Monday Morning Quickie – Do You Have Permission To Send Emails For Your Horse Biz?

This morning I received an email from someone I barely knew at a job I worked at long, long ago – they were ‘reminding’ me about their new music venture this week, using a commercial email marketing service. Not only am I not going to this event, I opted out of all future emails from this person. Why did I unsubscribe from this person’s email list? Here are my Top Two reasons:

• I haven’t heard from this person in years
• I wasn’t asked if I wanted to join the email list

Now let me say, I’m all for responsible email marketing; heck, I do it myself, and have done it for clients. I’ve also used the exact same commercial email marketing service this person used. But, you can damage your business reputation and your brand by using this tactic thoughtlessly and carelessly.

You might have heard about a little concept called ‘permission marketing’ that author and marketing guy Seth Godin came up with a few years back; here’s an excellent explanation about permission marketing from Seth’s own blog.

Basically, when someone is ‘paying attention’ to you and your horse business, they are giving you a precious commodity – their time and attention. Just because you have someone’s email address doesn’t give you the right to clog up their inbox with things that are important to YOU, but probably aren’t to THEM.

How could this person have done things differently and perhaps converted me into a fan? It’s the same way you can grow your own permission-based email list:

• Send a personal email first, saying ‘Hi, I know it’s been a long time but here’s what I’m up to and I’d love your support….’ and invite them to opt-in, or join, your email list.
• OR, if an email list is too long or there’s too much of a time crunch to send individual personal emails, send two emails through the email service: One to give a heads up and invite the recipient to subscribe for future announcements, followed 1-2 days later by the actual announcement.

It’s something to think about if you’re pursuing email marketing as a strategy for your horse business. While it takes more time and effort in the beginning to get someone’s permission, in the long run you’ll have more credibility, gain your audience’s trust, and have the opportunity to build your audience instead of losing them to the competition.

What about you? Have you experienced receiving unsolicited emails? Tell me what you think!

Monday Morning Quickie – Real-Time Simulcast Kicks Off New Horse Exhibit

Technology continues to bring those of us in the horse industry closer to each other, AND helps us communicate more effectively with our audiences. A recent example should be something to inspire us all.

Image courtesy Paul Smoke

The Al-Marah Arabian Horse Galleries opened this month at the Kentucky Horse Park (KHP). A $10 million permanent exhibit and a significant addition to KHP’s International Museum of the Horse, the Al-Marah Galleries’ grand opening celebration was kicked off on June 12, 2010, using a live video simulcast. And yes, I watched it – via my laptop, while sitting comfortably on my deck on the northside of Chicago, despite the sweltering heat in KHP’s celebration tent in Lexington, Kentucky!

While a video will never take the place of actually being there, it can help those farther afield still feel a part of things. And I’ve long thought that welcoming new people into the horse world is something we all need to do.

More and more, simulcasts are being used for horse shows, competitions, and conferences. The footage can be archived for historical reference, or packaged and sold as content, making it a potential revenue generator.

As video technology both improves and comes down in cost, I imagine we’ll be seeing even more…and I think it’s a great thing for the horse industry.

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A few Al-Marah Galleries extras:

• I found this VERY interesting: While making her opening remarks, Project Manager Evie Tubbs Sweeney made a key point, that this interactive, captivating museum about the Arabian horse will likely be seen by the million or so visitors each year to the Kentucky Horse Park, and that within 10 years, that’s a potential 10 million person audience that could be moved to possess an Arabian of their very own. At the very least, the exhibit will educate and inspire future generations of horse lovers and owners, something our industry truly needs.

• I had the opportunity to visit Lexington for the American Horse Publications annual conference, and visited the Al-Marah Galleries on Day 10 after the grand opening celebration; you can read about my experience here. Since I was marketing/PR director for Al-Marah a while back, it was nice to see some of the familiar programs and people represented, but there are also some fantastic artifacts and lots of great images and information I’d never seen before. I wish I’d had more time to explore it, and I can’t wait to go back.

• I hope the Purebred Arabian Trust, which developed the project, will put the grand opening video online as a historical document; in the meantime, there are several videos about the Al-Marah Galleries housed at their site.

Monday Morning Quickie – Watch Out TV, Here Comes The Web!

A recent study indicated that the Web was catching up to television in terms of influencing face-to-face conversations. While most equine businesses can’t advertise on TV due to the sheer cost involved, the Internet is a completely different story. What could this mean to the future of the horse industry?

While past surveys by The Keller Fay Group still showed TV was king when it came to influencing conversations about specific brands, their newest survey (with Yahoo!) shows the Internet poised to overtake television, according to an article by Jack Neff at Advertising Age magazine’s Web site.

The Internet gained three percentage points over last year, so that it now influences or prompts 15% of brand-related conversations compared to television’s 16%; the numbers are based on a survey conducted in January, 2010. Print media stayed constant at about 10%.

I recommend reading Neff’s article, since he shares details about specific numbers on various factors affecting this trend, and how they’ve changed over the past few years.

What does all this mean for the horse industry? These are all factors we need to be aware of, and factor into our marketing:

• Mobile devices are increasingly important, as are consumers aged 13 to 40
• While the players may change and evolve, social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) is here to stay and has a powerful effect
• Information needs to be available online 24/7, so that people can access, and share it with others, on their own schedule
• Developing an online presence and a strong brand identity is more important today than it’s ever been in the equestrian world

The Internet puts into our hands a very powerful communication tool, one that levels the playing field in terms of the horse industry’s ability to communicate to current and potential horse owners and compete against other recreational industries. The question is, how will we use it?

And The Winner Is….

Last night’s American Horse Publications (AHP) awards contest had some mighty fine equine magazines and people receiving awards for editorial content, graphic design, and overall excellence. In the PowerPoint slideshow announcing each winner, I saw many articles by others that made me think ‘ooh, I want to read that one!’ and photos that I was wowed by, with spectacular color and composition.

While the evening can normally be a bit lengthy, last night seemed to fly by for two reasons – one, that I took off my cinch belt to be more comfortable, and two, that I received several awards for my own articles!

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2010 American Horse Publications awards certificates!

Yesterday I wrote about the two Finalist articles I was aware of, but the real shocker of the night was the 2nd place win for my series on the Chicago carriage horse case last year, published over a period of months at TheHorse.com. I had no clue it was even a Finalist, and after receiving the first two award certificates (a 2nd place and an Honorable Mention), I’d settled back into my chair thinking all my winning chances were done with. So when they called my name, I was stunned! Made me a little verklempt, even.

AHP has put up a PDF listing all the 2010 awards winners. Congrats to all who received acknolwedgement of their work and talent!

I’m on pages 5, 8, and 18 of the PDF; where possible, I’ll work on getting links and permissions so I can put up the articles for you to read if you like.

Since there’s no chance to say ‘thank yous’ during the AHP awards, I’d like to thank my editors here: Erin Ryder Hsu (formerly TheHorse.com news editor), Kelly Ballou and Celeste Karpf at Equine Journal, and Patty Oxendine at From The Horse’s Mouth for their belief in me and selecting me for article assignments – you’ve made these awards possible! And, I also want to thank my partner JR and our dog Bella, for their love, support, and encouragement.

Trying Not To Hold My Breath

I’ve been writing equine articles for a number of years now, and for the first time, two of my articles are finalists in the American Horse Publications annual awards contest. Can you tell I’m trying not to hold my breath as I’m typing this?

I love it when people tell me that an article of mine that they’ve read has helped them in some way. Whether it gave them useful information, or pointed them in the direction they needed at the right time, it’s always good to hear. I strive to do good, thorough work, including research and in-depth interviews, combined with fact/quote checks of my drafts to provide a great final product – so it’s good to hear the work is valued.

What’s cool for me about the AHP awards contest is the peer acknowledgement from having 2 of my 2009 articles selected as finalists, because I know there are far better writers and reporters than I, and I know the competition for these awards is fierce.  So, it’s a nice little feather in my cap to have that ‘Finalist’ ribbon on my conference nametag this year.

What articles made the cut? Two that I’m very proud of:

• To Air Is Divine – about Lipizzans and the airs above the ground, with a bit of history as well as information from 3 top trainers, including the head rider at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna (who sent me emails from his iPhone – how’s that for ‘modern meets historic’).
• But I Paid The Photographer! What Do You Mean, I Don’t Own The Photo? – about the issues of photograph copyright and use of images from professional photographers, including how putting proofs on Facebook can potentially damage a pro photographer’s business and career.

The awards banquet and ceremony is tonight – I hope I’ll have good news to report tomorrow and a plaque to put on my wall. But, even if it doesn’t happen, I hope to be able to have a ‘Finalist’ ribbon on my nametag again next year.

100 Days – The Countdown to WEG2010

Lexington, Kentucky, is often referred to as the Horse Capital of the World. When I arrived here this week for the American Horse Publications conference, I was greeted by rolling green pastures filled with mares and foals, and as I pulled into downtown, I saw a ‘WEG countdown clock’ showing there were 100 days until the start of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010 (WEG2010). If your schedule is flying by these days like mine is, that will be here in about two blinks of an eye.

I’m gathering lots of pretty amazing WEG2010 info and will share it here, so tune in over the next few weeks. For example:

• The expected worldwide viewership is expected to be FIVE TIMES that of the Super Bowl.
• Over 1,500 journalists and photographers will be attending the Games.
• WEG2010 has an official soft drink, pizza, beer, coffee, and I don’t know what else!

This is going to provide lots of great information and case studies on equine industry marketing, communication, and PR. If you don’t want to miss any of it, you can sign up for email alerts when I do a new post, or the RSS feed.

Also – if you have friends and colleagues who are also interested in equine industry marketing and media, or following WEG2010, please give them a heads up and a link to my blog. Thanks, I appreciate your help!

No Need To Travel To Equine Events, With Online Simulcasts

Later this afternoon, the grand opening ceremony of the new Al-Marah Arabian Galleries at the Kentucky Horse Park will be broadcast live, during the 2010 Egyptian Event. Amazing that no matter where you are in the world, you’ll be able to view it via the Internet. In the future, will there be any need to even travel to equine events?

The answer is, yes, of course there will be. Horse people love to be around horses, and no matter how great the video and audio on a simulcast, nor how big your computer monitor, the Web will never replace being in the presence of horses.

That said, this is a cool use of technology. I wouldn’t drive the 8 or so hours from Chicago to attend the opening in Kentucky, but I’ll probably tune in later today, especially to see what my former employer is up to. Yup, I did marketing and PR at Al-Marah Arabians, back in 2004. Of course, back then we didn’t have such handy-dandy technology; when someone was interested in a horse we had for sale, I had to get out the camcorder, take the footage, transfer it to a VIDEOTAPE, and mail the video. Oh, back then it was a veritable Stone Age compared to now!

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What marketing and PR opportunities

might YOU create for your equine business, using video simulcast?

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I’m not sure if there will be an archived version of the video; I hope there will be. These galleries are part of the efforts of the Purebred Arabian Trust, and the opening ceremony would be an important historical document, albeit in video form.

It does bring up questions for equine businesses about video use. Can you expand your potential market through video simulcasts? Would it allow you to expand into other regions, countries, or even continents? Might you create public relations and promotion opportunities through the use of simulcast events? Ah, the opportunities!

Monday Morning Quickie – Check Out The Competition, With Compete.com

There are a number of helpful tools for analyzing online traffic. I think Compete.com is intriguing since you can compare multiple sites against each other. This means you can also look at your own site to see how it stacks up against the competition.

First of all, many thanks to Angelea Walkup, founder and ‘chief equine officer’ of HorseGirlTV, for sharing this resource with me.

While Compete.com has a paid, ‘Pro’ version, they also have a free version you can try out, and even the freebie has some interesting features.

I’m still exploring the site and its capabilities and applications, but by entering a Web site URL, you can view any site’s unique visitors (a better judge of traffic than ‘hits’), and see how that traffic has either increased or decreased over the past month and the past year. Compete.com also gives you the top five search terms (what people enter into a search engine such as Google or Bing in order to find you), and what ‘referring’ sites they find you from, such as Facebook or Twitter.

Here’s a graph for one of my clients, The Equine Chronicle, showing the increase in their Web site traffic over the past year:

Compete.com graph for The Equine Chronicle on June 7, 2010

How might you use Compete.com for your horse business? With the free version, you can identify your own improvement in terms of traffic, identify the most-used search terms and incorporate those into your online content, or even analyze media outlets to find out what might be the best fit for your advertising dollars.

If you’re interested in checking out Compete Pro, here’s a very thorough review of the Compete Pro version by Melanie Nathan at Sugarrae.com.

Have comments, thoughts, or questions about Compete? Please Leave a Comment below – thanks!

Monday Morning Quickie – Are You Quitting Facebook Today?

Facebook has been the ’800 pound social media gorilla in the room’ for a while now; however, they’re facing increasing criticism and unrest from users due to Facebook’s treatment of user data and their complex privacy opt-out settings. May 31, 2010, has been designated as Quit Facebook Day; is it a sign of things to come? Or will it be business-as-usual come tomorrow?

An excellent article by Ian Paul at PCWorld.com covers the issues on this topic; he reports that while only a small percentage of surveyed Facebook users intend to quit today, over 80% are now being more careful on the social networking site, with 76% sharing less personal information. Paul’s article also covers some of the recently simplified privacy changes, in case you’re interested.

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Facebook: Do you love it? Or hate it?

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On a related topic, Mashable.com has an alert about a Facebook ‘clickjacking’ worm that is spreading via ‘likes.’ If you use Facebook and regularly ‘like’ items, you might want to read the alert and use some caution until it’s cleared up.

Many horse people like to connect and share information via Facebook, so until something better comes along, it’s probably a good idea to share private details sparingly when it comes to Facebook.

(Note – due to the Memorial Day holiday, this ‘Monday Morning Quickie’ turned into a ‘Monday Early Evening Quickie’ – hope you’ve enjoyed it anyway!)

Thank you to all of our armed forces and their families, past/present/future,  for your service and your sacrifices both small and large.

More Work-Arounds for Poor Flip Audio Quality

A question from one of my readers, writer and horsewoman RhondaL, sent me off on the research path for new and improved audio for videos made with the Flip cameras. While I found some great resources for recording and adding voiceover narration, I also came across some other work-around tips to compensate for the Flip’s poor audio quality. Enjoy!

• Here are some basic, common-sense tips from Greyson Ferguson at eHow.com; to get the best sound possible in your original recording, it’s a good idea to keep these tips in mind, such as minimize jostling, don’t touch the mic while recording, and limit outdoor recording (with the resulting wind-noise), but most horse people WILL be recording outdoors, so that particular option doesn’t work for us.

Thankfully, there’s more….

• A company called Quick Video Marketing has some videos and checklists about boosting your audio quality using mostly free software. They have options for both Mac and PC; the only paid software is QuickTime Pro, which the narrator (Jeff ‘Herschy’ Schwerdt) says is about $30. The audio on his videos is clear and strong, so while I haven’t yet used this process, I think it might be promising.

• But, THIS tip is the one I’m most excited about trying out for interview-type videos, since it gives you an option for syncing your Flip video with audio from another source (like my Olympus digital recorder!). It’s from a guy named Darrell Icenogle at EzineArticles.com – please read Darrell’s well-written explanation – it’s genius!

I look forward to checking out Darrell’s other audio/video & tech tips, too. He suggests another resource for learning how to maximize your Flip videos, FlipInFocus.com, which looks promising. Thanks, Darrell!

If you’ve missed my other posts on my Flip UltraHD camera, you can search for ‘Flip’ in the Search box to the right. If you have tips that have worked for you, please post them to Comments – I’d love to read about them!