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)

Common horse Business promotion mistakes; are you making them?

Learn the bad news…

We all make business mistakes. It is to be expected and hopefully you learn from your boo-boos and improve. But the worst business blunders are the ones your aren’t even aware, because you can not correct a problem if you don’t know you have one.

Seven hidden boo-boos ready to drag your business down…

1. Forgetting to brand the whole herd!

Most businesses have items like business cards, letterheads, faxes, envelopes, receipts, and etc… But how many of these are you using to their full potential? Add a collar and make them into workhorses!

Lets take your business envelope, are you just putting your return address on them? Waste not, want not – put on your marketing cap on and do a little creative thinking – visualize them as mini billboards. Add your company logo with a promotional slogan and add your website address under that. Make people want to open that envelope – stir their curiously, give them a reason to take notice.

Start to view all your business correspondence in the same light. Post your latest promotion offering on your outgoing emails, faxes, receipts, and statements. Have a one sided business card? Print an ad or coupon on the other side. It is prime advertising space – don’t let that space go to waste.

And please don’t go another day without adding a business signature with all your contact info and latest ad to your emails. I cannot believe how many business owners don’t do this. Some don’t even sign their whole name.

Email signature setup suggestion:

Full Name
Company Name
Email Address
Website Address
Company Tagline

Company Address
Phone and Fax Numbers

——————–
List you our latest promotion ad or up coming event here
with a link to web page with more info! A thank you gift for
reading the email in the way of a free PDF e-report is also
a great idea!
——————–

Passing up Free Advertising Avenues

Come on people, your business cannot grow without promotion, you know that bad nine letter word – Marketing. You might have a new business and not much in the way of a marketing budget, which is to be expected, but don’t pass free business promotion opportunities through articles and press releases. Yea, I know, I just hit another nasty thought – Writing.

2. Skipping the promotional possibilities of Articles

You can write an article around something pertaining to your business service or product that people would like to know more about or learn how to do. For instance, if you run a horse stable you could write and article on ‘how to choose the best boarding for your horse’ or ‘horse bedding that saves you time and money’. If you train horses you could do an article on ‘horses learn by the release of pressure’ or ‘dealing with horses that spook’.

Articles can build positive word-of-mouth free advertising. If you have a website or blog you can post your articles there and seek out other Internet publications that draw your target audience – your future customers. Many Internet news sites and magazines are looking for suitable content and are happy to run your articles.

Contact the editor and pitch your article. You could even try getting your piece into the paper by sending it as a letter to the editor. Did you know that letters to the editor are always well read? Did you also know that more people now reading their news online?

And that more and more social networking and bookmarking sites are popping up all the time. Don’t have a clue what I am talking about? Then go view this video – it will wake you up and shake you up. Interactive online community sites are really hot and some are actively looking of people to post helpful articles; sites like, HubPages and Squidoo.

Learn more – Do a google search for: top social networking sites

3. Not sending out Press Releases

Are you guilty of this because you are afraid you will not do it right? Or because you think you have nothing news worthy to tell? Do you have any events planned for the year, what about contests, noted any changes in your industry for your area? Won any awards, wrote any books, added a new building, or expanded your services or product line? News, news, and more news! What are you waiting for? Use this news to gain some free publicity!

You can mail out your press releases or send them online. Don’t forget to make a page on your website where you post your press releases.

Don’t know how to write a Press Release?

I signed up for the Joan Stewart’s The Publicity Hound¬Æ 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.

4. Not keeping in contact

Learn to keep records – oh no, more work. Yes, it is not sexy, it’s work, but can pay off in a big way. Make a note who runs your articles, press releases, and who posts what about your company on their websites and blogs.

First off, thank them! People never get tired of sincere thank yous and people seem to do it less and less, so when you thank someone you make an impression.

Next, make a note to send them more news again. They demonstrated that they are interested in your subject, that makes them more more likely to post another. If last year they ran a story about your charity horse show event then send them the info about this year’s show!

This is just plain common sense, but many people miss this, they keep looking for new people and forget about the importance of staying in touch with the connections they have already made.

People whine about not being able to afford advertising and then waste the avenues they already built by not staying in contact and resending updated info or new news. Don’t make is boo-boo – keep good records and be consistent with re-contacting (is that a word?).

5. Going it alone!

Don’t be riding off into the sunset by yourself. You don’t have to be alone in your business venture. Make friends with other business owners (doesn’t have to be in the same business) and start a MasterMind group.

When committed people get together new ideas and excitement happens. It can renew your business commitment and energy. Each person adding to the group mind – a synergy of challenging brainstorming that just doesn’t happen when you try to go it alone.

We all need support from business colleagues in an atmosphere of respect, honesty, and goodwill. Others can help you create and implement business goals.
Start a MasterMind group and participant in regular sessions – gain the power of a focused team.

Mastermind youtube videos


I found this first Mastermind video posted on this blog

Mastermind tip: short weekly meetings are more effective than longer monthly or bimonthly meetings.

GoodSearch results for: how to start a mastermind group

6. Not taking Action

I hear you, you saying, “most of these are not mysteries to me, I read about a lot of these before”. BUT are you taking ACTION! Are they in your business plan and are you working your plan?

“Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.”

- Alfred Adler

“An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.”

- Arnold Glasow

“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.”

- Peter Marshall

“Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold – but so does a hard-boiled egg.”

- Author Unknown

7. Not taking Consistent Action – repeating the effective actions

“A path cannot be made with one pass, but is guaranteed to be made with repeat passes”

- Joni Solis

“The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn’t waste time waiting for inspiration.”

- Ernest Newman

Horse Business Marketing Lessons

Selling 101 for Equestrians – How to Quickly and Safely Sell Your Horse

Covers advertising and marketing, about how to write advertisement, adding pictures, pricing, and other things to do to sell your horse, local and off line actions.

“The Law Of Attraction” For Equestrians Teleclass
Why You Get What You Get With Your Horse And In Your Life

PR for Equine Businesses Teleseminar with Sherry Busch, of RiskOutWest.com.

Horse Cents Infiltrate and Dominate Your Local Equine Market Using Pre-Equestrian Classes ‘Simple, No-Holds-Barred System For Filling Your Horse Business With New, Paying Clients – As Well As Taking Care Of Your Current Ones!’

Resource links…

Another blog posting of mine: 37 Power striding business tips on getting known, remembered, digital marketing, and presentation!

Free Press Release Tips

Social Marketing – There are NO Secrets (Video)

Free & Low Cost Advertising Tips For Freelancers, Home-Based Small Businesses (Great list of links to more articles at the bottom of this web page!)

MasterMind Manifesting Group Guidelines

MasterMind Self-Confidence Formula

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.

Horses are know for running and jumping, but now there are a few that have taken up painting. They hold the paintbrush in their mouth and nod and swing their head while applying paint to canvas or paper. I bet some of these horse artist have sold more paintings than some human artist.

Horse business owners take note that the owners of these horse painters know how to get publicity; publicity equals more sales. Check out the PR news on Romeo and Juliet – newspapers, web sites, blogs, horse magazines to bird magazines. What does your horse or horse business do that is a bit different – news worthy ? – well get the news out with press releases and blog postings!

Meet the four horses that paint…

1. Cholla, a mustang artist. Cholla has a full page feature in the new Ripley’s Book, ‘The Remarkable Revealed’, release date 8/7/07.

   Video showing Cholla running in the snow and then painting.

2. Romeo & Juliet, two adorable gaited Paso Fino horses. They are now featured in their own children’s book, “Home Sweet Home with Romeo & Juliet“.
3. and now DaVinci, the new paint horse art student!

Horse Videos