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Do you have trouble knowing where to start when it comes to building a relationship with your equestrian audience? You’re not the only one.
When you first start a business, it can feel overwhelming. You know who you want to work with – you’re just not quite sure how to find or connect with them online. You’ve tried shouting from rooftops about your offers, and yet… no one’s buying.
I’ve got news for you: Your offer isn’t the problem – your approach is.
In this post, we’re going to talk about how to build trust with your equestrian audience, without being fake or salesy.
Position Yourself as the Expert
Here’s the thing… you have skills and knowledge that are incredibly useful and inspiring. Your products and services are kick-ass, and will prove to be ridiculously valuable to your clients and customers. You know it and I know it – but do they?
When you position yourself as an expert within the horse industry, you show your audience that it’s well worth your prices (and then some) to work with you.
Here are some helpful tips to position yourself as the equestrian-expert:
- Design a cohesive, professional brand with strategic messaging and consistent visuals
- Make sure your website is updated and contains everything your audience needs to know about your services, products, and how they help.
- Don’t second guess your knowledge: be confident in everything you share, no matter where you share it.
Provide Real Value Online (and Off)
If creating content online is one of your strategies, it can be REALLY easy to get caught up in the idea of pushing out as much of it as you can. And while this may feel good in the moment, it often leads to an overwhelming amount of, well, garbage (yeah, I said it).
Building trust with your equestrian audience is much easier to do when you only put out valuable content that they can actually use and understand. But what exactly is valuable content, you ask? It’s stuff like this:
Free Resources that Your “DIY” Loving Audience Can Download (in exchange for their email, of course).
Blog posts that give insightful tips and address common problems that your audience faces (that you can help fix)
Regular social media content that inspires or educates your audience in a way that *doesn’t* revolve around constantly selling your product or service
The more value you can provide your audience (for free), the more they’ll be willing to put their trust in you. And, hey, it’s also a great way to stand out from your competitors.
Don’t Get Stuck Selling 100% of the Time
You’ve got a lot to offer when it comes to your services and products – and I know you want to share it with your equestrian audience. But let’s be real for a minute. Who actually wants to follow someone who’s only interested in selling every single day? I know I don’t. In fact, I’ve unfollowed SEVERAL creators or business owners who do this (and no, I’m not saying who).
I want to be clear on this one: I’m not suggesting you stop selling entirely. I’m simply suggesting that you turn down the dial from 100% to, let’s say, 25%. I’ll give you a specific example to help you visualize this.
If you’re posting 5 days a week on social media, you should reserve 4 of those posts for something educational or inspirational to share with your audience. These posts should be PACKED full of value and should genuinely help people solve a problem or figure something out on their own. That remaining post of the week can be dedicated to promoting something fun about your business.
So, in short, provide 4x as much as you sell!
Be Consistent with Your Strategies and Show Up Regularly
My last tip for building trust with your equestrian audience may be one of the most important. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Consistency is key. If you want your audience to trust in you and what you have to offer, you need to show up for them regularly.
And while this doesn’t mean you have to be around 7 days a week indefinitely – it does mean that you should pick some kind of consistent schedule and stick with it. Whether this means you’re writing one blog post a month and creating Instagram posts 3 times a week, or only doing one Instagram post a month – just pick something that you can stick to.
Make sure to pick something that is easy for you to keep up with. You don’t want to over schedule or overwhelm, because that just makes it that much harder to stay consistent.
Ready to Build Trust with Your Own Audience?
By following these strategies, you’ll be well on your way to building a thriving equestrian business filled with clients + customers who genuinely trust (and like) you. So get out there and start making strides to connect with your dream equestrian audience.
And if you liked this post – make sure to follow me over on Instagram. I share lots of fun content just like this to help you grow your equestrian business without the hassle of doing it on your own.