Marketing pets with long shelter stays can be confusing and sometimes frustrating. It’s hard to know which of the pet’s characteristics are going to resonate with potential adopters, and it can be even harder to keep coming up with new ideas for the same pet. To this end, Finnegan Dowling, Shelter Program and Engagement Manager for Mutual Rescue, sat down with us to discuss key takeaways from her Long Stay Pet Workshop. Here are her top five action items:
Your hook sentence is critical. “A hook sentence is something, usually unexpected or funny and uplifting, that will encourage people to keep reading and to possibly share the animal,” says Dowling. “One of our biggest issues on social [media] right now is that people are getting so used to visual and video content that they’re not reading beyond the first sentence. So, you have to hook them WITH that sentence.”
Use every marketing channel you have to the fullest. Put the pet in front of your supporters in multiple ways, multiple times. Dowling says, “We need to be more creative, have a little more fun and most importantly, stay on it.”
Avoid stop signs and reroute potential adopters who aren’t good matches to other pets. “A lot of adoptable dogs’ posts start with the dog’s name, age or stop signs – and you’ve already lost them. If you’re posting about a long-stay in a way that does get a lot of people interested in the animal who maybe aren’t the perfect fit, that’s fine,” says Dowling. These people have just self-identified as being interested in a specific type of pet, and your organization likely has more than one. She suggests showing potential adopters who are not a good fit for the long-stay pet other animals that might be better matches for them.
Don’t over-rely on sad stories. “There is no such thing as a ‘long-stay pet’ – just a regular pet that has been at the shelter a long time,” she says. “And that characterizing them as such and depending too heavily on sad stories really limits the pet’s reach and ability to find a home, as well as robbing it of its individuality.”
Get them out of the shelter. “Trying to learn more about a pet after it’s been in a shelter for an extended period of time is like interviewing someone in the hospital, after they’ve been having the worst days of their life and expecting to see how they behave at home,” Dowling says. “Any sort of fostering – even an overnight or a weekend – will let you see who that pet actually is. And it’s the small things that you can see when a pet is out of the shelter that will help people make that connection.”
“A dog who is obsessed with a sprinkler, a cat who chirps like a bird – these seem really inconsequential in a shelter setting (if you can even see those behaviors there) but those tiny little things are what makes people fall in love,” says Dowling. “Maybe their last dog loved sprinklers, or they had a cat named Birdy that also chirped. Not only do those help adopters connect with the pet, they also return the animals individuality and dignity to them. Would you rather hang out with ‘Finn who spent two years in a hospital due to cancer’ or ‘Finn who speaks Spanish with a Boston accent and can beat anyone at Uno?’”
“If we had more time, I would have loved to talk about ‘guerrilla marketing’ or marketing outside of the traditional methods. Some of the pets we saw are absolutely perfect, we just have to get word of them to people who are not following shelters on social media. Which is why we need to think beyond what we’re currently doing,” Dowling explains. “The most important thing when you sit down to write that bio or make that video or post, is ‘how do I preserve this pet’s life and sanity by finding it a home?’”
Still not sure where to start? Dowling is happy to help! “If I can help with a tough case, I usually will! Helping shelters is a huge part of my job. My email is fdowling@mutualrescue.org and if I have time, I’m happy to help with an idea or a draft or a way to re-frame things.”
You can watch the webcast’s recording and download related resources here.