Purr-suasive Self-Promotion: A Guide to Using Nextdoor
Self-promotion? It can sometimes feel like a daunting task. Purrhaps you just signed up to be a sitter with us, and you want to get the word out to folks in your area about the ameowzing services you offer! Don’t worry, we are here to help!
Since you are offering an in-person service, targeting the people in your neighborhood and town is a great place to start. Websites like Nextdoor can be the purrfect way to get in touch with local cat parents.
If you aren’t familiar with Nextdoor, it’s a social networking site where you can post about things going on in your area. Such as upcoming events, local businesses, trusted recommendations from locals, services, and more.
How do I get started?
If you don’t already have a personal account with Nextdoor, you’ll need to create an account to share your listing. To join, you do have to go through a verification process to prove that you do indeed live where you say you do. While this does require some extra steps, the process is designed to ensure that those signing up are indeed local people in your area and not bots or spammers. This also means that your message is reaching real live people who actually live right in the area in which you wish to serve! A winning situation all around, if we do say so ourselves. Once you have completed this step, you can begin to create your business page.
To create your page, simply follow these steps:
Creating your first post:
Get creative with your post! Pull out your best cat-puns and let your neighbors know you’re ready and waiting to watch their adorable fur-babies. Showing enthusiasm and mentioning any relevant experience you have can be great ways to catch the attention of prospective kitty clients. Don’t be afraid to show your purrsonality! Think about the kinds of things you might want to read from someone you hired to watch your cat-children. Purrhaps you would want someone who is trustworthy, kind, patient, and respectful? Listing keywords like this quickly conveys a sense of what you offer and who you are. Add some visuals to your post as well. After all, who doesn’t love an adorable cat photo?
Nextdoor tries to avoid spamming posts, so you are limited to the number of posts you can make about your business. However, they also have options for paid advertising if this is something you want to explore in the future. We recommend starting with a couple of spaced-out, free, initial posts.
Other ways to get the word out:
You can also check your local news feed (similar to a Facebook feed) to see if anyone is inquiring about the sorts of services you offer. Sometimes neighbors will ask for recommendations for cat sitters, which would be your purrfect opportunity to share your listing with them!
If one of your neighbors ends up booking you through Meowtel, they can also leave you a recommendation on your Next Door business page. Next Door believes that a recommendation from someone locally, in your area, holds more weight than a random review on the internet. We tend to agree, and as such, think it’s one of the many ameowzing ways you can market yourself.
So, get out there and introduce your new cat-sitting business to everyone! The kitties (and cat-parents) of the world will be glad you did!
Looking for more ways to get the word out? Try ordering some free promotional items from the Meowtel sitter store!
Photo by Canva
