Building a Business with Abhishek Joshi
Abhishek Joshi is the founder of Dog with Blog, a leading online platform that aims at finding homes for abandoned and homeless dogs. He has driven more than 900 free adoptions riding on social media and website and was named in 2018 as India’s best social blog and in 2019 among the top 100 Digital marketers by Adobe.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
Hello, my name is Abhishek Joshi and I am the founder of Dog with Blog. A marketer turned dog lover, I aim at finding loving homes for abandoned and stray dogs using content marketing and social media. Post my MBA, I started out as a digital marketer for an IT firm and I was managing the company website - content, social media, blogs, etc. Since my professional domain was digital and I had a keen interest in the same, I experimented with creating a personal blog of my own over a weekend. Since I was most interested in dogs and was volunteering towards their care, that came to be the theme of the blog.
We have an active community of 116k fans across our social handles who help with adoptions. Our blog features articles related to pet care, adoptions, and dogs in pop culture.
We have driven 900+ adoptions for homeless dogs using social media.
We also partner with brands for content partnerships, for instance, we ran a post with National Geographic on the stray dogs of India.
What inspired you to start your business?
Dog with Blog was conceptualized in 2010. when I thought of attempting to make a difference (in my own humble capacity) towards the stray animal cause. I was merely concocting a cocktail of the twin loves of my life – dogs, and words – in that order. In India, there are many homeless dogs who rarely fund takers despite them being best suited to withstand and flourish in the tropical climates. We try to raise awareness towards their plight and with our active communities we run a dog adoption network that is completely free.
The power of social media is unquestionable and the very fact that we have been able to find some of the strays, abandoned dogs loving homes bears testimony to the same. Minus the digital channels, there wasn’t an efficient way to reach out to dog lovers across the length and breadth of the country.
The blog received a warm welcome thanks to word of mouth and an encouraging reader base. The community culture sits at the core of the blog, and we have vibrant social media pages.
Interestingly, the Facebook page which was started two years later than the blog faced no hurdles in finding a community as the blog had had a substantial reader base by then. At present, there are more than 100k+ dog lovers in our communities – all organically built.
We also compiled and listed city-wide rescue and adoption centers so that people who were considering ‘buy dogs’ can also explore shelters and adoption.
Where is your business based?
It is based in New Delhi, India but since we are internet-enabled we help adoptions across all major cities in India.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
To be honest, there were no slide decks or grand plans on how the final product would shape up. It started out as a virtual community to help with what I was doing in my free time (volunteering and helping with fosters) - putting out blog posts, social media updates, etc. helped amplify the adoption queries and I was driven by what I was seeing, an odd post could drive more interest regarding adoptions than multiple visits around residential societies and putting out posters. My plan at that stage was to build a community of like-minded dog lovers.
It started with writing which led to building a network of volunteers who would be helping at other shelters etc. This helped track adoption cases and we could centrally share and follow up with the prospective leads and families since NGOs were almost always lacking resources.
Internet gave us a level playing field where there were no immediate needs for significant funds, however, thanks to our content resonating with the audience - we were approached by a pet products company that sponsored the monthly blog post and social media contest. The long-term contract with them really helped with the tech fees.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
Social media and adoption newsletters have been the most instrumental, followed by blog posts and word of mouth by pet parents who adopted via our channels.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
Changing the mindset of the audience – preference for the pure breed as against mutts and mixed breeds has been a stellar challenge but gradually with our blog posts, we are trying to pitch forth the idea that that irrespective of the breed, it is the same loyal loving heart that beats in every dog.
Thankfully it is showing results and the adoption percentage of mutts has doubled in the past 3 years.
How do you stay focused?
I try to be clear on why I launched Dog with Blog and whether the distractions or opportunities that are coming my way align with that goal or not. All our collaborations, partnerships, outreach campaigns are based on this. It helps us focus and keep our energies synergized.
Aside from that, music also helps 😊
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
Most of the competing ventures are split wide in their content approach – they are catering to commercial intent – buying/selling of dogs, dog food, dog toys… we have been in a differentiated niche where we are not into ‘sales’ but ride purely on content for traction and growth.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Twitter has worked wonders for us when it comes to marketing – we haven’t run paid posts there but using dedicated hashtags like #AdoptDontShop and daily adoption updates have led us to get a significant share of voice and our engagement levels there are way higher as compared to even established brands with deeper pockets. Almost 20% of our monthly traffic is driven via it.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
I guess something that's pivotal and must be considered foremost is finding the product-market fit, everything else can wait. Sure, it'd be nice to have a robust social media strategy or be well prepared to scale, but all of it comes second. Until you are building something that solves a problem, the traction wouldn't sustain itself.
Building an MVP is the first thing. Scaling it up, optimizing it, putting marketing dollars can all wait. It also helps you tweak, refine, or pivot your idea if needed.
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
App – Evernote (makes taking notes, ideas and mind maps really simple – a definite app for content marketers)
Blog – Neil Gaiman’s blog (helps me stay nimble and in touch with the creative side)
Book – Zero to One (an amazing read on how to scale things up, incremental ideas)
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
If I must pick one, it would be SEMrush as it gives great insights into the competition and your own site to steer for SEO wins.
Who is your business role model? Why?
Mark Cuban. I admire his business savviness - that eye for detail and work ethic. The way he treats his employees and staff raises his stature multifold.
How do you balance work and life?
I unwind after the day’s work with cycling. Playing with dogs, spending time with family are the respites I take to recharge myself. Lately, I have been sleeping listening to podcasts and I am really liking it.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
Caffeine!
What do you have planned for the next six months?
Exploring content partnerships with some key brands in the pet space, revamping the website UX, and working on a book idea.
How can our readers connect with you?
· Website