Does your Social Media…
Attract?
In today’s world saturated with digital noise, it is difficult to capture people’s attention. That is why it is more important than ever to send relevant messages to relevant people. The way to do that is to start talking to your ideal client, more importantly, you need to start addressing their problems, start offering solutions and show them how you can help them with what is keeping them from reaching their goals.
Engage?
One of the reasons why Social Media is such a popular choice in building brand awareness is because of its organic (non-paid) reach potential. If your content is compelling, interesting and appeals to your audience, they will engage with it – like it, comment it, share it and the word will get out. In turn, Facebook will reward you with a bigger initial organic reach of your posts. So, it is not enough to just capture your audience’s attention and make them stop to read your content, it is also very important to make them engage with it.
Build Community?
Once the first two steps of the process are implemented successfully, the third one will naturally follow – your community will grow. The third step brings us full circle – you catch people’s attention, they engage with your content and, as a reward, your community continues to grow. This is a self sustaining formula that, once set in motion in the right way, runs on its own.
Social Media Marketing for the Equine Industry
‘Social’ is the new black. It’s not just a fad, it’s here to stay.
Social Media Marketing advertises your company’s products and services through social media platforms. It gives you a way to connect with your customers and prospects in a more personal way and it allows you to promote your desired brand culture or business purpose.
Social media has changed the way in which we function as a society, including the way in which we connect with each other. It is one of the most powerful tools that businesses and individuals can employ for marketing purposes today.
Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram can help you to drive sales, promote your brand and even change consumer behavior.
A Deloitte Report stated that consumers who use social media during their shopping process are four times more likely to spend more on purchases than those who do not. The Deloitte report has also found that 47% of millennials are influenced in their purchases by social media, compared to only 19% for all other age groups. It is important for businesses to be aware of such changing mindsets within different demographic groups if they wish to remain relevant in their chosen field of business.
Depending on the type of your Equine Business, you can leverage social media in different ways by keeping the five key pillars of social media marketing in mind:
1. Formulate your strategy: Formulating your strategy entails setting up goals, the social media channels to be used, and what type of content will be posted.
The type of content you will share should be determined by knowing what type of content will attract your target audience. Is it images, videos, or links? Is it educational or entertaining content?
You will not share the same type of content if you have a riding school, a farrier business or if you make custom saddles. A good place to start is to create an ideal client avatar persona, which will help you answer the above questions.
2. Planning and Publishing: Your Equine Business should plan content ahead of time and publish at the right frequency and timing. Prepare plans of what your content will look like (i.e. will there be videos, photos, how much text and what will you say) and decide when and in what order it will be put out on the platform.
3. Listening and Engagement: Monitoring what users, customers, and others are saying about your posts, brands, products, services and any other business assets is very important.
As your Equine Business and social media presence grows, so does the number of conversations about your brand. People will comment on your social media posts, tag you in their social media posts, or message you directly. Being aware of what people are saying about your brand, whether it’s good or bad, is essential especially if the comments are negative.
By monitoring social media you can immediately intervene and correct the situation or offer support before it gets out of hand. You can then continue the conversation in a positive way.
4. Analytics and Reporting: One of the biggest advantages of digital marketing over traditional marketing is its measurability and optimization. Being able to monitor your posts’ reach and the level of engagement which it attracts from followers will enable you to establish what works and what doesn’t so that you can optimize your campaigns for better results.
5. Advertising: One of the areas that you can consider when you have more funds is paid advertising on social media. With paid advertising you can reach a much wider and highly targeted audience over and above your regular followers. VOX DIGITALI offers Paid Advertising on Social Media as a separate service.
Why your Equine Business needs Social Media Marketing?
Aside from informing your customers about news and promotions, using social media can help you reach more customers, increase your SEO ranking, create a sense of community, establish your brand as an authority or expert in your field, improve your conversion rates and boost sales.
Social media is an important part of today’s marketing mix. Consumers are hungry for more real contact with the people behind the brands and businesses they purchase from. So, for business owners or marketers, social media is the perfect environment to create this human connection with a personal touch.
Last but not least – Social Media is an excellent source of social proof. Just think about what you do before you buy from an unknown brand – you read the reviews!
According to Oberlo nine out of ten consumers read reviews before making a purchase and according to Inc. 84% of people trust online reviews as much as friends.
Next to ‘word-of-mouth’ Social Media is the greatest marketing channel that exists today and by not utilizing its full potential you are missing out.
What does our Social Media Marketing for the Equine Industry service include?
Strategy Development
The first step in your Social Media Marketing Strategy is to conduct a Social Media Audit across all of your Social Media channels and understand your current position. The next step will be to analyze your strengths and weaknesses and decide which Social Media Channels would be best for your Equine Business. The third step will be to create a content plan.
Content
Creation
If you would like to have help with content creation or if you would like to have more ideas of what to post on your Social Media, we can do the brainstorming and content creation for you and we will do it with your branding and ideal customer in mind. There are different levels of involvement that you can choose from – from leaving everything up to us, creating it with us to creating it by yourself while we just provide advice, ideas or guidance.
Your content should speak to your audience’s needs and be the vessel through which you showcase your brand, connect with your ideal client and create trust.
Community Management
We will take care of your brand’s reputation and goodwill by making sure that your customers’ questions and potential complaints are responded to promptly and comprehensively. These are busy times, so let us manage your community on social media online while you tend to your customers offline and run your equine business.
How can we help you to get the most out of your Social Media?
Schedule a free consultation or chat to us to find out more.
