5 Marketing Lessons from my 5 Years as a Marketing Consultant for Small & Equine Businesses
- Rhiannon
- May 20
- 10 min read
What I've learned in five years as an independent marketing consultant for independent brands, solo service providers, and equestrian businesses.
Last month (April 2025), Purple Horse Marketing turned 5. What started as an uneventful step into self-employment has become something much deeper — a business grounded in my values, partnerships, and helping small and equine businesses thrive through aligned marketing that feels good.
Looking back, so much has changed since April 2020. This blog post was originally about how to get into equine marketing. When it was first published in February 2023, I was still working exclusively in the equestrian sector, helping equine businesses with their social media and SEO. My client base included vets, equestrian e-commerce brands, and racing clubs. However, so much has changed since then, it made sense to update this blog post to align with my business as it is now.
In this blog post:
Why I Started Purple Horse Marketing
In April 2020, I was finishing my university degree. My chosen subject was nothing to do with marketing or business, but I knew when I graduated that I did not want to go and work in a company. Besides, the employment market was looking pretty desolate back in those early days of lockdown.
As a student, I'd been heavily involved in organising my university equestrian club — mainly running the social media channels. My parter was (and still is) self-employed with his own marketing business, and he specialises in SEO and WordPress website design for service-based B2B businesses. This, combined with a strong family background of business owners, meant I stepped into self-employment uneventfully straight after university.
Why Equine Marketing?
The decision to specialise in social media for equine businesses came from my background in managing social media for the university equestrian club — I had some basic skills that I could work on, and that was that. I'd also noticed in my years as a horse rider that many small equestrian businesses didn't make the most of their marketing, and I thought I could use my skills to support independent businesses within the sector.
That's changed drastically in the last two years, and you'll find out why.
What's Changed?
So much has changed in the last five years. My audience has grown and evolved, as have my services and my way of working. I'm also much more experienced and more highly skilled as a professional marketer than I was five years ago.
My Audience Has Evolved
Whilst my audience hasn't grown massively, it has certainly evolved. Back in 2020, I set out with my website, plus Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn pages. Initially, I targeted both local non-equine businesses, as well as small businesses in the equestrian sector. However, I quickly niched down and built an audience almost exclusively of equestrian businesses.
Fast-forward five years, and my audience has evolved further. Whilst I still have one foot in the equestrian sector, I now connect with independent brands and service providers across several sectors. I now look to partner with business owners who are similar to me in their values, outlook, and personality type. Many of the people in my audience are fellow introverted solo service providers, who want to market their businesses in a way that does not rely on constant social media posting, "showing up" on Instagram every day, or feeling like they have to fit into the extroverted entrepreneur cookie-cutter.
My Marketing Services Have Evolved
I started out as a social media manager, but stopped offering social media services at the end of 2023. I didn't know it at the time, but that was the start of a major shift in my business model. Having done social media for over 3 years — and earning a reasonable income from it — I was burned out and frustrated. Everything felt out-of-alignment — from the day-to-day, to my services, to my clients and audience. I just wasn't loving it anymore, and something had to change.
I shifted towards focusing on my website as the central point in my marketing. Blog posts that drive organic traffic for years have replaced daily social media posts that vanish in 24 hours. I no longer rely on social media platforms to connect with my audience or drive sales. My marketing feels calmer, quieter, smoother, and more effective than ever before.
All of this is reflected in my current service offering. I now offer website design, SEO, blog content writing, and marketing consultancy services to small, independent and equine brands and service providers who want to grow their businesses authentically and without relying on social media.
This takes us very nicely onto my top five marketing lessons from five years as an independent marketing consultant for small and equine businesses.
5 Marketing Lessons From 5 Years as a Marketing Consultant
Five years in business has come with its fair share of lessons learned. So, here are five lessons from five years in business as an independent marketing consultant:
Marketing Lesson 1: Focus on 1 or 2 Marketing Channels
There was a time when I had at least four social media accounts, my website, email marketing, Google Ads and social media ads all on the go at once. I was trying to blog regularly, optimise advertising campaigns, post daily, and organise PR and podcasts. It was just too much for one person to do, whilst also managing client work, sales, accounts, and life admin.
You can't do it all, and neither should you try!
Concentrate your marketing efforts on 1-2 marketing channels (plus maybe a third, backup channel). At least one of those channels should not be a social media platform (I'll tell you why in the next section). If you're struggling to identify which channels, think of it like this:
Your marketing needs to captivate, connect with, and convert your target audience into clients or customers. So, you need to get visible, build trust and rapport, and drive leads or sales. That's all your marketing needs to do. If a channel is not performing at least one of those functions, perhaps you could think about giving it the chop. Here's how I do it:
Captivate: I use SEO (including blog posts) and Pinterest (organic and paid ads) to drive visibility and brand awareness. Pinterest drives traffic to my website and blog posts, as well as my free lead magnet.
Connect: I use blogging and email marketing to nurture my target audience. The email subscribers come from SEO / blog posts and Pinterest.
Convert: My audience can book complimentary discovery calls through my website. I don't handle enquiries any other way, so any leads that happen to come in via LinkedIn (which I have, but don't really use) or email are directed to these discovery calls.
So, my marketing strategy is kept very simple:
Primary channel: SEO (of which blogging is a big part) - this is my main marketing channel, and where I invest most of my effort
Secondary channel: Pinterest (organic and paid ads - runs largely on autopilot)
Backup channel: Email (just a couple of emails a month, plus extra emails as an when)
Of course, I will do the occasional guest podcast, webinar, or LinkedIn post. These things just don't form the bulk of my marketing strategy. I don't commit to doing them every day, week, or month because they don't form part of the 20% of efforts that will drive 80% of my results.
Marketing Lesson 2: Don't Rely on Social Media
Social media is a fantastic way to grow your small business. When you're just starting out, social media is a free, relatively easy way to get visible and make those initial sales. I used it for my first few years in business, and it helped me grow my audience and make some sales.
But you must not rely on social media for all of your visibility, audience nurturing, and sales.
Why? Simply because you do not own your social media accounts.
Your social media accounts can be taken away with no notice, and you may never get them back. This is exactly what happened to me in February 2025.
In the six months prior to that, I had became over-reliant on my Instagram account, and I'd neglected my website, SEO, and email list in the process.
I'd been posting daily. Taking bookings via DM. Building my audience. Then one day, completely out of the blue, my account was suspended by Instagram, and later deleted. I never got it back, and I have had to work really, really hard to build my audience back up since then.
It was too easy to get trapped on that social media hamster wheel. Yes, I got some business from Instagram. Yes, it often felt like a "quick win" because it was quicker to bash a post out than it was to write a blog. However, it was not worth it.
Don't fall into the trap of relying on social media because it's free, or feels like a quick win. Start investing time, effort, and (yes) money into building your website, SEO and email list as soon as possible.
Whilst those channels are not foolproof, they are far more reliable than social media. They're far less vulnerable to hacks, suspensions, and algorithm changes. Yes, it takes longer to build up your visibility and drive sales through your website, and it is more technical than a quick Facebook post. However, if you ever lose access to your social media account(s), you will thank your lucky stars that you have that solid foundation to fall back on.
Marketing Lesson 3: Focus on What Works for You
Lessons 1 and 2 lead us very nicely onto lesson 3. When you're a small business owner, doing your own marketing, you must focus on what works for you. If you try to force yourself to do marketing that feels difficult, inauthentic, out-of-alignment or complicated, then it will not work.
There is no getting away from the reality that you will have to put a lot of time and effort into marketing your business. You aren't going to produce your best work, consistently, if you hate it. This applies to any marketing channel, strategy, or platform.
So, when I advise you to focus on marketing that works for you, I mean you personally as well as your business and audience. Ask yourself:
How comfortable do I feel with showing my face? Not just occasionally, but weekly or daily, on social media / YouTube / in magazines / etc.
Does verbal communication come naturally to me? Do I prefer speaking directly to my audience in real life or on camera? Do I perform best in a two-way conversation (e.g. a guest podcast)?
Do I need to plan my content in advance, or can I write / speak off-the-cuff?
Do I communicate best with short-form or long-form content? Do I like to get to the point quickly, or do I prefer to explain and elaborate on the details?
How do I want my clients / customers to enquire, buy from, or communicate with me?
What sort of relationship do I want with my clients / customers? Am I trying to reach the masses, or do I seek deeper, meaningful relationships with individuals?
How much time do I realistically have for marketing? Do I need to invest in paid advertising to take some of the strain?
What sort of person am I trying to attract? Do I want to work with people who expect instant answers, or is my work more nuanced?
You won't find me answering DMs after hours. You won't find me YouTubing or "going live" on social media. You won't even find me on most social media channels. I value quality over quantity, and nuance over the superficial. I want to attract clients who value the same things as me, so I market my business accordingly.
This realisation was the main reason I started Quiet Horsepower - my marketing programme for introverted solo service providers who want to grow their business quietly, authentically, and in alignment with their values and personality.
Marketing Lesson 4: It Takes Time
Honestly, I do not care what anyone says. Marketing takes time.
Even if you use social media, or paid ads, or video. Even if you do all the things your business coach tells you to do. Even if you pay £2,000 for a course that teaches you what to do.
It takes time to plan, produce, and publish content. It takes time to tweak and refine your strategy so that it hits the mark. It takes time to build your visibility, find your people, and build their trust. It takes time to nail your branding, messaging, and ideal buyer personas.
Every time you shift your strategy, offers, or audience, it takes time for it to bed in and start working. Then you must tweak, refine, and reposition, which takes time.
I do not offer fast, overnight, or instant solutions. End of. It doesn't matter how desperate, impatient, ambitious or excited you are. Marketing takes time. Business takes time.
Marketing Lesson 5: Consistency Trumps Perfection
The final of my five big marketing lessons from five years as an independent marketing consultant is that being consistent is superior to being perfect. This is for two important reasons:
Nothing will ever be perfect. What is perfection, anyway?
Marketing takes time (refer to marketing lesson 4, above)
So, you must keep up the effort. If you must keep up the effort, then you shouldn't chase perfection. You'll only end up burning yourself out, with nothing to show for it.
My marketing strategy is always moving, but it moves imperfectly.
I publish the imperfect blog post, then I refine it in six, twelve, and eighteen months' time.
I post the imperfect Pins, then I tweak the designs and post new ones based on what is working.
I continuously audit, tweak, and optimise my website content for SEO.
I send the marketing emails, then refine and resend them a few months later.
I repurpose my blog posts for my other marketing channels, so I'm building on what is already working and sharing that content with a different audience. I'm not creating completely new content for every single channel because I don't need to.
Aligned Marketing for Small Business Owners and Independent Service Providers
If my five marketing lessons strikes a chord with you, then we could be a great fit. I offer a range of marketing services to small businesses, independent brands, solo service providers and equine business owners. From affordable SEO and blog writing services to bespoke marketing consultancy, I help my clients market and grow their businesses authentically and in alignment with their needs, goals, and values. Alongside my done-for-you and done-with-you marketing services for small businesses, I also offer small business marketing coaching in the form of my Marketing Kickstarters and the Quiet Horsepower marketing programme for introverted service providers.
Explore my marketing services and coaching programmes today, and book your complimentary discovery call for an informal, no-obligation chat.
