Essential Tips For Writing An Effective Lost Pet Ad

Posted on: 10 August 2016

Each year, approximately 15 percent of dog and cat owners experience the trauma of having a pet stray from home. When your pet leaves home, panic may set in as you begin to worry about what could happen to your beloved companion when they are wandering around lost. One of the best things you can do to recover your pet is to prepare a lost pet listing ad as soon as possible. You want to get the word out so people who spot your cat or dog can contact you. If you have never written a listing or ad to find a missing pet, the following tips will be very helpful.

Make Your Ad Headline Straight to the Point

When you submit a lost pet listing or make a flyer, you want to make you grab people's attention, as most people scan before reading in-depth. Use the headline to get right to the point. A simple "Lost Cat" or "Lost Dog" is fine along with one or two other details. You can include words to describe the age or health of the cat if they are relevant. If you are offering a reward, include that as well. For example: "Lost Elderly Dog, Reward Offered."

When you print flyers to post on bulletin boards and on telephone poles in your neighborhood, stick with a simple, bold font. Stay away from fancy script, calligraphy, handwriting or decorative fonts. They are harder to read than simple fonts. You want to make sure that people finish reading your flyer and are not turned off because you used a font that is hard to read.

Include a High-quality Photo

While including a photo in your posting to publicize a lost pet seems like a no-brainer, you need to make sure you use the right type of photo. Do not use photos that have bad lighting. You want to make sure people can clearly see the color your pet's coat, their eyes and the shape of their features.

Also, you should use a picture that includes your pet's entire body, not just the head. If possible, use a photo that was taken outside during the daylight that shows your pet standing.

For the future, when you beloved pet returns home, take a high-quality picture with a good camera to have on file in case your dog or cat gets lost again.

Write a Great Description

An effective description for a lost pet should be informative yet concise. You need to include the following information in your description.

  • Breed
  • Pet Age
  • The name your pet answers to
  • A few characteristics and identifying marks of your pet
  • Where you last saw your pet
  • Whether or not your pet is microchipped
  • A description of the collar
  • Your email or a phone number

You should set up an email specifically for the listing so you do not have your personal email plastered all over the place. For a phone number, it's best to use a free phone number service so strangers do not obtain your personal number.

You can finish off the description with "Thank you." Adding this just gives a polite tone to your ad.

Some Don'ts

In order to protect your identity and ward off scammers, there are a few things you should not do when you write a lost pet description.

Do not include the amount of the reward. The reward should be an incentive if someone sees your pet, not an invitation for unscrupulous people to try and get some money from you. Do not trust anyone who requests that you give them money or wire funds before they return your pet.

Do not include all of the most noticeable identifying marks of your pet in your listing. When someone contacts you, you can ask them to describe identifying marks. If they list something that fits your pet but that is not in the description you wrote, you will know that the person has in fact seen your pet.

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