7 Free Ways to Market Your Dog Sitting Biz (That Actually Work!)

7 Free Ways to Market Your Dog Sitting Biz (That Actually Work!)

You don’t need ads to get your bookings booming — you just need a plan! In this episode, Tanya Williams (aka Chief Pawson of Paws to Profit) spills her favourite 7 free marketing tactics that built her thriving dog sitting business from the ground up - no fluff, no gimmicks, just real results.

If you’re ready to fill your calendar, wow your clients, and grow your reputation as the go-to sitter in your area - this episode is your marketing leash to success.

Hit play and discover how to get your dog sitting biz barking with bookings - the FREE way.

Learn many more free ways to market 

Transcript

Tanya williams
Hey, it's a Tanya here, your chief paw-sitin at 3Sport Dogs and host of the Paws to Profit podcast, a podcast that helps you turn dog-sitting side hustle into a thriving five-star business that gives you freedom, flexibility, and a whole lot of puppy cuddles.

00:16.96
Tanya williams
Today, we're diving into one of my favorite topics and it's about marketing your dog sitting biz without spending a single dollar on ads. Now I have worked in the marketing game for many, many years. It was my main business and my main profession for a long time and still is. I still do um a little bit of marketing work um but that's flipped from being my main job because now three sport dogs is my main job um But I love marketing stuff. I'm a creative girl. I love to be getting in and coming up with new ideas and being creative. So, um you know, I want to talk about this marketing thing because when I started Three Sport Dogs, I didn't have a ah big marketing budget and I still don't.

01:00.60
Tanya williams
um But what I did have was time, creativity and a whole lot of determination to make it work. And you know using free strategies that I'm about to share really built the foundation of the business.

01:11.97
Tanya williams
And I know that they're going to work for you because they work for me. um So grab a coffee and let's talk. marketing, shall we? So, um you know, I really didn't do any sort of marketing um in many of the early years because it was just a side hustle, right?

01:27.38
Tanya williams
um It wasn't until I decided that I was going you know, dive full time into, you know, running three sport dogs as my main business. that I started to think, oh, maybe I need to do a little bit more marketing for our doggy daycares and some of the services that the newer ones that we were providing.

01:43.65
Tanya williams
So really like this stuff has worked really quickly um because, you know, the the tactics that I'm going to share with you ah stuff that I do um ah day to day.

01:54.95
Tanya williams
ah Okay. Not any of them are going cost you any money. ah Okay. So if you're going to, you know, thinking about doing expensive SEO or running Facebook ads or any of that sort of stuff,

02:05.69
Tanya williams
You don't need to. Okay. So I'm going to, I've got seven here. Now there are a lot more than that. And I've got a ah free yeah PDF coming out that I think I talk about 49 ways to market your business for free.

02:19.35
Tanya williams
um but I'm not going to talk about 49 Ways in this podcast because it will take forever. um But I just want to talk about some of the the main ones. um I cover a whole lot more in the Pause to Profit program. So if marketing is an area you need help in, it is a big part of that program. so And I dive in a lot deeper than just what I'm going to share on the podcast as well. But this is some thought starters for you.

02:42.86
Tanya williams
um So let's dive in with number one, shall we? The first one is Google My Business. Now, I think it's called Google Business Profile now. But basically it is a free business listing on Google that helps you go up, um you know, show up in Google Search and Google Maps when people are looking for you. So if they're putting in, you know, looking for a local dog sitter or local daycare or something.

03:05.19
Tanya williams
um if you've been working Google um My Business, you're going to show up. And I get so many new inquiries from that now because what I do is very simple.

03:17.07
Tanya williams
Now, the first thing you need to do is head to Google My Business and set up a profile. So if you've got a Google account, you'll just log into your Google account. And up in the right-hand corner, there's a little... um box that has like all of your Google stuff will have Google Drive and all that sort of stuff in there should be something called Google My Business or Google google Business Profile.

03:36.28
Tanya williams
So you need to claim your listing to start with, okay? So all you need is your free Google account to do that. You fill out all the fields, you put all the you teeth all your information, your opening hours, your services, make it warm and inviting, upload some photos. um If you've got some reviews, you know, ask or, you know, people that can put reviews in there. They are fantastic for this because this is really helpful for search.

04:00.86
Tanya williams
um And helps you get you know climb climb higher up in those rankings. So fill it all out. and Now, what I do on a regular basis is I go and upload photos.

04:12.14
Tanya williams
So photos, you might not realize, but your photos when you take them are geotagged. So it will say your location. So obviously, I am taking photos all day long here. So I will go and choose a selection of different photos that we've got and upload them into Google My Business and I probably do that about once a month.

04:30.91
Tanya williams
So I'm always putting new things up there and I'll put other photos in there like little um Canva images that I've created for different events and stuff like that. But it really is focused on um yeah sharing actual real photos because that's what people want to see, right?

04:46.18
Tanya williams
I also um take that link, there's a review link in there as well. And I will send that out to um people I've done emails out about it or um sometimes I'll just send someone a quick email after they've been and say, hey, if you loved it, please leave us a Google review.

05:00.63
Tanya williams
It's really simple to lot of people have Google account accounts or if they don't, I just say, look, shit shoot me a testimonial anyway. um But update it regularly. So whether you're doing it weekly, monthly, um you know, you can put Q&As in there so you can answer frequently asked questions as well. So I'll often put a question in there and then answer it so people can see that.

05:20.88
Tanya williams
um But it works because when someone goes and searches for, maybe it's like dog sitting near me or something like that, Your listing pops up. Okay. So you'll see it when you go into Google, there's a whole bunch of stuff that pops up and you'll see over on the right hand side, it usually has like a map or a photo and you can go to the website and stuff like that.

05:39.33
Tanya williams
That is Google business profile and it works. I get inquiries all the time because in our intake form and our inquiries form, I actually have a question that says, how did you hear about us? And one of the ones that comes up all the time is Google.

05:54.15
Tanya williams
Okay, so I know it works. I, you know, I see it firsthand. So get in the habit of doing this, guys. It is so simple. It can take you like 10-15 minutes a month.

06:06.26
Tanya williams
So if you don't have that sort of time to market your business, shouldn't be in business. Okay. ah The other one that works really well for me is Facebook groups. Now, um obviously, there's lots of different Facebook groups. So there's local community um groups, there's dog owner groups, there's groups specific for your particular breed.

06:25.53
Tanya williams
um So I know there's Brisbane Dog Lovers and there's Cavoodles Brisbane and there's like all these different groups. um My local area, so Carindale, Carina, Camp Hill, like, you know, there's all these different um groups that are out there.

06:39.35
Tanya williams
So what, how they work is um obviously, you know, people will always pose questions in them, right? So we're looking for a dog sitter. We're looking for a daycare. um We're looking for a dog walker or a dog trainer or whatever. it Does anyone have any recommendations?

06:54.78
Tanya williams
And so often I get people just like, yep, tagging me and going, oh, talk to Tanya at Three Sport Dogs or they tag Three Sport Dogs And I'll get inquiries from that as well. Or, um you know, I just jump in and go, hey, you know, we're available on those dates.

07:08.43
Tanya williams
Here's a link to our website and our reviews. um You know, happy to chat if you've got any questions whatsoever. And I always get inquiries from that. Okay. Because what happens as well is even if that particular person that posted about it doesn't contact you,

07:24.21
Tanya williams
then someone else will save your details or probably contact you. I've had that happen so many times where people have gone, oh yeah, someone asked and I saw your details pop up and I saved it. And then three months down the track, they've gone, oh yeah, now I need you, yeah your help.

07:38.56
Tanya williams
So, um you know, it's this is all about your local community. So, What you want to do is go and join a few groups. So, you know, where, you know, your, your, your target clients are. So community groups or dog, certain dog groups or breed groups.

07:51.75
Tanya williams
Um, so go and join. and Don't just go and post ads and stuff because one, there are group rules around that and it's a big turnoff. Um, You want to be answering questions where you can and so forth. And they will have certain days normally that you can share or promote your business. So just be mindful of a gram abiding by group rules.

08:10.83
Tanya williams
um And they can be glitchy sometimes as well. I found that recently when I've added, ah when I've tried to share photos or videos, it'll go to get approved by an admin and they go, well, anyone can post. We don't know why we're seeing that, but it looks like Facebook is going, oh, we think it's spam.

08:24.47
Tanya williams
So then we're flagging it. um So just be mindful of little glitches like that as well. um, be good, share some new useful tips on there. Or, um, you know, obviously when people ask for recommendations, your name becomes familiar. If people are seeing you pop up in these groups regularly as well, because they go, Oh, there's someone that I see all the time popping up. Okay.

08:43.71
Tanya williams
Again, super simple tactic. Again, few minutes a day, like, um you know, we're not talking about spending ridiculous amounts of time on this stuff, guys. Okay, ah next one I want to touch on is reviews and testimonials.

08:56.95
Tanya williams
These are absolute gold. Why? Because they're social proof, okay? They are the magic ingredient that helps keep those potential clients choosing you over everyone else.

09:09.07
Tanya williams
So if you collect reviews as part of your process um and testimonials, they like, it's such an important part of your process. So after someone stays, that should be a follow-up step.

09:20.41
Tanya williams
Hope you've enjoyed, um you know, hope you've enjoyed the experience with us. If you are really happy, here is a link to a review or you can send to a Facebook page link or whatever it might be, or even just shoot me back a quick email with what you what you liked.

09:34.21
Tanya williams
Ask for reviews, okay? After every booking, send a short message. um You know, if you make it easy, you can even create little templates and say, hey, if you're not really sure what to write, here's a couple of an examples or here's a little template you can use.

09:47.35
Tanya williams
um It's helping them make it easy. If you make it easy for them, they are more likely to do it. um And then you want to repurpose those reviews. Put them on your social media pages. Put them in your emails out to clients.

09:58.54
Tanya williams
um Share them in some of those groups. Put them on your website. Like put them everywhere, okay? When clients are searching, and they're not just looking at your website reviews, okay? They're looking at all different places. So where can you put them? Think about all the places that you're marketing your business and share them because it's credibility, it's trust, and it's conversion because people trust reviews a lot of the time. They'll go, oh, my God, I know Jim and he's just left a good review for three sport dogs.

10:25.16
Tanya williams
and They must be good because, you know, Jim's a really credible bloke. We know how it works. We do it ourselves, okay? Okay. Another great one is dog parks and local events. Now, great networking opportunities um because obviously people are going there with their dogs and maybe dogs that, you know, the specific type that you look after. And there's a few different ways you can do this, right? So um you can go and visit dog parks during regular peak times and just talk to people.

10:52.60
Tanya williams
could be a little bit creepy depending on how you do it, just walking up to random people and going, hey, here's my business card. So maybe don't do that. But think about, you know, you can do it in ah in a ah much more subtle way. um you can hold free meetups. So I've started doing this where we do a monthly meetup in the local dog park and there's more and more people coming along to each one.

11:12.77
Tanya williams
a few of them have become clients, but it's just great to connect with people and talk about oodles and you start to build relationships with people. So when they are ready for your services, they go, Oh my God, yes, I need to talk to Tanya because we've been, you know, we've met her several times at the dog park.

11:29.46
Tanya williams
Um, When I do these as well, they are not promotional events. Like I um just turn up. i've got like I usually have a little a bag full of little dog treats with my business card that I that i hand out to them as they leave.

11:43.42
Tanya williams
But I'm just talking to people. I'm not shoving my business card in their face. I'm not talking. You know, we're just having conversations about their dogs and, you know, just being me. Be you, you know what i mean?

11:54.41
Tanya williams
ah well I do wear like a branded T-shirt and ah and a branded cap so people know who I are when they show up as well. um And as said, I hand out some little um little cards and treats as they leave.

12:05.08
Tanya williams
But, you know, go along and and meet a few people. um It's a really simple way of, you know, meeting new people, building relationships with them, putting a face to the name as well. So if people might have heard the name of your business somewhere in one of the groups perhaps.

12:21.63
Tanya williams
Then they go, oh, okay, yeah, I know who you are. um You know, and dogs are great icebreakers. You know, it's like, oh, my God, look at Walter. How cute is he? And, you know, people love talking about their dogs, okay?

12:35.31
Tanya williams
So this is really about building real connections with people. And it doesn't need to be fake. It doesn't need to be salesy. You don't want it to be any of those things. You are just getting to know people.

12:46.25
Tanya williams
It's just like a conversation you are having with someone when you walk into a party perhaps, okay? um So keep it simple. The next one I want to talk about is super powerful as well, and it is collaborating with local businesses. So, you know, you might um chat to a local dog groomer or a behaviourist or a vet or a pet shop or a cafe whatever.

13:08.53
Tanya williams
um anything like there's so many different complementary businesses to what you do where um people ask them do you know know someone that does this and I get recommendations all the time I get recommendations from our groomer where our dog goes like she recommends me all the time she recommends me in groups she sends people to me and I get emails from them I've got a couple of trainers that I recommend that they recommend me back as well.

13:34.94
Tanya williams
My local vet, so my where my dogs go, i have little postcards there and, you know, people are often grabbing those because they know that, well, my vets obviously know me. We spend a lot of time there with older dogs um and it's a trusted source.

13:49.42
Tanya williams
um So, again, it's it's about building relationships with other pet business owners. um You know, drop in to introduce yourself. um bring some cards with you i reached out to a few local vets there a few months ago and you know they get they said oh yeah we get asked all the time you know do we know of any dog sitters and daycare so yeah please can we have some of your cards um again it's really simple you can cross promote each other you can do little collabs if you wanted to like a little puppuccino morning or a little event or something like that that's something that i'm looking at doing more next year of doing more collaborative style events um

14:26.47
Tanya williams
But think about the complementary businesses that you, um of people that you know, or you should get to know. Like there are other dog sitters and dog cares that I recommend to and that they recommend to me as well because one, they might be in a different area.

14:40.36
Tanya williams
They might have different dogs. If I'm away on holidays, I can go, hey, go to such and such. um You know, they they can probably help you because I know and and I like them and I trust them. um So I will recommend other people that I know.

14:52.73
Tanya williams
So just because someone else is doing the same thing as you, there's no reason why you can't. um build a relationship with um with each other and refer each other. Don't be scared of competition.

15:04.73
Tanya williams
Okay. As long as they do stuff in the right way, like I've got a bit of a r i copycat, I should say, in my local area who ah has been really sneaky and dodgy in the way that she's done it.

15:16.93
Tanya williams
um And the silly thing was, if she had have done it in a really nice way, I would have happily referred to her. But when someone blatantly copies your business and copies everything that you're doing and then copies other businesses that you work with, then that's not so cool. So I don't want to work with people like that.

15:32.47
Tanya williams
But there are other local ones that I will refer to um because I know that they do a great job as well. So if you do things in the right way, you are more likely to um be able to go and collab um and build these relationships with with other business owners. It's a really great marketing tool. Okay.

15:51.05
Tanya williams
Don't dismiss it. ah Number six on the list is Instagram and Instagram stories. So obviously i i reckon a lot of you are probably going to be on Instagram. um You need to show up on Instagram. Okay.

16:04.19
Tanya williams
You want to be creating engaging posts. You want to be educating. You want to be sharing behind the scenes. You want to be sharing all those photos of your dogs having a great time, all that sort of stuff. I get so many people say to me, oh my God, I've been following you on Instagram for the last year and we love what you do. And we decided that we didn't want our dogs to go anywhere else because we see what you know how you how you treat them and they are part of the family and they look like they are having so much fun.

16:30.17
Tanya williams
So that's for us just about sharing what happens in our day to day. And helping dog owners with education and and understanding what it is we do and how we do it. Okay, go and have a look at our Instagram feed at 3SportDogs and you'll see what I mean.

16:44.43
Tanya williams
So you want to be posting regularly. You know, we've got um reels and stuff of excited doggies arriving. We've got them playing. We've got them napping. We've got... you know, them, you know, all sorts of stuff, us interacting with them.

16:55.76
Tanya williams
You know, if you use hashtags as well if you want to use hashtags to sort of extend the life. So it could be hashtag Oodle Life. It could be hashtag Sydney Dogs or um hash cat hashtag Brisbane Daycare or whatever's going be relevant for you, right? Go and do, um you know, Chat TPT and Google can help you figure out what those um hashtags should be.

17:16.48
Tanya williams
um You want to tag other pet brands perhaps if you're doing any sort of collabs to reach bigger audiences. You want to use stories as well. So I'll often use stories for more promotional stuff.

17:28.41
Tanya williams
So if we have some sort of special offer or something that we're selling, I'll often do them as a story because I know that they're not going to last on the reel and my reel's not going to look and my feed's not going to look all promotional stuff because I don't want that. So, you know, stories only last 24 hours so you can do fun little stories and stuff that that just stay up there for a short amount of time.

17:49.53
Tanya williams
um You know, but but I find the stuff that connects the best is stuff that's really highly engaging. Maybe you're asking question, maybe you're sharing about your story. One of the, um or even silly stuff like one of my biggest posts that got the most views was me picking up dog poo. I mean, hello, how unglamorous is that?

18:09.96
Tanya williams
But it was real and people went, oh my God, yep, I can totally relate, you know, out the back picking up the poop. um So, you know, don't be afraid of sharing. stuff like that that is part of your day-to-day.

18:22.33
Tanya williams
You know, people don't book services, they book people. They want to see your personality, they want to see your environment, they want to see how you look after the dogs, what sets you apart. And Instagram is that visual proof because it helps um parents trust that their dog's going to be loved like family in your in your home and that's what you want.

18:40.81
Tanya williams
um you know, even if they don't get direct inquiries from it, and I do get direct inquiries from Instagram where people just DM me, um it is a visual showcase. So people can go back and scroll through your feed and go, oh wow, look at this, look at this environment.

18:55.85
Tanya williams
And I hear it all the time from people that say they've been following me or their friend tagged me and said, you should follow these guys. um You know, just do it. And it's not about number of likes and number of followers. That's all BS. It's about how you're engaging with your audience.

19:10.17
Tanya williams
at the end of the day. So don't get caught up on vanity metrics. Okay. Now, the last one I want to talk about is referrals or I call them poor furrows. Okay. So we have an actual poor furrow, I can't even say poor furrow reward um system set up.

19:28.17
Tanya williams
I haven't, I didn't do that initially, but I do now. And I promote that with our, with our clients and say, if you promote, um if you share um us with someone and they, or refer us to someone and they come and stay with us,

19:40.68
Tanya williams
They get a free daycare or overnight, depending on what their normal service is. And the guest also gets a discount on their stay as well. So when someone says, oh, yeah, my friend, um you know, Kim said, you know, you you were the person to come and see, well, then Kim gets a free night and then they get a ah discount as well because you want to refer people. um You want to reward people for referring you, right?

20:05.83
Tanya williams
um And it just doesn't need to be overcomplicated. You don't need fancy systems or software. Just keep a track of it in um an Excel spreadsheet or on your notes or something like that. Create, make it very, very simple.

20:18.38
Tanya williams
um Promote the fact that you're doing this. Remind clients around busy periods, you know, spots are filling up fast and you love referrals but you have to get in quick. You know, just track them using really simple method methods. And it works because it's sort of, it's a pre-qualified lead, right? Because if your friend refers you to someone, you trust your friend, don't you?

20:38.39
Tanya williams
Okay? So it's already a trusted, um you know, lead. um So they're going to go, well, they've said that they're fabulous. So they must be fabulous. So therefore, i want to I'm pretty likely to book with you, okay So you want to reward those um people that are referring you and also the people that have come from a referral.

20:56.03
Tanya williams
Okay. So there are seven ways. I'm going to actually mention a bonus one for you as well, because we um do this and it works well for us and it's create an email list. Okay. Okay.

21:06.77
Tanya williams
and check in with them regularly. It's all well and good to be connecting with people on socials and so forth, but you want to build your own list. So when you get inquiries and emails and stuff like that, put them onto your own email list and then nurture that list. So we have a list and I probably email people every...

21:23.38
Tanya williams
three to four weeks, depending on what's happening in the business. Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less, but ah every um inquiry, booking and so forth that comes through goes onto our email list and we send them updates.

21:35.85
Tanya williams
So we send them, you know, this is what's happening. This is our availability information. here's the the latest blog post, here's a new event we've got happening, um here's something, you know, that that's happening in our local community that's about dogs, like all sorts of stuff. Now we're going to go next level on that next year. I've got all sorts of plans to make that even better.

21:54.08
Tanya williams
But um yeah, it's a great way to keep in touch with people, okay? You can use free platforms like like MailChimp and MailerLite there's a whole bunch of them like that. So we do it ah through an actual platform. like um And we don't use any of those. We've got like a more more complicated system just because that's where we're at in the business. But also that's what I use for my marketing business.

22:14.60
Tanya williams
But you don't need to. But make sure you use some sort of an an email um database system. There are so many out there that are free and super cheap, okay? Start collecting emails. Put them on a list, um you know, and build that communication and that relationship with your clients.

22:31.85
Tanya williams
These are all simple and free things you can do. So you have a list of eight there actually. so you've got a bonus tip today and I've got so many more that I cover in Pause to Profit that are just as fabulous.

22:44.81
Tanya williams
um So if you want to know more about those, then make sure you come and join up the program because like I love talking about this stuff as you can see. Marketing is my world.

22:55.46
Tanya williams
ah It's just, I love it. It's just so fun for me. um So yes, there are there are ways that actually work. They work for me. I know that they will work for you. You don't need a marketing degree. You don't need big budgets.

23:06.76
Tanya williams
You just need consistency, care and community, okay? Start small. If you think, oh my God, I can't do all that, just pick one or two from that list that I've shared and commit to doing them really well over the next 30 days, okay?

23:18.74
Tanya williams
That will start to make a difference. It will start to shift the needle, okay? um So remember, success the secret to successful marketing is trust and trust comes from knowing from showing up, being genuine and always doing what what's best for the dogs in your care.

23:36.26
Tanya williams
Okay, so if you found that episode helpful, please leave me a review um if you're listening because that helps more sitters find this podcast and it helps other people build their dream business as well. So don't forget more details at paustoprofit.com.au.

23:52.37
Tanya williams
There are free resources. I'm building more and more. So stay tuned because there's going to be a whole bunch more stuff in that over the coming months. um But until next time, ah keep wagging, keep glumming up and keep building a business.

24:06.30
Tanya williams
That makes your tail wag too. Stay pawsome.