FREE – can this simple four letter word boost your horse business profits?

Some of the top Internet marketers use the magic of “FREE” to boost their bottom line by giving away some of their best Informational products to stir interest in their other products and services and gain lifetime customers. Some brick and mortar businesses have found free to be a super charger of their business growth. Would your horse business benefit from offering a product or service free too?

Free seems helps people feel they are safe and not taking a risk. Then once they have your free product and like it they are willing to spend money on another product or service you offer.

Here is an article that talks about the power of “FREE”…

“Free” Can Get Your Clients Going Wild! But What’s In It for You?

I think one of the main reasons free works is not just the cost savings you feel you are receiving, but because the word free helps you feel safe from risk. Most of us look to reduce risks and stay safe — even if it just on a subconscious level.

Have you ever considered offering anything for free from your business? Did you try it out? How did it work out for you? Have you checked your business competition are they trying out the power of free?

Is there a downside to offering products or services for free? Can your business afford to test it out — or maybe you should be asking if your business can afford not to test it out?

Related articles

• How Launching A Free Product Doubled My Income (entrepreneurs-journey.com)
• The problem with ‘free’ stuff (businessweek.com)

Marketing your horse business with Magalogs

What’s a Magalog?

Here is a sample magalog that explains why you might want to consider creating one to help market your business…

[issuu layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml showflipbtn=true documentid=100402215012-a65eb01c29f04cdb8e10c9fc24c6a431 docname=magalogguy_successful_magalog_marketing username=magalogguy loadinginfotext=Successful%20Magalog%20Marketing%20-%20The%20Magalog%20Guy width=500 height=388 unit=px]
Successful Magalog Marketing – The Magalog Guy

People want to make the right decision when they purchase something and with money tight a lot of people are being extra careful about their purchases. Are you giving people all the info they need and desire to feel comfortable enough to buy from you? A lot of people post business cards up in feed stores and other places, but come on — how much selling can a tiny card do? A brochure is good, but is it giving the readers all they need to make a buying decision for a costly horse, product, or service?

Longer sales copy done right might be the answer to increasing your sales. The Magalog sample above has some good marketing tips in it even if you decide that one isn’t for you right now. Also take the time to note the way that it is designed — how the text and images are placed and work together. Most young and/or small horse businesses have sales material that is lacking in professional design and clarity of sales massage. Start taking notice of what the most successful horse businesses are doing in way of their advertisements — online and off.

By the way, make sure you are happy with your horse logo design before spending the time and money on creating your marketing items.

To view some gorgeous horse ads check out my past article: Gorgeous horse pictures in Horses for Life magazine

10 Absolutes For All the Copy to Promote Your Horse Business

Article: By Roberta Edstrom

Ten Sales copy writing tips to help you market your horse business…

1) An attention getter headline: You have to get them to notice you. This is not the sales pitch. The headline is meant for one thing and one thing only: to get them to read the sub-headline.

2) The sub headline: This is the leader into the rest of the conversation. It is the sentence that asks them to read more.

3) Credibility: Brag a little or a herd full, just make sure you can stand behind every word. If you promise things you can not stand behind, your customers will quickly lose trust in you. Cowboy-up here, say what you mean, and mean what you say. It it that simple.

4) Testimonials: If you do not have any yet, test your product out on your friends and get them to write one for you. Just get them out there. You customers have to have a way to get to know you and testimonials from real customers is the best way to accomplish that. Here is an extra hint: to not edit there copy. Their mistakes will make them seem more real to your customers.

5) Sell the Benefits: not the features. This is still the hardest part for me. Example: this is a feature (tassels are made with real horse hair (no emotional connection). You need to add emotion to make a sale: Discover richness of an age-old tradition made in the classic cowboy style, with authentic horse hair.

6) Transference: You have to add the words “you” and “your” to the copy. Make them feel as if they already own it.

7) Guarantee: Offer a 100% no risk, no-questions asked, life-time money back guarantee. It has been proven many times, that the longer the guarantee the less returns.

Bonus: Add as many bonuses to your customer as you can imagine. Offer a simple, inexpensive daily prize for posting to your site and just watch your site come to life. I have discovered that horse lovers, love free items, buy one get one free and they adore contests with prizes. This is a great way to increase your email list as well.

9) Call to action: This was a hard lesson for me to learn, but once I started asking them to place an order, our sales almost doubled over night. Tell them exactly what you want them to do, what button you want them to push, number to call, but make sure you are specific. Let them know action you want them to take.

10) Give them all your contact information: All of it. They need to know you are a person that they can reach. Ninety-nine percent will not call you, but that same ninety-nine percent want to know that they can if they need to.

Image via Wikipedia

Affiliate ads: How to Submit Online Articles That Pull Traffic to Your Website Joan Stewart interviews Sharron Senter (Audio for sale)

Legal Issues You Must Know When Writing Articles
for Fee or for Free Joan Stewart interviews attorney Patricia Eyres (A live 1-hour teleseminar) (Audio for sale)

These are 10 rules you need to learn. These are like the foundation on horsemanship. How do I bridle my horse. How do I write great copy to promote him.

Each horse hair item so intricately made by his hands, was admired and prized for generations: a working piece of authentic Western Art. From the moment you place you hands around one of our high quality, hand-made horse hair items, you will love and treasure each piece for years to come.

For your enjoyment, we introduce Knot-A-Tail’s priceless treasures of the West. Come for a visit our horse forum and community page or post your greatest horse story, suggestions and let me know if there is any thing else you would like to see on our site.

We want to exceed all of your expectations, so why not stop by and tell us what you needs, dreams and desires.

Always here to help:
Happiest of trails

Roberta
CEO
knot-a-tail

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roberta_Edstrom

Horse Advertising Network – Reach 85,000 plus Horse Enthusiasts

Introducing the Horse Advertising Network (HADN) for the Horse Industry (Carson City, NV – July 7, 2009) The easiest, most effective Internet advertising solution dedicated solely to the Horse Industry.

HADN is an online match maker uniting horse related advertisers with multiple horse related website publishers. The Horse Advertising Network, provides the vehicle for banner type ads to be uploaded automatically to horse related websites directly by the HADN advertiser. The ads are then displayed by website owners –“HADN publishers”- who provide ad space to HADN in exchange for payment; realizing additional income at no additional cost.

The Horse Advertising Network

HADN simplifies the act of buying and selling for both advertisers and web publishers in the horse industry.

While HADN is the first of its kind ad server solution for the horse industry, the vertical ad market concept we use is well proven and promoted by top marketing professionals.

The HADN core technology currently serves over 150,000 websites and servers over 300 BILLION ad views per month. HADN technology is continually updated to keep it current with general ad serving capabilities.

Become a member of HADN today and start seeing results tomorrow.

YouTube video – The Horse Advertising Network http://snipurl.com/rqoc1

About HADN:

The Horse Advertising Network is a Biz Strategies, Inc. solution.

For More Information Contact:

Renae Dudley
renaedudley @ horseadvertisingnetwork . com (remove spaces)
Phone: 816-289-5555

About Renae Dudley:

Renae Dudley is a horse industry professional. She is a life long horse breeder, certified judge and equine appraiser. She has developed software products for horse farms. Renae has been a sales professional in the horse advertising business for over 12 years. renaedudley @ horseadvertisingnetwork . com (remove spaces)

The Horse Advertising Network (HADN) http://snipurl.com/nael2

Note from Joni: If you are using this service I would love to hear your option on it. Please leave a comment below. Thanks!

Passing along a Holiday coupon for Embroidery

I received the following message and coupon in my email and was told I could pass it along to you since many horse business people love to created embroidered items for the holidays to give as gifts to their best customers and as promotional sale items…

Wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season and prosperity in the New Year. If there’s anything we can help you with whether its promotional Items, printed material, Christmas cards, Embroidery, Screen printing, signage, or you need help with your Web site, give us a call.

Embroidery Coupon

All the best to you and your family,

NICK OLSEN
Screaming Eagle Promotions
2210 Edgewood Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55426
320-963-7000 direct
nickolsen [at] screamingeagle1 . com (remove spaces and replace [at] with @)

Articles can help you market your horse business

Business Article by Alyice Edrich

Articles increase sales

I am an avid believer in using articles to market one’s business. I’ve been doing it for years and I always notice an increase in sales when an article is published online via a website or blog. It’s like free advertising and all it takes is a little time and effort.

But online isn’t the only place articles work, print publications are always looking for quality articles on a variety of topics and your byline could become your free advertisement. It just depends on the publication’s policy for bylines. Some publications do not like bylines that sound like commercials while others don’t care as long as it stays under a certain word count.

Articles make great business handouts

Are you a freelance horse riding or horse training instructor? Do you travel to teach or train? Do you sell your products or services at horse expo fairs, workshops, or horse shows? Articles, as handouts works great. Save all those free articles you write and distribute online and print them out. Use them as free “take away” material that will help promote your business even after they’ve left the shows and fairs.

Have people advertise your business for free

I know a guy who distributes a CD to every workshop attendee with articles he has written pertaining to the subject he teaches-as a free gift for coming. He then gives the attendees permission to reprint the articles on their blogs and websites as long as they include his byline at the end of each article. (Read that again: giving aways articles helps you get people to promote your business for free!)

I know a gal who does the same thing for every Christian women’s function she teaches. She allows the churches to use her material in their church bulletins. It costs her less than 50 cents to package and distribute each CD, plus her time and the rewards really pay off.

Note from Joni: Marketing tip — You don’t want people to bring home the CD and then never open it, so… Make sure to print out a teaser sheet to go with the CD you hand out. On this sheet you give them a bullet list of what they will gain (their benefits) from digging into your CD and actually reading your articles. Answer the question: “What is in this for me?” or your CD will just gather dust or hit the trash.

What to write about

You put a lot of time and effort into your product or service. You know the ins and outs so use that knowledge to your advantage.

You know what would make it better, what would make it worse, and I bet you know ways to cut costs while still producing a quality product. You know what your customers like and what they don’t like. You know how to package your product so that it doesn’t break or get lost. And you’ve probably learned how to deal with bad customers and lost packages. Use every aspect of your business as an article idea. Just remember not to give specifics about your customers without permission and avoid giving away trade secrets.

Finding Article Ideas

As a writer, when we query a publication to write an article for that publication we first go to Writer’s Market and look up magazines that accept the types of ideas we have in mind. (Also a quick search online can do the job.) Then we check out a few back issues of the magazine at the library as well as what’s going on via their website and current issues. It gives us a good idea as to what has already been published (since they don’t like to repeat the same stories) and what they may be looking for in the future. Then we can tailor our query letters to the magazine appropriately. Another way to find out about what magazines want is by looking at their editorial calendar – which can often be found online. It can tell you a lot and even help you tailor a press release towards a future issue.

You could write up a how-to articles for horse magazines online and off. You do your research to make sure your idea hasn’t already been covered and then you submit your idea in the form of a query letter and wait. You wait for an acceptance to actually write the article.

Another way to find ideas for articles that could help promote your products, services, or blog/website is to pay attention to the way people find you in the search engines. Put a stat counter on your website or blog (statcounter.com is free) and look at how people are finding you on a weekly basis. What words are they typing into the search engines? Can any of those words or phrases spark an idea for writing an article or even a blog post?

Note from Joni: Use Google to help you! Sign up for the New Google Analytics.

Google Analytics has been re-designed to help you learn even more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site. Discover. Share. Act. Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online. Write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. Google Analytics is free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners.

Also check out Google’s Webmaster Tools to improve your site’s visibility in Google search results. It’s free. and it provides you with detailed reports about your pages’ visibility on Google.

What are people saying in the horse forums or what are they saying when they leave comments in your blogs? Can any of those posts spark an idea for an article?

If you don’t feel writing is your forte, hire a good freelance writer. If you feel you can write okay but need a second pair of eyes hire a proofreader, they run as low as $1 per page. The key is to “not sell yourself” but to “entertain, educate, and inform” your intended audience about something they’d actually care about. Always think, “What’s in it for them?”

— end —

About the author: Alyice Edrich is a freelance writer specializing in article marketing techniques. Visit her site at AalyiceEdrich.net to learn how she can help your business through viral article marketing techniques, too.

Quick summary by Joni: Posting articles on the Internet is like posting business ads in different places — but you get to post them for free. And your website address at the bottom of each article helps lead people back to your site. Want a higher spot in Google’s search engine listings? Then make regular article posting part of your business marketing strategy. Write the articles yourself or hire someone to help you, but do consider this for the sake of your business success.

I will be posting a few more helpful business articles by Alyice Edrich so please check back or sign up for the RSS feed or Subscribe to ALove4Horses by Email.

Resources

FeedBurner Sign up for FeedBurner (it is free) for your blog to help you analyze your site vistors. Learn the Top 10 Pages on Your Site and what article subjects are the most popular then write more like them.

How to Write How-to Articles for Newspapers, Magazines and Trade Journals A live 1-hour teleseminar featuring Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound (Audio for sale)

How to Submit Online Articles That Pull Traffic to Your Website Joan Stewart interviews Sharron Senter (Audio for sale)

Legal Issues You Must Know When Writing Articles for Fee or for Free Joan Stewart interviews attorney Patricia Eyres (A live 1-hour teleseminar) (Audio for sale)

Horse for sale videos increase sales

I just did a search on YouTube for “Horse for Sale” and 6,300 horse videos pop up in the search results! That is a lot of ‘horses for sale’ videos on one site. One video received 72,447 views! Since YouTube now receives twice the page views as Google my guess is that many people are finding and buying horses because of these posted horse videos. People are successfully selling horses using video — Are you?

In fact I bet that if you are just using still photos and text on your site or posted to one of the horses for sale listing sites that you are not exposing your horse to as many potential buyers as you possibly can. Marketing tests prove that video does a much better job of showing off your product and motiving a person to purchase. Videos have increased conversions by nearly 50 percent! Isn’t it time you start marketing your horse business with videos?

Why Video to Sell Horses?

When selling your horse on the web, quality videos are essential to provide potential horse buyers a clear idea of your horse’s form, movement, manners, and personalty. Good video production takes time and work, but properly made videos help sell horses in a completive marketplace and help you receive the top price for your horse.

The time to make videos of your horse is not when someone requests to view one. You should plan ahead and make the videos a major part of your marketing plan. In fact videos should be the most important part of your horse marketing.

It takes time and money to make DVD copies of the final videos to mail out to prospective customers that request them and some people request videos just because they enjoy watching videos of horses. You could charge a refundable deposit fee that covers the cost of the DVD and shipping.

Web videos

Post your horse videos online — instantly viewable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any computer on earth with an Internet connection. If you post them on sites like youtube and the other free video posting sites you don’t even have to worry about bandwidth costs either.

Increase sales with online video ads 2008

Video Equipment and Knowhow

Top of the line video equipment is not required to begin creating video for web display. In fact some people shoot decent video footage with their cell phones and digital cameras that have video options.

If you are on a tight budget and like small, simple to use video cameras then you should consider one of the Flip Video Cameras.

Review: Pure Digital Technologies’ Flip Video Camera

Videotaped with the Flip Video Camera

Of course if you have top dollar horses for sale and have a decent marketing budget, then I highly recommend having professional video shot by someone that specializes in horse video productions. Make sure to check references and view past client videos before making your selection of which video company to hire. Some professional horse photographers are now shooting video too. Does your local photographer shoot video? Find out!

What to Video

Your video presentation should cover important points of interest to a horse buyer. Some areas to consider videotaping are…

• Under saddle or harnesses: dressage, jumping, cross country, reining, trail riding — whatever skills in whatever discipline your horse it trained for and good at.
• Horse Show; include footage of any past trophies or ribbons.
• In hand segments; include close-ups of the horse’s conformation without tack
• Free Lunging, to show the horse’s true movement
• Lunging: under your control with changes in gait and direction
• Free Jumping
• In hand Obedience: tacking up and untacking, leading
• Horse care Obedience: vet visit, farrier, worming, shots, bathing, clipping, trailer loading, etc…

You don’t have to put everything in one long video. In fact is better if you make a few short videos that cover different areas — one showing the horse under saddle, one showing the horse’s ground manners, and one demonstrating the horses movements when free lunging or jumping. You want to cover enough in the videos to give someone a good overview of your horse’s training and abilities. This will help them feel confident in making an appointment to meet your horse or to even decide to purchase online just from the videos and reading your horse’s description (your sales copy). Specially if you offer a good guarantee or trail period. Don’t forget to have a good sales contract made and signed.

Make a video blog of your horse for sale and embed the videos into your blog or website pages. Update your site with new video clips as your horse learns more.

Audio Sales copy: the video sound track

Words

Write out all that you want to say in your video to make sure you cover all the selling features of your horse. You can add the voice over to the video (recommend) or talk while videotaping. Also put this the horse’s info on text on the page too.

Here is the sales copy for a horse for sale on the internet. Read it for ideas of what you may want to include in your audio and text for your horse for sale listing:

White Gelding Cepillo, this gelding is good on the street, trails, ring, and wherever else you want to ride. He does not spook at any of the parks nearby, not even with gun shots. My son is only 7 and he rides him anywhere. He is safe enough for him to ride around our neighborhood and in parades. Walks, Trots, Canters on commands. Neck reins or direct reins. Loads, clips, bathes, saddles with no problems. Safe for kids. Used to dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and OK to work with cows. He is 9 years old. He is dead broke and kid safe. This versatile horse is great for anyone to ride. No bad habits. No vices. Pretty Mover.

Music

Music can deeply stir the emotions and you should take your time in its choice. You want the music in the video to add to the video, but not overpower the images. Uplifting and inspiring music that puts people in a good mood is best. Consider songs about horses to really heighten the emotional response of equestrians. If you are not ready to make videos yet you consider make photo slide shows with music. Check out sites like Slide.com that allow you to make photo slide shows for free that you can embed into your web pages.

Youtube Videos of Horse for Sale

Sporthorse / Dressage horse for sale : Southside Flyer

Note that they added a title clip at the begging and the end of the video that shows their website address (URL). You should always mark your videos with your URL for videos posted on video sites or that someone may download.

Reining horse for sale

Also consider posting videos or a video slide show of photos of the horse’s dam and sir, specially if a top breeding sir.

Argentinus the Legend

Video Resources and Tips

Shooting Video to SELL the Horse! Good step by step article with photos with the info you need to know to get good videos of your horse for sale. Print it out as a blue print or check list.

Traffic Secrets 2.0 Watch this video to learn what cutting edge video creation is. High quality video with some fantastic effects — and some great free tips on how to get more people to view your site’s content. A must see.

Making Money With Youtube Videos Video marketing tips

Make Money on Youtube by Uploading Your Video Tips on including your live clickable link back to your website from your youtube videos.

5 Ways to Make Money on YouTube NOW! Tips on posting videos to youtube and making some cash. Watch this with your horse business in mind and I bet you come up with some great ideas of your own.

How to get stinkin’ RICH on YouTube!!! Video posting tips – short videos, tag the videos right, allow video replies.

Best Way To Increase Website Conversions Again watch this video with your horse business in mind. What can you do to get people to want to return to your horse site again and again – maybe tell them you will be posting updated videos of the horses for sale as their training progresses.

How to learn to make video…

Stomper Vision – How web video will transform YOUR online business Watch the video case studies of how video improves sale conversations.

Make it easier for people to pay you

You can make it easier for people buying your horse to pay you by taking payments (or the purchase deposit) online through PayPal. You can add a buy-it-button under your video clip. I am seeing more off line businesses (like veterinarians) offering this payment option. I believe your horse buying clients would appreciate the convince too.

You can even set up payments over time with PayPal’s subscription payments.

When you make it easier for people to pay their bills you are more likely to see you money and faster too. PayPaloffers a fast, affordable and convenient online payment service for businesses of all sizes.

If you have had luck with selling horses with videos please leave a comment below and let us know about it. Thanks!

What’s Stacy’s success factors that has made her the bareback / bridleless reining Queen?

Stacy Westfall, the champion reiner, is in equestrian news, on TV, and people are searching for her on the web. I attribute her equestrian success to her goal magnifying actions, a few of which I will expose here so you can follow her lead and ride your equestrian dreams to greater heights.

But first a little introduction on Stacy and reining…

Stacy’s Accomplishments

In 2003 Stacy Westfall won the National Reining Horse Association Freestyle reining competition riding with with no bridle, not even a neck rope. For two years Stacy was undefeated in major freestyle reining competitions and in 2006 she won twice while riding bareback and bridleless.

Stacy Westfall, the first women contestant, competed and won the 2006 Road to the Horse Colt Starting Challenge and the sold out crowd loved her. The 2006 Road to the Horse DVD with Stacy is now completely sold out! Many horse people feel Stacy’s relationship with her horse is inspiring, beautiful, and total amazing.

Reining

Reining developed from the moves a ranch horse had to perform as part its regular cow horse duties. The American Quarter Horse dominates the reining field, but any horse can be trained to rein. Reining is is one of the world’s fastest growing horse sports and is growing in popularity around the world becoming a rising star in the horse industry.

A winning reining horse must be trained to a very high degree in its controlled movements. It has to go forward, stop, turn, spin, and back all to soft cues given by its rider. Only obedient, supple, and relaxed horses make it to the top. Reining is a partnership effort between an well trained horse and rider. The rider must be able to guide the horse and control his every maneuver from spins, sliding stops, to cantering. Reining is not the easiest horse discipline to train a horse well for.

Freestyle Reining

Freestyle reining is similar to freestyle dressage in that the riders are allowed to create their own patterns with some required movements, and choreograph them to music in a way that entertains and show off the horse and rider’s skills. Some freestyle reining competitions also allow the riders to ride bareback (without a saddle), or without a bridle, which increases the difficulty.

Stacy is the first women to win in the freestyle reining competition at Quarter Horse Congress. She is a NRHA champion freestyle reiner and 2006 Road to the Horse Champion that trains her own horses.

Horse Training

Stacy Westfall uses natural horse training methods she learned on her own and through other horse trainers to start her young horses. She and her training partner, husband Jesses own and operate the Westfall Training Center. She is also a mother of three young boys which makes her equestrian accomplishments even more astounding.

Horse Back Riding

Stacy started riding ‘Misty’, a Shetland Pony that was trained to rear on command. She trained her first colt at the age of fourteen. Like most horse crazy girls while growing up she rode any horse she could get her hands on.

Read more about about reining champion Stacy Westfall on her website www.westfallhorsemanship.

Stacy Westfall’s Blueprint to Success

Now on to Stacy’s Success Secrets and what you can learn as an equestrian and horse business owner to improve your chances of success.

Stacy has consistently taken actions that have lead her closer and closer to her goals. There did you catch the first success secret? ACTION! The repetition of the right actions is the golden key, knowing exactly what you want, planing the steps, then taking action on those steps time and time again. The power is in taking consistent action!

Since this blog is specially for horse business owners I will talk here about the actions Stacy has taken to build her equine business. If you want to learn her horse riding and horse training secrets then visit her site and buy her horse training DVDs and check her event calendar.

Equestrian Business Marketing Strategies

I discovered these marketing strategies Stacy is employing…

• Professional Help

She has a beautifully made and easy to use website that’s obviously professionally designed. People like to buy products and services from companies that look successful and professional.

You can not be expected to know everything so hire experts in areas where it really matters – like your business website creation and marketing. This is one of your best business investments. Your site has to do more than just look good, people have to be able to find what they are looking for fast and easy on it too – good usability!

I see too many horse businesses with websites that look like their child made it, and there is no excuse for this when you can have a professional looking website up in minutes with a free blog at WordPress or Blogger. But I do recommend that you go with WordPress on your own domain site. What first impression does your website say about your equine business?

• Quality products

Stacy sells Horse Training DVDs, Pocket Reference Cards, Rope halters, and Horse Lead Ropes on her site. If you have a horse boarding business you can sell some horse health and care products to your clients. You business’ long-term success involves selling quality products or services that meet the needs and desires of your customers. Don’t sell anything you would not be willing to purchase and use.

• Events Calendar

Her events page is more stuffed than a Clydesdale’s hay net! What a schedule! Dates, locations, and links to event websites. Do you put on any events? If not, why not, consider a few events that you can hold and then post them on your site. You don’t have to do it alone, you can join forces with other horse businesses or a charity to put on an event and make sure to get a few commercial sponsors.

• Media Gallery

You can find links to photos, videos, and article files on this page. But strangely missing is a link to her Press Release page where she should have posted the stories about her that have been published in the past and new press releases for current use. Maybe the press releases are posted on another page of her site that I missed. But don’t you miss adding Press Releases to your horse business site.

Don’t know how to write a Press Release?

I signed up for the Joan Stewart’s The Publicity Hound® Newsletter to learn more about business promotion. Horse business owners can get thousands of dollars in free publicity by following her tips, tricks and tools. Joan is a former newspaper editor, a small business owner, AND she was tapped by Entrepreneur.com as its public relations expert. Click here to read all the columns she wrote for Entrepreneur.com and check out her educational tools for business owners.

Short videos posted on your site and other video sites like YouTube can also help your business in multiple ways acting as sales brochures, and customer educational tools. The Road to the Horse website http://www.roadtothehorse.com does have a nice Media page http://www.roadtothehorse.com/media.shtml you can check out. They have past news articles posted and articles and hi-res photos and the Road to the Horse logo images for print use. This is another nicely designed website you can lasso web design ideas from.

Learn about what videos can do for your business. Hey it is 2008 and more and more people are watching videos online on a daily basis, so start making and posting videos for your business! One of Stacy’s reining videos has received more than 100,000 views!

• Newsletter

News from Westfall Horsemanship http://www.westfallhorsemanship.com/index.php?page=newsletter

Too many horse business really miss show ribbon on this marketing strategy. It is so important to collect the names and email addresses of your site visitors and have a way to stay in contact with them. Most people will not buy from you on the first contact – in fact it takes many contacts before most people make a purchasing decision.

• Members Only Content (Build a community)

You can sign up for, “The Herd” her members site for training tips and a weekly contests where you can win some of her Westfall products. Master mind and come up with your own membership site.

• FAQ Page

On Stacy’s site you will find a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page where you can find the answers to common questions on company location, horse training by Stacy, her products, clinics, apprenticeship course, and about her horse Roxy. In fact that page goes on and on stuffed full with more interesting info about Stacy, her company, and her products.

Not enough business sites add a FAQ page and it can be so helpful to your site visitors and help you gain more sales. Study Stacy’s FAQ page and start designing your own. It will save you time in the long run. One reason people search the Internet is because they are looking to research products. Give them the info they are looking for.

• Valuable Content

Content comes in many different forms from articles, videos, photos, case studies, press releases, FAQ page, product reviews, testimonials, to resource information and links. Keep value in mind when adding these.

• Contact Page

A contact form also helps stop you from receiving so much email SPAM when you post your email online. Full contact info and a contact page help build trust and confidence in your business.

• Belief

Last but not least, she believes in herself and is willing to take chances. You can see this by the actions she has taken. Stacy wouldn’t have attempted any of the actions that has helped her become a success if she didn’t believe that the chance of success was possible in the first place. But guess what, taking the right action steps helps you strengthen your belief as you build on one tiny success after another.

Summary

Success came to Stacy because she believed in her goal, made a plan and worked her plan. Taking consistent action is the key! She hired professional people when she needed help in areas beyond her expertise. Her website is well designed and has many of the items that helps build a business.

Are you ready to follow her lead? Study her site and work on yours. Get educated in marketing and design your own marketing plan. Then take action!

Another article on Stacy: Stacy Westfall First Woman Competitor at Road to the Horse

Stacey Westfall Bridleless Bareback Reining YouTube Video:

Stacy Westfall YouTube Video Search results – 65 Videos Listed!

You should also read my past post: Seven marketing boo-boos costing you business

P.S. Visit Stacy’s website to study it and take notes, then let me know what you plan to take from it to better your horse site. Please leave a comment below.

Resources for Business Building:

Free Press Release Tips
Strategies for Getting Media Coverage
Selling 101 for Equestrians – How to Quickly and Safely Sell Your Horse
The SEO Success Pyramid

Note from Joni: A few of the links on this page are to my affiliate sites. I only affiliate with sites that I feel give real value and will benefit my readers.

How to make your website profitable!

If you have taken the time and money needed to produce a web site you would love to have it benefit your business and add to your profits wouldn’t you? But with tons of info floating around the Internet on how to design a site that sells I still run across site after site that are less than profit-friendly. Is your site working for you as much as it could be?

Site owners start to believe that the web just doesn’t work for their business. But the sad truth maybe that people are not finding your site to begin with and/or poor design is driving people away the that do manage find your site. So what can you do to help build a site that works better?

A site’s success depends on a multiple of items done right, but the main one focusing on generating leads and sales. This crystallized focus can make a huge difference in a site producing income or not.

Climbing to the top of GOOGLE!

You can own a horse with the best sliding stop in the state but you will never see a single ribbon if you don’t get him to the horse shows! Same goes for your site – people will not be buying from you if they cannot find you. So make sure you choose a site designer that knows how to get ranked high in the top search engines.

If your site is a do-it-yourself project (nothing wrong with that if you have the passion for it, if not, hire someone that does) then plan to learn about SEO (search engine optimization).

Tip: If you don’t know the importance of key words and how to work with them, then you need to hire someone that does or get busy and educate yourself.

Speeding up your site!

You may have hired a designer that gave your site everything including the deluxe kitchen sink – flashing buttons, animated images, flash intro, and tons of fancy graphics.

But did you know that many horse people are still on slow dial-up and hate sites that load slower than a spooked horse going into a dark trailer. Studies show you only mere seconds to draw people in before they reach to click off your site – just a few seconds! So unless the images communicate important points about your product, service, or company drop them and optimize the loading time of the rest.

Speed Tip 1: CSS coded sites load faster than table and standard HTML coded sites with their nested tables and excess coding.

Speed Tip 2: Post small images linked to larger images. Let people decide which ones to view larger.

Add effective titles and headlines!

It is critical your web pages sport a benefit-oriented page title, main headline, and link titles to entice your visitors to read more or click to go farther into your site. They should also have your most important keywords in them.

Examples…

Instead of just putting something like…’Welcome to TrailRideHorses.com’ at the top of your web page, try a main headline like: ‘Wide selection of healthy trail horses with extensive trail riding experience at affordable prices! 100 mile endurance horses to safe children’s ponies’

Instead of just putting in a link that reads… ‘About our Services’, try one like, ‘Vanish the buck, bolt, and kick with our step by step horses training lessons!’ Or ‘From lame to in the game faster than ever with our nutritional joint products.’ Or ‘ Quarterhorse Weanlings to Yearlings optimized with the latest in mental and physical training, and nutritional breakthroughs.’

Stir people’s interest by stating benefits they are looking for in your headings and link text. Go over your whole site and check for effective and attention grabbing headlines – not there, then you have work to do!

Collecting visitor’s contact information!

How many times has someone whipped out their checkbook before you could lead the horse from the stall? Not often I bet. Normally people need time and multiple contacts before they make the final decision to hand you their hard earned money.

One of the best ways to gather their contact information so you can stay in touch is to offer them something they value like, information either in your newsletter, a free ebook or report, or even a chance to win a prize or a product discount.

Place a sign-up form on your site near the top and if your offer is good they will give you their name and email address. Learn more about working your list by searching the Internet for, ‘mailing list marketing’, ‘money in the list’, and/or ‘how to use auto responders.’

Tip: I use and love ListMailPro by Dean Wiebe (he is a nice caring person and that counts high in my book!)

Highlighting the benefits! Highlight the benefits!

Your web site visitors are always thinking: What’s in it for me! So give them the answers clearly, attractively, and repeatedly! Most are not looking to read how your company started or about the 14 ingredients that go into your horse feed products, unless your can word it so it tells them why it would benefit them or their horses.

Tell them how you, your service or your product can solve their problems and improve their lives. Display this front and center; don’t hide it where no one can find it.

• State the benefits that your service or product offers – display testimonials (as many as you can throughout your site.
• Display case studies with before and after images if possible. Video is even better!
• Make it easy to find your informative articles.
• Post forms, contracts, guides, maps, or event calendars for them to download.
• Provide links to more resources.

Make yourself useful and they will reward you with their business.

Developing trust and credibility.

Everyone likes to do business with people they know, trust, and like; so figure out ways that help people feel these just from visiting your web site.

You can try the following…

1. Post testimonials. People have an easier time believing what other people say about your company than what the owner says. Positive words from past clients can really give your credibility a boost. Place a few testimonials on different pages and have a testimonial page too. Testimonials also show that you have been doing business and that people are buying and are happy with their purchases.
2. Show case studies and articles. Providing useful information can help people view you as an authority on the subject.
3. Display your full contact information: address, phone and fax numbers (not just an email address) on every web page. People feel more comfortable purchasing from some one they
   feel is real and who they can get in contact with if trouble comes their way.
4. Post pictures of you and your key employees or partners. A bio is nice if you write it in a way that shows how your experience will be helpful to them. But a photo really helps people connect to you and if you met with you later they already have a feeling that they know you and you are not a stranger.

Home work = Home Page!

The single most crucial sales page of your web site is its home page! Nope, not the service or products page or the ordering page; the reason is that your home page is the page most people will land on.

If your home page is not right no one will go on to any of your site’s other pages – No second chances! Your home page must accomplish the following…

• Establish Your Brand – tell them who are you, what you do or offer and do it in such a way that they will be interested enough to click deeper or save the page and return later.
• Show them the goodies – they need to be able to quickly find what they are looking for – establish a clear path to other relevant pages.
• Generate Interest – copy and layout must be compelling and generate the desire to dig deeper. Study up on writing great Sales Copy!
• Impart Trust – reread numbers 3 and 4 above once again, yep they are that important.

Some of these little tweaks can have a major impact on your bottom line. These will give you a good start and I am sure that I will be giving you more info soon on designing your website to be a marketing magnet.

‘My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.’ – Pablo Picasso

P.S. Please take action NOW to show your friends and clients you are thinking of them and wish them a great day by sending them a Horse eCard!

Profit Generating, website design, site design

So many choices in the market place. How do you make your horse business be the one they think of FIRST – Top of Mind?

What does it take to gain this top of mind awareness? I have read about a study that stated that it took an average of twelve impressions before a sale took place. Impressions being anything from exposure to ads, signs, phone calls, emails, visiting, mailings, word of mouth, etc…

Quite often there is lag time involved too. Meaning that not everyone will purchase right after they have been heard from you the required number of times. They may not be in need of your product or service at that time, they may need more study time, or time to save for the purchase.

The more often a person sees or hears of your company the better, as this causes familiarity. Familiarity causes a person to gain confidence in a business and creates a positive view of the company name. We all want to feel positive and confident about the items we purchase.

Repetition is the key – design a consistent program of exposure

Recall and recognition needs repetition!

• Run ads often not just once in a blue moon.
• Put out a monthly newsletter – paper or digital.
• Plan on sending out monthly press releases.
• Post up signs and mark all your vehicles with them too.
• Post informational articles on your website or blog consistently.

What do most people put at the top of their Christmas tree? A star or an angel are the two most common adornments to grace the top of the tree? Why is that? The answer is simple – these two items are what they have seen the most and so that is what comes to their mind first and what feels right because of their repeat exposure to them. The star and angel now cause positive emotions.

It takes many exposures to your brand or marketing message before it starts to get etched into a person’s brain. Most companies fail to make this ‘program of exposure’ a top priority in their business plan. Yes, I am talking about working up a Marketing Plan. Marketing doesn’t have to be a dirty word. Think of it is helping people discover what you have to offer which will be of benefit to them.

Educate your customers

Many people today want to learn more about a product before they purchase it. This gives them a better chance at making an informed decision. They go online and do research. How much info are YOU posting about your product or service? How easy is it for people to find this info?

Help them gather facts
Consider doing some of the following…

• Case studies
• Product reviews
• Testimonial web page
• Video demonstrations (post on youtube and other top video sites)
• Videos of present customers using your product
• Free information eBooks or eReports
• Information articles or eCourses
• Hold Events or join with other businesses to put on an event
• Try to get e-magazines to quote you and publish your articles
• Try for radio and TV shows to feature you as a guest expert
• Let other people help spread the news about you – start an affiliates program.
• Hire someone to check over your website or blog and do some Search Engine Optimization so more people can find your site.

All of these activities cause your name to become better know and for more people to perceive you as a leader / expert. They build up recall, recognition, confidence, and positive feelings for your brand.

What makes you different / better – how do you stand out from the rest? Now go about designing a plan to repeat this info and expose it to as many people as possible.