Whether it lives on your own website, social media, or a pet adoption website (or all of the above), an adoption profile is an animal’s ticket to their second chance. Even if you aren’t an expert wordsmith, the below tips will help you create easy and engaging adoption profiles that, along with beautiful photos, can help animals find their forever homes.
1. Focus on Your Main Goal
The main goal of a pet profile is to drum up interest in the animal and find its perfect home. Ask yourself: “What are the first things potential adopters want to know about their future family member? What don’t they need to know right now?”
If you’re writing a pet profile without knowing what the animal is like in a home environment, it’s okay to supplement your profile with additional details—but don’t make background information the main priority.
2. Lead with Positivity
All too often, shelter pets are stereotyped as having “too much baggage.” But even if an animal you’re profiling is particularly challenging, you should always start their profile off with something positive about them. Are they food motivated? Are they great snugglers? Are they good with other animals or children? Are they quick learners? Chances are, you’re one of the lucky few people who can answer these questions, so don’t be afraid to share these important details with the world!
3. Keep it Short
A pet profile shouldn’t include every detail from its behavior evaluation, but instead should include just enough information to get the attention of potential adopters (including their forever family!)! Try to narrow it down to just a few short sentences to keep readers engaged.
4. Make it Unique
No two animals are the same, so no two animals’ profiles should be, either! Plenty of shelter animals can (and are) be described as “shy, but warms up quickly,” but you can always add some detail to give potential adopters more information. What is it that helps them feel more at ease faster?
If you need a little help putting together the perfect adoption profile for an animal, try writing it from the animal’s perspective. What kind of home would they want and why?
5. Use Your Voice
What is the voice of your organization? It can take some time to really figure it out, but letting that voice come through in your pet profiles is another great way to attract potential adopters. A few organizations come to mind when we think about those that a distinct voice and sense of humor into their pet profiles: A Purposeful Rescue, Ellen M. Gifford Cat Shelter, and One Tail at a Time.
6. Get a Proofreader
You don’t want typos or grammatical errors to distract potential adopters from the message you’re trying to relay: that the animal you’re profiling is wonderful, unique, and is looking for its forever home! Always have another set of eyes look over your profiles before they go live to ensure that your pet adoption profile is brief, clear, and engaging.
When writing pet adoption profiles, remember that you have the utmost privilege of telling the world just how wonderful the animals in your custody are and why. What could be better than that?
Feature image by Yerlin Matu on Unsplash