This article, written by Archer Creative, was also published in Chaff Chat.
Want to fast track successful marketing for your horse business? It’s time to get back to basics with a simple marketing plan, so you can drive more sales and acquire more customers.
When it comes to effective equestrian marketing, let’s get one thing straight: you don’t need a large team or a big budget, you need a simple, results-driven and straightforward approach.
A successful marketing plan must be scalable. From large international companies to family-run businesses, effective marketing is the key cornerstone to making sales. And making sales means your equine business is growing.
So, where do you start?
This four-part series will outline the fundamentals of marketing plans you can put to use for your horse business. With our help, you can create a simple 12 month marketing plan, and start tracking and measuring your marketing activities straightaway.
Let’s show you where to begin…
Understanding Your Market Position
Firstly, you need to understand and evaluate your position in the equine market. Who are your customers and who are your competitors? It’s crucial you understand the customers you are targeting and how you can differentiate your equine business from your competitors.
Understanding your customers means identifying their demographic and psychographic profile, and their motivations for buying a product or service like yours. In doing so, you can begin to develop your unique selling proposition (USP) – the factor that makes your equine business unique from and better than its competitors.
Studies show most buying behaviour is emotional, not logical, so your USP must tap into the precise motivations of your customers. What’s important to your customer when buying a product or service like yours? If you can answer this with a true point of difference, then you have a winning combination.
Listing Your Marketing Objectives
Every marketing plan needs a list of core goals, so you can measure your success over a period of time. Without any marketing objectives, which will be unique to every equine business, it’s impossible to demonstrate if your marketing plan is actually effective.
Foremost, your marketing goals must be SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. They may range from increasing your e-newsletter subscribers by 25% in six months to attending your first trade show at the end of the year.
By defining your objectives, you can not only successfully plan your marketing tactics, but measure your results with the right performance metrics. Each goal will require a different way to measure its success. This means you also need to plan regular intervals to review your marketing activities.
Crafting Your Key Messaging
Next, you need to develop your key messaging. Every product or service in the equine market aims to solve a specific problem. Your key messaging is the hook or pitch you use throughout your marketing to describe your product or service, and the unique way in which it offers a solution.
As you create this key messaging, which may include crafting a slogan or tagline, you need to define the key benefits and features of your product or service. Many businesses, including those in the horse industry, promote features alone, without tapping into benefits.
While the saddle you sell may be crafted from fine Italian leather and manufactured for performance, what may matter more to your customers is saddle fit, easy maintenance and a lasting product. Again, these are the emotional motivations of your customer; the ‘why’ you need to answer in your marketing.
Want to read more? Stay tuned for Part Two on print and online marketing tactics, and events and sponsorships. We’ll advise on how you can determine which print and online channels are best for your business and how to market your equine business at events.
Looking for some outside support? Don’t wait for success, create it — with the experts in equine marketing, Archer Creative. To learn more about how we can help you exceed your growth goals, call us on 1300 077 126 or visit www.archercreative.net.au.
