Pet Wellness Franchise: Pet Food Trends Using Human Food

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Keeping up to date on the newest trends in the pet industry is a huge part of being successful with your pet wellness franchise. We know that keeping up on everything can be difficult which is why we wanted to take a few minutes to let you know the trends we have found.

The biggest pet industry trend out there at the moment is health and wellness. This is just as true for people as it is for pets. In fact, many people are making their pet their weight loss partner but incorporating in exercise with their pet and much more. Here are the main trends found within the category of health and wellness. These can be very helpful to know with your dog grooming franchise.

pet wellness franchise inventory

Organic is Continuing to Grow

Organic has been trendy for years but it is still continues to grow. In fact it has shown the strongest growth in all pet food. Today almost 10% of all pet food launched is organic. Projections for the pet industry show that this will continue to increase by about 14.6% annually through 2019. This is why the best franchises are now offering more organic products than ever before and moving their focus toward being a pet wellness franchise.

Foods That are “Free From”

This is huge in both the human food market as well as the pet food market. Most often this pertains to gluten free or grain free foods. Just from 2014 to 2015 this saw an increase of 25% each year. Gluten is a filler product and more people are realizing that this is not needed in their pet’s diet. This is why there has been a huge push in the pet industry for foods that are free of fillers like corn and gluten and changing up their pet wellness franchise inventory.

Natural Food Processing

Another big trend in the pet industry is natural food processing. More and more companies are opening up about their production process which in turn has sparked greater growth with natural processing. This is especially true with freeze dried, raw frozen and baked dog foods. Along with the transparency seen in dog food manufacturers, there has been an increase in the number of companies showing where their foods were made as well as where the ingredients came from. In fact, the number of companies offering this information has tripled over the last few years.

Protein is King

As humans we understand the importance protein plays into the diet. Not only does it help with muscle building and cell repair in the body, it also helps you to feel fuller, meaning you don’t consume as many calories. The same is true for pets as trends in the pet industry have shown. Many dog food companies are listing not only the amount of protein but where the protein comes from in order to show it is high quality protein. This is highlighted in the advertisements major dog food retailers use for their product as well as the imagery and writing on the dog food itself.

These are just some of the current trends the pet wellness franchise industry is seeing. As time goes on these will be less important than other trends. This is why it is important for people with a pet store to keep up on current and ongoing trends in the industry.

 

How the Best Franchises Improve Their Social Media Presence

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We all know that social media can have a huge impact on your store. As you work on your own social media campaigns, you may find it tedious or even difficult to figure out what you can do to make your shop stand out among the many other pet franchises in your area. Here are the secrets the best franchises know that help them have a great social media presence.

 

Know that Selling Should be Minimalnew-results

A good rule of thumb with social media is that selling should only be 10% of the posts you make. The rest should be relevant and engaging content that makes your audience want to follow you. Think about it from their perspective. Would you want to follow a page that spammed you with ads for their products. Even if you loved the product or service, it gets old after a while. This is where ads can be very helpful.

 

Use Boosted Posts Strategically

If you are going to invest money into boosting your posts, then the best thing you can do is make sure you go with the best content to do this. You may think an ad for a special is the best way to boost a post, but really this is best saved for your advertising budget on Facebook. Rather, use this with well received posts or ones that highlight what you offer, such as before and after shots for the dogs. Even if you are not in the pet industry, it is still important to think about the way you boost the posts. You don’t want to boost just anything but rather something that will make people take  notice of your brand and make them want to follow your page.

 

Make Your Employees Your Brand Ambassador

Another secret the best franchises utilize is making their employees their brand ambassadors. Having people other than just your company talking about your company and sharing photos can be a huge help to your social media presence. It could be them talking about how much they love their job, stories about the dogs they enjoy working with, sharing pictures with the furry friends they make and so much more. It may be a  good idea to encourage social media usage on company time for this purpose. Just make sure you go over proper social media ettiquette for businesses before you have them start doing this so their posts stay in line with your company values.

 

Be Consistent

Consistency is key when you are trying to build an audience or keep one for that matter and the best franchises know this. This means more than just posting at specific times, but rather you want to have specific days you post on. Whether it is every day or once a week, you want people to know when they can expect to see content from you. However, we would suggest posting more than once a week as this is not enough to keep people engaged on your page.

 

Response Time Matters

shutterstock_158522159You also need to be consistent with your responses online. Facebook now shows how long it takes a page to respond so if you are slow to respond this will hurt your credibility. A good way to keep up on this is to watch your Facebook notifications on your phone so you can respond right away (or as soon as possible) to people. The best franchises keep track of their social media all the time so they can be quick to respond, which in turn boosts audience engagement.