Running a horse business can be difficult for many reasons, but there may be some easy-to-fix mistakes in your marketing. Identifying and addressing them as soon as possible is your key to regaining control of your brand and changing its entire trajectory.

In this blog, I will discuss some common horse business marketing mistakes that both beginner and seasoned entrepreneurs make, which can ultimately be very hazardous to their long-term goals and business success. Let’s dive right in.

Avoid These 10 Horse Business Marketing Mistakes

These are the common horse business marketing mistakes to avoid.

1. Not Defining Your Audience

Many entrepreneurs skip the crucial step of researching the market and defining the core audience. While it can seem like a step that can be skipped, it can actually skew your entire marketing strategy and make it less effective in the long run. Many of us started our businesses as a solution to a problem, but over time, we shifted and changed our approach, which can significantly alter who our target audience is.

It is essential to take the time to research your audience and identify specific market segments. Instead of looking at your ICA (ideal client avatar) as women who ride horses, you need to dig deeper and create a persona of the exact type of person or people that buy your services or products. 

For example, horsewomen over 55 who don’t ride, but still own and care for their horses daily. They have disposable income, enjoy drinking wine and eating fancy food, and simply spend time in the barn with their horses and fellow horse enthusiasts. Also, they have grandchildren who also enjoy spending time with their horses. You can get really detailed. The more you know about your ICA, the better you can serve them and market to them. 

If you’d like to learn more about finding your ICA, feel free to check out my YouTube video on the topic. 

2. Neglecting to Address Pain Points

Before posting, many entrepreneurs lack a clear understanding of the pain points that their target audience experiences. This disconnect can lead to content that fails to resonate with your clients, resulting in low engagement with your posts.

It is essential to research your audience’s pain points and address them in your social posts. Create a post calendar, and each week, discuss a specific problem your audience is facing, providing them with the tools, techniques, and solutions to overcome it.

3. Superficial SEO

We all know the importance of SEO, right? You need to optimize your content so that people who are searching for it can easily find it. However, SEO is not just a tactic but a long-term commitment. It is not a one-off project, but an ongoing effort.

Keyword stuffing, ignoring content quality, or excessive link building can be more trouble than it’s worth, so focus on creating a strong SEO foundation and optimizing your website for user experience. Build links naturally, continually monitor your SEO performance, and make adjustments as needed. Again, this marketing effort is not a set-it-and-forget-it approach. It is part of an ongoing marketing process.

4. Not Being Strategic with Paid Ads

Leveraging paid ads as part of your advertising and marketing campaign can be an incredibly powerful strategy (+ we highly recommend it!). However, relying solely on paid ads is not a great plan. Paid ads work best when your business is naturally growing, and is used in conjunction with a holistic marketing approach (use paid ads as a part of the overall strategy paired with social content, email marketing, funnels, and more). 

If you try to run ads without a website or landing page set up for conversions, you are essentially throwing money away, quite literally. When you are ready to run ads, it is recommended that you hire an experienced ad manager who is familiar with how to maximize your budget. An experienced ad manager can craft ad copy and graphics that convert, ensuring you achieve the best results.

5. Expecting Quick Results

It can be easy to get frustrated with a lack of progress and give up. Running a horse business in a saturated market during this economic climate can be challenging. Still, for those who COMMIT and don’t give up after 30-60-90 days, they will see results after everyone else has given up. Consistency wins over talent every day and twice on Sunday.

Being a horse business owner is about the long game, and you need to invest time and money to move your brand forward. Giving up at the first sign of trouble just won’t do. Instead, bet on yourself and examine why you faced a setback. Once you identify it, address it, and move forward. 

6. Following Trends without Providing Value

On the internet, you can find lists showcasing the top trends on social media. Think dancing, cooking, telling jokes, ect. While they can be considered (only if they make sense for your audience), most likely, those are not going to get you new clients. They may get you views, but does that really move the needle for you if those viewers are not anywhere close to who your ICA is?

Some trends might be beneficial, while others might alienate your audience. Understand your brand, your audience, and what you bring to the table before chasing trends because what you can do yourself can often be a lot more beneficial for your horse business.

7. Overproducing Content

Posting consistently is necessary, but spamming is not. Small business owners can become overzealous and produce content excessively, sometimes on an hourly basis. We don’t often see this in the horse industry; however, it is something to consider. It is better to create less content that is higher quality, than just throwing spaghetti at the wall, so to speak, all willy-nilly multiple times per day. 

To overcome this problem, consider creating a content calendar and spacing out your posts. Consider what time of medium your audience likes the most: videos, podcasts/audios, carousel posts, emails, ect. If you are uncertain, test and measure multiple types of content on different platforms. Over time, you will find what they like best and what days and times are most effective for posting. 

8. Being Desktop-First

Many small business owners are under the impression that people still browse the internet using desktop computers and laptops. Times have changed, and the most popular way to browse the internet is now on mobile devices. You should avoid falling into the trap that desktop development is the only important aspect.

While having a good desktop interface is indeed a good investment, you should also invest in responsive technologies and create mobile-centric features and elements for mobile users. This will help you capture the imagination of both kinds of audiences.

9. Too Much Automation

There are multiple automation tools available to help improve productivity in your business. These are useful if you have a small team, but be cautious not to rely solely on them. Too much automation can strip away the natural human element of your brand.

Making a connection requires being authentic, and using too much automation can lead customers to feel like they are talking to a robot, rather than a passionate horse business owner. Always leave room for personal touches, audience interactions, and friendly chats.

10. Stagnation or Limiting Beliefs 

The final mistake I will share can potentially be the most disastrous. Stagnation can manifest in a refusal to learn and adapt to changing market trends. This mistake can be the result of burnout or any other business frustration, but it has the same result. Eroding business presence.

More often than not, when I speak with a potential new client in the horse industry, this is the thing truly holding business owners back. The “I’ve done this my way for X years”, or the “I don’t want to learn a new technology”, or the many other limiting beliefs are holding this industry back.

There are hundreds of amazing products and services in this industry, but truly, the CEO’s, creators, service providers, and others can’t get over what’s in their heads, and truth be told, there is no program or coaching that can fix that when the parties are not willing. 

To overcome this, as an industry, we need to encourage one another and spur each other forward (pun intended…lol) in thinking bigger, learning more, and driving the horse industry forward in a positive direction. Regular improvement is the only way forward, and we can do so much more together than we can apart from one another.