Are pet influencers your brand's pawfect partnership?

Over half of all households own pets, and in a world filled with negativity, animals offer a refreshing escape. Incorporating pets into your marketing taps into positivity and can help your brand resonate and emotionally connect with your audience. But what makes pet influencers so damn p-ruff-itable? (Sorry.)

Influencer marketing has three main pillars that a brand can benefit from.

Ultimately, influencers are storytellers. They help consumers see how a brand or product could fit into their own narrative. The emotional buy-in from relating to a pet influencer is a very powerful marketing tool, and the results speak for themselves. 

Boosted engagement rates.

Engagement is the lifeline of social media success. 

Pet-related content naturally generates high levels of engagement—people share, comment, and tag friends more readily, amplifying the brand's reach and impact. Statistics show that pet influencers often outperform human influencers in engagement. 

Instagram sensation @jiffpom, a pomeranian, boasts immense popularity and collaborations with celebrities like Katy Perry.

Kim Kardashian’s Instagram offers an engagement rate of 1.68%. In comparison, the famous wolfdog @Loki has an engagement rate of 2.51% and gathers more than tens of thousands of likes for each post. 

The very cute @dougthepug is a two times People’s Choice Award winner. 

And in a case of pet influencer turned pet brand, @nalacat found so much success through funny cat photos, they’ve now launched a pet food brand called Love Nala Co. 

With pets in the picture, your campaign can go viral organically. 

Beyond just pet brands.

Beyond pet-specific brands, diverse industries are collaborating with pet bloggers to weave their offerings into engaging content. Pet food, animal insurance, and dog supplies are the obvious brands teaming up with pet bloggers. But other brands have started to think outside the box, and you could too.

Here are some theoretical examples of how unrelated brands might utilise pet influencers in their marketing strategy. 

You’re a travel company. A pain point for your customers might be finding a dog sitter for while they’re on vacation. You can create a pet sitting resource for consumers planning a holiday and team up with a pet influencer to tell your audience about it.

You’re a cleaning product brand. Pet bloggers are cut from the same cloth as mommy bloggers. And everyone knows that messy houses are usually thanks to children and pets. Send your product to pet influencers to demonstrate their cleaning power over even the scruffiest of dogs. Bonus points if they’re also a human parent.

You’re a beer brand. You want to challenge the hyper-masculine image that people have of your brand, so you engage a pet influencer or particularly sympathetic dog to refresh your image. Oh wait, Budweiser already kind of did that with their Super Bowl ad.

You’re a beauty brand. You pride yourself on being animal-friendly and advocate for no testing on animals. You team up with a pet influencer to demonstrate this key value to your audience. Up the cuteness factor by following the TikTok trend where users pretend to put makeup on their pet, resulting in a very relaxed and just-happy-to-be-included doggo.

Try it for your own brand. Imagine a way you could utilise a pet influencer and their animal-loving network to visualise your brand in their lives.

Incorporating pet influencers into your brand strategy can yield heartwarming, engaging, and effective results. Whether it's showcasing your products, sharing your brand's personality, or building trust, these furry partners can make your marketing go zoomies.