Today there are more and more people who want to train dogs for a living. Unfortunately many dog trainers are forced to train dogs on the side of a regular job, or struggle to get enough clients to train dogs full time. The sad part is that this isn’t because the person doesn’t know how to train dogs, or help people. The reason is that they don’t know how to effectively market their business in a way that will show value and attract the type of clients they want to work with. But don’t worry! We are going to teach you five steps you can take today that will fix that.
Step 1. Think like a client, not a dog trainer. This is the golden rule for dog training success. You need to lose all the dog trainer jargon from your website, conversations with clients, training programs, and all marketing materials. When a client’s dog has trouble coming when called, they don’t think, “Oh I wish my dog had a better recall.” They would call you on the phone and ask if you can teach their dog to come when called. Or teach their dog to not run away.Best dog trainer dallas
You want potential clients to identify with you as a regular person who happens to train dogs and can help fix their problems. They won’t do that if you are speaking in a way that they don’t THINK in their own heads.
Step 2. When it comes to training, people aren’t spending their money on their dogs, they’re spending money on themselves. Many trainers we teach tell us that the people they service would never spend $1500 or more on their dog. That’s true, but they are really spending the money on themselves to make THEIR lives happier and probably to remove dog behaviors that are making THEM miserable. So the lesson here, is when you are writing on your website, or speaking to people, you need to focus on how their life would improve with a dog that listens. For example, you could write on the front page of your website, “Imagine the peace and quiet you will enjoy from not having your dog bark at every noise he hears.” Once you can establish in the person’s mind the benefits they will receive from working with you, they will be ready to sign up!
Step 3. The purpose of your website is to get people to contact you. Your website should NOT be a library of resource information on dog training. It should also not be a too much about you and your training credentials. Everything you write should be about the dog owner, what they’re going through now, and how life will be after you resolve the struggles they’re having.
You also need a lead-capture box on all the pages of your site. This is also called an “opt-in” box. This is a box where they can leave their e-mail address. They will be more likely to leave their info if you offer then something free, like 5 tips on how to housebreak a dog. Or 5 common mistakes dog owners make. Don’t forget your location, phone number and e-mail address must be prominent on all the pages of your site.
Step 4. Focus on benefits, not just features. The features of your programs are things like the number of commands, the number of lessons, the length of stay for a board and train program. The benefits are things like, ‘your dog will walk next to you on a leash so you won’t have your arm pulled and won’t be embarrassed in the neighborhood.’
The benefits are the positive changes the client will experience in their life. Another example: The feature would be the off command, the benefit would be that the owner would not have to worry about their dog jumping and hurting someone. So when you are writing your programs, do not only write a list of features, but write the benefits each option will provide to the owner.
Step 5. Attract your ideal clients. You might be surprised, but the people you want to contact you are not just limited to people with money and a dog. People want a specialist, not a generalist, and will pay more for it. So what are you particularly good at? If you had an engine problem in your car, would you want a mechanic who did a little of everything? Or someone who only worked on engines and specialized on it?
Think about what you do best and what type of person you like to work with most and write a description of them. Think about the best client you have ever had. Why did they come to you? What did they say? What did they need? What were their problems? What results were they looking for? What was their personality like? What did they enjoy most about working with you? When you write all your materials, pretend you are writing personally to them. For example, our ideal client is a family or person who is teachable, friendly, has a dog with common behavior problems, and has tried other training before maybe it hasn’t worked well enough for them. When we write, we write to that person, so we tend to attract that kind of person.