Miscellaneous
In this episode, I’m talking about Superfans for Catsitters. What are Superfans? They’re your most enthusiastic fans, the ones who know that their cats are in the best care with you. So how do superfans help your pet sitting business? A few years ago, when my cat sitting business was getting very busy, a client of mine told me about a lunch she had with two of her friends. They’re all cat lovers and the topic eventually turned to vacations. Then one of the ladies complained that she was having trouble finding someone she could trust to care for her beloved cats. My client piped up straight away saying she had the best cat sitter; one she uses all the time. The other friend said she used a cat sitter too. And that her cat sitter was fantastic and has taken excellent care of her cats for years. When the friend asked for the names of these two pet sitters so she could see for herself, they both came out with my name at the same time! It turns out that two of them were my clients and hadn’t known it until the moment. I discovered this when the new client told me the story. All three of these clients have gone on to send many other referrals my way, which leads to even more clients. This was my first experience with the power of superfans, clients that love the way you do business and care for their cats and can’t wait to tell the world about you. And if you have been in business for a while, I guarantee that you have these superfans amongst your clients, too. These hardcore superfans frequently refer your business to others, and they will defend you against unfair reviews and internet haters. They’re your immunity against the competition, setbacks in the economy and the whims of social media and search engine algorithms. In short, superfans sell your business for you. Every pet sitting business needs to attract them. While most of your superfans will come from the ranks of your most satisfied clients, superfans do not necessarily have to be your clients. They could be future clients or cat lovers who don’t travel or need a cat sitter but love your business brand and are happy to refer you to friends and family who do need a cat sitter. These are the people you want to stay highly engaged with. But how do you find and cultivate superfans? In the beginning, you may feel like you’re in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there, but I’m going to give you some ideas on how to shed a little light on that room. I just finished reading a book by a popular podcaster and entrepreneur, Pat Flynn. You can find his book through my affiliate link below: Superfans: The Easy Way To Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, And Build A Successful Business. While Pat’s business is to help entrepreneurs build online businesses, his ideas easily apply to the pet sitting business as well. As I was reading the book, I realized that many of the concepts Pat is talking about, are spot on with things that happened in my own business. Pat’s experience with superfans can help you build a solid foundation under your business that will stand the test of time despite changes in the economy. The basic idea behind superfans can be visualized in the shape of a pyramid. At the base of the pyramid, you have causal fans, who know about you but don’t necessarily interact with you. The next section up is your active fans, these are people that know about you and actively participate in your social media platforms, such as making regular comments on your Facebook or Instagram posts. Moving up to the next level you have your connected community of active fans. These people are active fans that interact with each other as an interconnected group. Finally, at the very tip of the pyramid, you have a smaller group of superfans who are highly engaged with your social media platforms. They speak very highly of you and will defend you against unfair comments from random commentators. They’re also a rich source of referrals and glowing testimonials. I understand the concept of superfans, not only from having the privilege of experiencing them myself, but I am superfan, as well. I am a superfan of the local cat shelter in my community. Because I admire and appreciate the work they do for the cats where I live and work. I have volunteered for them, run fundraisers for them, wrote, produced and published their monthly newsletter. I’ve also been a strong defender of them when it came to fee for service funding from the city. Writing letters to the newspapers and helping them with press releases. I am one of their superfans for sure! I know that many of you are similar superfans of your own local shelters. The main reason, of course, is our love of animals and that we strongly support the quality care and treatment of animals. There are many types of brands that create superfans. Think when your favorite restaurant, veterinarian or musician gets an unfair review. Would you defend them? The same idea applies to your cat care business. And I’m going to share with you three concepts from Pat’s book and from my own experience with that can help you build your own group of superfans. STEP ONE: Get very clear about your client’s biggest fears. Now it may sound terrible to suggest focusing on negatives, but you can’t help someone if you have no idea what sort of issues they worry about when it comes to the care of their cats. They want to know they’ve found a business that understands them, that they can identify with and they can trust implicitly with their pets and their homes. As Pat says in the book, “you don’t need to change the entire world to build a successful business; you just need to change someone’s world”. Imagine giving a senior lady the peace of mind she needs to finally take a vacation knowing her cat is loved and cared for. That’s an amazing gift to give someone. Show potential clients how you can add value to their lives. People become your superfan because of how you make them feel. No one buys a Harley Davidson because it’s a motorbike that gets them around town. They buy it because of how owning a Harley makes them feel. In the book, Pat talks about the “superfan journey” and as cat sitters, we need to keep this in mind. Starting with the people at the base of your audience pyramid who’ve found you in some random way. Maybe a local ad or seeing the signage on your vehicle driving around. I know from experience that many people know about you and follow you long before they actually reach out to hire you. They may know of you, but they’re not loyal to you yet, so you want to find ways to keep them interested and thinking of you when they need cat care. Research the words and phrases that will “activate” these casual followers. The language that shows you get them. As Pat points out in Superfans, it's not enough to just know what your audience is concerned about, you also need to find out how they describe their concerns. Search Facebook groups. Type in “cat owners” or “cat-lovers” in the main search bar. There are tons of variations you can look up to find accounts about cats. Find some groups that seem to have large members and ask to join. Please do not spam any of these groups with your business information. Some groups may ban you if you do. And this exercise is just to gather information. Many of the people in the group will not be in your service area, anyway. Although, some might be depending on what group you are researching. Once you’re a member, you can hit the “search this group” field with something like “pet sitter”, or “cat sitter”. You should get lots of results of cat owners talking about their experience with cat sitters. Pay special attention to what concerns them when discussing cat sitters. Keep a notebook to write down these concerns in the language the cat owners are using. You’ll see loads of posts showing a struggle with trust among people asking about cat sitters. Your writing should reflect that you understand by showing how your business has addressed these concerns. Maybe you have a policy to send daily emails or text updates. One-on-one conversations are also a great place to get that language. Invite cat owners to contact you to find out what you do, no obligations, just a chat with you! Your openness to inquires can be expressed on your website and your social media. You never know who might use your services down the road, so be open to all questioners, even if what they think your business is about is incorrect. For instance, I’ve had many clients initially call me about boarding. I then explain what I do and why I look after cats in the comfort of their own home. They may say no thanks at first, but then call me a year or so later to give the service a try. And of course, they’re very happy with it afterward! Once you have a list of keywords and phrases your desired audience uses, then you can practice using those words and phrases in your website copy, your emails and other advertising. STEP TWO: Building a community of engaged followers around your brand. By adding elements of your personality that cat people can relate to, they will follow you and even eventually hire you. At the very least, they might recommend you to others who need cat care. Pat calls it “breaking the ice” by getting comfortable with injecting more personal stuff that will connect with your audience. This could include sharing your thoughts about a good book you’re reading, or a movie you love. Try to avoid controversy, though. This is your business after all. Use your own cats in your social media posts. Post pictures and snippets of funny stories. When people respond to your posts, reply to them using their name. As you get deeper into pat’s book, you will see how important that is. Keep your audience involved by giving them quick wins such as posts about cat problems you’ve solved or inspiring stories you’ve encountered. Give your audience a challenge, like, teaching their cat to sit on a mat or other simple trick. Have them post it. Get the ball rolling with a video of one of your own cats performing an easy trick. Acknowledge everyone that participates with your post. Plan your posts and Facebook lives. They don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to know exactly what your goal is. For example, persuading your audience to post on your page. Create posts that convey what your audience will gain by using your cat care service. Peace of mind sitting on a tropical beach somewhere knowing that they’re returning to healthy happy cats and a safe secure home. The sharper you focus on this image, the more likely you’ll create a fan. You’re simply painting a picture of how they’ll benefit from working with you. Use testimonials that express the joy and relief your clients enjoy after using your service. How their time away was stress-free because you sent them pictures and updates. Remember, your audience is not buying your service, they’re buying how your service makes them feel; comforted, relieved, satisfied, etc. You’re looking for words that potential clients can relate to. Then weave those words into your writing on every platform. Cat owners often use different words than other pet owners. You want to look very closely at what those differences are. Your future clients are where your current clients were before they found you. So, collect stories of positive transformations from your current clients that will appeal to future clients. Ask your clients what it was like before and after they found you. Asking more specific questions like that will generate more words you can use. Ask if you can feature their story in a FB post, with or without names. Respond to everyone who comments on your posts and pages. If someone leaves a nice comment on your site or social media accounts, give them a shout out in a FB live or special post thanking them. Monitor all your social media channels for messages you haven’t responded to yet. Have a system in place to regularly check them at a specific time of day or day of the week. When your audience sees that you respond to others, they’re more likely to engage, too. They need to see that the path to reach you is easy. Brainstorm some questions that will keep your active audience engaged. For example, “How did you introduce your new cat to your resident cat?”, “Did you experience any problems?” Encourage followers to post pictures and stories of their cats on your page. The more engagement you generate, the more you will be rewarded by getting your page seen. Some questions you might post could be: “What breed is this?” accompanied by a photo of an exotic cat. “What would you do if your cat did this….?” “Does your cat meow at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night? Another popular idea is to post a funny cat photo with the challenge: “Caption this!” Be consistent with the schedule of posts so people know what to expect from your page. Have weekly subject categories mapped out so people can go looking for them. Post and share with intention. What do you want your post to do for your audience? You have a fantastic cat sitting business, how do your posts reflect that? As Pat points out, people shout out answers while watching game shows like jeopardy. They do this even when no one can hear them because people love having the right answer. You can ask questions that people can easily find an answer to, like: “Who knows how many teeth an adult cat has?” Accompanied the question with a picture of a cat with his mouth wide open. Give lots of praise and encouragement for participation and remember to always use a person’s name. When you are replying to a post, the poster will get a notification that you replied to them. To make it more personal, I like to leave only the first name in the profile highlighted. It just feels better to see, “Hi Cathy” instead of “Hi Cathy Hamm”. Answer the question a few hours later and give praise to everyone who answered whether wrong or right. Ask for photos of their cat’s teeth. Use this human desire to share to generate more participation. On a side note, it’s important to establish what your rules of engagement will be. Considering the nature of our business, it should be family-friendly. Also, how do you expect your audience to treat one another? Will you discourage political or divisive content? How are the rules to be enforced? Are they posted clearly (i.e., pinned at the top of the page)? Is your page private? Or do people have to join? Private Facebook groups are the best way to ensure that you can manage what goes on in there. Public pages make it easy for anyone to participate but they need to be monitored closely for inappropriate comments and spam. No one can engage with you if they don’t know who you are. So be as transparent and approachable as possible. Let people know exactly what you do and that providing top quality service is your number one priority. Client confidentially is a must. Many pet sitters post pictures of themselves with their client’s cats on social media. That’s great! But make sure you’re not identifying their home in any way. Carefully check each photo or video before uploading. Make sure the cats are looking their best and happy in the post. There are lots of good tips for photographing cats online. Practice how to get the best kinds of angles and lighting to avoid those ‘laser eyes’! Alternatively, you could post photos of your own cats or cats of family and friends. Show your audience the love and care you give them. This is an excellent idea because you have more control to perfect the photo conditions. Lighting, background, and props. Make your own cat your mascot. Your audience will get to know and love them. You can’t get any more relatable to your cat-loving audience than that! There are other ways to show your reliability and dedication, too. This winter we saw daunting snowfalls. In winter, I’ll typically be shoveling my way out of driveways and side roads all over town. Get a few photos of your car out and about. In rain, snow, sleet and hail you go! Pat also suggests organizing special events for your audience. Such as an online workshop, maybe on basic cat grooming or a charity fundraiser for a cat shelter in your community. Be very responsive to all participants and single them out to thank them. If you’re worried about live video just remember, no one expects you to be perfect. But you do need to plan the message you want to convey. Start with a short and sweet tutorial. Create an online event for people to signup. Ask for questions in advance to cover during your call. Mention everyone who asked a question. Once you get the hang of doing these short calls, then you can move on to longer ones. Remember, this is about your community. What are they getting out of it? Another great suggestion Pat has is giving your community a name to make them feel they’re a part of a group. People who are part of a group feel more protective of that identity. Pat gives the example of the star trek series where fans are known as Trekkies. As a united group, these fans keep the brand going. Any name you come up with should be closely aligned with your business. Since my audience is mainly people who work in the cat care business, I see us as pro cat sitters. As pro cat sitters. We know what we do and why we do it. And as a group, we support each other and promote high-quality care for the cats in our care. I can’t think of a simpler and more accurate identity for our group. What potential names can you come up with for your group? People love to feel they are part of something special. Their own community. What’s the name of your town or business? Can you incorporate it into a group name? STEP THREE: Moving your connected, active fans to superfans of your business. Once you identify your active fans, let them shine. You could let them know how much you appreciate them by sending an unexpected message. Send a personalized video or audio you made just for them. To give an example of how this works, I recently went looking online for new houses for our move this year. I signed up to be notified when new listings become available in the area that I’m interested in. After signing up, the real estate agent sent me a personalized video using my name. He thanked me for signing up and wanted me to know that he’s available if I had any questions. The video showed him sitting at a table in his house and I think his dog was even in the background. The message was casual with absolutely no pressure at all. This gesture makes it much more likely that I’ll contact him when it comes time to buy. Listen to your active audience to discover what’s important to them. Remember their names and their cat’s names. Reach out when they post about the joys and grief that goes along with sharing their lives with beloved pets. Create special moments that let them know you value them. As Pat says, “In order to become someone’s ultimate favorite, you have to do the things other people aren’t doing”. It’s worth the extra time it takes to build a loyal and appreciative superfan. Plan your posts and strategies to create a strong connection with your audience. But this doesn’t mean you have to spend all your time online on it. Like you, I’m an active pet sitter. I know how busy it gets. What I’m suggesting is that you set aside a certain time of day where you’re specifically working on your ideas and connecting with your most active followers. Overtime, squeezing in a few minutes each day on this task will result in significant progress. During the busy pet sitting season let your audience know that you won't’ be as active as usual since you’ll be out caring for the kitties. Be genuine and true to your values and never forget that your fans, whether causal, active or superfans are human beings who need to be heard. In no time at all, you’ll see your active fans become superfans. Check out the book here Superfans. Another benefit of superfans, as Pat mentions, is that they could be a pool of potential employees down the road. They know what your standards and values are, and they share them. What experiences do you have with your followers? Can you identify individuals on each of these levels on your Facebook page or other social platforms? Leave a comment on my page at procatsitter.com or on my Facebook page. Well, that’s it for this week. My next episode is about low-stress handling and restraint of cats to administer medications or transport a cat to the vet for treatment. In some cases, this is probably one of the most challenging tasks we can perform. So, make sure you don’t miss it. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. Until next time I hope you have a puuurfect day!