Whether you ride for pleasure or to show, or you are a hobbyist or you spend your whole life in the saddle, you will notice that though the horse doesn't change, the market does! Today, more and more people are finding that the buyers are searching online, and if you don't have an online presence, you might as well be invisible. It doesn't matter whether you give riding lessons or would like to put your stallion out to stud; if they can't find you online, you simply won't be found!
The first thing that you need to start with when it comes to putting your horses online is to get a website
presence. Depending on your level of internet and computer savvy, this can be quite quick or it can be quite laborious, but you should put some thought into having it done ASAP. Your website presence, in many ways, will be like putting together a shopfront; you want the page to be clean and provide your viewer with all of the information that he or she needs.
When you put up a website presence to market your horses, you will want to make sure that you have plenty of pictures. The more information you can give about your horses, the more likely it will be that you will attract the attention of a prospective buyer. Don't be surprised if you meet a buyer who never comes out to see the horse at all. While this was rare just a few years ago, it is becoming more and more common. With this in mind, you can't count on letting your horse speak for itself; you have to make sure that the best points of your stock comes across through the use of pictures and text. Some innovative presence providers have even systems to upload videos on their pages, letting prospective buyers see the horse in action.
Putting up a website is only half of the equation when it comes to marketing your horses online. There are whole online forums, message boards and clubequine communities that are dedicated to the sale and buying of stock, and you will doyourself a lot of good by joining one. This is a great way to make contacts with other people, and you'll be surprised how many references and referrals you might get. Take some time to get to know the other people, and while you should always be polite, don't be shy!
When you go online, spend some time talking with people, but remember that when it comes to marketing horses, much the way it does with everything else, the name of the game is content. Put relevant text and content up on your site; this will make it easier for people who are searching on sites like Google to find you.
Many premium services have content management systems that allow message logs to communicate and store contacts. The really good ones help you market your horse with little or no effort. You simply just list and pay a small fee and they take over automatically.
You already know that your horses are hot stuff, so use your internet connection to make sure that everyone else knows it as well!
