Advice please on advertising....

Rudey

Rudey

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I am a member of a local club that holds 6 shows over the season comprising mainly of unaffiliated show jumping, a tiny amount of showing, and games. There is plenty more involved in the club, but I don't want to put my post across as a desparate 'sales pitch' and risk it being pulled for 'advertising' - not my intention!

We want to expand our club encouraging new memebers, or even, increase the number of competitors. We thought one way forward was to advertise - cost effectively! We have already thought of the powers of facebook, a bonus with it being free. Also, handing out flyers at shows, sending schedules to yards, tack shops and feed merchants.

Where would you suggest are the best places to advertise? Are there any websites that are free to advertise such clubs/events? Ideas hugely welcome and appreciated!

Thanks for any help in advance. :) xx
 
I am on the committee of Penistone Riding Club in South Yorkshire and we find get a lot of people entering ridden classes and working hunter. Maybe you could try doing a wider variety of classes if you just do jumping at the moment? Do you make sure that you have good fair courses with a good range of heights? There is nothing worse than going to a show and finding the course has only 6 jumps,badly positioned and they aren't the height stated in schedule. We do a themed charity show every year too which raises the profile of the club. What club is it and where are you? Good luck.
 
Riding Diary (www.ridingdiary.co.uk) is the main place to advertise horse shows on the internet. I think pretty much all of my local clubs now have facebook pages as their main way of contacting members and interested people and whenever I have a look at them there seems to be lots of activity on the pages from people asking questions about classes, what's on, etc so a good way to engage with people.
 
Thank you for your response Flight. Aha, not far from us I don't think. Where abouts are you? We are about half an hour drive from Doncaster. Our club is called Scunthorpe and District Pony Owners Club, we are based in North Lincolnshire.

I wasn't too sure how much detail I was able to put on here, but we have had a re-vamp with the schedule for this year, and that is exactly why we want to promote and advertise it so much.

With reference to our schedule, there are two jumping rings running. All classes run horses and ponies together, but judged separately. The small ring is aimed towards novice riders, comprising of a 35cm, 45cm, and 55cm classes. There are about 10 jumps in those classes, usually with at least one double combination, so one or two of that '10 jumps' may have a and b elements.

In the big ring, they have a 55cm, 65cm, pairs (at either 65cm or 75cm - I can't remember which), 75cm, 85cm, 95cm, 105cm, and Chase me Charlie Classes. There are about 11 - 13 jumps in these classes, usually there are a couple of double combinations, and also a triple. So again, included in those number of jumps, there are combinations with a, b, and c elements.

All of our jumps are fairly new bright plastic poly jumps. We have a huge variety of colours, fillers, wings, water tray's, gates, styles, planks. Here is a photo of me as an example....

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In fairness, the showing classes have only been introduced this last couple of years, and so the club have kept showing classes to a manageable amount to see how they take off. I think if they get a lot of interest it may be something they will expand in the future.

The club has a lot to offer. Not only are the entry fees cheap as chips, they do practice days before each show, they do a fun day, gymkana night games in the summer holidays, a fun day show, a memebers summer bbq, and a points system so at the end of the year trophies are awarded at a presentation night 'Pie and Pea disco'! :) xx
 
Thanks for that Bethie, great suggestion. I will have a look on there, and put us on! Do you know whether the site is popular or not?

Yes, we are on facebook too. We have got a 'profile' for our club, but it is not a 'page'. I wonder whether that has any relevance?

I did start thinking about Equi-Ads too. I wonder if they are free to advertise in, or if they have a small fee.... xx
 
Sounds really good. We advertise on riding diary and in Yorkshire post. We also use facebook quite a lot now. We put schedules in all local tack shops, feed merchants etc. Club has been going quite a long time so think most of our advertising is word of mouth. Your jumps look lovely and much easier to move than out heavy wooden ones. :-)
 
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your suggestions and kind words Flight. Our club has invested a huge amount on money in replacing all of the wooden jumps with the poly jumps. They are so much easier to handle, stack and maintain! A true luxury for us.

Is the Yorkshire post expensive to advertise in? xx
 
Hi do you have a website, me and the boy are just starting out with a few lOcal shows this year, when I googled you this thread came up. Be really interested in what classes you'd be holding looking for in hand, ridden classes mainly.
 
Where abouts in Scunthorpe do you hold these shows ? As that's not to fair away from me.
It sounds like you've got a good range of classes to suit all riders and horses. Iv got a youngster who I would like to start taking to shows this seasons and this sounds a nice place to bring him .
 
coloured_c0b said:
Hi do you have a website, me and the boy are just starting out with a few lOcal shows this year, when I googled you this thread came up. Be really interested in what classes you'd be holding looking for in hand, ridden classes mainly.
Click to expand...

Hi! Apologies I haven't replied sooner, I had forgotten about this thread. I'm afraid the club hasn't got a website yet, but if you have facebook, they have a profile, and I do believe they are planning on doing a 'page'. This should be the link to friend request them: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000955636473 or failing that, my facebook link is in my signature, so feel free to add me!

The showing classes this year are: Bonnie Pony Inhand, Best Conditioned Inhand, Coloured Inhand, Tack and Turnout (ridden), Style Manners and Appearance (ridden), and Ridden Horse/Pony (open to any combination).

You should come along, it's a great local show to get you started. xx :)
 
danninsyd said:
Where abouts in Scunthorpe do you hold these shows ? As that's not to fair away from me.
It sounds like you've got a good range of classes to suit all riders and horses. Iv got a youngster who I would like to start taking to shows this seasons and this sounds a nice place to bring him .
Click to expand...

Hi. There shows aren't actually held in Scunthorpe, but in a village on the outskirts. Do you know where the Big Messingham Annual Show is held? Well our club runs the unaffiliated ring there, but it is also where our shows are held on that very same field. If not, the address is: Holme Meadow, Messingham, North Lincolnshire, DN17 3SG.

How old is your youngster? If s/he is under the age of 4 years old, there are a couple of inhand showing classes you could participate in. Or if s/he is 4 years and above, there are all of the showing classes available to you (subject to type). Of course there are all of the showjumping classes. As I outlined earlier on in the thread, there are classes specifically with novice riders/horses/combinations in mind.

As I said to someone else, if you're on facebook please feel free to add me or the SDPOC profile. Thanks. xx :)
 
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