Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Groovy,

If you're promoting horse back riding... There are several ways to do it. You can start by schools. send special offers to schools and you can create package of let's say "an all day at the stables". you offer the kids breakfast... lunch... games... and of course hourse back riding. you can also have their parents come along for a full day activities. this is great for the summer. Kids will love it.
You can also send special offers to companier, offering the emplyess somthing similar to the school packages.
If you also do training then you can also send your prices to these companies and to the schools.
If you want to differentiate yourself you have to add a little spice to the stables you have to make it an enjoyable experience and not your typical "strictly horse back riding"... because that's everywhere.

Good luck :)

There are a lot of days left in the year after you deduct the 90 golden days of summer. Don't ignore the locals as an excellent year round revenue source.

Create strategic alliances with Women's fitness program organizers (like YWCA or private health clubs and personal trainers) to promote the benefits of riding for fitness and fun. An hour on a horse trumps "spinning" to nowhere on a machine.

Offer a half or full day fitness clinic with personal trainer, nutritionist and riding instructor at an appealing intro fee. Women will love it.

This is a subject which, thanks to my daughter, is close to my heart. Or close to my wallet!

A couple of problems which we and all “Riding School” dads suffer from are availability and variety in our locality and the availability of any kind of worthwhile riding experience whilst on holiday.

I suppose that the marketing challenge here is both structuring the content your stables can offer and how you promote these services. As you’ve not mentioned exactly what you do – is it trekking, hacking, school work, jumping, camps – then I’ve got to guess about what you offer, but to an extent, part of the answer to a marketing question is to suggest that you look carefully at the content of your various offerings so that you can structure them to meet an anticipated need.

The previous suggestion – schools and corporate days out require very different approaches. Horse riding as an educational treat requires attention to the educative aspects and the necessary health and safety issues. Promoting it, if indeed it is appropriate within your state’s educational framework, has the beauty of presenting you with a known universe of consumers and a defined route to market to get your message out. Personal contact, visits to school and brief informative lectures to show the benefits of what is on offer plus .

The corporate angle is trickier – it could be part of a reward or incentive package, but more likely it could be linked with team building and as such arranged through a motivation or training consultancy. Again, your route to market is definable and starting with your local chambers of trade, you could successfully mailshot the first type and seek out the other companies you might try to work in tandem with. When I used to run the marketing for an American multi-national, I used to go for a ride before work in Richmond Park, London, arriving at my office dressed in jodhpurs and riding boots and carrying a whip. Apart from the cracks about team discipline tools, I soon had a bunch of the most unlikely horsemen wanting to go out too, which in the end, I arranged as an additional reward for sales performance.

The last area which always seems to be neglected is to promote your stables through hotels. We’ve often looked for a friendly local stable whilst on holiday in order to spend half a day in the saddle. With the exception of Gleneagles in Scotland and a couple of other country house hotels, I’ve always had to resort to the Yellow Pages. It is estimated that about 5% of people over here ride and that another 5% would like to, so the passing trade from a hotel, if you have the right products to offer, could be considerable. It’s also in the interest of the hotelier to offer a range of activities, so I don’t think that the issue of a commission should come into it.

Good luck and can I come for a hack when I’m next over there? I promise to bring my hunting-pink riding jacket! The b*st*rds over here have banned hunting with hounds.

Regards

Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions

Hi Groovy chick 2000,

Hope you're having a great day.

Running a riding stable sounds cool. I have a couple of friends who own their own riding stables. If you don't mind me asking where are you located, what is the name of your riding stable and do you have a website I could look at?

One of my friends over the last several years has built her business exclusively by word of mouth. Of course being in an area where horse riding can be appreciated is key too.

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