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