Hungry customers?
One of my favorite questions to ponder is: What makes a company more successful than another? The short answer is hunger and the appetite of customers. Companies are hungry for clients and do everything possible to find and keep customers, compared with companies that always focused on the inner workings of the company, are the thrive.Want a real life example?
I know a California League football that orders of more than 100,000 pounds of uniform custom printed annually. Your dealer / decorator was only a 40-minute drive outside the headquarters of the league, but never had the time to pay the buyer League-visit expected that only the business each year. This year, the business of the league went to a company in Oregon. Why? Since the Oregon company was hungry. A representative flew to California to face to face visit, showed that decision makers of its new line, bought them pizza and signed the agreement. Now I'm not recommending free pizza for all its customers, but if you are looking for ways to spice up your custom clothing sales, try to put some of these recipes proven to work marketing for your business.
Calendar Planning
While there are some chefs who can throw a bit of this and a little of that, most of us have more luck with a written prescription. Many owners business get overwhelmed at the idea of writing a marketing plan, but it's easier than you think. You do not need a computer program or a book on marketing. With less than 12 calendar months and a piece of paper in front of you, answer the following questions:
Who are your customers? Who actually buys you? Schools, teams, coaches, business?
If these seasonal sales? If so, mark your calendar. For example, if you normally sold to schools in the fall, indicate that you should do a marketing activity in mid or late summer to remind customers that you do business. If you want to go after family reunification market or market summer camp, take note to do some kind of marketing activity in the spring. If you already have a season in which you are busy for several months, you may want to focus on building sales in its season is not so busy.
The schedule also You can make notes about new markets or specific customers who would like to go next, and choose a date to do so. For example, if you decide to targeted companies construction or landscaping business, pick a month that should serve this niche with a marketing activity. (Let's go on a variety of subsequent activities article, which could be as simple as placing an ad in a church bulletin or sending a postcard.)
Think of businesses that are printed T-shirts, lounges, restaurants, delivery services, grocery stores, gasoline stations, car washes. If you have trouble coming up with ideas for clients, search in the phone book and make a list of people who could be doing business.
In your calendar, take note of local events that have place in their community. Are any of these events where you could sell shirts? When does school? When football and cricket start of the season? When you go to make time to call your best customers? When will you take your last order before the holidays? This date is important because when committed to a date, you have given a reason to call customers and let them know that this is the last possible date that can place an order. Are you starting to see the value in the calendar?
The Next Step
Once you have a better idea of what you are selling and when they will come these customers, it's time to decide what type of marketing activities you want to test. There is no magic wand. You can get much luck with one type of activity and other may not show the return on initial investment. But there is evidence that consistency and repetition are the key factors in the success of any operation marketing plan. It is not so important what you do, but to do something on a consistent basis. You have to keep your name out there. I know a lot of people in this industry are based solely on advertising word-of-mouth, which is fantastic. But when you're ready to take your business to the next level often will find that complacency is simply not going to take the growth that you really want. Therefore, if the calendar is the recipe, here is the list of ingredients, marketing activities.
Marketing Activities
marketing activities are something you can think of doing to attract customers make a purchase. It can be as simple as receiving a card in a PTA meeting or as sophisticated as the sending of an explosion e-mail. Here are some of my favorites:
postcards Cheap: Direct mail is one of my favorite ways reach people. There are many printing companies that will design, print and electronic cards with your marketing message to its intended audience. You can start by mail to existing customers. Companies that have a personal relationship with their members do well, even in a smaller list, as they are face to face contact. If you want to build your list, you need more names. What are their names? You can buy the names of the companies, but it can be expensive. Start creating its own list to maintain a guest book, collecting business cards in a fishbowl with a bid to win something, or collection names free sources such as YellowPages.com.
Flyers: Also known as a bounce back. Your brochure should be simple and to the point. It should say something about services it offers and what you can do for the customer who is trying to attract. Many industry suppliers to provide flyer templates you can customize to promote their services. You can distribute flyers on vehicles in parking lots, businesses in malls or just the hand of someone who was in front of his shop to passersby. If you do not have a storefront, you can hand out flyers to people you meet. Keep a battery in your car. Where else can you hang up or go flying? On the football field? In a parade or community event?
phone calls out: When was the last time a service company will gave a call to see how he was doing and to inform special? On this day of exploding e-mail, personal communication with customers is a valuable marketing tool. Do not forget to call their largest accounts at the appropriate time to remind them that it's time to reorder or have a new strong idea to provide evidence. Before picking up the phone, take a few minutes to write some speaking points. Try to ask open questions that can not be answered with a simple yes or not. For example, you might ask: How do your employees as printed tops ask of us last May? This will soon enter into a discussion. If you just said: Need more tapas? If they say no, the conversation probably will be over.
Keep an open day in your store: You can plan to do this on an annual basis. It can be as simple as inviting customers in some soft drinks and an offer to show the latest, award-winning works of art. Or you can hold an annual contest for most creative logo, show all the work that made this year and customers vote for the best shirt. Thus, come to show the variety of work you do and bring their customers to your store. Make sure you have a few offers scheduled to entice people ordering while there, or up to two weeks after the event.
Offer season or a special sale: You may wish to provide to the early birds a reason for your computer or order for the school before the rush. This is where timing comes in. If you normally were flooded in March, offers customers who order a small discount in February. If you do not tell their customers that will be busy, have no reason to do business with you in a moment different years.
Announce a new product or service: This is always a great reason to call customers, send a card Postal or create a new brochure. Think about the new materials that are available to decorate clothing, such as glitter, metallic and opaque. Let your customers that your logo would look great in a dark shirt in a silver glitter decoration material. Especially if you sell to teens, dance groups, Mom and other groups of fashion clients. They do not know about the possibilities if you do not tell them.
Answer the phone with a smile: This is an opportunity to make a great first impression. Every time someone calls you, it means that succeeded with one of your marketing efforts. Do not blow it! Reply with energy and do not miss the opportunity to tell people who you are and what you do and promote your brand. What to respond with "Thank you for calling the best shirts, the number one provider of customized jersey city, how can we help you today? "Your internal production problems should not take precedence over answering calls entrants. If the rent you are busy, someone to answer the phone or use a service. If you are a home based business, this really applies to you. It is very typical Home-based companies not to answer the phone during office hours. It's frustrating for customers. If you can not answer the phone, make sure your voice collected in the first or second ring and has a professional outgoing message that says who you are, what you do and promote your brand. If you are accessible by cell phone people know.
Create a Website: Your website does not have to be fancy or online ordering capabilities. It should cover the basics, such as services offered, hours of operation, and contact information. If possible, make sure you have an "opt-in zone on your site, where site visitors can enter their email address so that you can send future information about special offers or newsletter by mail if you can do that.
Network with other businesses in the area: Consider partnering with companies that come into contact with people who might be potential customers. You could place your business information in your store and you can promote your business your way. Never again can do it!
Out of the box of classified ads: Newspaper advertising can be expensive and can not achieve measurable results. What with an ad in a church bulletin, school directory, sports programs or other small community publication?
How You can get more face-to-mouth?
When friends refer to friends of your business, advertising is considered the mouth. There are things you can and should do to encourage or promote this type of "free" marketing. First, determine what you can return when someone gives you a reference. A slight discount on a future order, an free t-shirt? In many cases, simply acknowledging the referral with a written or verbal thank you enough. Just do it.
Feed your database, always Gather
Whenever possible, gather as much information as possible about their customers. Create a customer survey that can be filled and offer them something of value to do so. If you fill a card, you receive a gift or a card on his birthday. Exclusive Offer for special people who complete a survey. It is up to you. Create something of value that would not receive if not on your mailing list.
Today start cooking
Satisfy your hunger for more sales starting today. Choose at least two of the ideas mentioned in this article and put them into action as soon as possible. You'll be surprised how easy it is to cook more sales and build better relationships with their customers, at the same time.
Box:
In 1993, Ted published a 36 page booklet full of marketing tips for printers as clothing. The book is no longer in print, but here it is an excerpt from the archives:
Ted Guerrilla Marketing Tips For custom clothing specialist
1. Tell people what they do.
It may seem an obvious thing to do, but you'd be surprised how many people do not know what services they offer if you do not tell them. It begins with a simple sign on your door or window. Have it say, for custom shirts - Stop here, We Custom Signs, Signs personalized while you wait, or anything you print: Name of your child, your business name, your dog's name on the shirts and caps, or better yet, put your message in a shirt with lyrics Cooper (because they are easy to read) and hang in the window.
2. Give us your shirts decorated Personal Use
Your employees are living mannequins for your garments. As an alternative to the plain uniform shirts with a name in the pocket, allowing them to be creative and create their own shirts to wear. Securities transfers to customize popular letters, cut custom designs and Film Flock. Encourage them to take current issues and trends into consideration. Another way to inspire our customers is the idea of using full catalogs or collections containing hundreds of sayings and suggestions for every occasion. Property letters to many different styles using wool, shirts and uniforms. Customers enjoy being able to point to a garment and say, I stand by that, but in a different color. Of This way they feel creative, but need a little help. Take a picture of some of the best shirts created and publish your store where customers can see.
3. Order for sale
Make it a policy to see that everyone who buys a shirt or cap is reminded that his store offers personalized services print. Like the order takers in some fast food chains are trained to ask, you want fries, you can get your employees in the habit of saying: Do you want to customize this gift? Or you could add the name of the grandson to that shirt while you wait. In general, booking the sale is as simple as asking for it!
4. Dates for custom t-shirts
By creating custom shirts for an annual event or function as a fair Company, provided no event date in the design. This not only makes the garment a real memory of the occasion, also means they will have to return for a new every year! Keep the details in the archives to remember the customer ahead of time
next year they can organize the whole thing for them.
5. Add Company logo shirts
Want to increase repeat business and improve your chances of receiving positive word of mouth advertising? Then make sure that people who wear their clothes know where to find you. The carrier is not always the buyer. The shirt may have been a gift or purchased by coach. Always put your company logo on shirts or uniforms that make them, along with a hang tag describing the washing instructions, your warranty
address and phone numbers so people can call you. An easy way to do this is to use your card as a hang tag. Each article that leaves the premises is an advertisement for their products and services, and yes, you guessed it, it's free.
6. How to increase sales in two colors
Here's another thing to suggest that employees should automatically on all sales. Have them say,. How about trying that in a two-color look? Remind the client that all the pros use two color numbers and letters in sports. Displaying garments with two-color letters is also very important. Let customers see the difference it makes. Sale of two colors instead of one is an easy way to double your profit on the sale.
7. Create a sign the player
Make sales team easier for all involved. Take the time to collect each player's uniform size, number and the correct spelling of his name providing a sign up sheet for uniform buyer. Leave space for a signature okaying entire order.
8. Be your own foot Billboard
Use letters and Cad-Cut ® garments wherever you go and carry a supply of business cards. All they know is a potential customer! Take him to the school career, the deli, at his club in Saturday's game, on vacation. You will be amazed at the amount of people who can not walk up to you and ask you about your custom shirt and how can get one.
9. Taking action on the road
Put your mobile merchandise on racks or tables and bring your machine heat seal out all over the world to see. Get a job at the local fair, they have different product areas for the different services offered, such as equipment Labeling, Custom Transfers, personalized gifts and custom Caps. Try to create a market rate using tables with a wide variety of items low price on it. Attending the festival local school, middle school has hundreds of children whose parents work for a living! Donate a percentage of the revenue to school funds, you can not make a fortune in the day, but I would just market your business to hundreds of prospects.
10. Print their own money
Print your own tickets and to offer their customers a bonus of £ 1 for every £ 20 (or suitable arrangement) that happen in your store. Buyers can Bonus redeem for prizes or use them for future purchases. Consider putting a limit on the number of someone vouchers can be used to purchase and ensure which has a tamper-proof system. Number of each title before you go and ask the customer's ZIP code of reference.
About the Author
Ted Stahl is the CEO of GroupeSTAHL, an International network of 17 companies specializing in heat printing and digital-graphic technologies. To contact Ted, visit www.groupestahl.com. The range of STAHLS’ products is available in the UK from Target Transfers Ltd, a GroupeSTAHL company. (www.targettransfers.com) Tel: +44 (0) 1376 326351.
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