Running your training business is about more than wet saddle blankets.
By Megan Arszman
I started training horses because I’m not much of a people person, but I get along well with my horses.
I’m already so busy dealing with training schedules, show entries, and getting my clients to pay on time. I can’t manage anything else on my plate.
I need more horses in my barn.
Do any of these phrases sound familiar? You hung out your shingle, earned your first open paychecks, and placed your first full-color ad in all the industry publications. However, you feel like you’re missing the mark in getting your message out there in the right way to attract more clients.
Communication with the humans in the business, not just the horses, is key to a long and successful career as a trainer. It can be frustrating to know where to start, but the beauty of that is, there’s always someone there who can help you.
Jamie Samples is the owner and president of Yellow Barn Media, a marketing company with an emphasis on the horse industry, and she’s one of the first to admit that marketing is hard work.
“I agree that marketing can be overwhelming,” she says. “But, it’s a vital action to keep your business running so you don’t go bankrupt.”
Samples stresses that not doing marketing is not an option to continue running your business. It’s important to know what you do well and where you can use some help. It’s a lot like working a horse on his rundown when you just can’t seem to figure out what you’re doing wrong, so you reach out to a fellow NRHA Professional for some tips.
“Know your strengths and know who can fill your weaknesses and hire them out,” she adds. “It’s really about scheduling out a little bit of your time, putting a strategy in place and then implementing that strategy,” she continues.
In this series, Samples will cover:
Part 1: Why Facebook Isn’t Enough
Part 4: Sharing Your Knowledge
Part 5: Making a Call to Action
Making a Call to Action
A call to action (CTA) is when you put content out for the public to consume, and they have instructions at the end to follow up with you. One example Samples uses is if you were to advertise for a clinic, you’re asking the reader to contact you or to sign up. So, if you’re paying for ads in multiple publications, give each publication its own special code. Ask the registrant to put that code on their form so you can track to see where you’re getting the most return on your investment.
Having a contact form on your website allows you to collect the email addresses of potential clients. You can use those email addresses to build your “marketing funnel” and start sending enewsletters.
Samples suggests using a program such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, and MailerLite. “I like MailChimp for beginners because they offer landing pages and it’s mostly drag and drop,” says Samples. “Unless you’re sending out a large amount of mass emails, you can probably get away with the free version.”So, once you post a video on Facebook and have an enewsletter list, how do you then take that and maximize it? Or, if you have a blog, how do you get that out to the masses? “You have a plan, so you email it to your list and you share it on your social media so others will share and talk about it,” says Samples. “Those aren’t hard tasks, but if you’re too busy, you don’t do it.”
Read the rest of this article at the links above.
