PR is an often overlooked area of marketing. However, in the world of horses it can provide countless opportunities for both athletes and businesses. If you are in the equestrian industry and are wondering how PR can help your business, look no further…
Your Business Image
To become a high profile business, your customers need to understand what you are about and what you are selling. Press opportunities can be an excellent way to get your message out there in a way that will generate more impact than normal advertising. This is because press stories show your customers what is so great about your product without directly selling it to them.
Picture it this way… you open a magazine to a full page advert for a pair of riding boots telling you all their superior features. On the next page, is an article where the magazines themselves have featured a different pair of boots that they have tested themselves. Their full review states that the second pair of riding boots are “incredibly comfortable” and a ‘must have’. Which boots would you be more likely to buy?
Your Image as an Equestrian Athlete
Whether you compete in dressage, showjumping, eventing or any other equestrian event, image is critical as an equestrian athlete. PR companies can help with building your image in many ways. This can include getting you involved in conversational pieces in equestrian industry magazines and assisting you with managing your social media pages.
Press pieces and a good follower base can lead to more sponsorship opportunities. This is due to your increasingly large platform from which you can shout to your fans about how wonderful a company’s products or services are.
PR for Promotion
Products
As shown above, product promotion through magazine ‘product testing’ pieces are invaluable. This is because they show your customers that other impartial people consider your products to be just as good as you do. A PR agency has the relevant contacts to get your products involved in these pieces. They can also help you decide which publications will be best for promoting your product or service.
Another way to promote your products can be through giving them away as prizes in a magazine. Featuring them in a prize section guarantees people will notice them. Additionally, those who don’t win your product may decide to head to your shop and buy it instead!
Events
If you are instead in the business of equestrian events, you may be looking to improve attendance. PR and marketing can help you with this as well.
Press pieces in the local paper can get your business considerable recognition for many aspects. Have you held a charity fundraiser recently that you never shouted about? Have you held an event that has benefited the local community?
Writing press releases on these matters and sharing them with the local papers and equestrian magazines is the whole point of PR. With this new-found recognition from your local community and the industry, the amount of people booking places at your shows or events are likely to increase.
Equestrian Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors or brand representatives can be massive in helping to sell products or services in the equestrian industry. However, as a group, we equestrians tend to not be so ‘tech-savvy’ therefore finding a great representative can be hard work.
Using a PR agency to help you with this can save you much time. They have extensive connections already within the industry and will help you get in contact with people who are both:
- active on social media (which gives them a good basis to shout about how great your product is)
- and a good fit for your business (because they will be passionate about what your business wants to achieve)
Learn more about this topic on our “Brand Ambassadors” blog. There you will find some of our Equestrian Industry related case studies.
Social Media Management
Marketing businesses can take the hard work out of your social media. For example, coming up with posts and a regular posting schedule for your business page. They can also take the pressure of constant social media updates off of professional athletes by handling their social media, allowing them more time to train.
At Admire PR we have worked with some high profile clients in the horse industry and have an enormous list of press contacts. Andrea has also worked in equestrian businesses herself over the years and was a dressage rider before setting up her PR business, giving her a wealth of knowledge in the sector.
If you need help to promote your equestrian industry, business or service contact us on our contact page or give us a call on +44 7887 997922.
