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January is chock full of holidays that pair perfectly with Astro Offers, Sharing the Love Adoption Programs, and My Promotions. We have added new Astro Templates and Astro Images to your Marketing Suite that you can use to showcase your store's special promotions for the month. Our Knowledge Base is also full of helpful Social Media Tips.
Are you on etailpet? We have started adding Holiday Banners to the Astro Image Library that you can use to decorate your online store. There are two new Astro Image Filters, "etailpet Shop Now Banners" and etailpet Secondary Banners". Show Now Banners are 1350x350px and Secondary Banners are 1350x290px.
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Jan 2: National Pet Travel Safety Day
This holiday gives you a great opportunity to share some knowledge about travel safety. The most common form of travel in the coming months will most likely be via car. Are your customers aware of the simple safety measures that they can take on their next family road trip? Does your store carry travel harnesses, seat belts, travel carriers, booster seats, seat hammocks, travel water bowls, travel anxiety remedies, etc? If so, make sure your customers are aware so they'll visit your shop before embarking on their next great adventure!
Marketing Materials: Astro Holiday Template with Offer Elements and Text Element for sharing Safety Tips. Astro Images under Holiday, Facebook, and Instagram.
My Promotion Idea: %/$ Off Travel Safety Supplies.
Social Media Idea: Conduct a Facebook Live demonstrating how to fit a dog with a travel harness and how to safely secure him in a car.
Jan 2: Happy MEW Year for Cats!
Happy Mew Year for Cats Day was created by wellcat.com so cats could have their own little celebration for New Year's.
Any cat owner will tell you that cats consider themselves to be far, far superior to us mere mortals. Cats are graceful, regal, and all-around fabulous. They most certainly feel entitled and deserving of all that life has to offer.
Like the human version of New Year’s Day, it is on this special day that our feline companions can paws (get it?) and consider the ‘mewness’ of the brand new season and all of the purrfect possibilities it holds.
In celebration of this holiday you can talk about the New Year's Resolutions that you imagine a cat would make, or the New Year's hopes and wishes they carry in their hearts as we start 2021. Some of the most common human New Year's Resolutions relate to getting healthy and fit, and we all know that cats are happiest and healthiest on moisture-rich high protein diets like raw and high-quality wet diets.
This is also a good time to bring awareness to any cat charities that are close to your heart.
Marketing Materials: Astro Template with Offer Elements, Sharing the Love, and a Text Element to share Information. Astro Images categorized under Holiday, Facebook, Instagram, etailpet Banners.
Astro Blog to Share: Loving Cats a Little Extra to Wrap Up the Year
My Promotion Ideas: $% Off Cat Toys or High Ticket Wish List Items like Cat Trees, Beds, Robot Litter Boxes.
Social Media Idea: Ask your customers via a Facebook or Instagram post what their cat's New Year's Resolutions are and share one of your own. (My guys are hoping to improve their mind-control powers in order to encourage prompt feeding times.)
Jan 8: National Labrador Retriever Day
Ah, the Lab. These buddies are one of the most popular dog breeds in the United States, especially for families. They are intelligent, gentle, fun-loving, full of energy, master cuddlers, and just an all-around best-bud.
On this day you can wish all of your Lab and Lab Mix customers a very happy holiday.
You can also help play matchmaker for Labs currently in shelters and rescues in your area. The simple act of sharing a homeless dog's profile to your customers and followers may help one of these guys find a new home and a family find their new best friend. If your store is participating in Sharing the Love be sure to mention it!
Marketing Materials: Astro Holiday Template with Offer Elements, My Promotion Element, and Sharing the Love. Astro Images categorized as Holiday, Facebook, Instagram, etailpet Banners, My Promotion Images.
My Promotion Idea: A Free Treat to Any Lab or Lab Mix that visits your store on January 8th. There is a My Promotion Image in the Image Library ready to go for you! Remember to take advantage of this photo-op and post these pics of your Lab customers enjoying their free treats on your socials!
Social Media Ideas: Share links to local Lab Rescues in your area or links to bios of Labs and Lab Mixes that are looking for homes. Ask your customers to share stores and pictures of their Labs and Lab Mixes!
Jan 14: National Dress Up Your Pet Day
Yay! I'm excited about this one especially since there have been so many funny videos and TikToks relating to the trend "Love It, Couldn't Wear It". This was started by some very fashionable dogs on TikTok who wanted to model some of the fun fashions that they weren't able to wear in public due to the quarantines in 2020. These video clips were some of the cutest and funniest to come out of the hardships of 2020. And now that we are in 2021 our pets can continue the trend and hopefully, we'll get to see some of these creative and fun styles out and about town. This holiday would be a great time to invite your customers to dress their pet up in their best digs and either post it to your social media or better yet, bring their pet to your store for a visit and an in-store photo-op that you can share directly on your social media!
Marketing Materials: Astro Holiday Template with Offer Elements, a My Promotion Element, and a Text Element for you to explain your Event. Astro Images categorized as Holiday, Facebook, Instagram, My Promotion Images.
My Promotion Ideas: A Free Treat to any Pet wearing clothes who comes into your store on Jan 14th. (My Promotion Image available in Image Library). Remember to take advantage of this photo-op and post these pics of your fashionable customers enjoying their free treats on your socials!
Social Media Ideas: Invite your customers to post a picture of their pet in their best outfit and tag your page, or post their pic as a comment. Share a picture of your pet/s in their best digs. Share your favorite "Love it, Couldn't Wear it" clip.
Jan 22: National Answer Your Cat's Question Day
Oh my. We cat people know what happens when our cat's questions go unanswered. You're either in for an unwavering stare from across the room, something getting slowly pushed onto the floor, incessant me-yowling, or all of the above.
If you're lucky you may have a cat that asks their questions with purrs and biscuits. However their questions are posed, January 22nd is the day to do our best to answer them!
Today is a great day to open up a dialogue with your customers and give them the opportunity to relate their cat's questions to you and your knowledgeable staff in order to get some answers. What are some questions that you would imagine the typical cat would ask? How would you answer them?
There are also some Cat Translator Apps that you can introduce your customers to for a bit of fun (while you do so be sure to mention your Free Astro Loyalty App!) My current favorite is called MeowTalk which was developed by a former AI engineer. Most cat parents are already familiar with the translation of the different meows, miaows, and merr-ows that their cat expresses when they need or want something. It's fun to log those translations in an app - doing so made me all the more aware of just how well they can communicate!
There are even cats that have joined the Hunger for Words movement and have learned to communicate with their owners by pressing buttons, each button containing one pre-recorded word. BilliSpeaks is one of the more well-known kitty conversationalists on YouTube.
Marketing Materials: Astro Holiday Template with Offer Elements and Text Element to share your info. Astro Images categorized as Holiday, Facebook, Instagram, My Promotion Images.
My Promotion Idea: $% Off Cat Products that are the Answer to Kitty Questions Everywhere! Free Q&A Nutrition Consult.
Social Media Ideas: Ask your customers to comment with their cat's questions that need answers! Share information that you can have learned regarding kitty communication.
Astro Offers Pairings: These Offers are the Answers to Your Cat Customer's Questions!
Jan 24: Change a Pet's Life Day
This is the perfect holiday to promote your Sharing the Love adoption rewards program. What better way to change a pet's life than to adopt and welcome them into your home. Since you are able to offer Welcome Home Gift Bundles to these newly adopted pets you can be a part of the day their life was forever changed. You can be part of the reason that they will live a happy and healthy life from this point forward.
Reach out to your local foster friends in rescue and let them know about your Sharing the Love program and that you want to help facilitate positive change in a pet's life!
Another way that a pet's life can be forever changed for the better is by helping them find the diet and enrichment that best suits their unique needs, and no one is more qualified to do that than you and your team! A healthy, species-appropriate diet, can add years to a pet's life and increase the quality of the life lived.
This is a great holiday to educate your customers and empower them to be better pet parents. If their pet has a chronic health condition that has stumped them and their vet, as someone familiar with nutrition, you may have the know-how to help remedy it. We see this a lot when it comes to allergies, stiffness, obesity, and anxiety.
Marketing Materials: Astro Holiday Template with Offer Elements, Sharing the Love, and a Text Element for you to share information. Astro Images categorized as Holiday, Facebook, Instagram, Adoption Images
My Promotion Idea: $/% Off the products you carry that you feel are best designed to create the greatest positive change in a pet's life.
Social Media Ideas: Share posts relating to your favorite local rescues and shelters. Share educational info that can have a positive impact on a pet's and their family's life.
Jan 24: Peanut Butter Day
Here's a fun one for ya! Our dogs sure do love peanut butter. It's the extra special treat that gets results, whether that's teaching a tough trick, keeping them entertained during a Zoom call, or hiding a pill.
Granted, peanut butter, just like any special treat, is not something that a pet should have in excess. However, there are numerous ways that we can increase the nutritional value of peanut butter while still maintaining it's Yum factor.
The secret I have found is to use peanut butter as an ingredient rather than as the entirety of the treat. If a pet owner is looking to entertain their pup for a long period of time adding a peanut butter schmeer to the inside of a chew toy and then adding some banana, and maybe a scoop of greek yogurt, then freezing everything until solid, is a great way to sneak some healthy probiotics into their snack. Another option is to simply combine the before mentioned ingredients and create peanut butter fro-yo pup-sicles!
Don't forget about the peanut butter treats and supplements that you offer at your shop! There are even CBD companies that have started incorporating peanut butter into their supplements such as Pet Releaf's Edibites, Super Snouts' Nutty Butters! and Austin & Kats Bites. There are also pet fro-you brands that have added peanut butter to their fro-yo treats such as The Bear & The Rat and Boss Dog Brands.
Marketing Materials: Astro Holiday Template with Offer Elements, a My Promotion Element, and a Text Element for recipes and tips. Astro Images categorized as Holiday, Facebook, Instagram, My Promotion Images.
Astro Offer Pairing: Austin & Kat's January Offer
My Promotion Idea: $/% Off all Peanut Butter Treats! (My Promotion Image available in Image Library)
Social Media Idea: Share your favorite peanut butter treat recipe and invite your customers to share pics of their pets enjoying their favorite peanut butter treats!
Jan 29: Seeing Eye Guide Dog Day
History: The demand for seeing-eye dogs first came about following World War I, when many soldiers returned blinded. The first school and training program for seeing-eye dogs was in Germany but didn't last long. Dorothy Harrison Eustis, a dog trainer from Philadelphia living in Switzerland, wrote an article about the German guide school, for the Saturday Evening Post, in 1927. Morris Frank, a blind man from Nashville, Tennessee, came across the story and wrote to Eustis asking if he could come to Switzerland and train with and get a guide dog of his own. He said he would return to America and teach others about guide dogs if he was able to get a dog, and Eustis agreed he could come. After coming back with a female German Shepherd named Buddy, Frank started The Seeing Eye dog school. He started it on January 29, 1929, on the same day that we now celebrate Seeing Eye Dog Day (aka Seeing Eye Guide Dog Aniversary Day). He started the dog school in Nashville, but it was moved to New Jersey in 1931, where it is still in operation. [source]
Today you have the opportunity to do some good and bring awareness to the members of your community. As we just learned together, The Seeing Eye dog school does a lot of good work for those who need the help that only a specially trained dog can provide. 100% of all donations go directly to fund their work.
The Seeing Eye is non-profit philanthropy supported by donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations, as well as bequests and other planned gifts. The school receives no government funding. Thanks to the generosity of supporters, the fee charged to students have remained unchanged since the 1930s. -- $150 for their first Seeing Eye dog or $50 for a replacement dog. Military veterans are only charged $1.
My Seeing Eye dog taught me to walk tall and raise my face, without fear, to the sun, wind, and rain... she taught me to trust again.
Seeing Eye Guide Dogs, or any service dog for that matter, who is matched with a handler in need qualifies for a Welcome Home Adoption Bundle courtesy of Sharing the Love. If you are helping a blind handler celebrate being matched with their seeing-eye dog you may choose "Private Party Rehome" as the Adoption Source when filling out the Adoption Form. Make sure to include the name of the Guide/Service Dog Agency in the text field asking for the Name of the Agency and specify in the Additional Notes field that the dog who received the bundle is a Service Dog and therefore qualifies for the reward.
Marketing Materials: Astro Holiday Template with Text Element and Sharing the Love (yup, Seeing Eye Dogs who are matched to a handler qualify for a Welcome Home Adoption Bundle!). Astro Images categorized as Holiday, Facebook, and Instagram.
Social Media Idea: Share a post about The Seeing Eye and invite your customers to investigate how they can help in light of the commemorative holiday.
January's Month-Long Holidays
National Train Your Dog Month
Walk Your Dog Month
Adopt a Bird Month
Unchain a Dog Month
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