In 2011, Americans spent about $61 billion on their pets – more than the average household spent on men’s clothing, alcohol, and telephone landlines. In 2012, 62% of households (164 million) owned at least one pet. People love their pets so much, in fact, that according to one study there are more young women choosing dogs over motherhood. That’s all great news if you rely on these pet owners for your bread and butter.

Here, we share three examples of ways you can capitalize on this booming market and continue to expand your business.

3 examples of how animal service professionals use direct mail in July

Summer is a hot time for animal services. Many people are going out of town and need pet sitters, kennels, and pet walkers to care for their pets. Recognizing this need, Lucy – who owns a small dog hotel with pet walking and day care services – sent out a direct mail campaign to attract new customers. Lucy has a lot of regulars who bring their pets in, but she wanted to grow her business and hopefully open up a bigger facility.

Lucy heard about Click2Mail and decided to give direct mail a try. In order to stay within her budget and get her mailer out to as many people as possible, she chose to use Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) to send out 6.5″ x 9″ EDDM postcards to every household in a 5-mile radius of her location. The response was phenomenal; many people called about Lucy’s day care, pet walking, and kenneling services. Her pet hotel currently has “No Vacancies” through the end of July!

Summer is also a great time for veterinarians to remind their patients about summer pet safety. As a veterinarian with his own practice, Paul sees far too many animals come in due to heat stroke and dehydration. He really stresses to his patients when they are in the office the importance of keeping their animals hydrated and cool during the hot summer months; but he needed a way to reach all of his customers.

So Paul decided to send a Same-as-a-Stamp 3.5” x 5” postcard. On the postcard he included a list of “Summer Pet Care To-Do’s” and a list of symptoms to look out for. Paul also included all of his contact information so that his patients could easily get ahold of him anytime. Many of his customers commented on the postcard they received and were very grateful for the helpful information. With a small postcard, Paul was able help keep his patients safe in the summer and nurture bonds of trust with his customers.

As Lucy and Paul can attest, direct mail is great for marketing to new customers and for nurturing relationships with existing ones. It is also a great business tool. Many animal services professionals, including veterinarians and grooming facilities, use direct mail to send appointment reminders. That is what Josie – a client coordinator at a veterinarian office – does.

Josie first found out about Click2Mail a few years ago and has been using us to send appointment reminders ever since. Two weeks before a patient has an appointment Josie sends out an appointment reminder letter with the pet’s vaccination history. She makes it easy by using MailJack Print Driver (TM), which allows her to transmit the letters to Click2Mail where we print and mail them for her. She can just simply select MailJack as the printer, that allows her to print-to-mail documents. Josie loves the ease of sending reminders through MailJack and her customers love it too.

These are a just a few ways that animal service professionals use direct mail – in July, and all year round. No matter what time of year it is, using mail for marketing or business purposes is easy and cost effective with Click2Mail. For a full year’s worth of mailing ideas, visit https://click2mail.com/contact-us-support. To get started on your July direct mail campaign, visit Click2Mail.com.

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US New Report. “Americans Spend $61 Billion on Pets” http://goo.gl/xR6ijR

Human Society. “Pets by the Number” http://goo.gl/RnimnM