, when I can find some time.” If you’re still sheltered-in-place and/or experiencing a shortage of work due to the virus, you now have that ever-elusive “someday” of time on your hands. Put it to use for your business. Getting through Your clients and other dog lovers in your community still need you. If you’re reading this while still sheltered-in-place, you probably have a lot of clients working from home who are climbing their walls. Their dogs still have whatever issues they had before all this hit, and the extra time at home is a great opportunity to address those. Then there are the new issues presented by sheltering-in-place. Many dog lovers still have their jobs to do, but now they’ve been home managing their dogs all day and possibly managing children schooling from home, and spouses or partners also working from home. It’s a lot of togetherness that no one is accustomed to. The dog is likely climbing the walls, too, unused to all the 24/7 stimulation and suffering from too little exercise. That doesn’t bode well for good dog behavior. You can help. But you can only help if people know you’re available to do so, whether that’s via phone consults or video consults or virtual classes or any other creative idea you’ve launched. It is common during times of crisis, particularly those that involve economic hardship, to pull back and tighten up. There are areas in which this makes sense. Marketing is not one of them. This is a time to redouble or even triple-down on your marketing efforts. Emerging strong Marketing through the crisis will also be key to emerging ready to rebuild stronger than ever. Marketing has a long delay time built in. It generally takes many months for efforts to lead to results, putting your business on shakier ground if you stop and wait to begin again when the health crisis is over. So much of marketing is about building relationships, and when can it be more important to come together than in a time of shared crisis—particularly one that forces us into social distance? The relationships that you forge, strengthen, and care for in time of need are ones that will serve you well into the future. This applies to current and past clients, referral sources like vets and pet supply stores, and your community at large. What you can do Our marketing advice hasn’t really changed much. Offer value. Share your knowledge and expertise. Find ways to 20 Building Better Trainers Through Education