Hills & Coast Grant: HorseRecords

Grant Recipient Case Study – 2021 Funding Round

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With family ties to one of the oldest horse studs in South Australia, HorseRecords has been developed with serious pedigree behind it.

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HorseRecords is a comprehensive horse husbandry application provides a fast and easy way to record everything you ever need to know about the background, health and performance of a horse.

Launched in 2021, the app is intended to help horse owners protect their investment by providing instant access to critical information – anywhere, anytime. 

Filling a gap in a niche market

Many horse owners, breeders and trainers rely on physical notebooks or Excel spreadsheets on a home computer to store all the important information about their horses.  Not only are there limitations on how and when these records can be updated and accessed, there is a real risk that years of vital information can be irretrievably damaged or lost.

In addition to giving horse owners easier access to their information, HorseRecords also keeps data safely secured “in the cloud” where it can be kept backed up and protected from harm. The app can also be used to easily transfer the entire history of a horse should it be sold to a new owner.

While there are currently almost no competitors in this space in Australia, as with bringing any new product to market, the main challenge faced by HorseRecords was building awareness and trust in the HorseRecords app.

How the Hills and Coast Business Grant was put to use

With the HorseRecords app developed, funding from the Hills and Coast Business Grant was used to implement a marketing strategy using an external digital marketing agency with local and agribusiness experience. Using innovative machine-learning, a targeted campaign was rolled out across social media, Google Adwords and DM emails to build the brand and product profile.

The final objective, after increasing brand awareness, was to convert trial customers to paid customers. This would fund ongoing development and updates of the app, as well as growing the business to provide local employment opportunities.

What happened after receiving the grant

While the marketing campaign itself didn’t quite hit the desired targets set, Owner and Developer, Andy Ide, found the investment invaluable in terms of better understanding his target audience and future marketing strategies.

Horse communities are firmly grounded in regional communities, where word of mouth and in-person connections are critical to establishing trust. The effect of COVID-19 impacted the capacity for face-to-face networking at events to support the digital strategy and provide those connections.

Armed with data from the digital campaigns, in conjunction with extensive market profiling and branding documentation provided by the grant funding, HorseRecords is well-placed to revise their strategy going forward.

They are already making inroads into significant industry circles, such as assisting RacingSA with their retired racehorse program, and have also been accepted into the Export-Ready Incubator program through Enterprising Partnerships to prepare for international markets.

Feedback about the Hills and Coast grant process

Finding the right grant for service providers can be tricky, as many grants are dependent on physical products or outcomes. Andy had signed up to the Hills and Coast Grant Finder site and was alerted to the grant through the regular grant update emails based on his preferences.

He found completing the Hills and Coast Business Grant application was quite easy, especially with feedback available where needed. 

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