The advances in technology has brought us along way in a short time. During this short time we have seen a large population of web surfers go from dial up to broadband and higher. This change has been helpful in how horses are marketed over the internet. During the age of dial up web surfing we would have to be aware of the time a page loads. The time a page loads has many factors that go beyond this tutorial. The one factor we are looking at is video on the web. Yes it is true that the speed of connections has sped up faster and faster, the average speed for surfers known as “horse enthusiast” is still lagging. With this in mind we must be aware of the way we market horses for sale with video.

Video is not doubt the best way to present your horse to possible buyers. But what if they can’t see the video? What if the video is choppy? What is the video cuts in and out? These are factors we need to keep in mind when making video for the web. Here are some tips to keep in mind when saving your video for the web for other horse enthusiast to see:

1. Take all of the fancy graphical transitions of the video out. The reason for the video is to present the horse to prospective buyers. Keep it to a minimum of what is needed. When someone is buying a horse what do they look for? The look at the horse from the front, each side, and the rear. Take video of these angles for the person to see the horse just as they would in person. Let the person see the hooves, the front legs, the back legs and the body as a whole from all four sides.
2. Show the horse moving. Whether it is in hand or on a lunge line, either of those is fine. I am not for sure if the horse doing liberty is the way to do it, especially in a field. Most fields have distractions, trees, tall grass, dirt, holes, etc.. that can take away from a person watching the horse move. Keep the horse in an area where the view of the horse moving is the only thing being watched.
3. If the horse is broke to ride show the horse under saddle doing all the gates. Stay away from temptation of showing off the horse, keep it to a minimum and show what is needed.
4. If you are promoting the horse as a family safe horse, show the horse doing activities that a family would do with the horse.

For the sake of knowing that the video can be seen by all possible buyers, make different sizes of video. You can make one of the videos 3mb in size, another 6mb in size, and another 10+mb in size. Then using flash technology you can let the flash program detect the connection speed and show the correct video. You can contact me if you would like to know more about this flash technology or you can google for flash video software.

Speaking of flash, this is a great tool in presenting your video on your website. If you do not have a website you can take advantage of youTube and myspace along with other video sharing services. If you do have a website, using flash allows you to embed the video right into your website so visitors can watch your sales horse without having to download the movie. You can contact me for more information about this feature if you desire to have flash added to your site to present your sale horse videos.

In the end, it is all about selling the horse. There are many skeptics still out there when it comes to buying horses online. Do not try to make the internet the end all to selling your horse. Allow it to be another avenue of marketing. Make sure there is constant information in front of all visitors on how to contact you in regards to buying the horse. The internet has come along way and is becoming a mainsteam marketing tool. But you must make sure that you keep all visitors in mind with your video and that you know your audience. At this time the average shows that the horse industry is still behind when it comes to the internet connection of choice.

If you need any help with marketing your horse on the internet please feel free to contact me for more information, some even free.

Hope this is of some help in the marketing of your horses on the internet.

Rob

 Email To A Friend  |  Print This Page

Tags: horse marketing, horse sales, horse video —