Have you been trying to grow or expand your equestrian business? The missing ingredient might be that you haven’t done the work to build a trusted brand in the equine industry. Here’s how.
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!
In the world of marketing your horse business online, sometimes it seems easy to just create a product and sell it. That’s just not the case.
For the most part, you can’t just show up and start selling an online membership or online course or video library and expect people to buy right out the gate.
If you want to build a sustainable business in the equine industry, you must first build a trusted brand.
Even if you don’t have online offering aspirations, if you want to host clinics and have people come to your facility, or you want to be invited to travel, speak and teach— each of those things requires you to build a trusted brand.
So, how do you do that?
5 Keys to Building a Trusted Brand as an Equestrian Entrepreneur
Quality
Quality is a subjective term. Define what it means for your business.
What does quality mean to you?
At the bare minimum, quality should mean you do what you say you’re going to do
Quality means your customers and clients are receiving what they were promised.
Of course, there are levels of quality. And that’s what I mean by subjectivity. You need to decide for your own equestrian brand what level of quality you will provide.
Yes, higher quality often demand a higher price. But you cannot just say you are high-quality and not provide a high-quality experience.
When you deliver on what you have promised, and not just meet but exceed the expectation of the quality that will be received, then you will build a trusted brand..
Consistency.
Without consistency, it is impossible to build trust.
That is true for pretty much anything.
Consider your favorite restaurant. One of the reasons it’s your favorite is because you can count on them to make your favorite meal taste the same every time.
They are consistent.
Or, consider your favorite clients and customers. The characteristics that you love most about them show up on a consistent basis. You know what to expect.
The same is true for your equestrian brand. You need to show up consistently—on a regular basis over a lengthy amount of time—in order to build a trusted equestrian brand.
What does that look like on a practical level?
You can consistently provide the high level of service we just talked about
Whether you are having a bad day or not, you can consistently show up with kindness and respect and your conversations.
If you are a horse trainer, then you consistently communicate with your clients and customers, and not just haphazardly
This also applies to your marketing. Building a brand is very connected to how you market your horse business.
If you are creating content to build trust, show up consistently. Social media marketing? You guessed it, be consistent. Planning to send an email newsletter? Don’t just start out of the gate strong—be consistent in how you show up.
Consistency is how you build trust over time.
Important reminder: consistent does not mean you have to post on social media two times a day in order to build trust with your audience.
Instead, it means that you don’t show up two times a day, five days in a row, and then no one on social media hears from you again for another three months.
That’s why with my Take the Reins coaching clients, we create a schedule that suits their goals and capacity given the current state of their business, personal, and family life.
As an entrepreneur, it’s time that we stop ignoring the fact that your personal life and your family life are intertwined with your horse business. Acknowledge it, and plan around it.
Clarity
If it is not clear what you do and who you’re for, then who is it you’re asking to trust you?
You need to know your audience. And, you need to be clear on your messaging.
From there, you can share stories and testimonials that back up your claims.
But, if you don’t have clarity first, then everything else will be muddled. Instaed of trust, you get confusion.
This is why we spend the bulk of our first two calls in Take the Reins coaching focusing on this element of clarifying your audience and your messaging. It truly does feed everything else.
Most often, my clients come to me saying they don’t know how to show up on social media or that their website and email marketing need help. And those things are usually true.
But most people don’t quickly identify that what’s really keeping them stuck is that they have not gotten specific and cyrstal clear in their messaging. Once we do that, the floodgates are wide open for social media, content ideas, email newsletter, ideas, and website copy that is going to convert their audience into custom
It always starts with clarity.
And that clear messaging is going to help you build trust with the people that are right for you.
Community
If no one is talking about you or your horse business, do you really have a trusted brand?
A trusted brand is much more than your logo, website and messaging. While those things are important pieces of building your equestrian brand, there is another element that is often forgotten in marketing strategy—the people you serve.
The most trusted brands understand the importance of building a community around what they provide.
And yet, you do not need to be an international name or brand in order to build a community around what you do.
As an everyday example, I have a coaching client who has a show barn. Her supportive barn community is one of the reasons that people stick around. She has intentionally built a community around her program that’s the antithesis of what many people experience. And, it is one of the reasons that her clients and customers trust her as a brand.
[For more on building community, listen to Episode 105: How to Build A Strong Community With Shawna Karrasch and Jessie Hillegas.]
Coaching
You might be thinking, “Of course you’ll say that Denise. You are a marketing coach.”
And I get that, but hear me out.
There’s a reason Olympic level athletes have coaches. There’s a reason amateur riders like myself have coaches, too.
There is immeasurable value in asking a trusted expert to coach you as an objective third party who sees things it is impossible for you to see from the saddle—or, from the driver’s seat of your horse business.
In my own business, the times that I have grown, the most is when I invested in a coach to meet with me and challenge me in the best ways. Coaches have called out the areas where I wasn’t showing up with clarity in my own marketing and helped me clean up my service offerings so that I could be clear to my audience about what I do and the service I provide.
Without a coach to guide you through the process of getting these keys in place for your horse business, it can be hard to build a trusted brand.
Note: Coaching is very different from consulting. Consultants typically come in and tell you what to do, then you’re left to figure out how to do it.
A good marketing coach is not just giving a list of what you should do to fix your marketing. Instead, you get the how, including resources and tools to make it happen. Not only that, but you get someone who is showing up right there with you, cheering you on as you take action.
That’s one of my favorite parts of coaching equestrian entrepreneurs. When I meet with my coaching clients, I am all in for them. They see me as a team member because I’m truly invested in the success of their business.
Of course, you'll want to listen to the full episode to dig into each of the insights shared and discover how you can apply each one in your horse business!
Links Mentioned In This Episode
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