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Sale Consignments - Part 2

by Molly Clubb | Jan 16, 2013

Getting the Most for Your Sale Consignments

This series of Blog posts will focus on consignments and promoting your sale consignments to try to ensure the highest selling price. Today's focus is on advertising your sale consignments in magazines and sale catalogs.

Advertising in the sale catalog itself:

Advertising your sale consignments is important. You need to get people to take a special look at your offerings and tell the full story of why your consignment would be great for thier program or will be a good investment. Typically breeders are looking for a high quality animal and/or bloodlines that will suite their program. Most Longhorn sale catalogs are designed with this in mind - they allow for a photo to be shown as well as a full pedigree. The sale catalogs also allow for comments from the consignor which many times will include the TTT and breeding information. Because the sale catalog is promoting this information about your animal you should (in my opinion) take the opportunity to use your ad to take a different approach.

Many times, advertising within the sale catalog to which your consigning is not only an affordable way to market your consignment but can also pay off in the end. Some sales, such as the Legacy and Cherry Blossom, strive to put the individuals ad next to, or directly in front of, their sale consignment, thus adding even more additional value to purchasing an ad in the sale catalog itself.

For example, if your sale consignment is a young heifer out of an extraordinary dam and one of the hottest sire's in the industry, why not showcase photos of them with their measurements and pedigree vs. promoting the same information on the heifer that's already featured in the sale catalog? Many times, with young stock, potential buyers will be more drawn to the sire and dam's proven production ability than a photo of the heifer or her recent TTT so take advantage of this in your advertising.

Or maybe you're consigning an animal whose full or half sister sold for a nice amount at a recent sale - why not promote that? Again, many times the value in younger consignmens is the production ability of their parents or siblings.

If you're selling an older cow who is a proven producer, why not consider showing off some of her impressive offspring? If she's had good offspring out of a variety of bulls than focus on her production power and highlight the traits that she is passing down. This is usually easiest done through photographs of her progeny.

Always try to promote a lot number on your ad. Although the sale catalogs typically feature an index with consignment numbers, people want a quick and easy reference to your lot number while flipping through the sale catalog.

Try your best to utilize good photos of your consignment. The traditional sale catalog photo will be a side shot of your animal, hopefully standing correctly, looking at the camera. In your advertising consider using a photo of the animal that shows her unique horn set or a full front-on shot that really draws attention to your ad. Although body, color, conformation, etc. are all important your ad needs to be unique and eye catching and give viewers a reason to take a second look at your consignment.

Encourage people to visit your website to learn more. To make it easy for site visitors consider posting your sale consignments to your homepage or setting up a special "Consignments" page. This makes it easy for people to find them on your site. With Hired Hand you can create unique URLs or www. addresses. So, for example, if you're advertising a consignment to the upcoming ABC Sale your URL for your ad could be XYZLonghorns.com/ABCSale

Sale catalogs and advertisements are often designed by a variety of companies or designers. Be sure that your ads in sale catalogs are consistent with your overall "look" and are contributing to the building of your brand. Don't allow an ad that doen't represent your ranch well to be printed just becuase the designer may not have your artwork on file.

This ad from Taylor Cattle Co. is a good example of advertising the production power of a consignment animal without focusing on the animal itself, or in this case semen sales for a well known bull. This ad appears in the 2013 Texas Longhorn Legacy Sale Catalog produced by the Texas Longhorn Marketing Alliance.

Advertising sale consignments in magazines:

Many if not all of the items above can also apply to advertising sale consignments in magazines. Here are a few additional items to consider as well:

- If the magazine is not circulated in conjuntion with the sale catalog then utilizing a photo of the sale consignment is important. Make sure the sale consignment photo is prominent in the ad along with the Lot number

- Don't try to cram too many sale consignments into one ad. It's usually best to focus on the one or two top consignments and then include a star burst or line encouraging readers to also check out Lots #, # & # or visit your website to see more. Ads that have too much information in them will overwhelm the reader.

- Encourage people to take an action. Whether it be visiting your website, contacting you for more information, etc. - make your ad work for you and get them to take an interest in your consignment as well as enforcing a call to action.

I hope you have found these tips helpful. As always feel free to send your feedback or questions. Best of luck choosing your upcoming sale consignments and if you need any assistance advertising them, please don't hesitate to contact me.

 

This ad from RE Carroll Ranch is another good example of focusing on the production power of the sires and dams of sale consignments. The ad refers readers to the Lot #'s of the consignments. This ad appears in the 2013 Texas Longhorn Legacy Sale Catalog produced by the Texas Longhorn Marketing Alliance.

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