When starting your new rescue, your community will be SO excited about a new animal rescue! Don’t be afraid to share the work you are setting out to do! Don’t let marketing and public relations scare you, the more you do the more lives you can save!
Here are some quick tips for getting started marketing your animal rescue:
Establish your social media presence.
Create your Facebook, Instagram, and, if you dare to go there, a TikTok profile! Invite all of your friends to like your pages, use hashtags that are local to your community and post updates about your rescue frequently. Get your foster network involved in your social media efforts too. They can post about their pets, tag your rescue, and help drive their network to your pages as well.
Invest in public relations efforts.
Contact your local news stations and send out a press release about your new rescue. Write a headline the clearly defines that you are establishing a new rescue in your community and state who you will be serving and how. In the body of the press release give more details about when you will be opening, the work you will be doing, and include how the news station’s audience can help or get involved. If you send it and don’t hear back, find a phone number and call. Get that news coverage!
Encourage your network to TALK about you!
Word of mouth is still an incredibly powerful marketing tool. If you can, supply your fosters, volunteers, and even your adopters with handouts about your rescue. This could be as simple as a flyer with your logo, name, a brief summary, and contact information. Encourage them all to tell their friends and family about you and, if interested, how to get involved!
Spread the word, you’re doing amazing work!!