There’s something to be said for those that treat their businesses seriously. Even if business is slow or new (especially when it’s slow or new because guess what happens when you’re too busy? You won’t have time to set these up), it’s essential to piece together email templates for your pet business. Why?
To ensure potential clients get professional, branded, and consistent responses
To help you save time and also help you get back to potential clients faster
To reduce forgotten important details or to reduce errors
To allow you to stay firm and confident in your policies (cancellations anyone?)
To increase the likelihood of a potential client booking with you
To make sure all emails are consistent, even when you have staff responding to emails
Because your content/message is what converts.
Email templates can get a bad rap, but when done properly, they really shouldn’t because you can personalize each one to your heart’s content before sending it. So, why wouldn’t you use them?
I’m not ashamed to say that I use email templates on a daily basis with my potential AND current clients. I plug them into my CRM system (Dubsado) and add them to automated workflows, from which I customize with each client before sending it. It reduces the time spent on email by probably 80%.
Want some help with your email templates? I have pet industry email templates in the PMU Shop!
Before we get into what templates you should have, we’ll want to go over a couple of things:
How do I create them? Where in the F do I put these guys?
You have three options and honestly, I recommend using all three! Am I crazy? Maybe. But being thorough never hurt nobody, am I right!?
GoogleDoc - This is a great place to store all of your email templates. You can keep it growing, changing, and evolving from here as your home base. In fact, my email template guide comes with an editable GoogleDoc just for this reason.
Gmail Canned emails - The easiest way to use your email templates? Using Gmail Canned Emails (now called Templates). Once you get these set up, all you have to do when responding to an email is click respond, pull up the template from Gmail, customize, and send. Here’s a tutorial I wrote on how to get these set up.
In your software - Depending on your type of pet business or whether you have a software that can pull email templates in for you, this makes things SO incredibly streamlined and wonderful for your client experience. I use canned emails every day in Dubsado (get 20% off your first month here with my affiliate link). Each client has their own workflow, which gets populated right when they say in their contact form that they’re interested in a particular service. From there, all I have to do is customize an email and send it off!
So, what email templates should you set up for your pet business?
I recommend having an email template for:
Common questions or issues that pop up in your business
The most frequent emails you send. Action step: Go into your inbox right now and see what common emails you send!
Each step of the process for each service you offer (now, this depends on your type of pet business, but if you’re offering services that don’t typically overlap, I’d recommend completely separate templates so that your emails are more fine-tuned and tailored to the needs of each service)
Growth opportunities. Are you trying to find collaborations? Partnerships? Be on a podcast? Write guest blog posts? Interviews?
Here’s a list of email templates you may need in your pet business:
1. Sales Pitches - Sales emails can be some of the most difficult emails to write! How in the world do we write them in a way that doesn’t sound too ‘salesy?’ I totally get it. But, by intentionally drafting templates ahead of time, that worry can fade.
2. Sponsored Collaboration Requests - Email templates like these allow you to send more requests in a shorter amount of time, especially when you’re ready to start another round of requests.
3. Guest Blogging/Podcast Requests - Ready to amp up your reach and brand awareness? Having these email templates will save you so much time when you’re ready to pitch bloggers or podcasters.
4. Partnerships - These are big ones in the pet industry. If you want to learn more about partnerships, check out my blog post on everything you need to know about forming pet biz partnerships.
5. Requests for Reviews & Referrals - Small businesses rely on reviews and referrals, but it can be hard to ask. Having templates in place can make this process much easier and automatic, especially if you use it as part of your automated workflow (if you use software)!
6. When Clients Ask For A Discount - There comes a time when we feel like we need to justify our prices. We shouldn’t feel bad about what we charge, but there’s a way to address it while also still nurturing the sale! Doing this ahead of time can help you not cave under pressure!
7. When Clients Need Extra Help - This can take up SOOOO much time. Having templates ready to go can make this a breeze!
8. Angry Clients / Firing Clients - Sticky situations happen. It’s nice to have a process in place to ease just a little bit of the stress when you’re dealing with them.
9. Cancellation Requests - These are super common in the pet service industry, especially for dog walkers and pet sitters. What’s also common is the desire to not honor your cancellation policy because you feel bad. By setting up an email template to handle this scenario, it will allow you to more confidently honor your policies and not miss out!
10. Raising Rates - This is never an easy one to write, especially if you’re a small pet business. But, the time comes when you need to increase your prices. Having a template can make you feel more confident and reassured.
11. Inquiry Responses - This can save so much time and also allow you to convert more clients because you’re able to respond quickly and efficiently (i.e. covering all your bases to make your client feel understood and well taken care of).
12. Initial Call Follow-Ups - We should always be following up after the initial call. It’s professional, reminds them of what you talked about, and entices them to move forward with you! Having these set up ahead of time can reduce a ton of stress and convert your clients at a higher percentage than without it!
13. On-Boarding/Welcome Emails - The customer experience is SO important. Having comprehensive and exciting welcome emails can just really change the game.
Bonus Points: Consider creating a branded welcome or info. packet for your pet business. And, if you need help, I have templates to get you started here.
14. Off-Boarding/Following Service Emails - Same goes for these guys, especially when this can be the deciding factor of whether they book with you again!
15. When They Haven't Booked In A While - Take advantage of the opportunity this email template could grant you!! Imagine if these people either booked with you again or at least gave you insight into something going wrong in your business process that can avoid more similar situations in the future.
16. Pet Birthdays - Did you know birthday emails are 2x as likely to get opened and result in clicks compared to other ‘normal’ emails? Depending on how many animals you have in your client base, this could take FOREVER to send out. Having templates ensures this can be something you can maintain consistently!
17. Adding/Expanding Services - Building hype is so important! Piecing together a template for them can allow you to respond to change and growth in the best way possible!
Coming up with all of these templates can seem like a draining task, but I promise you that once you have them ready to go and in place, it’ll be oh so worth it.
And if you really don’t want to do it, guess what!? I’ve created them for you in my pet industry email templates guide in the PMU Shop!
It includes templates for all of the above scenarios and more, not to mention video walkthrough tutorials on how to set up canned emails, create a professional email signature, and teach clients how to whitelist your email address so you never show up in spam! Get your email template guide here.
