You’ve set up your equipment, trained your employees and built a storefront. Now what? Are you as legit as a new Apple store in downtown New York City, with customers waiting to bust through the doors and order apparel?
While we all dream about that kind of devoted customer, there’s no doubt that you will have to do work to develop a solid base of customers.
Before you put together a marketing plan, identify your ideal customer. It could be sports teams and local community organizations, or businesses like construction companies that need apparel for a specific niche. Define your best type of orders. Create an ideal customer profile that fits your shop’s capabilities.
If you specialize in embroidery, look at professional organizations that need high-quality uniforms. It’s unlikely you can cater to more than a handful of different types of people, so start by writing out a profile and creating a marketing plan specifically for you.
There are two types of marketing you should consider:
Static Marketing
Static marketing involves putting content about your business out into the world and waiting for customers to absorb it and respond. This takes the traditional form of billboards, flyers and printed advertisements with your colors, logo, and services.
Static marketing can also be done digitally through Google Adwords, social media marketing and blogging. With static marketing, you are waiting for a customer to come to you. While static marketing is useful, it should not be the only type of marketing you do.
Consider the content you are using on all channels. Do your customers actually know what screen printing or direct-to-garment printing is? It may be best to use a phrase that’s simpler: try “custom t-shirts” instead. Ask someone younger to review your marketing to test if it’s as simple as possible.
Here are a few static marketing examples:
Dynamic Marketing
Dynamic marketing is the more aggressive form of marketing and involves going out and reaching customers. This can be done with printed material, but it is a much more personal experience in which cold calling may be involved.
Dynamic marketing, when done digitally and correctly, can be extremely effective. This is when you take digital content and attach different marketing tools to retarget and position yourself in front of ideal customers.
Here are a few examples of dynamic marketing:
Screen printing is a multi-billion dollar industry with customers from every part of the world. Every year, thousands of entrepreneurs discover their passion for screen printing - and they want to claim their cut of the billions and billions of dollars spent on custom printed apparel.
But the majority of new screen printing shops fail before they reach the 5-year mark. They fail because of poor business planning, dull branding, and a lack of ability to scale.
Your shop can be different.
This is an excerpt from our book, The PrintHustlers Guide To: Growing a Successful Screen Printing Business. Written by Printavo's dynamic founder Bruce Ackerman, Campus Ink's enterprising Steven Farag, and Adam Cook. The PrintHustlers Guide To: Growing a Successful Screen Printing Business is the next generation's guide for building your own lucrative print shop.
You can purchase a physical copy of the book on Amazon.
Previous chapter: Chapter 10: Payroll Should Be Automated
Next chapter: Chapter 12: Setting Up Your Shop’s Workflow
Coming soon!
Next Post: The Future of DTG and Screen Printing: Vision 2020 at The M&R Companies with T&J Print Supply
Printavo is simple shop management software. Whether your shop works with screen printing, embroidery, signage, digital printing, or awards & engraving–we make your complex workflow simpler to manage and understand. Printavo keeps your shop organized by handling scheduling, estimates, quote approvals, workflow, payments, accounting and more. With Printavo, you’ll work smarter–not harder.
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