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June 8, 2001
by Andrea Laycock Mattson
Me too!! If I see one more tail in the air ...!!
Looks like all but two of ours are bred and settled, so I should count my blessings. It won't be long
before we can resume living like "regular folks," if there is such a thing
for horse people. For sure, there's no such thing as normal for computer
geeks.
I guess webmasters qualify for that handle. They say it helps if you are
an urgency addict. You get used to not knowing what day or night of the
week it is. Right now, I'm sure it's Friday, because they run the Belmont
tomorrow. I may not remember that by tomorrow ... especially if I don't get
this newsletter out.
I kinda went into a trance a few weeks ago, thinking about how easy it is
to slip into neutral after going through spring on the farm, and what a guy
should and could be doing about it to keep their horse business pumping all
summer and fall. We all work hard to promote stallions late in the year and
early spring. Seems natural. If we get into a situation in late spring
where we wish we had more bookings, it's a tough thing to pull off at the
last minute. Expensive, too. But I see this happening year after year.
I'd like to offer some simple ideas guaranteed to be easy, cheap, and take
less time than me writing this newsletter. Can you buy that? Ways to keep
your stallion's name in front of people all summer and fall, so they are
ready to take action when your pre-breeding season push gets underway?
Three
simple things. Do it now and go enjoy your summer. When the leaves
fall, you won't have lost your momentum and next season's promotion will be
more effective than ever.
NUMBER ONE:
If you don't yet have a web presence ... get started today by adding a simple signature file to your e-mail program. Not rocket science.
It is free and it's very simple. If you are not sure, just click the
"help" button at the top of your screen while you are in your e-mail, and
look in the topic index for "signature file." Usually this information is
located in the "tools" dropdown menu under "options", but all programs are
little different. You'll be fine.
I know most people don't use signature files because I seldom see them on
incoming e-mail, and I get bunches. This great chance to provide free
information about yourself and your business is priceless. Use it in every
e-mail you send out to a horse person. In a minute I will show you how to
add the equivalent of a web page, for a one-time setup fee under $10.
without some third-party banner bouncing off your walls!
An e-mail signature is simply
a "boilerplate" file you create to provide
standard information you would otherwise
have to type in by hand every time.
Typically, it contains things like your name, address, phone numbers,
business name, web address if you have one, and fun things like adding a
favorite quote at the end. Like, "From the outside looking in, it's
impossible to understand. From the inside looking out, there's no way to
explain." You can include a slogan or short description of your horse
business or activity, such as "Breeding, Boarding, Training and Sales."
Most e-mail programs now don't have a limit on how many lines or characters
you can include. I like signatures better than e-mail "business cards,"
which are attachments. Many people are afraid to open them, for fear of
opening a virus infected file.
The nice thing about e-mail sigs is
they are right there, in the body of the e-mail, and
will also be printed if
someone prints your
correspondence for future reference.
To insert a signature file, with your cursor at the location where you want
the file inserted, all you have to do is click "insert" on your menu bar,
then "signature," then select the one you want if you have more than one.
Here's an example:
HorsesOnly.com
PO Box 148
Wamego KS 66547
Phone: 785-456-8600
If it's about Quarter Horses, Paints or
Appaloosas, you'll find it here!
http://www.horsesonly.com
Build yours to suit your needs. If you stand
a stallion or stallions, you can include their names, etc. Sometimes
people forward such information to others they think would be interested in
your services, so even word-of mouth business can be generated without
effort once you create this file.
NUMBER
TWO:
Donate a stallion service to national, regional or local futurity!
Show and Futurity season is approaching full bloom now. Get out there and
mingle with the shakers and movers. Find out what's hot and observe your
competition. It's fun and a great way to get acquainted with people who are
serious about breeding for a future show horse. You'll have many opportunities to get information about your stallions into the hands of
prospective customers. Maybe even sell a horse or two. Plan to have your
stallion participate as a sire for the 2002 breeding season.
It really
makes a difference to many people, and it's a very low cost thing for you
to do in order to qualify his foals for these lucrative futurity
events.
Typically, many futurity programs are set up like this: A stallion owner
donates one breeding service. That service is offered at a live or mail-in
auction to the highest bidder, or is simply listed at a specific discount
(such as 60% of the regular advertised fee) on a first-come, first served
basis. When the service sells, all foals sired by that stallion for that
season are eligible for the futurity program. Often the show eligibility
period extends though the foal's 4th or 5th year of age for performance
events.
When your stallion participates as a sire, the Futurity organization will
do a lot for you in the way of advertising. If there is a live or mail-in
auction, you will be represented in their auction catalog. There is often
a "stallion parade" in conjunction with the live auctions.
You will receive
promotion through the organization's mail-out literature, newsletters,
print advertising and websites.
I am crazy about Futurities and their promotional value for stallion owners!
If you are already participating in a futurity that is not currently
represented in our online Futurity
Guide, please ask your futurity manager to contact me. We'll get them set up at no cost with their own web page in
our Futurity Guide. We get a lot of traffic in that section of our site!
NUMBER
THREE:
Keep some year around advertising in place for your stallion.
Right ... I know not everybody can afford full page breed journal
advertising year around, but there are less expensive, effective ways to
keep your stallion in front of the public. However, many breeding
decisions are made during the summer show and futurity season, and I would
hate to see you miss out on these "early bird" bookings.
Check our Stallion
Finder Directory or StallionClassifieds
full page presentations for year 'round exposure.
If you do nothing more than get your Quarter Horse, Paint or Appaloosa
stallion enrolled in the Stallion Finder, you will be assured of two
things.
You will put your advertising directly in the path of the most
targeted group of potential customers on the web. You will quickly
establish your stallion's name and your business in all the major search
engines well before the pre-season booking frenzy!
Remember:
1. Create your e-mail signature file.
2. Get your stallion involved in at least one
Futurity
3. Consider enrolling in the Stallion Finder
Related Articles:
What Really Makes
the Web Click for Stallions? -- You want qualified breeders to beat a path to your barn.
Print Advertising Tips
-- Getting the Most out of your High Dollar Advertising
Stallion Promotion
-- Things you can do to Power-up, and get better results
from your current advertising.
The
Beauty of Cross Marketing -- Same Horses .. New Clients!!
Copyright © 2001 by Andrea Laycock Mattson. All rights
reserved. Note: If you would like to reprint this article on your web site or in a printed
magazine or horse-related newspaper, please contact the webmaster for
arrangements.
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