Equestrian Entrepreneur Q&A: India Wilkinson Answers Your Questions (September Issue)

Question:

What strategies or approaches have you found most effective for growing your business’s social media followers and reach?

- (Anonymous)

India’s Answer:

Great question! I think it’s important for anyone working on growing their social media to remember that literally everyone starts at 0. It’s hard to imagine when you see pages that have thousands of followers – but they started at 0 just like you. With my company, Mane Street Market, I had a very intentional strategy from day 1 – I knew that I wanted organic growth from real equestrians. In 4 years, we have grown from 0 followers to almost 15,000. I never had any reel or post go viral, I have never seen a huge spike in growth, and I’ve never done paid ads. It’s been steady from the beginning because I am consistent in my posts and social media engagement, and I am truly grateful for my followers, and I make sure they know how much I appreciate them.

I listen to a lot of marketing podcasts and have learned a lot about social media growth from experts. Sometimes it’s just a snip-it from an hour-long podcast that will give me an idea of how to increase engagement or something of that nature. My favorite podcasts on those subjects are, “Marketing Millennials,” “Build Your Tribe” “Social Media Marketing” and “How to Market Your Horse Business.” If you want to build a social media following with real followers (not from paid advertising) you must accept that it’s going to take time. You are only competing with yourself and your goals so it’s important that you are realistic about your plan. Engagement with your followers is the best strategy for building a robust social media platform for your business.

Here are some ideas for engagement:

• Ask for opinions – examples: when do you start blanketing? How do you handle flies in your barn? What’s your favorite tack cleaner?

• Create polls with Yes/No questions.

• Roll call – examples: ask where people live; what’s their favorite breed; what’s their heart horse’s name, etc.

• Spend 15 minutes a day commenting (from your business page) on your followers’ posts. This shows you care about your followers and will also boost your visibility when others see you commenting.

• Giveaways – ask your followers to comment, share and tag others to enter to win a prize.

• Brand/business questions – ask your followers their opinions on ideas you have for your business. We have made so many improvements to Mane Street Market based on ideas and suggestions from our customers and social media followers.

The secret to boosting engagement is to always reply to every single comment on your social media site – this not only boosts the algorithm, but it also makes your followers feel seen, which is powerful. Sprinkle in engagement posts at least once a week and be genuine with your replies. People do business with people they know, like, and trust – building those connections through social media can be a game changer for your business. Follow us on FB and IG @manestreetmarket for inspiration.

Question:

Do you think it’s necessary to invest in Facebook ads? How does it work?

- (Anonymous)

India’s Answer:

This is a great question, but a bit complicated because it truly depends on your marketing budget and the type of business you own. If you are going to spend money on FB ads – I would do a couple of things:

1. Wait until your business is at least 6 months old. There are so many hurdles to overcome when you start a new business, glitches in websites to figure out, managing products, ordering, shipping etc. Focus on getting the business running as smoothly as possible and have your systems in place before you start paid marketing efforts – including ad spends. You are probably thinking that you should start marketing right away and yes – I agree that you should 100% have a grand opening, announce your business online, start growing your social media etc. If you start spending money on FB ads too soon and your business is still working the kinks out – you could end up attracting customers that will be your guinea pigs, and that’s not a good way to start your business. You want to start your business with friends and family – have them vet the business and processes – fix the glitches and kinks in the system, and then start thinking about FB ads.

2. Work with a social media expert when buying FB ads. Not someone who calls themselves an expert – not someone who just posts on social media for other companies. You want someone who has proven themselves to help businesses grow through social media ad campaigns. Anyone can “boost” a post or place a FB ad – but a social media marketing expert will be able to help you define your market, which is super important. If you just throw an ad out there to everyone – the algorithm will not work in your favor. You want to be very decisive in who you are targeting; FB will give you the options of locations, habits, hobbies etc. so you can narrow down your audience to people who will actually click on the ad.

3. Decide on a budget you can afford. You can do a great ad campaign for a few dollars a day and decide how long you want it to run. I recommend that any ad – anywhere - needs to run for a minimum of 90 – 120 days for you to gain any traction. People are inundated with content these days so it takes a lot longer to make an impression and even longer for them to make a buying decision.

The most important thing when placing ads in any medium – you have to have the mindset that you are using ad placements as an education campaign. You are educating consumers that you exist, the problem you solve, and where to find you. Do not expect an ROI of your FB ads right away – focus on how many people you are reaching, how many are clicking on the ad and how many are clicking on your website or whatever your focus is for your ad. Be patient and don’t rely on FB to be your sole source for your customer funnel – diversify your advertising efforts to make the most of your marketing budget.

*send your questions to support@manestreetmarket.com

India and Justin

India Wilkinson

Owner of Mane Street Market

India is a lifelong horse owner/competitor and has decades of experience in the marketing/sales industry, with the last 15 years specifically in the equestrian marketing arena. India offers her expertise in helping sellers market their sales horses and buyers find their new equine partner through Mane Street Market. Her vision is to match up buyers and sellers on a premium online platform.

Please visit www.manestreetmarket.com and/or download the free Mane Street Market app to see our available sales horses. Be sure and reach out to India at support@manestreetmarket.com if you have questions about marketing your sales horse or equine service.

This article is from the September issue of Equine Business Magazine