Content marketing can be an incredibly valuable part of an animal shelter’s or rescue group’s overall marketing plan. It can, for example, help your organization connect with its audience, drive traffic to your shelter’s website, and raise awareness for your rescue. And while the benefits of creating content may be clear, it’s not always easy to get started. That’s why I’ve created a list of content marketing ideas for animal shelters and rescue groups for a bit of inspiration:

• create how-to videos
• develop courses or webinars
• write blog posts
• create guides
• design infographics and checklists
• send out an email newsletter
• create a podcast
• build quizzes and tools
• share your own research
• show behind-the-scenes footage

Before you get started, take some time to define your audience, the people you want to reach with your content. Then think about what would be truly helpful to these people. The key to good content marketing is creating content that is valuable to your audience.

How can you help guide adopters through pet ownership? What information can you provide to set up volunteers for success? How can you help prospective adopters find the right dog or cat for them?

Create How-To Videos

There are tons of topics you can create how-to videos around. How about a video explaining how to make DIY enrichment toys that supporters of your animal shelter or rescue group can then donate to your organization to infuse your dogs’ days with a bit of extra fun? Not only could this score some awesome toys for your dogs, it could also engage the community and raise awareness for your cause.

Or how about videos showing how to introduce a new dog to an adopter’s current dog and how to train a puppy and teach it basic commands? Think about all the things that could help adopters when they first bring home a dog from your shelter.

Develop Courses or Webinars

If your organization has a foster program, you could create a course that teaches those new to fostering everything they need to know about caring for their foster dogs.

Or your shelter could design a course for its volunteers, helping them learn about how to get started as a new volunteer, how to safely interact with dogs, and how to help prospective adopters find their pawfect pets.

You could also create content for staff that is centered around their daily tasks and responsibilities.

The courses or webinars you develop could range from basic to advanced. Some could serve as a sort of introduction to your organization’s day-to-day, others could teach a specific skill, such as how to take high-quality photos of adoptable dogs, how to promote pets on social media, or how to write effective dog or cat bios.

If you think your shelter or rescue has something valuable to share that could benefit other shelters or rescues in their mission to help pets find their forever homes, you may even want to consider creating webinars or courses for animal advocates outside your organization. While this could help more pets be adopted, it could also help your animal shelter or rescue group position itself as a thought leader in its niche.

Write Blog Posts

A blog can be a great way to drive traffic to your website and increase visibility of your organization online. It may be difficult at first to figure out what to write about, but once you know who you’re writing for, it’ll be easy to generate topic ideas.

For example, if you’re writing for prospective adopters or pet owners in your community, think about what they may be interested in. You could write how-to blog posts (and, in doing so, repurpose some of the content from your how-to videos): How to potty train a puppy, how to teach a puppy basic commands, how to introduce a new dog to a current dog.

Or you could write about things to consider before and after adopting. What should prospective adopters know before heading to your shelter or rescue? How can people find a dog that’s a good fit for their lifestyle? What should adopters know about the first few days after adopting? How long will it take a dog to settle into its new home?

Another topic to address could be what to do if a pet is lost (or found). What should someone do if they find a dog or cat? Where can pet owners turn to for help if their dog or cat is lost?

If your organization has adoption or fundraising events, you could also blog about those. Or you could give your community a look behind the scenes and create a photo-filled post about the day-to-day activities at your shelter or rescue.

Create Guides

You could create guides for prospective adopters that discuss everything they should know while they consider adopting, when they come to your shelter or rescue to choose a pet to adopt, and after they bring their new dog or cat home.

If your organization has a foster or volunteer program, you can also create guides that detail everything foster care providers and volunteers should know about their respective roles and offer helpful information in regard to their tasks.

Think about what they may need to know about fostering or volunteering.

For foster care providers, you could include information about the basics of fostering a dog or cat (Is food provided by your organization or do foster pet parents buy food themselves and are then reimbursed?), address your shelter’s or rescue’s policies (Are foster care providers expected to attend adoption events?), and explain the process for getting a dog veterinary care (Are foster pets supposed to go to a specific veterinarian?).

For volunteers, you could share information about your organization’s policies and safety protocols, how to get started as a new volunteer, and how to use specific software your shelter or rescue may have for volunteers to access.

For this, you could take some of your how-to videos or blog posts and repackage them into guides. So, while you may need to reformat and modify some of your already existing content, you won’t have to start completely from scratch.

Design Infographics and Checklists

Infographics and checklists can be great tools for new pet owners. You could design a checklist that lists the basic things a new dog or cat owner may need (water bowl, food bowl, ID tag etc.).

Or you could create an infographic focused on basic veterinary care that new adopters should know about, such as routine immunizations or heartworm prevention.

Other topics could be the importance of microchipping, foods that dogs can eat, foods that dogs should not eat, why someone should consider fostering a dog or cat, or the tasks a volunteer could help with at your organization.

You could also create graphics that show what your shelter or rescue has accomplished in a given week, month, or year, such as how many dogs were adopted, how many cats were fostered, or how many new volunteers joined your organization’s program.

Send out an Email Newsletter

You could create an email newsletter that you regularly send to your subscribers. This could be something that people look forward to seeing in their email inbox.

In your newsletter, you could feature staff, volunteers, and foster care providers as well as adoptable dogs and cats, offer information about upcoming events, and share if your organization has met an important goal.

You should also include some content that your readers will consider helpful. For volunteers, that may be tips and tricks for taking better photos of adoptable pets. An animal shelter’s rescue partners may be interested in the organization’s policies for rescue groups. A foster care provider may appreciate information about how they can help their foster pet get adopted. Adopters may want advice on how to get their new pet to settle in. Again, you may find that you can repurpose some of your existing content for your newsletter.

Create a Podcast

A podcast could be a great way to connect with representatives of other animal shelters or rescue groups, pet owners in your community, or volunteers.

There are plenty of topics to discuss – from why people should volunteer with your organization and what to consider before adopting to how to promote adoptable pets and what to do if someone’s pet is lost.

Build Quizzes and Tools

Quizzes and tools can be valuable parts of your content marketing strategy. If your audience finds them useful, they may help increase traffic to your website and also raise awareness for your shelter or rescue.

You could create a quiz that helps people get a general idea of what kind of dog may be a good match for them by asking questions about their lifestyle (Are they home a lot? Do they like going for walks? Are they looking for a canine running buddy? How much time do they have for training?) and recommending, for example, a puppy, adult, or senior dog depending on their answers.

You could also design a quiz for new volunteers to discover which area of your organization they may want to dedicate their time to by asking questions about their interests (Do they like going for walks or playing fetch? Are they interested in grooming dogs? Do they enjoy taking photos? Are they avid writers?) and then recommending volunteer roles that fit their answers, such as caring for adoptable pets, taking photos of available dogs or cats, planning fundraisers, assisting with community outreach efforts etc.

Or you could build a tool such as a name generator that helps people discover a name for their newly adopted pet.

Share Your Own Research

If your shelter or rescue has figured out a super effective way to increase adoptions of available pets or created a successful campaign that helped more dogs and cats find their forever homes, you may want to consider sharing that information with other organizations that could benefit from it.

While sharing your own research may support your cause of helping pets, it can also help establish or strengthen your position as a thought leader, which, in turn, can raise awareness for your shelter or rescue. Why is that good? Because more awareness for your organization can also lead to more visibility for your adoptable pets.

Show Behind-the-Scenes Footage

Let your audience peek behind the scenes of your animal shelter or rescue group by posting photos or videos on social media that show, for example, your volunteers taking photos of adoptable pets, your dogs or cats being cared for in their foster homes, or your team planning a big event.

Ready to create content? Which one of these ideas do you like the most? Do you have any other ideas to add to this list? Let me know in the comments below.

And don’t forget to check out some must-have content marketing tools for shelters and recues.

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