Marketing online is essential to the health of your business, whether you specialize in the equine industry or elsewhere. Nowadays, everyone turns to their smartphone to ‘Google’ business information, and if you don’t have a strong presence online, you, unfortunately, may be overlooked.
Through years of digital marketing experience, Top Line Media Team has compiled a list of our top ten ways to develop your brand online in order to encourage new and repeat business. Below, you’ll find our tips to improve your equine business (or any business) online:
10 Tips to Improve Your Equine Business Online
- Get to know your audience. Audience research is an essential part of building your online image, as you want to be sure you’re targeting the correct demographic for your business. Utilizing tools such as Google Analytics can help you determine who is viewing your website, and you will be able to target this group via digital marketing.
- Build a strong brand presence. Digital marketing is a visual game. Be sure your logo is professional and portrays your brand well, and keep your color scheme, images, and verbiage in line with your brand at all times online. Make the first impression a lasting one.
- Utilize video. A video for marketing is a trend that is only growing. Creating short video clips (10 20 seconds) will help improve audience interest. Be sure the videos are visually pleasing and that they don’t run longer than 30 seconds, as you have a limited amount of time to hold the interest of your audience.
- Write a blog. You don’t have to go into lengthy detail with your blog. Think of it as writing expanded social media posts. Creating a blog about your business and your interests will help improve your SEO (search engine optimization).
- Speaking of SEO… Optimize your website. Using a simple plugin tool such as Yoast for your WordPress site will only help you improve your search rankings. (hint: no clue what Yoast is? Top Line Media Team can help!)
- Study your competitors. Find a business that is doing what you want to be doing successfully and see how they are marketing. No use in reinventing the wheel completely – just add your own creative flair.
- Network. Since we’re talking digital here, find ways to network online. LinkedIn is a great platform for this – share your blog posts there and start conversations with others in your field. You never know what contacts you’ll make.
- Stay fresh. Audiences nowadays want up-to-the-minute content. Content that’s even a week old may be considered stale. Stay on top of your social media channels by crafting useful posts that engage your readers.
- Ask for reviews. Your target demographic is searching for you online, and one of the best ways to be found is audience reviews. Think about it – don’t you look for the 5-star rating when researching new businesses? We do too.
- Most importantly – build trust. You want repeat customers. The only way to build your solid fanbase is to build trust with your audience. Stay transparent, respond to comments and questions and be professional.
The equine marketing specialists at Top Line Media Team can help you grow your business online. We specialize in digital marketing, web design, graphic design, content creation and more. Visit us online at www.toplinemediateam.com, or give us a call at 804.918.4981.
Daina Behe holds a Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University as well as a certificate in User Experience Design, and is well versed in many areas of digital marketing and design. Having been involved in the horse industry for years, she specializes in equine marketing as it brings her passions together. While not working behind a computer, you can find her training her Moriesian horse in the Western Dressage discipline, or teaching riding lessons to young equestrians.
Daina Behe holds a Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University as well as a certificate in User Experience Design, and is well versed in many areas of digital marketing and design. Having been involved in the horse industry for years, she specializes in equine marketing as it brings her passions together. While not working behind a computer, you can find her training her Moriesian horse in the Western Dressage discipline, or teaching riding lessons to young equestrians.