You’ve Created Your Equestrian Business… Now What? Part 2 Of "Dreaming Of Launching An Equine Business But Don’t Know Where To Start"

India and Banana

You’ve created the business/product or service – and for the sake of this article we are going to assume you’ve created the website/app/social media platforms as well. I’m going to walk you through the steps that I went through when launching Mane Street Market - an online marketplace website, app and 2 social media platforms. This is just for reference - you can apply these steps to any business.

1. Start Small: You may think this is counterintuitive thinking that you must tell everyone, everywhere, and right away. My advice is to start small (like going to a schooling show before doing a rated show) because you will grow your confidence sharing with a smaller group of friends. You can work out the kinks of your business with people that you know, like and trust and people that know, like and trust you. Invite them to try out the website/product as if they knew nothing about you or the business. Ask them for their help in finding the holes with your website, your order forms, your product descriptions etc. You would much rather fix these issues with a small group of people who will tell you the truth and won’t shatter your business on a Google review. Before you make the announcement of your business on social media – give your friends and family a chance to do a trial run for x number of days. Think of it like a restaurant that has a soft opening to help train the wait staff and taste test the menu before having their grand opening. Your confidence will grow as your friends and family (or select group of testers) use your products or do a trial run of your website etc. Put your armor on and ask them to be harsh and challenge them to find flaws – so much better to be proactive than reactive when a “real” customer finds it. Remember you only have one chance to make a first impression – your business will never be perfect – but finding as many glitches or flaws as you can before the actual business launch will save you so much time and effort in backpedaling and apologizing to customers once your business is “in the wild.”

   
   
   
   

2. Go Big: At this point you’ve run the business through the trial-and-error portion, and you are ready to make the announcement! YAY! The next step (in my personal experience) is the absolute hardest part – announcing it to the world. Why is this so hard? Because it’s personal and emotional – so my best advice is to do everything you can to distance yourself emotionally. When I made my first post about launching Mane Street Market, I felt like the scene in the Lion King when Mufasa held up baby Simba above his kingdom for the first time. I literally just kept refreshing Facebook for about two hours watching the comments (don’t recommend).

   To keep things simple in the beginning, I recommend using just 3 platforms – I chose Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. I can basically use the same post on all 3 platforms and schedule them out ahead of time. This really helps me to stay consistent and keep the social media aspect of the business fairly streamlined.

   
   

   Create your announcement and run it by a few friends/family before you post to make sure that it makes sense to someone who is just learning about the business for the first time. You want to make sure that your announcement includes these 5 things:

   
   

   A. Name of your business/brand/service

   B. What your brand/business/service offers.

   C. What makes you stand out – what do you do that solves your customer’s problem?

   D. Location – brick and mortar or online (hours of operation if applicable).

   E. How does someone contact you, order from you, visit your website?

   
   

   It might look something like this on your social media platforms: (A) We are so excited to announce that Mane Street Market is open for business! (B) If you are looking for a place to get more eyes on your sales horses, equine services, tack/equipment or equestrian real estate properties – we are an online marketplace with one purpose – instantly connecting equestrians through our website and mobile apps. (C) In addition – we will also promote all MSM listings on our social media platforms including FB, IG and LinkedIn which gives our customers an even bigger network to showcase their ads! (D) Please visit our website www.manestreetmarket.com or download our free Mane Street Market app to learn more about our services and/or to start shopping. (E) You are welcome to message us through FB or contact support@manestreetmarket if you have any questions. You can also click here for a quick overview video about Mane Street Market: https://youtube.com/video/CcEW0cTehwM/

   
   

   

   
   

3. There are 3 very important aspects to promoting your business and attracting new customers: Branding, Advertising and Marketing. Knowing the difference between these 3 and how to use them interchangeably is important when launching, growing and running a business.

   
   

Brand: This is your identity - who you are and what you do. Your logo is a part of this identity, so you want to create something that is recognizable and unique to your brand. If you already have a logo and you are happy with it - that's awesome! If you don't have one or want to change it - keep these things in mind: Is it simple and easy to embroider and print? Does it symbolize something about your business? Deciding on a logo and color theme is a big decision - you want to create consistency in your advertising and marketing for your business through your brand identity. One of my favorite books about branding and growth is "What Are You For?" By Jeff Henderson. I loved the audible version. Your brand will help you create business boundaries and stay focused on your purpose and the problem that you solve.

Advertising: Many people think that advertising and marketing are the same thing. Even though they work together - they have a different purpose. Advertising is communication to your audience, building awareness and educating them on the benefits of your business. Advertising can be done in many variations - through social media, print media, radio, TV, billboards etc. It's important to make sure you reach your target audience through advertising paid or unpaid. It can be difficult to determine an ROI (return on investment) but you should not get hung up on that. Even though it's not always measurable - it's super important to incorporate advertising into your marketing plan. It takes up to 12 touches for a consumer to even consider making a purchase - which is much higher than ever due to so much content being thrown at consumers constantly. Future customers need to see your brand (business) in different places so that when they are ready to purchase - your business is top of mind. There are lots of ways to advertise without spending a ton of money, but you should be prepared to invest something every single month towards advertising. I choose 2 methods of advertising every 6 months and then change it up a bit. Our efforts at MSM vary from Google ads that push buyers to Mane Street Market which benefits my advertisers to FB ads that focus on a likes campaign to sponsoring a horseshow or investing in branded items to giveaway. I choose not to do too many things at once because I'm a small business owner and I want to focus on a few things at a time and do them well. Remember that advertising is basically informing your desired consumer about who you are and what you do.

Marketing: Creating a compelling story and building relationships with your potential customers is the foundation of a great marketing strategy. Go back to “What problem do you solve?” and that will help you with your compelling story.

For Example: The basic problem that we solve at Mane Street Market for the advertiser is providing a simple and inviting platform for equestrians to showcase their horses, equine services, equipment and equestrian real estate properties. The basic problem that we solve for the buyer is providing a streamlined platform where they can search and source sales horses, equine services, equipment and equestrian real estate.

Our compelling story for our advertisers is that we provide them with an extra marketing arm to their business through our website and app and that showcases them on social media. We’ve made the uploading process so simple they can do it from their phones and immediately have access to tens of thousands of equestrians. We have added extra safeguards to keep scammers off our platforms which saves our advertisers so much time and energy. Our promise is simple: More eyes on more horses (services, equipment and properties) outside of their current network.

Our compelling story for the buyer is to provide instant access to sales horses of all breeds and all disciplines and the ability to contact them through the website/app. We make it super easy to keep track of their searches as well as the ability for the user to send links to trainers, students, friends etc.

What is your compelling story? Write it out in as much detail as possible and then keep editing until you have something simple you can share in a sentence or two. Your compelling story will be the theme of your marketing efforts.

Tips to remember when you are launching your business:

• Take action – don’t wait to be perfect to start.

• Ask close personal friends to support you by commenting on posts, sharing posts, and giving your business google reviews etc. So many ways friends can help get the ball rolling.

• Stay focused on the long game – consistency always wins.

• You cannot predict human behavior and it’s the best measure of the success of your business. How you intend the business to work may not be exactly how the customer sees it working. Be willing to be flexible and learn to pivot when necessary.

• When dealing with an upset customer – don’t respond with emotion. When you do respond – make sure you listen – most people just want to be seen and heard. We’ve gotten some of our very best upgrades that came out of customer complaints.

• Be willing to learn constantly – it helps build resilience.

• My favorite - If your business (service, product etc.) works for one – it can work for 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000! This keeps me motivated and focused on the magnitude of scalability.

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 April issue of Equine Business Magazine