by Brittney Kinat
TL;DR
If you’re waiting for pet parents to call, search Google, or stumble across your website this holiday season, you’re already behind. The most successful dog boarding businesses don’t rely on inbound demand alone — they pair quality digital marketing with proactive outreach to fill their calendars before competitors ever enter the conversation. A simple phone call, email, text, or social post to past customers can drive bookings faster and more cost-effectively than waiting for inquiries to arrive. The key is starting early, staying consistent, and treating every peak season as a chance to reconnect with the clients who already know and trust you.
Holiday demand is coming. Are you waiting or planning?
The holidays are the busiest stretch of the year for dog boarding facilities. Families travel, plans lock in early, and pet parents start looking for a safe place for their dogs well before the last week of November. It’s a reliable surge in demand — but unlike other peaks, it arrives with a hard deadline. Miss that window and there isn’t another Thanksgiving to catch.
Here’s the math: the facilities that fill first typically start outreach six to eight weeks before demand peaks. Count backward from Thanksgiving. If you haven’t started, your window is either open or about to be.
Still, many pet care businesses approach the holidays the same way they approach every other season. They wait. They wait for the phone to ring, for someone to search Google, for inquiries to land in the inbox, for social media engagement to materialize.
That’s a reactive strategy. And in today’s pet care market, reactive strategies leave revenue on the table.
The businesses that consistently fill their boarding runs aren’t simply waiting for demand to appear. They create opportunities — reaching out to past customers, staying top of mind, and making it easy for pet parents to book before they start shopping around. That trust-first, customer-focused approach is key: anticipate what customers need, answer their questions before they ask, and build relationships instead of waiting for transactions.
The goal isn’t just generating more inquiries — it’s filling boarding capacity earlier, improving occupancy forecasts, and reducing the stress of last-minute booking gaps.
Why Reactive Marketing Isn’t Enough Anymore
Let’s be crystal clear: digital marketing matters. Google Ads, SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, social media, and local search visibility all play a critical role in helping pet parents find your business.
But even the best marketing is reactive to some degree. You’re waiting for someone to search. You’re waiting for someone to click. You’re waiting for someone to call. And during peak seasons, waiting gets more expensive.
Large competitors like Rover, Dogtopia, HoundsTown, and other national brands often increase their advertising budgets dramatically before summer and holiday travel periods. When everyone bids harder for the same clicks, cost-per-click climbs — and independent facilities end up paying more per click while competing against brands with far larger budgets.
Proactive outreach sidesteps that competition entirely. When you reach your existing and warm audiences directly, there’s no auction. No bidding war. You’re not paying a premium to outbid a national chain for a customer who already knows you. That makes outreach not just a smarter strategy, but a more cost-effective one.
This is in no way an argument for pulling back on paid media when demand peaks. Just the opposite. Your ads are still working hard to capture in-market pet parents who don’t know you yet — and that’s exactly when you want to be visible. Run ads to capture new demand and work your existing list to harvest the relationships you’ve already earned. The facilities that win peak season do both at once.
Demand Capture
- Google Ads
- SEO
- Google Business Profile
- Local search visibility
- Website conversion optimization
Demand Creation
- Phone outreach
- Email campaigns
- Text messaging
- Social media reminders
- Referral programs
- Client reactivation campaigns
Digital marketing captures the demand that already exists. Proactive outreach creates additional demand — reaching pet parents before they ever start comparing competitors. Used together, they build relationships, not merely transactions.
Know Your Peak Seasons Before They Arrive
Demand spikes happen at roughly the same times every year:
- Thanksgiving week represents one of the highest boarding demand periods of the year, compressed into just a few days
- Christmas through New Year’s is the hustling, bustling, and possibly busiest bit of the calendar, with two overlapping travel waves
- Spring break varies by school district, which makes it easy to underestimate and easy to miss
- Summer travel season runs Memorial Day through Labor Day, marking a three-month stretch rather than a single week — easier to fill but harder to forecast
The facilities that fill first typically start outreach six to eight weeks before these windows. Those who struggle often start marketing after demand has already begun.
A simple annual outreach calendar eliminates the guesswork and helps keep revenue more consistent. Instead of asking, “How do we fill boarding this month?” you’re asking, “How do we fill the next peak season before it arrives?”
What Proactive Outreach Actually Looks Like
Many owners hear “proactive outreach” and assume it requires complicated marketing automation. It doesn’t. In fact, the most effective tactic is surprisingly simple.
Pick up the phone.
Pull a report of customers who boarded during the same season last year. Then call them.
That’s it.
Here’s a simple script:
“Hi Sarah, this is Mike from Franklin & Friends. I noticed Bella stayed with us over Thanksgiving last year, and I wanted to let you know our holiday boarding spots are starting to fill up. If you’re planning any travel this season, we’d love to reserve her stay before availability gets tight.”
Why does this work? Because many pet parents book the same facility year after year. If they trusted you with their dog last Thanksgiving, there’s a good chance they’re open to booking again — they may just not have gotten around to it yet.
A personal phone call cuts through crowded inboxes, social feeds, and online ads. More importantly, it communicates something many businesses forget: “We remember you.”
That’s relationship-building, not marketing.
Other Channels That Work
- Email campaigns. Your existing customer database is one of your most valuable assets. Send targeted messages — holiday availability updates, reservation deadlines, early-booking opportunities, seasonal travel-planning tips. A simple note that says “Thanksgiving and Christmas dates are filling quickly — reserve your dog’s stay today” can generate immediate bookings from people who already know and trust your facility.
- Text message reminders. Texts often generate higher engagement than email. For example: “Planning holiday travel? Thanksgiving boarding is filling up quickly. Reserve your pup’s stay today.” Or, for a lapsed client: “It’s been a while since we’ve seen Charlie. Need boarding over the holidays? We’d love to welcome him back.”
- Social media posts. Speak directly to seasonal planning behavior: “Already booked your holiday flights? Don’t forget your dog’s plans.” “Holiday travel planning starts now — have you reserved boarding yet?” “Holiday weeks fill faster every year. Book early.”
- Google Business Profile posts. Many operators overlook Google Business Profile as a publishing platform, even though it’s often one of the first places pet parents interact with your business. Seasonal posts about availability, holiday deadlines, and booking reminders help keep your facility visible when pet parents are actively planning travel. So, use posts to highlight holiday availability, booking deadlines, seasonal promotions, and facility updates. Your Google Business Profile is often the first place a prospective pet parent interacts with your business — treat it like an active marketing channel, not a static listing.
Why Your Existing Client List Is Your Biggest Marketing Asset
There’s no question: investing time, effort, and capital into the acquisition of new customers is important. That said, it’s almost always less expensive to re-engage a past customer than to acquire a new one.
Your client list already contains people who know your brand, trust your team, have completed your onboarding process, and whose dogs are already familiar with your facility. That’s an enormous advantage. Every reactivated customer lowers your acquisition costs and increases the return on your marketing investment.
A personalized message can generate bookings faster than any advertisement, because trust already exists. And trust is ultimately what drives bookings. Businesses that proactively educate, communicate, and remain visible earn more trust, and trusted businesses win more customers.
A Simple Proactive Outreach Checklist
Before your next peak season:
- Identify clients who booked during the same season last year
- Create an outreach list for phone calls
- Schedule email campaigns
- Plan seasonal social media content
- Publish Google Business Profile posts
- Send text reminders to lapsed customers
- Include a clear booking CTA in every message
- Launch outreach six to eight weeks before demand peaks
What to Do Next
If you haven’t started holiday outreach yet, you’re not behind — but the window is opening. The businesses that thrive during peak seasons aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest advertising budgets. They’re the ones that stay top of mind.
Start by pulling last year’s Thanksgiving and Christmas boarding list. Call ten customers today. Send one email campaign this week. Schedule a month of social posts. Publish an update on your Google Business Profile. Small actions compound quickly when they happen consistently.
Remember: proactive outreach doesn’t replace marketing. Great marketing works best when media, website conversion, intake, follow-up, and customer communication are all aligned.
At IMPACT, we help pet care businesses connect those pieces — from Google Ads and SEO to email marketing, conversion tracking, call attribution, and lead generation systems that drive measurable bookings and revenue.
Because growth doesn’t happen when you wait for demand. It happens when you create opportunities before your competitors do.
Are you leaving bookings on the table?
Schedule a pet care marketing assessment with our team and see how proactive outreach, Google Ads, SEO, email marketing, and conversion tracking can work together to drive more bookings year-round.
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FAQs
When should I start outreach for peak season?
Aim for six to eight weeks before demand peaks. The facilities that fill first are almost always those that start early — before pet parents begin comparing options.
Isn’t calling past clients too time-consuming?
A focused call list is faster than it sounds. Pull the customers who boarded the same season last year and start with ten calls. Many are repeat customers who just haven’t gotten around to rebooking, so the conversations are short and warm.
Does proactive outreach replace my digital marketing?
No. Digital marketing captures demand that already exists; outreach creates additional demand from people who already trust you. The strongest results come from running both together.
What if I haven’t started my holiday outreach yet?
You’re right on time. With Thanksgiving still weeks away, pulling last year’s holiday list today puts you ahead of most facilities in your market. Start with a few calls, one email, and a Google Business Profile post — the operators who fill first are the ones who start before pet parents begin comparing options.
Why focus on past customers instead of new ones?
It costs significantly less to re-engage a past customer than to acquire a new one. They already know your brand and your team, so the path to a booking is shorter and far less expensive.