Closing the Kennel

Hey everyone!

We have completed our analysis of the digital marketing strategies used by some of the top dog food brands in Canada. For a brief summary, check out the video we made below!

Unfortunately, it is now time that we close the Kennel. :(

We truly appreciate you taking the time to read our blog posts and connecting with us through our social media channels! We hope you learned something new about digital marketing and how it can make or break your product!

Campaign Proposal: Canidae

A Digital Marketing Campaign to Improve Canidae's Youtube Presence 

Kelsey LeCoure

As determined in a previous post regarding my two brand's YouTube channels, Canidae is strongly lacking in this area. They have been on YouTube for many years and only have 5 videos posted. They also do not show how many subscribers they have but based on the view count and other statistics, they most likely have a low subscriber count as well. 

The Idea

For Canidae's YouTube campaign, I am proposing that they hold a contest asking pet owners to submit short films of their pets - high quality, 2:00-3:00 minutes in length. Once they receive video submissions, they will then re-post the videos on their channel. At the beginning and end of each video, the company's logo and social media information (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Website, etc.) , as well as the name of the person who submitted the video will be shown.
Once the videos have been uploaded for 2 weeks, the video with the highest number of likes will be selected as the winner of one year's supply of Canidae dog or cat food.

Win 1 year's supply of Canidae food (your choice of recipe)!

This campaign will bring much attention to the channel as well as the Brand themselves. People who have never heard of Canidae will visit the website to find out more about their products. It will also encourage people to interact with their social media channels. The YouTube campaign will be shared on ALL social media pages daily. Each day the company can share a different video that has been submitted. Who doesn't love a cute dog or cat on their Facebook timeline?!

Link Metrics Matchup: Petcurean and Canidae Pet Foods

A look into the top influencers and fans of these two pet food brands!

Kelsey LeCoure


In the marketing world, word-of-mouth marketing is very important. People are much more likely to trust another consumer's opinion of a product than the company's advertisements. There is more trust and a better likelihood to buy a product when a good review comes from a consumer than anyone making money off of their review or the company themselves. One way to analyse link metrics data is using the Moz Toolbar. Here are some of the results I found with this tool based on the Petcurean and Canidae Pet food brands.

Fido Friendly - Top inbound link for Petcurean

The top inbound link to Petcurean's website is "Fido Friendly" - a magazine for dog lovers. On their homepage there is a large badge that reads: Petcurean blogger advocate. When you click on the badge, it brings you directly to the Petcurean website. This is fantastic word-of-mouth marketing for Petcurean!

The second inbound link for petcurean is a site called "My Best Friend's Barkery" - a pet store in North Carolina that sells a variety of dog food and treats. On the side of all of their pages is a link to the Petcurean website.

The third most popular inbound link for Petcurean is from "Hautedogs" on their Howl'oween parade page. There was a contest for one person to win one year's supply of dog food from Petcurean. Contest and giveaways are a great way, if used correctly, to gain traffic on your social media pages!

The Missing Manual - Top inbound link for Canidae

Now, moving on to Canidae. The top inbound link for Canidae is from "The Missing Manual". This site includes a list of many different natural and organic companies that provide products for everything from your home, to your office, to makeup, and pet food. There is an abundance of information for anyone interested in living green!

The second inbound link for Canidae is from "Arden Moore Knows Pets". This site is an online magazine that includes a wide variety of useful information for pet owners.

The last inbound link for Canidae is from "Self Serve Pet Spa's Blog". The self serve pet spa is a company that offers pet owners a place to wash their pets themselves (instead of having a certified groomer do the work for them. They run a blog that contains information for pet owners regarding health, safety, food, and more!

Youtube Challenge: Petcurean vs. Canidae

Comparing the YouTube channels of Petcurean and Canidae Pet Food Brands

Kelsey LeCoure


In my last two posts regarding the Facebook and twitter pages of Canidae and Petcurean, Canidae was the clear winner. This post is going to shake things up a bit for sure.

Canidae's Youtube channel only has 5 uploads over the course of 7 years. Comparatively, Petcurean's channel has over 45 videos from the last 5 years. Already, we can see that Petcurean is better utilizing their YouTube channel than Canidae is.

Many of the videos on Petcurean's channels are regarding your pet's health. There are videos that discuss how to safely change your pet's food, Fibre and it's affect on your pet's health, and much more! These videos are short and engaging to watch (Average approx. 2 minutes each).

Petcurean has 1600 subscribers, 2,129,397 Views, and 5 links to other social networking sites - Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, and their website.

Canidae Pet Foods does not list their number of subscribers on their YouTube page. The stats that are listed include: 288,640 views and they have 1 link to their Google+ page.

The most popular videos on each page are as follows:

Canidae's Most popular recent video

This video from Canidae's YouTube channel showcases how their food and provides details about the company. This video has received 174,382 views, 8 likes, 2 dislikes, and 0 comments.

Petcurean's most popular recent video

This video from Petcurean's YouTube channel is a short advertisement for their dog food recipes. It is a very heartwarming look at "a boy and his dog". This engages viewers as it is very cute and fun. The video has received 111,521 views, 1 like and 0 dislikes. There are no comments on the video.

Overall, Petcurean definitely wins this round of the YouTube Challenge. They have very informative and engaging videos on their channel, a lot of subscribers, and over 2 million total views! These numbers blow Canidae out of the dog park!

Benefits of Owning a Dog

Check out this infographic I made which includes some of the benefits of owning a dog!

Benefits of Owning a Dog

Twitter Showdown: Petcurean vs. Canidae Pet Foods

A look at the twitter pages of both Petcurean and Canidae pet food brands

Kelsey LeCoure

Petcurean and Canidae both have twitter accounts. Petcurean currently has 6,444 followers while Canidae has 13,500 followers. This means that Petcurean has Less than half of the follows that Canidae has received. Upon scrolling through their pages, I notice that Canidae posts a lot of original content whereas Petcurean posts some original content but mostly re-tweets content from other pages. Both brands do not seem to follow the 50/50 rule on Twitter. Some of the keyword sentences used by Canidae are Pet Nutrition, Free Treats, and Giveaway.

Petcurean's most popular recent tweet

The most recent and successful tweet from Petcurean is the one shown above. It received 2 retweets, 3 likes, and 11 comments. This was most likely due to the fact that for every comment received, the company agreed to donate 1lb. of food to the NOAH animal shelter. They ran the exact same post on their Facebook page as well.

Canidae's most popular recent tweet

Canidae’s most recent successful post received a total of 177 retweets, 63 likes, and 23 comments. This post was for a contest that was giving away free treats to people who retweeted the post AND followed their account. This is a great way to gain new followers and increase engagement on your twitter content. They run this contest every Friday!

Overall, Canidae is the winner of the Twitter Showdown. They have weekly contests that receive a large amount of engagement, their posts are more frequent, and they post mostly original content.

Facebook Faceoff: Petcurean vs. Canidae Pet Foods

Comparing Petcurean and Canidae’s Facebook pages.

Kelsey LeCoure

Taking a look at Petcurean and Canidae’s Facebook pages, there are a few things that indicate whether or not they are using them to their fullest capability. Petcurean has approx. 79,100 likes on their Facebook page which is 100,000 less than Canidae, who is sitting at 179,100 likes! Both pages typically respond to messages within one hour. Petcurean posts 1-3 times per week on average. Whereas Canidae posts multiple times per day. Each brands posts a variety of promotional content, coupons, videos related to the industry, tips for pet owners, and other interesting how-tos. Petcurean does not follow the 50/50 rule. The majority of their posts are related to their business. Canidae more closely follows the 50/50 rule. They have been posting many tips, how-to, and other interesting reads for pet owners. They have also been posting interesting facts about their products, factory, and other business related content. Limited Ingredient Diet, Grain-free food, and Free Treat Friday are all keywords used in Canidae’s Facebook posts.

Canidae's Most Popular Post

This is Canidae’s most popular recent post. It experienced 1,700 Likes, 61 Shares, and 42 comments! I think that this post was so successful because it gives insight into the lives of their own dogs in a fun and interesting way. The pictures also attracts viewers because, well, who doesn’t love a dog wearing clothes?!

Petcurean's most popular post

Petcurean’s most popular post recently came in at 1,900 Likes, 366 shares, and 1022 comments! The reason for these numbers is due to the caption saying that they will donate 1 lb. of food to a shelter for each comment received on that particular post. This encourages followers to engage with their content.

After considering all of the above statistics, I believe that Canidae is using their facebook page in a much more beneficial way than Petcurean. They post more frequently, their content more closely follows the 50/50 rule and they have a greater amount of engagement on their posts on average.

Petcurean and Canidae SEO Comparison

Comparing SEO of dog food brands: Canidae and Petcurean
Author: Kelsey LeCoure

SEO is an important consideration for marketers because it helps your website/brand become more prominent in search engines which will assists in gaining customers, viewers, and raising overall awareness of your company.  In the dog food industry, both Petcurean and Canidae are independently owned, small companies. By the end of this post I will determine which of the two sites, when compared, has a stronger SEO.

SEO Considerations	Petcurean	Canidae
1.     URL:	http://www.petcurean.com/	http://www.canidae.com/
2.     Page Title	Premium Pet Food for Dogs and Cats | Petcurean	CANIDAE® - Pet Food Made By Pet People
3.     Meta Description	Petcurean is a premium pet food company that specializes in dog and cat food. We have five canine product lines for all your pet’s dietary needs.	Here at CANIDAE®, we’re pet people. We use the same ingredients we want for our own dogs and cats in our foods. Independent and family-owned, we’ve been making
4.     Meta Keywords and Monthly search volume:	Not found	Not found
5.     Structural elements:  H1, H2, H3	H2: Our Products • Nutrition hotline • Call 1.866.864.6112 • Petcurean near you • Try our food for free • Get the Scoop!	H1: • We Make Foods For Our Pets And Yours • We’d Love To Share Our Story With You! • Sign in with Facebook, WordPress or G+! • Follow Us On Social Media H2: We Are Pet People. • Have a Dog? • Have a Cat? • Our Featured Articles • Find a store near you! • How to Teach Your Dog to Play Fetch • The Benefits of Having Two Dogs • CANIDAE® Grain Free PURE Wild Adult Dog Formula Made With Fresh Wild Boar • Sign up for our Email Newsletter! • See what we're up to on Facebook! • CANIDAE® Grain Free PURE Sea Adult Dog Formula Made With Fresh Salmon • How to Pick the Right Dog for a Home with Children • What to Do if another Dog Attacks Your Dog • What Do Dreams about Cats Mean? • Like us on Facebook! • Receive our weekly Blog email! • Find CANIDAE at your Local Store! • CANIDAE® Q&A with Lobeau • These Dogs Hate Getting a Bath More Than Anything • CANIDAE® Grain Free PURE Control Hairball Control Cat Formula Made with Fresh Chicken • Find out where we came from and why we love pet food! • View our blog! • CANIDAE® Grain Free PURE Meadow Senior Cat Formula Made with Fresh Chicken • Tips for Finding Dog-Friendly Vacation Lodging • How to Care For a Female Dog in Heat • What Causes Cherry Eye in Dogs, and How to Correct It • Tell us Your CANIDAE® Story! • Have a health question? Come ask our Vet!
6.     Strong tags	Not found	Not found
7.     Alt Text	The Petcurean Difference • Our Story • Sustainability • NOW FRESH™ • GO!™ • SPIKE™ • SUMMIT™ • NOW FRESH™ • GO!™ • SUMMIT™ • Dogs Health & Nutrition • Cats Health & Nutrition • International Distributors • Canada & United States • NOW FRESH™ • GO!™ • SPIKE™ • SUMMIT™ • Nourishing the ones we love for life	CANIDAE® • Search • • • •
8.     Page Load Time	1.181 seconds	0.25 seconds
9.     Observations Regarding Page layout:	The page layout is easy to navigate. It is bright and colourful without being too distracting. Their website overall is aesthetically appealing	The page layout is appealing, simple, and easy to navigate. The colours are light which makes the text easy to read. There are also drop down menus when you scroll over the tabs. This makes it easy to find what you are looking for.
10. Observations Regarding Visual Content:	There are a wide variety of pictures and cute dogs on the site to help grab the reader’s attention. There is good use of colour and their visual content is consistent with their brand (orange theme, dog pictures, etc.)	There are many pictures of dogs which appeal to the reader and help describe the product.
11. Call-to-action:	Nutrition hotline, newsletter, download a coupon, find a retailer	Sign up for our newsletter, Find Canidae globally, submit your story
12. Anchored Text: (list 3)	For Dogs For Cats Where to Buy	Dog Food, Cat Food, Our Story
13. Moz Established Links:  # to Root Domain	348	711
14. Moz Established Links:  # Total Links	12,530	88,207
15. Top 3 inbound links.	http://www.plainchicken.com/ http://www.fidofriendly.com/ http://www.hautedogs.org/howloween.html	http://www.oreilly.com/pub/missingmanuals/livinggreenmm http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs025/1102543180234/archive/1103387689583.html http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs091/1102712936513/archive/1102952599588.html
16. Mobile Friendly: Yes/No	Yes	Yes
17. Content is “shareable” (Like, Tweet, Pin, Blog, etc.)	Yes – Like, tweet, pin	Yes – E-mail, Like, Pin, Tweet, Google +
18. Social Media: (List all SM icons on the home page.	Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram	Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram
19. SERP ranking results when using keywords from this table: (placing or page number)	“Premium Pet Food Company” Pg. 1	“Grain-free Dog Food” Pg. 3

Google Trends: 

Google Trends Insights:

Dog Food had a very high interest in between 2007 and 2008. Since then, the interest has been fairly stable with a very gradual increase since 2008. Both Petcurean and Canidae are non-existent on the graph. Their search volume is not high enough to display any data.

Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords:

www.petcurean.com:
where to buy Petcurean

go dog food
now fresh puppy food


www.canidae.com:

Canidae pure sea

Canidae als
grain free salmon dog food

Summary:

Petcurean’s strengths are its use of alt text and call-to-action. Canidae’s strengths are its use of structural elements and very fast page load time. Other observations are that both websites need to start taking advantage of meta-keywords. Neither of them had any that came up when using Moz which really impacts their SEO.

Both sites have a strong social media presence (they are taking advantage of all major social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram). Canidae even has a blog on their website which is great to interact with current and potential customers!

Conclusion:

In the dog food industry, Petcurean and Canidae are both small Canadian companies. They both are doing well with social media but need to work on their SEO by including more keywords, strong tags, etc. In my opinion the overall winner of this SEO Search analysis is Canidae. Their blog is very well constructed and maintained, they have a great website with drop-down menus and attractive pictures. They also have a larger number of Established total links than Petcurean does.

APA Citations:

Canidae. (2016) Retrieved from http://www.canidae.com/

Google. (May 2016). Google trends. [Dog Food, Petcurean, Canidae]. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=dog%20food%2C%20%2Fg%2F11bw42glyr%2C%20%2Fm%2F0521mt1&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B4

LSIGraph. (May 2016). LSIGraph keyword generator. Retrieved from http://lsigraph.com/

Petcurean. (2016). Premium Pet Food for Dogs and Cats. Retrieved from http://www.petcurean.com

SEOmoz Inc. (May 2016). MozBar. Retrieved from https://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbar