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HoofPrints Newsletter
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October 30, 2014
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ABOUT THE COMPANY AND THIS NEWSLETTERFarriers Greeting Cards was started by Gina Keesling in 1986 (in a very small way) to provide helpful promotional materials for farrier husband Rob. Along the way we became HoofPrints.com, too, adding a selection of fun horse and dog products geared toward women of a certain age. This newsletter is emailed to subscribers a few times a month, depending on how often I have something to share. Watch for special sales, interesting stories, uplifting quotes and more.
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HERE'S THE BIG NEWS: An all NEW website!
Back in August, I sent a newsletter out saying I had a "surprise" in the works.
I offered an exceptional 30% off discount to entice folks to order - to help finance the project. Then, I worked my butt off - intermittently freaking out - for almost 3 months. I have NO previous experience with website-anything. I'd had the same fellow do my site from the day it was "born" and had blissfully avoided learning any and all things to do with html and the like. But I needed to streamline the order processing system, and the point of major time suckage was the manual entry of orders after they were taken by the old website. This new site solves all that - the orders are imported seamlessly into my warehouse computer. It eliminates a step that took hours during busy season AND it removes one point of potential errors (mine) in the manual entering of orders.
Let's take a look at the bells and whistles
(insert Oooohh! Aaaaahhh! here)  Here is the product info screen for the new Christmas card " The Wise are not just men". The main image shows up at a respectable 400 pixels wide, but if you hover over it with your mouse, you're treated to a zoom feature that lets you see the image MUCH more closely. Below that are additional images - click on those and they'll appear larger. For the first time ever, I can show you what the back and inside of the cards look like. Most of the cards include an extra picture and story on the back, now you can see exactly what that is. 
On the right side of most products' screens will appear additional suggested or related products.
In this case it's a draft horse lover's dream - with all the Belgian cards collected together for comparison. Stay tuned as I continue to tweak this feature - it doesn't just happen - I have to go into each product and manually tell it which additional options to display. The SEARCH feature is quite robust - more intuitive and faster than the old site.
Below that is MY ACCOUNT. When you request a catalog or place an order, it gives you the option to create an account. What this does (and it's amazing, if you ask me) is unleash a mechanism that allows my warehouse computer to tell the website the status of your order(s). So if you're wondering if something has shipped yet, or even what you ordered previously, that info is available to you there. I am still learning about all this can do, but what I've seen so far is very useful.
Last (for now) is something you CAN'T see. Security. The site uses multi-layered security mechanisms that protect customer data at every juncture. My software provider is on the cutting edge of this technology and I have utmost confidence in their product. Have a look around here - if you see something that doesn't work right, PLEASE let me know. Email gina@hoofprints.com
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Revisiting the BAD News
There will be no 2015 Horses and Hope Calendar.
Sarah and I are taking a break from this big project. Watch for updates, though, as we are not tabling it forever. In the meantime, please support the horse rescue(s) of your choice. Also, you may want to join the Horses and Hope Calendar Project Community on Facebook to get updates and see more of Sarah's pictures.
As a rather pale substitute (how's that for crappy marketing copy?) I do have in stock the 2015 Horse Women Wall Calendar.
Shown at left, this beautiful, large size glossy calendar features 12 different photos of a woman and her horse, paired with an inspirational quote. Each month shows a different facet of the relationship between women and their various horse breeds. Western riding, English riding, ground work, just hanging out - and more. To order that, click here
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Here's what we talked about last time
Last newsletter is hereALL newsletters are here
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Farriers Traveling Desk
Corral your paperwork on the road! And it's HALF the cost of the previous version here
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BELOW HALF PRICE!
"Hug" clay plaque
Regular price $14.50
now only $4.99 here
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Silver Dog Whistle
Solid Sterling Silver Whistle on waxed cotton cord here
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TUFF CHIX GLOVES
"Best. Gloves. Ever!" ~HoofPrints customer testimonial. More info here
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This Hug's For You
Equine Sympathy Cards here
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Message
I love hearing from customers. You can contact HoofPrints owner Gina Keesling via email at gina@hoofprints.com |
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Find us on facebook
Be sure to LIKE our facebook page - it's where we announce special sales, breaking news and everything else we find interesting. To see it go here |
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Share our emails
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Viral marketing... it sounds bad, doesn't it?
You can ask my husband - a frequent topic around here is that of forwarded emails - and the psychology behind them - just WHAT prompts people to decide; "I am going to send this to everyone I know!".
We receive a lot of them. Some are pretty good, and others are dumb. Dumb in a myriad of ways... Alarmist email rumors that have been around forever - that folks keep sending "just in case it's true" Pictures of someone's butt (or worse) - don't even get me started about the firecracker butt - but at least that one was timely when it showed up around July 4. Christian messages that are uplifting - until you get to the end and you're threatened "if you're not ashamed that you love Jesus, forward this - if you are, then delete." Pictures of cute puppies and kittens (awww)
I enjoy writing these newsletters - and sharing all this stuff with you all. But the fact is, it's also a way to help us stay connected with customers and sell products during the time between catalog mailings (which is only once a year) So I really, really like it when someone new stumbles upon the newsletter and is excited to "discover" our company and the products we offer.
In all my efforts to make the newsletter interesting and forward-worthy - it never occurred to me to JUST ASK you all to send it! Duh. Sometimes the obvious is elusive, I guess. So here goes - my request to ask you to forward our email newsletter to your horsey friends. All we ask is that you please be judicious and only send to folks who might be interested. Otherwise we are no better than the "firecracker butt". Click to get started. (please note - using this form does NOT subscribe anyone to our list - it is a one-time only forward)
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