Blogging: everyone and their dog is doing it.
2 million blog posts go live every day.
Since we’re being real here, the majority of us don’t care about the majority of them. I mean, who has time to even read 2 million blog posts per day, or per year for that matter?
However, amongst all the blogs you couldn’t care less about, there’s that special gem that you enjoy or would enjoy reading. Maybe you’re a tech geek and enjoy tech blogs, maybe your a fitness fanatic who cannot get enough of the awesome information on a particular fitness lifestyle blog. Perhaps you just enjoy getting weekly emails of hilarious cat stories.
Whatever your interest, there’s a blog for that. Many people in the horse industry don’t utilize blogs to their advantage because they don’t know what to write, they don’t see how it could help their business or they’ve posted something before- only to hear crickets.
Today, let’s talk about the how and why of how blogs can give your equine business a boost.
1. Reaching Out to New Horse Owners Online.
You can reach horse owners locally, nationally or even internationally by posting good online content. If someone is searching for examples and definitions of collection, give them a blog post that explains it (the best explanation that can be given through print and picture).
When a horse owner is searching for information on how to help older horses gain weight, they could discover your supplement company via an article about this subject. If a rider is searching for how to fit a saddle, maybe they’ll book a session with your tack shop’s professional saddle fitter. Perhaps you’re a trainer and your post about how to get a horse to stand still for mounting is what brings in your latest client.
2. Converting Them Into Paying Clients Over Time.
Perhaps they’ll visit more pages on your site after reading the post, such as clinic sign-up pages or product sales pages. Maybe they sign up for your email list and take advantage of special offers that you’ll email them. An effective way to do this is with lead generation technology. Maybe have a pop-up coupon for your clinics or products.
There are many ways in which you can convert people over to being paying clients with blog posts, even if it takes them reading 10 blog posts over time to finally sign up for or buy something. Alas, this is the way marketing works. People need to be exposed to your brand several times before taking action.
3. “Nurture” Campaigns for Past or Existing Customers
Nurture email campaigns go hand in hand with your blogging. Once you post a new post, send out an automated update via programs like MailChimp. Nurture campaigns can help convert readers into paying customers and encourage past or existing customers to make new purchases.
Say you’re a clinician. You can send out emails with blog posts and other info to people who are interested in your teaching style. Maybe they enjoy reading half a year’s worth of emails and blog posts from you before they decide to take the plunge and sign up for a clinic near them. After the clinic, send them emails encouraging them in their riding, blog posts with tips and other special offers and prices.
4. Blogging = Reuseable Social Media Content
Blogging gives you an automatic source of high-quality content to share on your social media. You can share a new blog post link on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram (if you have 10,000 followers) and Google+. This can reduce the amount of social media content you need to plan and also serve as “evergreen” content for your website.
5. Improving Your Website’s Overall SEO.
This is so important for being discovered on the internet. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s about making your post attractive to Google and other search engines. You want to be discovered by horse owners who can use your products or services. However, ranking on the first page of a Google search is difficult, especially if you’re a new website. Creating a bank of high-quality pages (aka high-quality blog posts) on your site raises your authority with Google, making them more likely to show someone your article as an answer to a search query.
This will help you become more discoverable online to the people whose problem you can solve.
If you need help maneuvering through the jargon of internet marketing or need help setting up an SEO blog or email automation system, contact Catherine for a FREE 30-minute consultation where we’ll discuss your online marketing goals and needs.
