When it comes to marketing for equine businesses, one of the largest problems owners face a distinct lack of access to photography for horse businesses. Images that are customized to give a visual voice to their brands.
This issue is especially noticeable when it comes to the smaller, local brands. Brands such as small horse breeding operations, horse boarding facilities, horse trainers, farriers, and equine massage therapists.
If you are an owner of a horse business, consider the images you are currently using to represent your brand.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Do they elevate your brand in the eyes of potential clients?
Are they personal to you and your brand?
Do the images demonstrate the work that you do?
Do they show how you are different from others in the same field?
Do they give you consistent visual content for social media, websites, and e-newsletters?
Do they give you consistent visual content for banners, promotional materials, and events?
If you answered no to any of the above, chances are you are struggling to find the correct image solution for your brand.
Why Invest in Photography for your Horse Business?
While investing in professional photography is just that – an investment – it can simultaneously do several things to assist your business:
Strengthen and Elevate your Brand
Imagine if your clients see the same clear, sharp, on-brand image simultaneously across your social media platforms and website.
Without looking at the brand name, they know it’s you.
Build Recognition with your Community
Consider how important images are to a big brand.
Have you ever flipped through a magazine, saw a picture, and immediately knew what brand it was promoting without even seeing the brand name or logo?
Your community might not be thousands or millions of people, but it’s still a community and they need to recognize you.
Grab Attention of your Clients and Potential Clients
The truth is that in today’s world, images and video are golden.
With the average attention span of a person being compared to that of a goldfish, eye-catching imagery is even more important.
Save Time in Finding the Right Images
As a small business owner myself, I get it. Small business owners don’t have a lot of time.
But they do have a lot of knowledge about their subject matter.
Imagine not having to waste time searching for a great image to go with your posts on social media or trying to dig up an image that will work on your banner because you already have it right there.
Help Gain the KLT Factor with Potential Clients
Imagine two different equine massage therapists with pretty much an identical product – in this case, equine massage – and an identical price?
Who do you do business with?
Most likely it goes to the Know-Like-Trust (KLT) Factor.
And the first step of the KLT is getting to know you. Being seen – whether digitally or in-person at an event – can help to start making that connection with your potential lead.
Give you a Consistent Source for Images for both Digital and Print Needs
Imagine the time savings you have when you have the images you need right at your fingertips.
Need to print a business card? Got the right image.
Need a new brochure? Got your images right there.
Have a new social media post? Got an image to go with it.
Stats to Know
If you don’t think that professional images make a difference when it comes to marketing an equine small business, consider these stats.
According to Brain Rules by John Medina, people are likely to remember only 10% of information three days later when they hear it.
However, if the information was paired with a relevant image, people are likely to retain 65% of the information three days later.
According to Buzzsumo, Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without images.
While Instagram and Pinterest are obviously visually-driven platforms, clearly Facebook has a pretty strong visual game too.
According to the Nielsen Norman Group, eye-tracking studies show internet readers pay close attention to information-carrying images.
In fact, when the images are relevant, readers spend more time looking at the images than they do actually reading the accompanying text on the page.
Additionally, photos of products and real people, as opposed to stock photography of models, are treated as important content.
Translation: Want people to remember something about your business? Partner it with quality imagery!
In Conclusion
For the owners of equine small businesses, I hope that this post has given you some food for thought on how professional images can help you to reach your clients.
If you would like to talk with Ride the Sky Equine Photography about how we can personally help you build a visual voice for your brand, you can send a message here.
Betsy Bird of Ride the Sky Equine Photography spends her days doing insane things to make animals look at her. Clearly, she’s desperate for attention. Betsy is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) with the organization Professional Photographers of America (PPA). The CPP designation is held by fewer than 2,000 photographers nationwide and is a hallmark of consistency, technical skill, artistry, and professionalism.
Ride the Sky specializes in on-location photography for equines and pets, and has the option of bringing the studio to the stable. Additionally, Ride the Sky provides works with equine and pet brands and businesses to provide commercial photography for their advertising and marketing needs in both the digital and print spaces. Based in Chattanooga, TN, Ride the Sky Equine Photography works on location in Tennessee, North Georgia, and beyond.