BUILDING YOUR MARKETING PLAN: STEP 2 CREATING YOUR BUSINESS IMAGE AND FOCUSING ON THE FUTURE1/29/2016  By: Carol M. Aldridge | Equine Office Solutions The first step in building a marketing plan for any equine business is to define your target market. Our previous article defines what a target market is, how to determine yours, and understanding their needs and wants. Once you have accomplished this, you’ll be well on your way, and can turn your focus toward market analysis and establishing your value proposition. BASIC MARKET ANALYSIS Performing even a simple market analysis will help you become acquainted with your current audience and your competition. It will help you create a value proposition, produce strong and attainable goals, and help determine a clear focus for your specific marketing campaigns. 1. Review past sales & business activity: first, review sales for the past two years. How did your customers find you? What did they buy? What needs did you fill? What are their demographics? The answers to these questions will provide valuable information that will help shape your future marketing focus. 2. Research your competition: Determine who your competitors are. Visit their websites, follow them on social media, and subscribe to their newsletters to keep informed on what they are doing to stay competitive in the market. How do they differ from you? How are your businesses the same? Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of both. 3. Poll your customers: Send a brief poll out to your current and past customers to help shed light on what you are doing right and where you may have room for improvements or enhancements. What value have they found in your products or services? What would they like to see you offer in the future? How did they find you? You can even go a step further and invite them to write a recommendation for publication on your website. YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION Once you have completed a basic market analysis, you are ready to shape your value proposition. A strong value proposition will differentiate you from your competition and give you a significant competitive edge. Finding clear ways of being unique and positioning yourself as a visible expert in the market will help attract your target audience. Ask yourself: “What are the problems I solve and the results I enable?” - Define the problem(s) you are looking to solve - Evaluate whether your offer is unique and compelling - Measure the ease of which the customer can find and use your offerings - Build your Value Proposition Tag Line: Consider developing a tag line to communicate your value proposition in about 10 words or less. ESTABLISHING YOUR MARKETING GOALS One of your main goals should always be to draw interested prospects to your website where they can access your contact information, learn more about your business, your unique value proposition and your products and services, and perhaps even read recommendations from customers and colleagues. Additionally, setting a series of long and short term goals will help you maintain a specific focus, and will allow you to measure the success of your marketing efforts. Some items to consider: -craft very specific goals, as they lead to much greater success than general goals -take care to assure your goals are realistic, attainable and measurable -set long-term goals first and then short-term second (step-by-step to support long-term goals) Suggested Marketing Goal Categories: 1. Sales/ Income 2. Subscribers 3. Web Traffic 4. Social Media Page Likes & Post Interactions 5. New Customers 6. Prospects 7. Email Marketing Campaign Opens/Clicks 8. Collaborative Partnerships 9. Media Coverage 10. Blog Comments In conclusion, inbound marketing and reaching out to your targeted audience are most successful when there’s a plan in place and steps have been taken to establish a clear and focused presentation and realistic goals. Watch for future articles in this series, where we will explore enhanced marketing strategies and measuring the success of your marketing efforts. RESOURCES: Defining Your Competitive Edge: http://www.marsdd.com/mars-library/defining-your-competitive-edge/ How to never run out of customers again http://www.progressivebusinesssolutions.net/smart-business---blog/how-to-never-run-out-of-customers-again Building a compelling value proposition http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelskok/2013/06/14/4-steps-to-building-a-compelling-value-proposition/ Setting Business Goals: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/setting-business-goals.html Steps to Successful Business Goals: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alanhall/2012/12/08/6-steps-to-insanely-successful-business-goals-for-2013/
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Here are some tips to help you define your target market: ANALYZE YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMER BASE Take note of who is already buying from you. What characteristics do they have in common? Which customers bring in the most business? What do they value most about your business? You may even choose to present a brief survey to your customers in an effort in an effort to gain a better understanding of their needs. RESEARCH YOUR COMPETITION Your competition may be apparent or you may need to search for them. Whatever it takes, understanding who they are, how they are reaching their audience, what they have to offer will be extremely helpful in shaping a clear picture of your general audience. DEFINE THE BENEFITS OF YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Write out a list of the products and services you provide. Then list the needs each of these fulfill. Next make a list people who have a need that your benefits fulfill. DETERMINE SPECIFIC DEMOGRAPHICS TO TARGET The previous three tips should give you a fairly clear image of your ideal customer. Now, let’s look at specifics. What demographics do they have in common? Some general demographics to determine include: Age, Location, Gender, Income level, Education level, Marital or family status, Occupation, Ethnic background. UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE Your target audience should now be coming into focus. For example, let’s say you are targeting women over 40 in the Real Estate business with an income of $80,000 or more. Now you can begin to expand their profile beyond demographics to their interests and lifestyle. Perhaps they enjoy traveling; you could consider advertising in a high-end travel magazine. Or if they are interested in the arts, you could begin networking in a LinkedIn group focused on the opera. In essence, be present in the places chosen by your target market is so they can find you. EVALUATE YOUR DECISION Finally, take a look at the target market you’ve chosen and ask: Are there enough people to sell to? Can they afford what I am offering? Am I truly meeting their needs? How can I best reach them with my message? Remember, you can have more than one target market. Defining your audience is a bit of work, but the benefits will be worth your while. You will save time and money and receive a better return when you direct your message specifically to each niche.
If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do so HERE. You’ll also receive our Zero-Budget Marketing Plan For Equine Business Owners AND all of the replays to the 2015 Movers & Shakers of the Horse World Series!
Here are some quick tips to help you utilize your customer base more effectively: GET TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS
TARGET YOUR MESSAGES Segment your contact list, and then target your marketing campaigns directly to each group. They will feel you 'know' them and have a sense for who they are and what they want. This grows trust and loyalty. The more you focus your message on each specific audience, the greater your return will be. Let your messages 'speak' to them. THE BENEFITS THAT LOYAL CUSTOMERS CAN PROVIDE
WAYS TO REWARD YOUR CUSTOMERS
FOLLOW-UP PERSONALLY Add your most significant contacts and customers to a CRM program such as Insightly, Highrise, Contactually or Sales Force. Be sure the program integrates well with your email system to track correspondence. Research their business and enter as much information as possible. This will give you an immediate overview of that client. This information coupled with their account history will provide a complete customer profile for reference and relationship building. Then schedule follow-up reminders. Drop them a personal note or email with helpful information, a happy birthday wish or just to check in. They will remember you and appreciate your extra effort. These management practices may take some extra effort, but they will pay off exponentially in the long run. In the future, when your customers are in need of your products and services, or their friends and colleagues ask for a recommendation, your business will be top of mind. And the experts all agree that word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising.
 As an equine business owner, you wear many hats. But no matter how organized and hard-working you are, your approach to marketing can ultimately make or break your business. Consider these top 4 marketing strategies to help you gain an advantage in the equine industry’s competitive business environment: A PROFESSIONAL QUALITY WEBSITE Your website is your business’s face to the world. These features will help assure that you are continually presented to your target audience in a positive and inviting manner. Design - A clean layout & easy navigation invite your readers in and encourage them to explore your site while learning more about all your business has to offer. Branding - Consistent branding throughout your website, and all other marketing materials creates instant recognition. Lead Qualifying - Include adequate information about your business/products/services to assure your visitors can easily determine that you have what they are looking for. Blog Component - Integrated blogging capability is highly recommended as a key component of your website to assure successful content marketing and effective SEO. LIST BUILDING Capturing the email addresses of your target audience will allow you to stay in direct contact, providing future offers and information. Lead Capture - Include a dedicated landing page on your website that incorporates a subscriber opt-in form. Subscriber Incentive - Offer a free report or ebook containing valuable information for your prospective customers. Email Marketing - Integrating your lead capture system with an email marketing system such as Constant Contact or Mailchimp, will help automate the entire process. Just set-it all up once and let the system do the work for you! CONTENT MARKETING The content you publish and share with your audience and subscribers are what keeps this whole system in motion. It draws in new customers and keeps your audience interested. Blogging - Draw traffic to your site and enhance your SEO by consistently publishing content rich blog posts. Email Marketing - Email your subscribers regularly with links to your blog posts, and include inviting offers and other valuable content. LinkedIn's Publishing Platform - In my opinion, this amazing promotional tool has not received nearly the recognition it deserves. Each post published there is categorized and made available to ALL LinkedIn members. Content Curation - Other reputable sites such as Reddit or EzineArticles will publish your content for free, producing valuable backlinks to your website. News Releases - Publishing professional news releases on a regular basis can be the single most effective way to get your name out to your potential market. It’s best to determine several key media outlets and develop a working relationship with each, so they recognize and take note of your news when it is received. NETWORKING Networking is the #1 marketing strategy for any successful business. It is a daily activity whether we choose to recognize it or not. Approach every business contact as an exercise in relationship building to ultimately grow your business beyond any other standard marketing tactic. Determine where your target market is, then become a visible participant there. Groups - Join online networking groups dedicated to your niche market, and join in the conversations with supportive replies and helpful, informative posts. Influencers - Watch and learn to determine who the most influential professionals are in your field, and then introduce yourself. Events - Meeting other professionals in person is the most powerful way to grow your business relationships. Look for local equine seminars, Horse Council events, shows and other equine events on your area. Then attend with a professional, friendly attitude (never with the intention to “sell”) and be sure to bring lots of business cards! CRM - A comprehensive CRM (contact relationship management) system will take your networking from average to supercharged! The most valuable aspect of a quality CRM system is its ability to streamline and strengthen your follow-up efforts. Because without follow-up, networking and relationship-building efforts are practically meaningless. Enter each new person that you wish to stay in touch with, then assign one or more “tags” for sorting and filtering purposes. Most systems will also automatically integrate with your email creating an ongoing record of your correspondence with each contact. You can also schedule email or text reminders to help keep you on track. Incorporating these key systems & strategies in your basic marketing plan will allow you to grow and maintain an increasingly successful equine business. Photo by Evgeni Dinev at freedigitalphotos.net
 Hey Folks - If you haven't already heard, I wanted to let everyone know that the popular series, Movers and Shakers of the Horse World, is back! Randi Thompson and I are working together on this exciting production, and the first episode will air on G+ this Tuesday, Feb 17th at 8pm ET. We'll be speaking with Liv Gude of Professional Equine Grooms. JOIN US THERE: How do you find us? All you need to do is go to the Movers and Shakers of the Horse World Hangout at this link: https://plus.google.com/events/ceql3i13lu8pea4b1bre66f7mhg. You can also email me with your request to attend and we will send you the invitation link. You do not need to join Google+ to participate. Future episodes of the Movers and Shakers of the Horse World include: Feb 17th Liv Gude of Professional Equine Grooms March 10th Debi Metcalfe of Stolen Horse International, Inc. aka NetPosse April 14th Wayne L. Williams of Speaking of Horses TV May 12th Fran Jurga of HoofCare.com June 9th Christy Lanwehr, CEO of the Certified Horsemanship Association July 14th Glen the Geek of Horses in the Morning There will be a unique link for each episode so stay tuned. We hope to see you there!  With the Holiday Season upon us, we're all so busy that it's often difficult to find the time to think about growing our businesses. That's why I'm sharing this quick and insightful article with you this month. Mark my words - you'll want to bookmark it and refer back again and again! If you're in business for yourself, then you're not only a business owner, you're a salesperson too! For some of us that's not always an easy position to be in. This article by Geoffrey James outlines the features of a successful follow-up email proposal that's sure to win the business of your prospective clients. "The 1 Email That Every Salesperson Must Master"  Carol Aldridge is an Administrative Consultant and Support Specialist serving the equine industry for over 25 years. Her clients across the United States and Canada enjoy customized business support services designed to relieve workload pressure, streamline office procedures and maximize marketing results. Learn more at www.EquineOfficeSolutions.com.
If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do so HERE. You’ll also receive our Zero-Budget Marketing Plan For Equine Business Owners. And please, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas by commenting below - together we can all help each other succeed!  In our recent article on driving quality traffic to your website, we discussed how to set-up an integrated blogging, email marketing and lead capture system that works together to grow your list of subscribers. Now, you’ve written a fantastic article, targeted the content to your specific audience within the equine industry, posted it on your website’s blog and sent it to your subscribers, so your job is done, right? Sorry. The most important work is just ahead. The level of promotion that you provide for your content will determine the amount of traffic that it will drive to your website. Before you begin, be sure you have a compelling title, an eye-catching lead image and adequate keywords throughout the title and body of the article. Then add a resource box at the bottom that includes a photo or logo, information about you as the author, your business and include your contact information. You might even consider including a link to your subscriber landing page. Next, gather the following so that you can easily copy and paste each as needed:
SHARE A LINK ON THE MAIN SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS Post a link to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter accounts. SHARE IN EQUINE SPECIFIC SOCIAL MEDIA GROUPS This is where your audience spends time socializing. Be aware of the group’s policies. Many do not appreciate direct promotion. POST THE ARTICLE TO LINKEDIN’S PUBLISHING PLATFORM Any posts you publish on LinkedIn are displayed near the top of your profile. Well received posts have the power to grow your followers, subscribers, profile views and leads. To share on LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform, just go to your home page and look for the pencil icon where you would normally share a new post. Then copy and past your article there. Be sure all links are active and remember to include your lead image and resource box. SHARE ON PINTEREST Your audience is already on Pinterest, searching for all kinds of equine related products and information. That’s why it’s always beneficial to share all kinds of images there, especially rich pins that will lead them directly back to your website. Try it and watch your traffic grow. PROMOTE ON SLIDESHARE Turn the article’s key points into a series of visually appealing slides. Especially in this era of shortened attention spans, people rarely take the time to read lengthy text. Therefore, it helps to use bullets, keywords and phrases to get your message across. POST TO REDDIT, SCOOP.IT, DIGG AND OTHER These sites are where people go to research topics and generally scan for interesting content. Using the right keywords will help your article be found. DISTRIBUTE A PRESS RELEASE Every business wants the attention of the media, and most media publications and websites are hungry for new content. Why not make it easy for them by providing an enticing, descriptive notice about your new content? EMAIL THE SOURCES OF THE LINKS YOU’VE USED Invite them to read, share and link to the content as well. They will most likely be more than happy to spread the word that they’ve been mentioned. SHARE WITH KEY EQUINE INDUSTRY INFLUENCERS Equine professionals with a large following can help spread your content far and wide! This all doesn’t have to happen at one time. (Whew, that’s a relief!) In fact, spreading your promotion out will give your content a longer lifespan. I recommend, working diligently, one platform at a time to assure you’ve thoroughly promoted the content before moving on to the next platform. Be sure to vary the introduction a bit for each promotion so your audience isn’t seeing the same post over and over again. If you take the time to do this with each article and blog post, your website’s SEO rankings will steadily increase, as will the traffic to your site. Practicing these key, fundamental strategies of successful inbound marketing will consistently draw qualified, targeted leads and prospective customers to your equine business.  Carol Aldridge is an Administrative Consultant and Support Specialist serving the equine industry for over 25 years. Her clients across the United States and Canada enjoy customized business support services designed to relieve workload pressure, streamline office procedures and maximize marketing results. Learn more at www.EquineOfficeSolutions.com.
If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do so HERE. You’ll also receive our Zero-Budget Marketing Plan For Equine Business Owners. And please, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas by commenting below - we can all help each other succeed! By: Lisa Derby Oden, Blue Ribbon Consulting, LDO, LLC - Guest Blogger  So many equipreneurs hang their shingle offering product/service X because it is their passion and what they know how to do. They build it and hope they will come. And when they don’t come they are baffled. What’s really needed is a more objective view FROM THE TARGET MARKET'S SHOES! Then you are prepared to build a product/service that has market demand. It is this intersection of target market needs and your core competency that will yield the greatest success. Does this sound familiar: I’m a breeder and have top-quality foals. The breeding is going just fine. Now what I need to know is – how do I sell the babies? OR I have a beautiful new facility and am finding it very difficult, practically impossible, to attain clients, despite advertising. What should I do? OR We designed and built our horse farm and have been operating for almost a year now. I have an equine science degree, but have spent many years in the corporate world. We did a business plan and want to accept all disciplines. We have a head instructor that is well respected in the area. We aren’t yet profitable. We don’t know if we should be niche oriented or if we can be broad-based. We’ve done very little advertising – it is SO expensive! In many ways we feel like we are the best kept secret in the region. We need marketing help! These are real questions asked by real horse businesses. Horse businesses come in a variety of sizes and shapes. No matter which kind or what size the business, marketing is the single largest and on-going function that you will deal with. As you can see from these questions, horse business owners may be well-educated and skilled in many areas of their business, yet marketing can remain a black-hole mystery. There are several steps you can take to develop a successful marketing plan. Step One: Learn more and more and more about your prospects and customers. The more you know about your prospects, the better you can communicate with them about the benefits of what you offer. Being able to “package” your services of products in a way that connects with the potential purchaser is critical. This means stepping out of your role as supplier, and getting into the shoes of the buyer. Remember, the customer is buying a solution to a problem of some kind. Make sure you convey what it is you are solving, how you are able to help or what need you are filling. This will catch their eye first. Step Two: Examine your assumptions. When you started your horse business, what were your thoughts and ideas, and what were they based on? Did you prepare a written business plan? Though this may sound tedious, it does walk you through the valuable process of investigating key management and marketing issues. If you find a plan outline, and then decide you don’t need to do this, you are only kidding yourself. You will find that many of the problems that plague you later on are a result of not having done adequate research initially. From the opening scenarios, these horse business owners made fundamental assumptions that are faulty. The breeder doesn’t understand that because he thinks the foals are the cream of the crop doesn’t mean that a prospective customer does. The assumption here was that this quality would be conveyed magically to prospects, whoever and wherever they may be, resulting in babies selling right away. The new boarding facility is discovering that the physical set-up alone is not enough to build business. The assumption here falls into the “build it and they will come” myth, whoever “they” are. The lesson stable has prepared a business plan, but one that reflects what they are hoping for, not one that reflects reality. One assumption here is that marketing is not really necessary as an expense in the operating budget. When it comes to marketing and building your horse business, it is imperative that you spend some time exploring your assumptions in the beginning. What you learn by doing this may reshape your business so that it takes a direct path to success rather than winding its way around many dead ends. Step Three: Develop objectives and goals. You won’t get where you want to go if you don’t know where that is. Sit down and think about where you want to be three years from now. Once you have that in mind, break that down into the objectives that will enable you to reach those goals. By working with your goals in mind first, you will be able work backwards in order to establish what you want to accomplish this year. Then you can take a look at what you need to do for this year – what programs to offer, what group of people to contact, and how you will let your target audience know what you have to offer. Step Four: Define your market area. Where will your customers come from - your town, surrounding towns, county, state, or a larger region of the US? Is your market area the same for all aspects of your horse business? Think about this, get out a map for a visual reference, and then brainstorm all the different ways you can reach your target market in these areas. Assign a cost to the variety of methods you might use and think strategically about what method or combination of methods will give your business or offering the best exposure. A final few marketing reminders are:
 Lisa Derby Oden has been providing business development, marketing, and nonprofit consulting services to the horse industry since 1995. Oden is author of "Growing Your Horse Business" and "Bang for Your Buck: Making $ense of Marketing for Your Horse Business." Prior to her consulting work, Lisa has a lifetime with horses, as owner, instructor, trainer, competitor and stable owner. Lisa has been honored with regional and national awards for her work in the industry. She can be reached at: (603) 878-1694; email at Lisa@blueribbonconsulting.com; or visit her website at www.blueribbonconsulting.com.
By: Carol M. Aldridge As a business owner, some of your top marketing priorities should include growing your audience and increasing your visibility. Although there are several ways to go about this, these three key strategies, work hand-in-hand: Blogging, Email Marketing, and Lead Capture Systems
- Write quality content that appeals to your audience and addresses their needs. - Edit, Edit, Edit. Then proofread and edit again. Whenever possible, have another qualified professional edit your text as well. - Use compelling images to grab your readers’ attention. - Be sure to include a powerful title. Our friends at CopyBlogger have written a comprehensive series that will be sure to help you craft compelling headline titles. - Include social media share buttons on each post. - Include a resource box at the end of each post with more info about your business and a link to your opt-in landing page. - Format your paragraphs for quick reading, including bold subheadings and bullet points. - Use quality keywords to maximize SEO. - Whenever possible, link to other pages and blog posts on your website. Be sure all links are set to open in a new tab or window. Well, that’s a good start, but I have so much more information to share with you. Soon we’ll take a look at several proven ways to promote your content beyond your subscribers’ inbox, driving even more traffic to your website…so stay tuned. Carol Aldridge is an Administrative Consultant and Support Specialist serving the equine industry for over 25 years. Her clients across the United States enjoy customized administrative services designed to relieve workload pressure, streamline office procedures and maximize marketing results. Learn more at www.EquineOfficeSolutions.com.
If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do so HERE. You’ll also receive our Zero-Budget Marketing Plan For Equine Business Owners. And please, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas by emailing me or commenting below - we can all help each other succeed! Equine Office Solutions Partners with Randi Thompson of "How To Market Your Horse Business"8/1/2014  We're so pleased to welcome Randi Thompson of How To Market Your Horse Business as a new collaborative partner with Equine Office Solutions. Randi has been a trusted colleague for several years, and we're thrilled to have this opportunity to come together to form a unique, comprehensive marketing resource designed to meet the needs of today's equine industry. READ MORE
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