Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Three points:

1. Our opinions and reactions are not as relevant as those of your target audience. There's nothing inherent in the words you're using that makes them more memorable or persuasive. It's all in the reaction of your target audience.

2. "Come! Sit! Stay!" Just says you're into dogs. It doesn't say why someone might want to remember you or pay attention to your pitch. Better if the name connotes some benefit that will resonate with your audience.

3. "Mary's Professional ..." is better in the sense that it has some reassurance that you're not an amateur, but it sure sounds boring. Your name ("Mary") doesn't add much value to the communication, since it's not relevant to any benefit. Why not have something in the name that says "Caring" or "Loving" instead? You may be relying too much on the tagline. Put the good stuff in the name, if you can.

4. How about an approach that says "[YourTown] Loving Pet Care" or something like that? Tell them you're local, and then tell them what benefit they get if they hire you.

"Come! Sit! Stay!/ Pet Sitting" is a little too clever - my first thought was that you're doing dog training (at home).

"Mary's Professional Pet Sitting Services" is okay. "Professional" doesn't add anything to the value of the name. Ditto "Services". Having "Mary" in the name makes it sound like it's just you, and is a very personal business.

How about simply: In-Home Pet Sitting/ Loving Care While You're Away ? Or "Aunt Mary's Pet Sitting/No Worry Animal Care"?

I'm a pet owner, so I'll tell you from a consumer point of view what I'd look for when looking up pet-sitting companies. Trustworthiness is #1 -- the person has keys to my home, so I have to trust them. They are also caring for an animal that's very important to me, so I want them to be knowledgable about animals and experienced, know what to do in any situation, and of course do what they say they're going to do.

I use a service called "All in the Family" pet sitting, which I think communicates that level of trust that you need from a pet sitter.

You might also consider including your town in the name, as it could help with search engine optimization - people will search "(name of town) pet sitting" when searching online.