Equine Marketing Series: Everything you should know about promoting your business on social media.

If you've scrolled through our equestrian portfolio already, you'll know that we love all things equine! We've worked with and been a part of equestrian businesses for many years and understand the horse-loving consumers wants and needs.

We're partnered with Rogue marketing to put forward our top tips for helping your business flourish. We're looking forward to you joining us in our blog series where we'll cover everything from websites, shows and literature to email marketing. We've even got some exciting interviews with some horsey social media powerhouses, giving you their top tips on what it takes to make it!

Social Media

Social media is a fantastic FREE tool for all types of businesses, it's a great platform to interact with your current and potential customers and clients. Figuring out if you want to be relatable or aspirational is a good start for building your brand and either way, images and videos are guaranteed to get you more views, clicks and ultimately conversions from your social channels.

Imagery is crucial when you're trying to convey important messages about your products and services "When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later." (HubSpot).

So make sure you are capturing plenty and keeping your feeds up to date with the latest news, offers and products/services.

Gaining A Following

Lots of followers can be great, the larger the audience the more sales right? Not entirely.

Social media has come full circle, as much as many brands work with big influencers with hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers. Many brands are now focussing on much smaller influencers with the 'right' followers.

This is something to keep in mind when building your own platforms and following. Don't be too hung up on how many, but WHO is following you. Who it is you're trying to target, why you want to connect with them and how you can achieve this.

Most importantly of all, CONSISTENCY is king. Post regularly, mix up your content with photos, videos, giveaways and updates, utilise what you have and work up from there. Nail this and the followers will, well follow!

Photo by Bedbible

Content

But what should I post?

Social media works to promote every type of business. Period.

Sometimes it takes a little creativity, but you can always produce content to promote and express what it is your business has to offer. We have stacks of content specific post and campaign ideas for every type of equine business, so get in touch if you're ever feeling stuck. Here are some great resources you can use to help get your ideas started:

• Sprout Social

• CoSchedule

• Hootsuite

Make sure to stay ahead of your calendar, plan out any holidays, events, shows and product launches that you can plan backwards from. If you're selling products be sure to have Black Friday in the calendar, the upcoming show season and major holidays that'll affect what products your customers are focused on at that given time period.

A huge factor for equestrians, especially in the UK is the weather - is there an unexpected heatwave? Market your fly masks, spray, sun sheets and garlic supplements. If we're expecting a washout Spring and you offer indoor arena hire - get in on your social media, create an offer, refer a friend, add an indoor event. Better still, if we've got the ideal ground and fair weather - promote your horsebox hire business whilst riders are looking to get in their cross country training or stretch their neddies legs at the beach!

Be sure to capture as many images and videos as you can for promotion, even encourage your customers to submit them if you are short on time. Competitions are a great way to get this process started and give you plenty of content to keep your feed busy whilst you are.

Photographers and videographers are a brilliant way to give your social media a professional touch. At MHG we can offer packages for optimised social images (ensuring they are the right size and quality) to help you get maximum reach.

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

The likes of Facebook are a great way to gather customer feedback and showcase the value of your services with reviews. If you're new to social media but have been in business a while, reach out to all your previous customers and ask them if they'd help you with a testimonial or better still offer an incentive with a prize for one lucky reviewer or even a discount for the next time they shop with/use you.

Once you have reviews, make sure you make the most of them! Add them to a nice image and you have a great new eye-catching post. Graphics like this work well across every social platform, you can even add them to your Facebook and Instagram stories too.

Content Management

Social media has certainly become big business and if you aren't willing to put in the work, you won't reap the full benefits it has to offer. That being said, there are many tools out there to help with management and scheduling - even creating one post for multiple platforms at the same time. Better still, there are many FREE options if you know the right places to look...

• Hootsuite is a great scheduling tool that has a free option to sign up 3 social media profiles. It is simple to use and helps cut out lost time logging in and out of every platform and posting in so many different places.

• Asana is a brilliant way to digitally plan your content and even assign tasks to other members of your team. This really helps when you are planning for the year ahead, important holidays, company events, shows and product/service launches.

Alternatively, if you're still struggling for time/ideas you can always work with a marketing/PR company. Rogue Marketing offers social media management packages and one-off posts that are both affordable and high quality. Take your time to find the right fit for you and your business needs.

We'll be continuing the series, so make sure you're following us on social media to make sure you don't miss our next blog!

If you have any questions, would like support with your marketing or you're in need of our photography services, please feel free to get in touch megan@mhgphotography.co.uk.