Website Whoas?
By Brie Anne Hoblin
(Thank you Brie for volunteering to write this article and for being so thorough! - To anyone that has an article or information that would be valuable to CHC readers, please email me! I would love to post it for you.)
Whether or not Curlies are truly a “breed”, I believe they have a lot going for them. As their No. 1 fan, I know their wonderful temperaments and athleticism make them desirable horses even without their hypoallergenic coats and extra dose of beauty. One look into those curly-lashed eyes and I am a complete goner. Who wouldn’t love this horse?
But in this fast paced world full of Warmbloods and slick websites, Curlies have sometimes failed to fetch much in asking prices. The truth is the average Curly breeder is so busy feeding and caring for their horses, that they don’t have the time to market them properly!
The end result of this lack of marketing is that we have protected the breed in some ways, and harmed it in others. Curlies have not been ruined by overexposure and hype as certain other breeds have been. But they also haven’t been as valued because they are so unknown to the rest of the horse world. No one wants to see Curlies go the way of the German shepherd, but as times change and more technologies are available to us as breeders, perhaps we can find a balance between marketing and protecting our breed. Maybe we can raise their market value without compromising their integrity.
To take one small step in this direction, I wanted to write an article about website etiquette. Many breeders now have websites, whether they have built the site themselves, or hired a professional. A website is such an effective step towards marketing Curlies to a larger audience. To take marketing one step further, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on what makes a website more professional, and what features in a website help market our Curly horses.
Overall Image Of The Breed
The first thing that merits discussion is image. Some people think that Curly horses are backyard horses, kid’s ponies, or 4-H material. Certainly many Curlies are great for that because they take such good care of the kids. But I hate to see the whole breed viewed in such a low-key way because it connotes a lack of professionalism, and people won’t take the breed as seriously. Curlies, as we all know, can do anything-from babysitting the grandkids to bringing home the ribbons. I think a lot of us have as much heart invested in our horses as we do money, and it shows in our websites with funny pictures and family stories. But I have to wonder if it would benefit the breed to separate those things out more; to have one website for friends and families and other curly enthusiasts to see, and another more professional website for marketing Curlies as a breed. While some websites quite appropriately blend together information about the breed with fun and personal anecdotes, when marketing Curlies for sale, it pays to have a professional image. Linking a professionally done website to a blog is a great way of letting the viewer decide how much information they want. Including long and detailed personal stories on a sales page is not. The truth is, when someone is looking at Curlies for sale, no matter how much the breeder’s grandson likes a pony, the buyer wants to know more about its age and health and temperament. That is going to sell buyers on a horse more than a cute photo. The first major issue to tackle around websites is to think about how they look to potential buyers, and to evaluate whether they are professional websites whose primary purpose is to help you sell your horses, or geared more towards friends, family, or the viewer looking for information on the breed in general. If your aim is to do both, think about how you can separate the two kinds of information, possibly by having a professional website that is linked to a blog, or by having a sleek website that also has a’News’ page. The rest of this article focuses on websites aimed at marketing horses professionally.
Designing Your Homepage
The first thing websites must have is a main page, or an index (also known as a homepage). As the very first thing customers see, this page needs to make a good impression. It should have the best possible photo or photos of your horse, as well as links to every other part of your site. This is where it pays to have one really nice photo rather than several smaller ones. While smaller photos can capture a wider range of your horses’ talents, it does not make as lasting an impression as one bigger photograph of better quality. You can post as many photos as you want on your horse’s individual link, and its fine to use a few different images to create a banner, but on the main page of your website you want an unforgettable image. While I have seen websites with 3-4 images that still looked professional, the issue to keep in mind is that you don’t want to use so many images that they are all small and hard to see. A larger higher quality image provides better proof of your horses’ outstanding qualities. Give the customer an interesting shot; something they will be likely to remember that also shows your horse in a flattering light.
The main page of your website should probably have links to the following things;
-Basic information on the breed in general, either something that you wrote, or an article from another website.
-General information on your breeding program, and buying a horse from your farm.
-Sales Page or Foal Page
-Stallion Page
-Mare Page
- Contact information.
Other possible categories include Farm News, or Events, information on other services such as boarding or offering lessons / training or an ‘about us’ page.
The next thing to discuss is the layout of your main page. These links can be organized in a vertical menu or a horizontal menu. A vertical menu should always be on the left side of the screen. Why? Because if a viewer happens to be browsing your page with a smaller window, your menu will still show up. If your links to other pages are in a vertical menu located on the right, it could be cut off in a smaller window, and then the user has to search for it and gets annoyed. The same reasoning goes for putting a horizontal menu at the top; again this is what viewers will still see even if they open your website in a smaller window, or on a palm pilot / handheld device.
General Details In Designing A Website; Keeping A Consistent Theme
A banner with the farm name at the top of your homepage lets people know right away if they found the website they were looking for or not. A general slogan like “Curly Horses in the Green Mountains” is not as effective as “Lakewood Curlies- Sport-horse Bodies with a Curly Mind.” The first banner slogan gives a location and a breed, but the second slogan lets the viewer know exactly what farm they have found on the web, as well as what specific kind of breeding program the farm has. If you need to make a banner, or buttons for your main menu, you can make them for free at: http://cooltext.com .
A smaller version of this banner or a variation of it can be used at the top of each of your pages to create a consistent feel throughout your website. This banner should link back to the homepage on every single page so that if people get lost in your website, they can easily find their way back to the main page, and main menu.
Make sure your contact information is posted on every page where it is easy to find OR that there is a ‘contact us’ page in your main menu. Most people put contact info on the bottom of every page if they don’t have a specific ‘contact us’ page.
Don’t add music to your main site, i.e. music that automatically starts playing when a viewer enters your site. It can annoy potential buyers who may have different musical tastes. However, having music as part of video clips or slideshows is ok.
Shy away from gaudy special effects such as text that follows the mouse cursor around the screen, rotating or flashing logos, or screens that fade away slowly rather than loading to the next link. All of these factors can distract viewers from what you want them to see; the horses!
Use neutral solid colors for the background instead of distracting patterns or overly bright shades. This allows the customer’s eye to be drawn to the natural beauty of the horse.
Keep the theme of your site consistent from page to page. It’s ok to use different backgrounds as long as they are not too diverse. Choose one or two colors that go well together, but don’t use more than three completely different colors, as the background will get too distracting.
Use a font that is big enough to read, and keep your font size consistent. It makes sense to have the horse’s name or a page title in a larger font (or header), but be consistent and use the same font size for the same thing throughout the website. If the first foal’s page announces the foal’s registered name in one font size, do all the other foal names on their pages using the same font size as well. Also use the same font!!
Choose fonts that are easy to read. Times New Roman is a font that virtually all computers have stored on them. Verdana is a font developed just for web-pages and contains slightly more ‘open’ letters. Avoid unusual fonts as not all computers will have them stored, and so the viewer will end up seeing a default font instead. Also avoid fonts that are overly fancy and difficult to read.
Keep the links focused on horses. Do not add links for your spouse’s business or your favorite hobbies (unless it somehow relates to your breeding operation as well), as this detracts from the professionalism of the site. You want to make it as easy as possible for a potential customer to focus on your horses.
Content should be informative and relevant. Any comments of a more personal nature, such as journal entries or photo captions should be used to highlight the horse’s good points. Irrelevant info about family vacations, problems building the new barn, which people recently came to visit, etc. should be kept to a minimum or eliminated entirely. It’s good to have a “friendly” website, but if there are too many personal details, it makes it hard for people to find the information they are looking for.
A motto or catch phrase for your farm or breeding program is a good idea. Try to come up with something that is easy to remember.
Make sure every major page of the site has links to every other major part of the site. Not EVERY mare page needs to be linked to EVERY foal page, but the main sales page should have a link for the stallion page and the general mare page should have a link to the breed info page etc. Make your site as easy to navigate as possible, so that people can relocate information if they need to.
Photos
Photos and graphics truly make or break a website. While not all of us have the money to hire a professional photographer or graphic designer, there are a few things you can do to help keep your site more professional:
Remember to resize photos to a size that is easy to download so that people on dial-up aren’t stuck waiting. (Recent studies report that 47% of the United States still uses dial-up.) Generally, a safe image size is 320 x 240. If you don’t have a program to resize your photos, you can download Google’s Picasa program for free at http://picasa.google.com/ or do a search for other free image programs.
Label each photo so that people know which horse and rider it is.
Make sure that any photos you use observe basic safety precautions like helmets. A cute picture of kids wearing no helmets on a Curly wearing no halter may show how gentle the breed is, but may also come across to some potential buyers as being unprofessional or unsafe.
Try to use interesting images that catch a viewer’s attention. A horse touching noses with the family dog, a Curly mane and curly lashes in the setting sun, or 2 foals sleeping side by side are all great photos that draw the viewer’s attention. You will also need basic conformation photos, and it’s ok if those look ‘ordinary’ as long as they really do show the horse’s conformation.
Be aware of what is in the background or foreground of your photo. Is there a fence in the way? A gutter sticking out behind your horse? Try to be aware of the ‘frame’ of the photo and what is in it.
Make sure photos are not blurry, or at an awkward angle. Familiarize yourself with your camera’s settings before you go to take pictures of your horses. We’ve all taken a great picture on the wrong setting! Also be aware of whether there is too much or not enough light. Taking photos in the early morning, or mid-evening during summer can help prevent photos from being ‘washed out’ by too much sun. If necessary pay someone else to take photos, or invite a friend to help. It’s a small amount of money to pay if your horses sell at higher prices, and taking photos is always easier with two people (one to hold the carrot and the other to hold the camera).
Related pages: Linda's Photo tips!
Breeding Program Page
Depending on how much information you want on your website, you may want a separate page for this information, or you may simply want to include it at the top of your main sales page. This information should be in a place that is easy for potential buyers to find. Assuming you want a separate page for info on your breeding program, your page should include an outline of your breeding goals and philosophies, and any information on specific bloodlines. Are you breeding taller horses? Dressage horses? Draft horses? Do you value temperament as much as conformation? Let viewers know what the horses are bred to do, as well as what body type they are expected to have.
Potential buyers also need to know what paperwork or vet-work will be involved in purchasing a horse from you. Do you make a vet-check mandatory with any purchase? Do you require a deposit in order to hold a foal until weaning? Will the horse be current on all its shots? Make your general expectations as clear as possible on this page. It sets an example of how responsible your program is, and lets buyers know that you pay attention to details, and follow through with your promises.
A website is also a great place to give buyers clear expectations around what they can expect the horse to do. Does every horse you sell know how to lift its feet before it leaves the property? Will they have experience with a trailer before being shipped to their new home? It pays to be clear about these things in advance. We all have so much on the line every time we sell a horse. Let’s do what we can to maintain clear communication. It makes it that much easier to find a happy ending for your horse and their new owner.
Sales Pages
Now we get down to the nitty gritty, the sales page!
Have one main sales page listing every horse that you have for sale. Ideally, give every horse that you have for sale its own link off of the main sales page. Here’s why: It takes a full page to show all the information that the buyer needs to know about the horse. Your horse’s sales page should include conformational photographs of all four sides. Buyers want to see first and foremost that the horse is sound and solidly built. They will want to see the horse from both sides as well as from the front and back. Again, make sure these photos are up-close so that buyers can really see for themselves how well-built your horses are. And make sure they are taken at a good angle, with enough light, and in clear focus.
Horses for sale should also have their pedigree posted. If you have the information, post four generations of your horse’s pedigree. If you can, have a pedigree that links to photos of every horse listed. The Curly Horse Pedigree Database at http://www.curlyhorses.info/default.asp can be a helpful link for this info. There are directions on the site on how to add your own horses.
Give the buyer enough information to know whether or not this is a horse they are interested in. Don’t give them so much information that they are overwhelmed. Other topics to include information on include; the horse's health, any training completed, and an overview of the horse’s temperament. Most importantly, include the horse’s height and age.
Last but not least, include the price. While some people may not want to put a price on their horse until they are dealing with a potential buyer face to face or at least over the phone, there should at least be some information on pricing, whether its “price will increase with training” or “private treaty.” But don’t leave your viewers searching for a price.
If you want to include details of a more personal nature, make testimonials on each horse’s page where you can tell stories about them, or write down quotes about how good they are. Just keep the personal information separate from the information that people need. It is so frustrating to read on and on about how wonderful someone thinks their horse is when you don’t even know if they are the bloodlines you are looking for!!!
Related Pages: Sell a Curly
Stallion & Mare Pages
These pages are an excellent opportunity to convince potential customers that they want to buy from you. If you can intelligently and logically explain why you chose your stallion, or what qualities make your horse such a good broodmare, then the buyers will be convinced of your knowledge and expertise. They will trust you to know the difference between a mediocre horse and a great one. It is good to include the same kind of information that you have on your sales page; conformational photos, a few sentences about temperament, four generations of pedigree, and the horse’s height and age. Also list any accomplishments the horse has. Photos of your horses being ridden or shown are the best advertising you can have on a webpage. We’ve all seen a lot of web-pages advertising stallions that are ‘gentle as a lamb’ but a photo of your stallion behaving well and performing in the show ring are much rarer and more impressive. The same goes for broodmares. The more photos we show of Curlies doing something, the better the market value of their offspring will be. And the more a buyer knows about a foal’s parents, the more they know about the foal they want to buy, and hopefully, the more they want to buy it.
Contact Page
The ‘contact us’ page is pretty straight-forward. Put whatever information- your address, phone number, or email address- that you feel comfortable with. Sometimes people post directions to their farm on this page as well. If you do put your email address on this page, you may want to alter it slightly, so it is unreadable to the spiders and robots that crawl the web. If you change it so that it reads something like youremailATyahooDOTcom, you will save yourself some unwanted spam mail.
Summary
Websites are not difficult if you keep a few things in mind;
- Stay professional and keep family stuff on a family website, or at least in a blog.
- Be consistent and conservative with color schemes and backgrounds, use easy to read fonts, and no music!
- Remember the value of a quality photograph.
- Provide all the basic information about your sale horses right on their web page so that buyers don’t have to go looking for it.
-Make sure your contact information is displayed on every page, or on a ‘contact us’ page.
-Give potential customers clear expectations whenever possible.
If potential Curly owners have access to more consistent and professional information on the horses we have for sale, more buyers will find horses that they are satisfied with. It can be difficult right now for a potential Curly buyer because they don’t always have access to a wide range of horses for sale in their immediate area. This makes how we advertise them on the web even more important. With more Curlies being advertised on better quality websites, we as breeders can do a lot to help the breed, as well as the potential buyers. Wishing everyone Happy Trails and Happy Marketing!
If you have any questions about websites, contact Brie. I am sure she would love to help you out.
Email Brie at: bhoblin@gmail.com
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