7 Promotion Ideas For Equestrian & Horse Care Brands

The equestrian industry is experiencing a digital-first shift, with brands leveraging everything from Olympic athlete partnerships to AI-powered loyalty programs. Yet many horse care companies still struggle to connect with the riders who browse their websites without making a purchase—a challenge that visitor identification technology can solve. This guide breaks down seven proven promotion strategies that equestrian brands are using to grow their customer base, increase engagement, and drive measurable sales.

Key Takeaways

• UGC and customer-led content can lift customer trust (one equestrian marketing source cites ~25%) — and it’s especially effective when you repost real riders using your products.
• Short-form video (Reels and TikTok) generates 20% higher engagement than static posts
• User-generated content campaigns cost almost nothing yet boost conversion rates by as much as 29%
• Email marketing consistently delivers the highest ROI among digital channels for equestrian brands
• Loyalty programs are an emerging trend, with major brands like LeMieux launching sophisticated rewards systems in 2024
• Facebook-promoted events were cited as seeing ~15% higher attendance versus events advertised through other platforms
• Educational content builds long-term authority, with 40% of YouTube views coming from recommended videos

Why Equestrian Brands Need Smarter Promotion Strategies

The equestrian market faces unique marketing challenges. Purchase cycles can stretch weeks or months, average order values range from affordable supplements to premium tack costing thousands, and buyers conduct extensive research before committing. Traditional promotion tactics often fall short when dealing with discerning riders who value quality, authenticity, and genuine expertise.

The industry's digital transformation creates both opportunity and competition. While online sales continue growing, brands compete for attention across an increasingly fragmented landscape. Younger riders prefer digital interactions and social shopping, while traditional equestrians seek personalized service and detailed product information.

Data-driven approaches now separate successful brands from the rest. Companies using modern marketing technology can identify anonymous website visitors, track customer interactions across devices, and optimize campaigns based on real behavioral data. Brands that capture and activate first-party data gain sustainable competitive advantages as third-party cookies disappear and privacy regulations tighten.

1) Social Media Influencer & Athlete Partnerships

Best For: Product launches and brands seeking credibility with serious riders

Partnering with equestrian athletes and influencers remains one of the most effective promotion tactics in the industry. The equestrian community values authenticity, and riders trust recommendations from competitors they admire.

Why It Works

Brands using influencer partnerships report a 25% increase in customer trust. Unlike celebrity endorsements in other industries, equestrian influencers often have genuine, long-term relationships with the products they promote.

Key examples include:

• Mary King x Ariat: A partnership spanning over 20 years since 2002, demonstrating the power of authentic, long-term collaborations
• LeMieux x Harlow White: A young influencer with over 790,000 YouTube subscribers reaching next-generation riders through the Harlow Collection
• Snoop Dogg's Olympic appearance: The dressage coverage brought unprecedented mainstream visibility to equestrian sports

How to Get Started

1. Identify riders whose values align with your brand
2. Start with micro-influencers ($1,000-$5,000) to test messaging
3. Request media kits with engagement metrics before committing
4. Focus on long-term relationships over one-off posts

As social media strategist Kerri McGregor notes, "The best way to get the attention of potential sponsors is to provide user generated content"—making this tactic work both ways for brands seeking ambassadors.

OpenSend Integration

Once you've launched influencer campaigns, OpenSend Connect helps you identify visitors driven by those partnerships and automatically add them to targeted email marketing flows. This ensures you capture the traffic these partnerships generate and convert interest into sales.

Tools You'll Need: Influencer management platform, social media accounts, tracking links
Expected ROI: 3-5X return on influencer investment for authentic partnerships

2) Short-Form Video Marketing (Instagram Reels & TikTok)

Best For: Building brand awareness and reaching younger riders
Budget: $0-$5,000/month

Short-form video has become the dominant format in equestrian marketing. Platform algorithms heavily favor video content, giving brands organic reach that static posts can no longer achieve.

Why It Works

The numbers speak for themselves:

• Instagram Reels deliver 20% higher engagement compared to static posts
• TikTok users spend an average of 90 minutes per day on the app
• Videos with trending audio generate 50% higher engagement
• Instagram boasts 3 billion users, with TikTok at 1B+ monthly active users

Content That Performs

For equestrian brands, the most successful video content includes:

• Behind-the-scenes barn life: Morning feeding routines, grooming sessions, tack room tours
• Quick tutorials: Braiding techniques, saddle fitting tips, first aid demonstrations
• Product reveals: Unboxing new tack, showing products in action during training

The ideal Reel length is around 8 seconds, and you must capture attention in the first second. This makes equestrian content—naturally visual and dynamic—perfectly suited to the format.

OpenSend Integration

Video content drives traffic, but most viewers don't convert immediately. OpenSend Connect identifies these engaged visitors and enables retargeting campaigns across email, social, and SMS to nurture them toward purchase.

Tools You'll Need: Smartphone camera, video editing app, social media scheduler
Expected ROI: Significant organic reach with minimal investment

3) User-Generated Content (UGC) Campaigns

Best For: Small brands building community on tight budgets
Budget: $0-$500 for contest prizes

UGC campaigns leverage your existing customers to create authentic promotional content. In the tight-knit equestrian community, riders trust other riders more than polished brand messaging.

Why It Works

Brands incorporating UGC see conversion rate improvements of as much as 29%. Instagram posts featuring UGC can achieve a 28% higher engagement rate than typical brand posts.

How to Implement

1. Create a branded hashtag and encourage customers to use it when posting photos with your products
2. Feature customer content on your own social feeds (with permission)
3. Run photo contests with prizes from your product line
4. Request reviews and testimonials to repurpose across channels

According to Kerri McGregor, "Start creating content that showcases their brand, then tag the company in your post so that they can share your post on their feed."

OpenSend Integration

UGC campaigns work even better when paired with retargeting. Once you've captured visitor information through OpenSend Connect, you can encourage UGC participation through follow-up email sequences that make customers feel valued and engaged.

Tools You'll Need: Social media accounts, branded hashtag, contest platform (optional)
Expected ROI: 25-30% boost in customer trust and conversion rates

4) Email Marketing & Newsletter Campaigns

Best For: Brands focused on customer retention and direct communication
Budget: $0-$300/month

Email marketing consistently delivers the highest ROI among digital channels. Unlike social media, where algorithms control visibility, email gives you direct access to your audience.

Why It Works

Email marketing allows equestrian brands to access their customers whenever needed and consistently delivers strong returns on investment. It's also one of the most powerful forms of data to make informed decisions about product development, seasonal promotions, and customer preferences.

Email Strategy for Equestrian Brands

• Welcome sequences introducing new subscribers to your brand story
• Seasonal campaigns tied to show season, winter layup, or spring turnout
• Educational newsletters with horse care tips and riding advice
• Product launch announcements with early access for subscribers
• Abandoned cart recovery emails to recapture lost sales

The challenge for many equestrian brands is capturing email addresses from anonymous website visitors.

OpenSend Integration

Tools like OpenSend Connect can identify high-intent visitors and add them to your email marketing flows automatically. This transforms anonymous browsers into identifiable leads you can nurture through targeted campaigns.

Tools You'll Need: Email service provider (ESP), automation platform, list growth tools
Expected ROI: $36-42 return for every $1 spent on email marketing

5) Event Sponsorship & In-Person Activations

Best For: Brands wanting face-to-face connections with their target audience
Budget: $500-$50,000+ depending on event tier

Despite the digital shift, in-person events remain central to equestrian marketing. Horse shows, clinics, and competitions offer opportunities for hands-on product demonstrations and relationship building.

Why It Works

Events promoted on Facebook see 15% higher attendance. More importantly, meeting someone in person is far more memorable than any digital interaction.

Sponsorship Options

• Class or division sponsorship: Your brand name announced throughout the competition
• Prize sponsorship: Substantial prizes that draw greater participation
• Booth presence: Product displays and live demonstrations at horse shows and clinics
• Clinic sponsorship: Associate your brand with education and expert instruction

Sponsorship support can offset event costs so that participation fees remain affordable—creating goodwill with both event organizers and attendees.

OpenSend Integration

After events, use OpenSend Connect to identify website visitors who attended or learned about your brand at the event. This allows you to continue the conversation through personalized follow-up campaigns across email, social, and SMS.

Tools You'll Need: Event booth materials, product samples, lead capture system
Expected ROI: Strong brand awareness and relationship building; difficult to quantify directly

6) Loyalty & Rewards Programs

Best For: Established brands looking to increase repeat purchases
Budget: $200-$2,000/month for technology platforms

Loyalty programs are an emerging trend in the equestrian space, with major brands launching sophisticated rewards systems in 2024. These programs incentivize repeat purchases and deepen customer relationships.

Why It Works

The LeMieux Insiders program, launched in November 2024, features a 6-tier structure with "Rosettes" as the points currency (1 GBP = 5 Rosettes) and 14 exclusive tier benefits including product focus groups. The program enrolled 50+ horses immediately after launch.

Other equestrian examples include:

• EQUIVA Friends: Customers earn and accumulate "Hearts" with each purchase—2 Hearts per euro spent, up to 10% discount
• Emmers Equestrian: Save 5% of purchase total in a digital wallet for future use

Program Structure Tips

• Points for purchases: Standard earning mechanism (e.g., 1 point per dollar)
• Non-purchase actions: Award points for reviews, social shares, and referrals
• Tier-based benefits: VIP access and exclusive products for top customers
• Gamification elements: Progress bars, badges, and challenges

As Antavo CEO Attila Kecsmar stated, "We're honored to partner with LeMieux, a brand that exemplifies quality and community in the equestrian world."

OpenSend Integration

OpenSend Personas creates AI-powered audience segments based on real purchase and behavioral data, helping you identify which customers to invite into loyalty programs and which tier benefits will resonate most. The platform integrates seamlessly with major loyalty platforms for coordinated campaigns.

Tools You'll Need: Loyalty platform software, CRM integration, rewards fulfillment system
Expected ROI: 20-30% increase in repeat purchase rates

7) Educational Content Marketing

Best For: Brands building long-term authority and organic traffic
Budget: $0-$5,000/month

Educational content—tutorials, blog posts, webinars—positions your brand as a trusted resource. Unlike promotional content, educational material provides lasting value that continues driving traffic for years.

Why It Works

Posts with original research see a 42% increase in LinkedIn engagement. On YouTube, 40% of views come from recommended or related videos, meaning quality content compounds over time.

Success Stories

• SmartPak: Built an Equine Health Library with informative posts and educational videos, becoming the largest online retailer
• Evention TV: Dom & Jimmie Schramm's how-to videos led to a full clinic schedule

Georgia Ormerod, Equine Social Media Coordinator, puts it simply: "Social media is like a creative resume. If you're not on social media then you're missing out on having a virtual sign for your business."

Content Types That Work

• How-to videos: Training techniques, tack maintenance, horse care routines
• Blog posts: Seasonal care guides, product comparisons, breed spotlights
• Webinars: Expert Q&As, veterinary advice, competition preparation

OpenSend Integration

Educational content attracts high-quality traffic, but many visitors consume the content and leave. OpenSend Connect identifies these engaged readers and adds them to nurture campaigns, allowing you to build relationships over time and convert educational interest into sales.

Tools You'll Need: Content management system, video hosting, SEO tools
Expected ROI: Long-term organic traffic growth and authority building

How to Measure Promotion Performance for Equestrian Campaigns

Equestrian promotion success requires tracking specific metrics that reflect the unique nature of the industry's purchase cycles and customer relationships.

Key Metrics for Equestrian Promotions

Email performance:

• Open rates (benchmark: 20-25% for equestrian brands)
• Click-through rates (benchmark: 3-5%)
• Revenue per email subscriber
• List growth rate from visitor identification

Conversion metrics:

• Visitor-to-lead conversion rate
• Lead-to-customer conversion rate
• Average order value by traffic source
• Time from first visit to purchase

Customer lifetime value:

• Repeat purchase rate
• Average time between purchases
• Upsell success rate
• Referral generation

Social media engagement:

• Follower growth rate
• Engagement rate per post
• Share of voice in equestrian conversations
• Influencer campaign reach

Setting Benchmarks

Establish baseline metrics before launching new promotions, then measure improvements over 60-90 day periods. Compare your performance against your historical data (month-over-month and year-over-year), industry benchmarks for equestrian ecommerce, and your best-performing campaigns.

Track attribution across multiple touchpoints to understand which channels influence final conversions. Most equestrian purchases involve multiple interactions across social media, email, and website visits before completion.

Legal and Compliance Considerations for Equestrian Brand Marketing

Equestrian brands must balance data collection with privacy compliance. The collapse of third-party cookies and tightening regulations make first-party data strategies essential.

Why First-Party Data Matters

First-party data—information you collect directly from customers with consent—gives you full ownership and control, higher accuracy than third-party sources, better compliance with regulations, improved personalization capabilities, and independence from platform changes.

For equestrian brands with long customer relationships and high lifetime values, owning your customer data ensures you maintain those relationships regardless of changes to social media algorithms or advertising platforms.

Ensuring Compliance in Multi-Channel Campaigns

All equestrian brand marketing must comply with:

CAN-SPAM Act: Requires accurate sender information, clear opt-out mechanisms, and honest subject lines for all email marketing.

CCPA: Gives California residents rights to know what data you collect and request deletion.

GDPR (for European customers): Requires explicit consent for data collection and provides right to access and deletion.

Modern visitor identification platforms handle compliance by collecting only consent-based data, providing opt-out mechanisms, using end-to-end encryption, maintaining consent records, and processing data server-side.

OpenSend Compliance

OpenSend complies with all data protection laws by partnering with sites whose users consent to partner marketing. All data is protected by end-to-end encryption and sophisticated security protocols. The platform maintains 100% legal compliance with US laws including CAN-SPAM and CCPA.

Why OpenSend Helps Equestrian Brands Maximize These Strategies

All seven promotion tactics share one challenge: converting interested visitors into identifiable leads. Most equestrian website visitors browse products, read content, and leave without providing contact information.

OpenSend solves this problem by identifying anonymous website visitors and enabling personalized follow-up across channels.

How OpenSend Supports Your Promotions

• OpenSend Connect: Identifies high-intent visitors browsing your tack, supplements, or apparel—then syncs them with your email, social, postal, and SMS marketing tools
• OpenSend Reconnect: Unifies fragmented customer identities across devices, so you recognize the same rider whether they're on mobile at the barn or desktop at home
• OpenSend Revive: Replaces bounced emails with active addresses automatically, keeping your newsletter list healthy
• OpenSend Personas: Creates AI-powered audience segments based on real purchase and behavioral data for smarter ad targeting

Key Advantages

OpenSend processes 7B+ events daily across 100,000+ US-based sites and maintains a network of 180M US shoppers with a 73% match rate. The platform offers:

• 100% legal compliance with US laws including CAN-SPAM and CCPA
• End-to-end encryption and sophisticated security protocols
• Plug-and-play integrations with Shopify, Klaviyo, and other major platforms
• Cookie-less operation for privacy-conscious campaigns

For equestrian brands running influencer campaigns, UGC contests, or event promotions, OpenSend ensures you capture and own your first-party data from every touchpoint. Check out OpenSend's success stories to see how brands are achieving measurable ROI.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can equestrian brands identify unknown website visitors?

Modern visitor identification technology can recognize anonymous browsers through behavioral tracking, device fingerprinting, and proprietary identity graphs. Platforms like OpenSend Connect identify high-intent visitors and sync them with marketing tools for email, social, and postal retargeting—all while maintaining legal compliance. This technology typically identifies 25-35% of anonymous website traffic with high accuracy rates.

What are the benefits of unifying customer identities across devices for horse care brands?

Riders often browse products on mobile at the barn, then complete purchases on desktop at home. Cross-device identity unification allows you to recognize returning visitors regardless of device, enabling personalized marketing flows and reducing fragmented customer experiences. This creates a seamless journey that improves conversion rates and customer satisfaction while providing more accurate attribution data for marketing optimization.

How does email recovery help equestrian brands prevent customer churn?

Email lists naturally decay as customers change addresses or abandon old accounts. Email recovery tools automatically replace bounced addresses with current, active ones for the same individuals—maintaining your connection without requiring customers to re-subscribe. For equestrian brands with long purchase cycles and high customer lifetime values, this ensures you maintain relationships with valuable customers throughout their entire journey.

Can AI improve targeting for equestrian product promotions?

Yes. AI-powered persona tools analyze purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographic data to create audience cohorts with shared characteristics. This allows equestrian brands to target ads at riders most likely to buy—for example, dressage enthusiasts versus western pleasure riders—rather than broad demographic groups. AI segmentation continuously learns and improves, identifying patterns that human marketers might miss and optimizing campaigns in real time.

Why is owning first-party data crucial for horse care businesses?

With third-party cookies disappearing and platform algorithms limiting organic reach, brands that own their customer data maintain direct relationships regardless of social media changes. First-party data also enables personalized marketing that drives higher engagement and loyalty. For equestrian brands, this means independence from platform policy changes, better customer insights, improved targeting accuracy, and sustainable competitive advantages in an increasingly privacy-focused digital landscape.