How do you manage marketing your horse business – mainly any boarding locations and/or lesson training programs? On the flip side, how did you find your current trainer? I know word of mouth is huge in this industry, and many others, but what else works?
For strictly boarding and/or lessons, nothing beats a fabulous website. That is where people go when they haven’t got another public forum in which to meet any trainers. Lots of people in my barn came to us because of the website, especially those that were moving from out of town and had no other tools with which to search.
For a Show barn, nothing beats going to a good local horse show and putting your best foot forward, being publicly supportive of your students, handling mishaps in a mature way, and being cordial to other trainers and show management, so that riders from other barns see how the best example is set. You never know when someone will jump ship from another trainer and think of you first because they admire the way you conducted yourself at the last horse show. Trust me, I have plenty that I would not go to, based on their conduct at horse shows.
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I agree with this. A well built, organized, and visually appealing website is SO SO important. Make sure you have information like rates, where you’re located (you’d be surprised how many websites make you fish for their physical location), and what type of services you offer. Good quality pictures really go a long way and help give a perspective client an idea of what type of barn you are running.
I picked my current barn based off their website. I knew nothing about the trainer or the facility but was looking for a new barn. I did a google search and began looking for information and my barn had the best website that gave me clear information and a good feeling for what type of place it was.
Two very true statements! Thank you! The website makes perfect sense, especially when you come up top in some Google searches.
And even though it didn’t occur to me until you said it, I have a few trainers I would never want to ride with based on how I have seen them act at a horse show
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When I was looking for a place to board, several barns never returned my phone call or email. Maybe they just didn’t/don’t need my business…?
My current trainer I found based on her website.
Always reply promptly to inquiries by phone or email. Be cheerful and agreeable at shows so the impression of cooperation is always given. Keep your website/FB page fresh. Always be pleasant to the folks at your local tack shop, people are forever asking them for recommendations.
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I am currently in the process of hopefully (crossing fingers) relocating jobs so I am in the midst of this right now.
I am seriously surprised how many people no longer have websites and strictly use Facebook to advertise. Although I do think that Facebook is a great place to really get a better “feel” of the atmosphere that is at the barn, I do tend to like to see how their websites look. I think a great business doesn’t miss any details. It doesn’t have to be the most elaborate, expensive website. It just has to look neat and professional and be easy to find information as others have said. Their horses for sale section is a big indicator on the barn. Is it more of a sales barn, training barn, lots of lessons, or more of a show barn? I think even a website can correlate on how a barn is run/managed.
With a business that runs strictly via Facebook, I think the true feel of the barn can get covered up by posts, tags, shares, etc. It gets harder to navigate even if you are very tech savvy and familiar with it. That being said, it is nice to see barns sharing articles from reputable magazines and sources so you can get familiar with how they could potentially be teaching and what they stand for (although this isn’t always a guarantee) and that they too are continuing their education.
These are some of the things I love to see in a website and what I look for since I am currently shopping:
Website wise-
Tab system to navigate through website
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Home screen of pictures (pictures are a big visual appeal)
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About section --> A general overview of a bio section about trainer, owners, managers, barn, and about the program that leads into more detailed tabs.
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Services section(s) --> More detailed information about the boarding options (full care, part care, etc), their programs (more of a sales barn, lesson barn, showing barn), lessons (ship ins, clinics). If a barn is big into a particular program (training board, lessons, or sales) it is nice to see is separate from other tabs.
*Sales/Leases section --> Sales horses broken up into their price ranges and given the price ranges at the top in an A, B, C, D, E, F type of system and referenced in the ad. Video links to YouTube.
*Contact information --> farm’s address, phone numbers of contacts,
More detailed information could be added for current boarders or if you needed more
- Horse show schedule
- News section - shows off how well your barn is doing, welcoming horses and new boarders, show results
Pictures are huge for me - I would only put the best up. I have seen quite the opposite on some sites. Just enough to show off the barn, trainer, riders, horses, etc. but not over crowd the website. I’m sure there are a ton other things that I have noticed but this is just some points I’ve really though of over the time.
Facebook wise:
*keeping it UTD
*pictures galore - trail riding day, show pictures and results, etc
*sharing articles that trainer believes in, general equestrian news
*i love to see trainers post after show pics of their riders and have a congrats post to them. it shows that they appreciate their clients & that goes a very long way for me
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Everyone is giving extremely valuable input thank you! I agree on the website information and the FB page, I will tell you I do get disappointed when I see a barn has not posted anything new to their social media in months.
And yes, yes, yes to the pictures on the FB page and especially the website! I also like when they have a ‘meet our school horses’ area. But really a big yes to everything raisethebar listed!
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As someone who has moved my horse a few times in the past year - last year locally, this year I’ve moved out of state - I’ve spent a fair amount of time combing websites and online search engines to locate barns. A good website is key for me! I always start with just googling so if I find a good website that includes information like amenities, location, rates, etc., I’m a happy camper and much more likely to call on that farm than if it’s a shoddy job without rates or any useful information listed. You can also link this to equine websites so it shows up if searching on, for example, equinenow.com, horseclicks.com, etc. As long as it’s informative and ‘search-able’, you’ll be golden.
Facebook is also a huge resource, but PLEASE include rates! Nothing is more frustrating than seeing lovely pictures and information on a barn only to find out that it’s $1,500 a month instead of the much smaller rate that you can afford. You’re not doing anyone any favors by hiding your prices, just let it out there for people to see and I guarantee you’ll get fewer tire kickers. Keeping an active social media page is also awesome. The barn I am moving my horse to next month has a very active page with updates on new boarders, barn events, pictures of happy horses and riders, etc. I know this is time consuming, but even if you only post once a week I really appreciate that as a boarder and think most people would.
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