Pet Businesses: How to Show up in Your Client's Search
- Brooke Arseneau
- Jul 9
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Brooke's Photography | Equine and canine branding photographer serving Vancouver and the Lower Mainland
A little while ago I found myself on the other side of the table, searching for someone to trust with my own dog.
What I looked for taught me a lot about what your clients are looking for too.
When it comes to who watches my dog while I'm away, I don't take it lightly. This is the being I love most in the world, and handing over that trust isn't something I do based on a five star average and a nice logo.
So when I was searching for a pet sitter recently, I did what most of us do. I read reviews. I scrolled through websites. I compared a few options against each other. But the thing that actually made up my mind, more than anything else, was photos.
Photos Told Me Everything I Needed to Know
I wanted to see the person. Not a logo, not a stock graphic, an actual photo of the human who was going to be spending time with my dog. Because photos let me read their vibe before I ever send the email.
Here's what I was actually looking for as I scrolled
Real photos of the person. Are they warm? Do they seem like someone my dog would feel safe with? A genuine photo of someone doing what they love tells you more than any bio.
The person, with dogs. Working with dogs, sitting with dogs. Real interaction, not just a posed headshot.
Real dogs, not stock ones. And not the same photo used on every page. And if a business was leaning on AI generated images, my guess was they were newer, still finding their footing on the business side, not necessarily a bad sitter, but not someone who'd invested in showing me who they really are yet.
The actual space. If it was a boarding situation, I wanted to see the yard, the crates, the living area, all of it. Not a stylized shot that could be anywhere, but something that gave me a real sense of what my dog's days would look like there.
Where they work. The locations in someone's photos told me a lot, what their service area actually looks like day to day, whether this was someone rooted in my community or not.
The bottom line was this. The more of the real, authentic them I could see, the more I trusted them with the most important member of my family. More photos, not less. Real ones, not polished ones. A real person working with real dogs, in real spaces.
Why Pet Businesses Need a Branding Photographer Who Knows the Industry
If you're a sitter, a boarder, a groomer, a trainer, anyone whose business depends on someone trusting you with their dog or horse sight unseen, hear this from someone who was just on the other side of it. Your photos are one of the biggest deciding factors in whether someone chooses you or scrolls past you, which is really the heart of why pet businesses need professional photos in the first place. As a branding photographer who works exclusively with businesses in the pet and equine world, I see this play out constantly.
Here's what good branding photos are actually doing for you:
Building trust before they ever contact you. A client can't ask "can I trust you with what I love most" outright, so they read your photos instead. Real photos of you and your space answer that question before they have to ask, and this is how you build trust with pet care clients before the phone ever rings.
Setting you apart from AI or stock images. Clients can feel the difference even when they can't name it. A genuine, slightly imperfect photo of you doing the work beats a flawless stock image every time.
Showing them exactly what to expect. Photos of your actual space, your service area, and real animals in your care let a client picture their own pet there before they've even booked.
You don't need a hundred photos. You need the right ones, of you with the animals you work with, in the space clients will be sending their pet to, being yourself doing the work you're proud of. That's what turns a scroll into an inquiry.
If you've been putting off getting real photos of yourself and your business, this is your sign. Your future clients are out there right now, doing exactly what I did, looking for the real you before they ever reach out. I'd love to help you show up the way you deserve to be seen, right here in the Lower Mainland.
Your future clients are searching right now. Let's make sure what they find actually looks like you. Book a session and let's build the image library your business deserves.
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