How to get dog walking clients

A dog walking business is the perfect idea for an enthusiastic entrepreneur with a love of animals. But it only really works if you can find clients to pay for your service. 

To help you find enough business to make your business goals a reality, here are some of our top tips to help you attract clients to your dog walking business. 

• Build a website
• Promote your business on social media
• Start a YouTube channel
• Sign up for online directories
• Get certified
• Organise a charity walk 
• Partner with a shelter

A website will act as the online face of your business. If you get it right, you’ll see a significant increase in online business. At the very least, your website should have:

• Contact information, 
• A list of services.
• A price list.  
• An “about me” page.

It’s not too difficult to create your own business website, even for the inexperienced. There are loads of beginner-friendly website builders out there that you can use to create a professional website with a range of useful features. 

The best way to get website traffic is by improving your search engine rankings. You want to appear high on the list when people look for dog walkers on search engines, like Google. 

You can improve your search engines rankings by:

• Paying for Google ads.
• Improving your SEO (search engine optimisation).
• Encouraging your customers to leave Google reviews.
• Signing up for online directories. 

When it comes to online marketing, social media can’t be ignored. It’s a unique form of advertising that will help you promote your service while giving your brand a personality. Popular platforms like these are full of potential clients:

• Facebook 
• Twitter
• Snapchat
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube 

Here are some general rules for social media marketing:

• Post content often and regularly. 
• Post content that’s interesting to users, not just sales pitches for your business.
• Engage with your followers and other businesses. 
• Switch between written posts, videos, and photos. 
• Always link back to your business website in your posts.

Sites like Facebook and Instagram put a major focus on images, so it’s the perfect place to post pictures of all the cute dogs that are part of your crew. 

Along with regular pictures, you can write blogs about animal care, record short videos of your walks, or even do a weekly dog biography where you introduce a new member of the group. 

YouTube is a social media platform, but it’s also the world’s second-largest search engine, so starting a dedicated YouTube channel will increase your visibility and could even produce revenue on its own. 

You can create videos about:

• Your regular dog walks. 
• Individual dogs in your group, introducing them to the public. 
• General advice for dog owners. 
• Animal care tutorials. 

For the best results, you should upload videos regularly, and they should be at least ten minutes long if you want to monetise your videos with ads. Encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel and like/comment on videos.

Online directories like Google Business and Facebook’s local business promoter will make it much easier for local dog owners to find your business online. 

Google business is a free listing service that anybody can use. When people search for dog walkers in your area, your profile will appear with reviews, photos, and your location. 

For more detailed information about using Google for your small business, check out our article, “How to advertise a small business on Google”.

Facebook’s online directory provides a similar service to Google’s, but it only applies to your Facebook page. When you sign up, Facebook uses in your area will see advertisements for your business profile. 

Unlike Google business, you need to pay for Facebook’s service. Although, it has the added benefit of appearing on actual Facebook feeds, meaning people can see your dog walking business without having to search for it specifically. 

Completing courses about dog walking and animal care will improve your overall knowledge of the industry. On top of that, your certification will let people know that their dogs are safe in the hands of a professional. 

In a similar vein, you should look into dog walkers’ insurance policies. It’ll protect you just in case the worst should happen, and it’ll give your clients peace of mind. 

Charity events are a great way to generate some good PR while raising money for a good cause. Organising a large dog walking event to raise money for the RSPCA or The Dogs Trust would be the perfect way to demonstrate your business values. 

Promote the event on your website and social media channels to get as many people involved as possible, and remember to take lots of pictures and videos to post later.  

One of the best ways to find dog walking clients is by going straight to the source. Approach some dog shelters in your area and ask them to recommend your business to anybody who adopts a dog. 

Leave business cards or pamphlets with as many shelters as you can, and make sure they contain all of your contact information and website address. 

Thousands of self-employed people across the UK use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Find out more here.