How Smart Pet Brands Use Data Without Creeping People Out

Issue #207

June 25th, 2025

Quick Hits:

🧑‍⚖️ New York judge rules that your dog is now legally family

📈 New TikTok trend: Dogs walking past their owners on the street to see if they recognize them

💊 PetVivo completed its $5M series B to support commercialization of a joint pain & plasma product for veterinary use

🤝 Nutriment secures its 6th acquisition this year with Graf Barf a raw food producer

🐶😺 APPA releases new Dog & Cat report, showing a 23% increase in cat ownership and much more

The easy days of cheap ads and endless retargeting are officially over. Here's your wake-up call:

WordStream's 2025 Pet Industry Benchmarks —

• 🫰 Cost-per-click (CPC): $3.97 - up 13% year-over-year

• 🚶‍➡️ Cost-per-lead (CPL): $31.82 - up 5% from last year

• 🖱️ Click-through rate (CTR): 6.58% - just below industry average of 6.66%

• 🤝 Conversion rate (CVR): 13.07% - significantly outperforming the 7.52% industry average

The Mixed Reality:

• Overall CTR increased 3.7% YoY, but 52% of industries saw declines

• 65% of industries experienced CVR growth - and pet brands are winning big

• Pet industry CVR nearly 2x the overall market average

The Targeting Crisis:

• Third-party cookies: Going extinct (Safari and Firefox already block them, Chrome almost phased them out)

• Cross-site tracking: Being dismantled by browsers and regulators

Meanwhile, 84% of consumers are concerned about data privacy when interacting with brands online, and 85% opt out of company mailing lists at least occasionally.

The solution?

Stop stalking customers around the internet. Start earning their data instead.

The Trust Paradox That Changes Everything

Here's what's wild: no sector reached above 50% approval when consumers were asked which they trusted with their personal data, yet 64% of consumers prefer to buy from companies that tailor their experience to their wants and needs.

The catch?

Only 33% trust companies to use their personal information responsibly, but trust is a game-changer: trusted companies see an 8-point increase in customers' willingness to share personal data for personalization.

Translation: Pet parents will gladly share insights about Mr. Lunch’s 🐶 preferences - if you ask nicely and give them something valuable in return.

4 Goldmines of Customer-Shared Data

1. 🌟 Review Mining: The Unfiltered Truth

Beyond star ratings lie stories. Modern review platforms like Junip, Okendo, and Loox make it easy to collect detailed feedback with photos and filter by customer attributes.

Smart Implementation:

• Ask every purchaser for honest feedback (offer loyalty points as incentive)

• Use tools like Okendo to capture context (pet's age, breed, health concerns)

• Analyze reviews for common themes using text analysis or simple word clouds

Missed Opportunity Example: Native Pet collects customer data on age, weight, location, and diet through their product quiz, but their reviews aren't filterable by these attributes. Imagine if a customer could filter Omega Oil reviews to see feedback from "senior dogs with joint issues" or "adult Rhodesian Ridgeback" - that's the level of relevance that drives conversions.

Real Success: Natural Dog Company uses Okendo to collect customer reviews and UGC, then leverages that content to create "better ads, emails, and marketing materials". By systematically collecting and analyzing customer feedback, they can identify which benefits resonate most and feature authentic testimonials in their marketing.

Pro Tip: If multiple cat owners mention your litter's scent is too strong, that's product development gold - not just marketing insight.

2. 📧 Post-Purchase Email Replies: Real Conversations

Forget automated sequences. Send genuine check-ins that invite actual replies.

The Formula:

• Personal sender name (founder works great)

• Helpful tone, not salesy

• Simple ask: "How is everything going with [Product]? Just hit reply and let us know."

Real Example: Sundays for Dogs sends warm check-ins a week after delivery, offering transition tips and genuine support. About 1 in 10 customers reply with incredibly valuable qualitative insights.

Go to 12:49 to learn more about this email sequence

What You Learn:

• "Is it okay if my dog hasn't finished his portions?" (portion size concerns)

• "She loves the flavor, but her tummy was upset on day 1" (transition process feedback)

• Product suggestions, cross-sell opportunities, and if they love it but haven’t signed up for a subscription there’s your opening

The Strategy: Tag and categorize replies. If many ask "how do I get my cat to try the new litter," you need content on that topic.

3. 🧾 Receipt Scanning: Bridging the Offline Gap

The Challenge: You sell through retail but miss who's buying and how they use your products.

The Solution: Incentivize customers to upload purchase receipts for rewards.

Big Player Example: Blue Buffalo's partnership with Fetch app lets pet owners scan receipts from any store to earn points. Result: offline purchase visibility without creepy tracking.

Smaller Brand Win: Full Moon Pet's loyalty program gives 10 points per $1 spent - online or in-store via receipt upload. They market it as "Join the pack!" making it feel like community participation.

What You Gain:

• Which products customers buy together

• Purchase frequency patterns

• Competitor product insights (if visible on receipts)

• Cross-sell opportunities based on actual behavior

The Key: Be transparent about what data you're collecting and why. Make the value exchange crystal clear.

4. 📸 UGC and Photo Uploads: Your Community's Visual Voice

The Natural Fit: Pet parents love showing off their furry family members. Smart brands tap into this behavior rather than fighting it.

Ethical Collection:

• Clear consent ("Tag us with #BrandXYZpets for a chance to be featured")

• Always ask permission for specific uses

• Give proper credit and attribution

Success Story: BarkBox created #BarkBoxDay, encouraging unboxing videos. Result: 80% of their social content is non-promotional UGC, creating a clubhouse for dog lovers rather than a sales catalog.

Purpose-Driven UGC: Säker Canine's outdoor adventure positioning naturally generates authentic UGC from customers who want to showcase their hiking, camping, and travel experiences with their dogs.

By building gear for active lifestyles and positioning themselves around the mission that dogs should experience the world alongside their humans, they've created a brand that customers are proud to feature in their adventure photos.

This approach generates authentic content of dogs in action - exactly the type of real-world product demonstration that builds trust and drives sales.

The Payoff: Chewy famously uses customer pet photos to create surprise hand-painted portraits, generating viral goodwill and deepening customer relationships.

The Trust-First Playbook

Be Transparent About Everything

• Explain when and why you're asking for information

• Show customers exactly how their data benefits them

• Include opt-out options for various data uses

Offer Clear Value Exchange

• Want receipts? Offer points or discounts

• Want feedback? Provide exclusive access or giveaway entries

• Want photos? Feature customers and their pets

Avoid the Creep Factor

• Use data to enrich experience, not presume intimacy

• If a customer might say "Wait, how did they know that?" - don't use it

• Stick to explicitly shared information for the given purpose

Close the Feedback Loop

• Show customers how their input creates change

• "You spoke, we listened: 20% asked for grain-free - it's here!"

• Make customers feel like partners, not data points

The Bottom Line: Trust Beats Tracking

The future belongs to brands that earn data instead of stealing it. While your competitors chase expensive ads and fight algorithm changes, you'll be building relationships that create competitive moats.

The New Reality:

• Trust loops = sustainable competitive advantage

• Post-purchase engagement = higher lifetime value

• Customer-shared insights = better personalization than any third-party data

• Community building = retention that money can't buy

Remember: 72% of consumers would stop buying due to privacy concerns, but they'll spend twice as much with brands they deeply trust.

The choice is clear: Build trust through transparency, or watch your marketing costs skyrocket while your targeting accuracy plummets.

Time to stop being creepy and start being helpful.

Search interest in “home euthanasia” has more than doubled over the past five years, now hitting a record 145K searches in the past month - a 25% spike.

This sharp rise points to a growing demand for compassionate, at-home end-of-life care as pet owners seek more dignified, stress-free options than traditional clinical euthanasia.

For pet industry operators, this trend signals a major opportunity. Whether you're in mobile vet care, grief support, or memorial products, there's a clear shift toward personalized, in-home services.

The brands that can bring empathy, transparency, and convenience to this deeply emotional moment will earn both trust and loyalty.

You reached the end, you deserve a treat 🍖

Be part of the pack - For more news, links, and entertainment, follow us on social media (links below) and fur - ward this to your best human friend.

See you Friday!