Question: I am endeavoring to develop personal and business goals for the new year. As a new retail business serving the equine industry, I am in a strong growth phase spending 10% of gross receipts for marketing. Thus far I have advertised in both regional and national equine publications, local newspapers, radio, television, newsletter, and catalog (mail order). While these have helped to create an industry awareness of my business, I am wondering if a web site on the NET would serve me well. I am not completely technologically challenged, however I have not ventured into that arena and am left wondering what I am missing if anything.

Response: Congratulations for having made a solid commitment to your marketing by allocating 10% of your gross receipts. By establishing a base amount, you will look at your marketing efforts seriously as you experiment and try to decide where your money is best spent. It is a wise business person who tries to track results as a means of strategizing where to do more and where to cut back.

The key here is in understanding who your market is. By understanding their characteristics, you can formulate a plan of how best to reach them. A general rule of thumb is to segment your market into its various components. No one description will fit your whole market. You may a have primary market, and then several secondary markets. If you have been in business for a year or two, you are developing a better understanding of your market. You have some baseline information to go from. This information includes what items are selling best for you, who buys most frequently, and how did they hear about you. Undoubtedly, like most businesses, you are looking to build customer loyalty, and thus repeat business.

A sensible approach is to break your marketing focus into three groups: your clients, your prospects, and the unknown market/world at large. Spend 60% of your budget on your clients, 30% on your prospects, and 10% on the unknown market. If people have bought from you once and are happy they will come back again. They are your biggest asset, so it makes sense to dedicate the bulk of your budget here. As any good business person knows, you aim to increase your market share. This is accomplished by spending the next biggest percentage in this area. You are inducing people to come give you a try, rather than buying at their usual place. Finally, you don’t want to neglect the unknown market. Although this group is the largest, your opportunity to turn your marketing efforts into buying customers is greatly reduced. The point to all of this is that your marketing is directed to moving people from the 10% group to the 30% group to the 60% group.

The horse community is made up of 80% recreational riders, the remaining 20% professionals. The professionals work very long days out in the barn, out in the ring, and in the saddle. It is difficult at best for this group to spend time in front of a computer surfing the NET. The recreational riders, however, have more time to conduct such explorations. Technology is part of our culture and is here to stay. It will only advance. The generation being raised now is technologically literate. Since part of the services you offer include a newsletter and catalog, this removes locational market barriers. These services would make a great web site. Build technology into your long-term development plans. This year you may want to include getting on the NET and surfing around yourself. Get an E-mail address and start to experiment with it. Investigate costs for having a web site and see how you will fit this into your budget. Will you eliminate some apparently non-producing modes you have now, or will you expand your marketing budget? By getting on the NET you are opening another channel of communication. You will probably reach some of the same people you reach now, but you have expanded your range to include the whole world. (Have you worked up a shipping policy for international markets?) Again, you will want to try to track your results. Try to determine how much of your marketing budget will go to this media. Is this going to dwarf your other media choices? How many people (prospects) contact you because they saw it on the web? How many people (clients) buy? Just because professionals may not get a lot of time to sit in front of computers doesn’t mean they won’t learn about your business indirectly because of the web. Word of mouth from their clients can often do the trick. And remember the power television marketing has had on kids, who then influence their parents. The same will be true for the web.

Biography:

Lisa Derby Oden, Blue Ribbon Consulting, LDO,LLC principal, combines a unique blend of experience and education. She has been involved with horses since 1962. Lisa has her BS in Animal Science with a specialty in Equine Studies from the University of New Hampshire, and her MS in Management from Antioch New England Graduate School. Earlier in her horse industry career she owned and operated a 25-horse stable, and was instrumental in founding a pony club, dressage association, and combined training association. In recent years she revitalized the New Hampshire Horse Council, and has been active in the American Horse Council and New Hampshire Farm Bureau. In 1999 Lisa was honored with the Van Ness Award from the American Horse Council for outstanding service to the horse industry. In 2004 she was honored with the first-ever President’s Award from the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation. Lisa has also been appointed by Governor Lynch to represent equine on the NH Farm Viability Task Force, and sits on the UNH Thompson School Applied Animal Science Advisory Committee.

Oden's consulting practice, Blue Ribbon Consulting, offers business and association development, marketing, leadership and professional development to the horse industry. Lisa's focus is on problem solving, planning and growth. She works with clients across the United States and abroad. Lisa is a internationally published author and national speaker on issues affecting horse business and association development. She produces a quarterly newsletter focused on horse business/horse association management topics and leadership issues. Additionally, Lisa wrote "Growing Your Horse Business" and “Bang For Your Buck: Making Sense of Marketing for Your Horse Business,” which are part of her Good Footing Workbook Series that offers more depth on these topics.

Lisa continues to teach riding and train in her business Transformational Riding. She offers traditional and creative approaches for the equestrian. She is currently an ICP candidate with US Eventing Association.

Lisa can be contacted at PO Box 435, New Ipswich, NH 03071, 603-878-1694, Lisa@horseconsulting.com; or visit her website at www.horseconsulting.com