Have you been treating your website like a basic necessity or info-holding place? If your website isn’t bringing in leads for your horse business, it should be. Learn what’s missing and how you can fix it so your website actually works for you 24/7.
Welcome to the show notes! Remember, this is a brief summary from the How to Market Your Horse Business podcast. You'll want to listen to the entire episode for all the good stuff!
Do you have some website traffic but still aren’t getting new leads?
Or, maybe your website is old and outdated but you’ve been on the fence, trying to decide if you should even invest in it?
Your website shouldn’t just be a place to put a few pictures, list your services, and then give a contact form hoping the right people will get in touch.
Your equestrian website should filter and qualify leads for your horse business.
It should provide information that keeps people from wasting your time contacting you with unnecessary questions and make the steps to working with you very clear— if they are a right fit.
The problem is your mindset around your website has been, “It’s a necessity in business but that’s about it.”
It’s time to think of your website as an employee and understand the potential that’s there when you invest in it.
How do you do that?
5 Ways to Get Your Website to do the Heavy Lifting to Build Your Equestrian Business
* If I’m looking at your website, these are the things I’m looking for to see if you’re attracting the right people AND turning them into customers. *
1. Use customer-centered copy.
Your website visitors are “me-centered.” They want to know what you're going to do for them. So, when you write the words for your website, stop and think about your potential customers.
Talk to and about them. Address their problems as it relates to your services and how you're going to help solve those problems. And make it conversational.
Your website is not created just to promote you—it exists to connect you with your potential customer.
Copy is how you build that connection
2. Use images and/or videos on your website that represent your specialty OR the level of experience you provide. We all know pictures are worth a thousand words. So, use pictures on your website that show what you'll do for your website visitors. Ideally, they'll see the pictures and say, "Yes, that's what I want!"
Remember, the quality of your pictures matters. So, consider investing in one to two hours with a professional photographer. Don't worry, there are lots of places you'll be able to use your new high-quality photos!
The pictures on your website should be a clear picture of the quality people can expect when they do business with you.
3. Build your email list with at least one valuable lead magnet – something they will give their email address in exchange for.
If your website is not helping you to build a list of qualified leads, then it’s not really doing its full job. That’s where lead magnets come in.
Here are just a few that my past Take the Reins coaching clients have created for their audience:
5 Surefire Signs Your Equine Photography Business Is Ready for In-Person Sales (Cara Taylor Swift, Fast Horse Photography)
The Equestrian Professional’s Guide to Leveraging Editorial Illustration to Educate Your Audience (Susan DeFelice, Susan DeFelice Equestrian Design & Illustrations)
Product Pattern Playbook: A Free Comprehensive Guide to Choosing the Perfect Pattern for Your Equestrian Products (Susan DeFelice, Susan DeFelice Equestrian Design & Illustrations)
If you want to check out my current lead magnets, check out the free resources in my Stormlily Shop right here.
4. Give enough information on your website to make a decision.
If you don’t want tire kickers, then anticipate their questions and answer them on the website in an organized way. Use your website copy to give a clear indication on your website of what’s included in your packages, what’s possible, what’s not possible, etc.
Make it easy to move around and find the information. Don’t hide everything in a long FAQ section they’ll never read.
5. Clear instead of cute.
Your website visitor should be able to quickly and easily identify what you do and who you serve.
Donald Miller calls it the “grunt test.” Don’t be so cute or clever with your words that people can’t understand. Also, be aware of jargon that causes confusion. Write and speak in terms your audience would use.
Notice one thread woven through each of these 5 things you can do to make sure your website is doing the heavy lifting: Clarity on your audience, their problem and your promise.
Without clarity, even the most beautiful website will fall flat in turning your audience into your customers.
That’s why we spend the first session in Take the Reins, my 1:1 coaching program, focusing on your audience and messaging – getting rid of confusion and getting really clear so you know who you’re for and how to speak to them
What is Take the Reins?
Take the Reins is a personalized 1:1 coaching program for equestrian entrepreneurs who want to create a cohesive social media, website, and email marketing strategy in just 3 months.
If you’re an equestrian entrepreneur who has a vision for your business—you know where you want to go, you just need a leg up to get your marketing in line with your goals—Take the Reins was designed to help you get there.
Of course, you'll want to listen to the full episode to dig into each of the insights I shared and discover how you can apply each one in your horse business!
Links Mentioned In This Episode
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