While animal shelters must provide a safe, secure, and loving environment for dogs and cats, the goal is to have them adopted into loving forever homes. This process requires more than just vetting potential pet parents to ensure they’re a good fit. Many shelters experience greater success when utilizing innovative ideas and tactics to keep adoption rates high. Here are a few possible strategies to boost adoption rates at your facility.
Improve the Look and Function of Your Shelter
Enhancing the look of your animal shelter offers two essential benefits. First, it ensures that animals in your care remain healthy. Remember that happy and alert animals have a much better chance of being adopted quickly, as they won’t exhibit issues with their health or temperament.
Improving the look of your facility will also make a positive impression on visitors. State-of-the-art equipment and a clean, well-organized space will show that you take your responsibility of caring for your animals seriously–which can increase trust in your shelter. An attractive facility is also great for word-of-mouth marketing, as visitors will be more likely to speak positively about your shelter to others seeking a new pet.
Perform Community Service
Booming pet populations can pose a real issue in communities. It can also decrease the quality of life for dogs and cats, who may struggle to find a secure home. That’s why many shelters engage in community service and outreach alongside their mission of finding loving homes for the animals in their care.
For instance, you can partner with local veterinary clinics to spay and neuter strays, reducing the number of homeless pets in your community. You can also offer classes and seminars to pet owners to help them better care for their pets. These forms of outreach are great for increasing engagement with the public while increasing your local visibility.
Establish a Presence Online
An online presence allows your animal shelter to remain connected to the community 24/7. It also makes it easier for people to search for pets at your facility without visiting it. A website can also benefit your staff, who can review adoption applications online instead of keeping track of paper copies.
Establishing a presence on social media is also beneficial from a marketing perspective. Social media allows you to remain in touch with those who’ve already expressed interest in your shelter, including volunteers. However, it also allows you to reach new people who may not be aware of your facility.
Use Images and Videos
As noted, a dynamic social media presence is vital to capturing the attention of the public. That’s why you should include images and videos in your posts. Cute photos of the pets at your facility can significantly impact those who follow your animal shelter online, more than a text post could achieve on its own.
Videos are also crucial from a promotional perspective. According to Sprout Social, 50% of people on social media would rather watch a video than consume other types of content. While highly effective, creating images and videos doesn’t have to be expensive. Shelter volunteers can easily snap pictures and capture videos while caring for the animals.
Hold Special Events
Special events are another great promotional activity, as they can put you in direct contact with your community. Special events can include the following:
- Charity runs/walks
- Fundraisers
- Volunteer events
- Bake sales
- Holiday parties
Special events encourage the public to engage with your animal shelter directly. While it won’t always result in an adoption, they ensure local residents fully understand your presence in the community as an animal advocate.
Stay in Touch With the Community
Provide regular updates to people in your community who are interested in adopting a pet from your shelter. On your website, encourage interested parties to sign up for a digital newsletter, which can contain information on upcoming events or showcasing new pets. You can also send text updates, which ensure timely notification of events and milestones.
Direct Animal provides a wide selection of rugged and dependable animal shelter supplies, including drainage systems, veterinary equipment, animal shelter kennels, and more. Our products are designed with efficiency and durability while allowing your shelter to remain within its budget, thanks to the competitive prices. You can trust us to meet and exceed your animal shelter’s expectations when it comes to essential supplies and equipment.
