Promote Your Pet Sitting Business Using Giveaways at Local Pet Friendly Restaurants

My step-daughter Lindsey is studying at junior college and working part time at a restaurant as a waitress. We were eating dinner there last week (it’s one of the few times that we get to see her!) and I noticed that she had an array of multi-colored pens tucked into her apron that she gives to customers to sign their tickets.  When I asked her about them she told me she just went out and bought them at Walmart because most of the time customer don’t give them back, they take them home.

I guess it came as a shock to me -  I hadn’t realized that waitresses actually have to supply their own pens (perhaps this is not the case everywhere). It also reminded me that I have a box of pens imprinted with my business name Protecting Max Your Pet Sitting Parners and my phone number and website at home that I ordered to give away at an event last year but had a lot of left overs.  I’ve been carrying the pens around with me in my purse and usually I leave them for clients after I write their visit diary notes.  I whipped out 5 of the pens from my purse and gave them to Lindsey to use instead of buying pens.  We struck up a deal that I will supply all her pens in future – and hopefully people will take them home, read them and maybe pass them around when they use them at other places where others will read them – and so spread around word about my business.

I got to thinking that this marketing strategy would be even more likely to be effective if you could get your pens into the hands of wait staff at a pet friendly restaurant or coffee shop where many clients actually bring their pets.  I wish we had more of these places in Dallas TX but unfortunately it hasn’t caught on here like it has in other places I’ve visited like Maine or Australia where more people eat outside at street side tables.

Another way to catch these customers attention is to offer to supply pet friendly restaurants with place mats or fun napkins imprinted with your business name and contact details.  You could even supply doggie water bowls or other useful items that enhance the pet friendliness of the venue and would be a win-win for you and the venue owners. If you have have these types of places in your area – why not try this out?

Anyone already tried it and had success? Leave a comment and tell us about it!