What you’ll read: How some brands successfully turned pet owner’s affection into brand loyalty through pet email marketing campaigns, and how some missed the mark.
From calling them fur-babies to pet pampering, owners prove their obsession with their four-legged friends is going strong. Just check out these numbers from Statista:
- 471 million pet dogs owned worldwide
- $103 billion in pet food sales worldwide
- $1,201 average yearly spending on pet dogs by Americans
- 1,875 GPB average annual cost of owning a dog in the UK
- 59 percent of households in the UK own at least one pet
The likelihood of someone owning a pet has only increased since the start of the pandemic, with more people at home turning to pets for emotional support.
To ensure pet parents think about your brand for their next purchase, craft campaigns that will catch their attention for all of the right reasons. We’ve put together a list of the best and worst pet brand email marketing campaigns— we’ll start with the top 5 you’re sure to love.
Top 5 Loved Pet Brand Campaigns
Pull inspiration from these pet campaigns that hit the mark with customers.
1 Pets & Friends
The welcome email from Pets & Friends is as effective as it is adorable. They lead with the perks for customers—from free delivery and repeat-and-save purchases to loyalty points. It’s also clear to the subscriber who they are receiving the email from the minute they open the message—and why they received it.
They follow that up with a clear CTA and discount, which are sure to boost engagement. The discount content even looks like a coupon, creating clear messaging. From there, they feature popular products to inspire further purchases.
2 PetShop.co.uk
In another example of a welcome email that focuses on a discount/special, this one from PetShop.co.uk thanks customers for signing up and gives them free shipping for the next 24 hours. Here are a few things we like about this one:
- They list ways they improve the customer experience—which is especially helpful for new subscribers.
- While not as personalized as using the subscriber’s name, we still like the greeting with “Pet Parent.”
- They use a photo of the CEO/founder and his pet, which shows their audience the person and pet behind the brand.
3 Pets Corner
Brands need to know what sets them apart from the competition, and Pets Corner shows they have a good grasp on what they offer with this email. From sharing they are the world’s only carbon neutral pet retailer to having the first dog food made with insects, they describe to subscribers what makes them special.
4 Paw.com
What animal lover doesn’t want to receive an email that is seemingly written by a pet? Paw.com uses that fun approach with this welcome email that uses tons of fun pet idioms. How could you not enjoy the closing, “Sniffcerely”? This email is cute, unique and to the point—all things you want in a campaign
5 Scrumbles
Beyond having good bones by providing a discount, insight into what they do, and a clear CTA, this email from Scrumbles also has original clipart that matches their branding. Images should always add something to the design and serve a purpose, and the ones here do that and more.
Here’s another email campaign from Scrumbles that shows how they continue that design theme.
Top 5 Hated Pet Brand Campaigns
Not every campaign is a winner, but you can learn from other pet brands’ missteps to ensure your emails don’t make the same mistakes.
1 DoggTreats.com
You’ve signed up, verified your email, and then you receive this email from DoggTreats.com. There are no images besides their logo, so it looks like another confirmation message—not a welcome email. They do include links to blogs, which is good, but with nothing to catch the subscriber’s eye, it might just get deleted.
2 PetShop.co.uk
If you don’t have the subscriber’s name, use a placeholder tag that’s set up in your ESP—like “Hi there!” You don’t want to end up with a greeting like this one: “Hi & furry friend.” An email about joint support is also pretty targeted—so it might not work as the second email in this automated campaign flow.
3 Felcana
The text may say, “Welcome,” in this Felcana email, but that opening image says just the opposite. Many newspapers won’t even print photos that show the back of someone because people want to see a person’s face and connect with them—and the same is true for pets. We want to see that cute, furry face.
4 Barkbox
This email has plenty of good elements, but it could be better. BarkBox should have the name of the subscriber’s pet on file—so why didn’t they include it in this message? Anytime you send a birthday email (for pets or people), make sure their name is front and center to personalize the message and remove any confusion about who it’s from. For all you know, pets and their owners may have similar birthdays.
5 Woofbox
At first, we liked this email: It has cute pics, clear CTAs, and information. But then we scrolled down and saw a CTA for Christmas pet toys—and we received the email in February. It seems like the brand forgot to change out the CTA in this welcome email, and that’s never a good look.
Show the brand knows its customers
Pet owners want brands to understand what’s important to them and their furry friends, whether that be using natural ingredients in the food, offering a variety of pickup and shipping options, or supporting animal nonprofits through their revenue. Conduct surveys, collect/analyze data, and talk with customers to get a better understanding of what they want—and then create tail-wagging email marketing campaigns that showcase how your brand excels in those areas.