Case Study
Bass Pet Resort and Spa
Achieving Success without the Stress
Like many pet resort owners, Patti Lehman had a passion for animals and caring for dogs in need. In 2003 she left her post of 17 years as Assistant Finance Director for the county in Kissimmee, Florida to purchase the Bass Pet Resort and Spa. This afforded her the opportunity to dedicate her life to providing pet resort guests with the love, attention, and passion she has for her own animals. In the process, she also learned what it took to run a business. As Lehman put it, “As a business owner you’re so overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done,” she said. From managing operations to training staff to providing excellent customer service, Lehman found that she was simply too busy for the marketing that was needed to generate demand and grow the business as she hoped.
“You spend a lot of money to make the phone ring,” Lehman said, when discussing the need to attract new pet parents to your pet resort business. In order to make others in her community aware of her pet resort, and to help establish herself as their pet lifestyle expert of the community, Lehman needed pet parents to be able to find her quickly and easily online. But she didn’t know how to do that and was often too busy to learn how to do it herself.
I don’t think my business would have flourished nearly as much if I didn’t have Nehmedia to help get our pet resort listed higher in the Google rankings
Partnering with the Right Marketing Firm
Lehman spoke with a leading pet resort industry consultant, who recommended she contact the Pet Resort Marketing team at Nehmedia, Inc, which specializes in providing digital marketing services to help pet resorts grow. “You’re so dependent on the Internet, nowadays,” Lehman said. People don’t realize how much it affects your business.” In 2013 Lehman hired Nehmedia, which created a new website for her that included built-in signals for Google so her pet resort would receive top visibility in Google searches. “I don’t think my business would have flourished nearly as much if I didn’t have Nehmedia to help get our pet resort listed higher in the Google rankings,” she said.
And flourish it did!
The improved online visibility helped drive more traffic to Bass Pet Resort’s website and, in turn, drive more phone calls, especially with a “free night stay” promotion for callers who indicated they came from the website. The additional visibility helped increase the pet resort’s presence in the community and solidify its strong position in the marketplace. With its popularity high, and its growth curve on a steady, upward trajectory, the business became increasingly attractive to investors. In 2019, after owning Bass Pet Resort for nearly 17 years, Lehman decided to sell the business and retire. She now plans to dedicate her time to animal rescue organizations and activities.
Investing in Value and Peace of Mind
Lehman has encouraged the new owners of Bass Pet Resort to continue the relationship with Nehmedia. According to Lehman, her collaboration with Nehmedia meant more than online exposure and high ranking in search results; it gave her peace of mind. “Just having Nehmedia there took a huge load off of me. I was able to trust them to manage all the SEO work in a very professional, top-notch manner,” she said, which was one less thing to worry about and relieved me of a lot of stress.”
Even though Nehmedia is based in Austin, Texas, and Lehman was in Florida, the distance had no effect on the quality of the support Lehman received. Lehman said that while she knew a lot about animals, she knew very little about the digital world, and could always depend on Nehmedia to answer her questions. “One of the things I’ve been most impressed with Nehmedia was that they’re always available and very, very responsive,” she said. Nehmedia is also transparent with clients. “They were very thorough in providing detailed reports each month that helped me understand what was working and where we might need to make any adjustments in our marketing efforts. I would definitely recommend Nehmedia to any pet resort owner looking to achieve success without the stress.”
