Alivio Equestrian Academy
Alivio Equestrian Academy is a holistic riding facility in Lovettsville, VA specializing in true classical horsemanship training, based on the renowned teachings of Nuno Oliveira. When I met Tina Ann Legno, she was looking for some help organizing her thoughts and ideas on the more administrative and marketing side of her business after minor setbacks due to the crisis of 2020 that took her business from booming to slow. She had a general idea of the identity she wanted her business to embody, but didn’t know where to start and was consumed by the work of maintaining a horse farm. At the same time, I was looking for a place to get some riding time in, which resulted in the perfect way to learn more about what she does and how to market it!
Where did we start? Creative Strategy.
We took down all of the ideas she had for her business and found the apex of where to start. Most of her marketing and content was going on Facebook and Instagram, and she had a pretty decent following. Problem was, her website wasn’t user friendly and didn’t have clear messaging. It wasn’t obvious from her site just what was so different about her approach to riding and training - but as soon as you were in the saddle with her, all of that changed. So we just had to figure out how to cater her brand, messaging and website to an audience that cared just as much as she did, not only about riding, but about the connection that could be achieved through learning to ride with the horse’s needs in mind. And we had to do that with very little budget. Challenge accepted.
I decided to prioritize fleshing out and polishing up her brand and redesigning her website. From there, we could start working on finding ways to get it in front of people. Taking lessons from Tina while working on this gave me a direct line to all of the verbiage she used and expertise she wanted to share with the world, which was a huge help when it came to copy and determining the organization of her site. There were so many things that she was doing with her business that no one even knew about! Once we had the website done, I started helping her find the places to showcase her new site and brand to her audience. Things like setting up an Airbnb Experience where she could share her knowledge with a groundwork lesson, hosting guests and their horses for a “getaway” at her farm, posting her groundwork class on local “things to do in the area” pages, the possibility of eventually setting up online training courses, etc.