by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Are you looking for the best ways to spend your advertising dollars? Being an embroiderer and being in business is all about a way to earn an income. We also want to keep as much of that money as we can and not be spending it on advertising. You need to look for ways to advertise that are cost effective and will give you a high return on your investment.
The ways that we have reached out to our customers or prospects in the past are different than the ways that we need to reach out to them today. The 3 best ways that I have found are:
- Great marketing materials
- Networking
- Marketing System on the Internet
While we need to be spending our time keeping our machines busy so that we are earning an income, we also need to spend a certain amount of time getting our name out there. Without those steady efforts we will have no work to keep those machines busy!
You cannot sit in your shop and wait for the prospects or customers to come to you. You have to reach out to them. You need a way to market to them that is not going to take all of your time and is not going to cost you a fortune.
Great Marketing Materials
I wrote about creating some outstanding marketing materials in one of my past articles but I cannot emphasize that enough. This is the first impression that you make on a prospect or customer. You must have a great business card and brochure that lets people know what you do, and how what you do benefits your prospect or customer. People really do not care about what you have, they only care about how what you have is going to benefit them in one way or another. It does not matter if this is a gift item that they are looking for or something that is going to promote their business. How can you help them?
If you would like to read more about creating a great business card go to embroiderybusinesssuccess.com/impression-embroidery-business/
Networking Off line and On line
Joining a networking group is a great way to get your name out there. You meet a lot of other business owners that are willing to exchange ideas. Someone in the group is bound to know others that are looking for what you have to offer. This does not usually happen immediately but over time, it does happen.
Before you start trying to do any marketing to the other members in the networking group you want to see if there is a way that you can help them get their name out there to other people. When they see that you are willing to help them, they will be willing to help you. Do not ever push your products off onto the other networkers in the group without offering to help them first! This just does not work and you will not be looked upon favorably!
Wear your products while you are networking. This is very important and make sure that what you are wearing is of high quality and the embroidery is impeccable. This is by far the best way to let people know you offer high quality products!
Let everyone you know, know what you do and how what you do can benefit them. Hand out your business cards and brochures to all of your friends and family and ask them to hand them out to their friends and family. This is an excellent way to start.
Create a Facebook Fan page and a Pinterest business page for your business. Post lots of pictures with content letting people see what you do. You will be better off not trying to sell them anything when you first start your pages. You want to have pictures and content that will be beneficial to them before you start promoting any type of sales to them. A social network is just that. You are trying to get your name out socially, not just blasting them with ads!
On Line Marketing System
A good web presence is one of the most cost effective ways to advertise today! You must have a total marketing system to make this effective and to create the sales that you are looking for. Having a shopping cart is not enough. Having a WordPress or standard HTML website is not enough. These must be combined with a system to collect names and email addresses from a group of people that would fit what you have to offer. But, how do you reach these people?
You must start out with your local market. The best way again is through networking, both off line and on line through your social network. Send prospects to your website for a free gift. This can be an article about something that will benefit them, a coupon for something free or a discount coupon for their first visit. You must give them a reason to visit you at your place of business but at the same time, people want to check you out to see what it is that you have to offer and how you are different than the other embroidery businesses in town, before they are willing to come to your place of business.
Once you have them in your automatic emailing system, you can start sending them information about you and your business and keep them informed of anything new that you have to offer and what is happening in your business. You could even promote a certain product each month. These emails can all be sent out on an automatic basis. You create them once, add them to your system and each time someone requests your free item, they are added to the system and will automatically receive these emails.
In today’s world people are so skeptical and they will not do business with you until they know, like and trust you and this is done through networking and receiving information from you prior to doing business with you.
To receive the most from your advertising dollars, you need to have great marketing materials, to be marketing on the internet and be networking in your local area.
Advertising in the newspaper does not work anymore. A press release can work for you if you have a special announcement, but it can only be an announcement. You cannot promote your business. If you have a special event that is happening, such as a grand opening or some type of promotion that you will be giving some of the profits to charity, you can send a press release and if they feel that it is news worthy or will be of benefit to someone else, they will publish it.
Advertising in the yellow pages does not work well anymore unless you are in an area that does not get internet access efficiently or you have a market that only looks in the yellow pages.
Today’s marketing is changing and the way that we advertised in the past is not going to work anymore. You need to find other ways of getting your name out there and you must be very careful about how you are spending your advertising dollars today. You want your advertising to increase your income and give you a great return on your investment!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Have you really thought about your business card and what that first impression says about you and your Embroidery business? The first impression that you leave with your new prospect or customer is extremely important and if you do not leave the right impression or a positive impression, you will not have the opportunity for another chance. What does that first impression say about you and your Embroidery Business? That first impression is the lasting impression and you want it to be the one that they will want to remember you by and tell others about you. Here are some questions that you need to answer that will help you to create a good first impression.
- Do you look like you have an Embroidery Business?
- Does your logo give an indication of what your business is about?
- Do all of your Marketing pieces flow with the same look?
- Do you advertise your product every place you go?
- Is your appearance reflective of your workmanship?
- Is your Showroom neat and organized ready for customers at all times?
When you talk to your prospect or customer that first time, you need to have a marketing piece to hand to them. Most generally, this is your business card, but it can also be a brochure or postcard. What does your marketing piece say about you? Is it leaving the kind of impression that you want to make.
When you are creating or having your marketing pieces created you need to make sure that they gook great, let the customer know exactly what it is you do and how it is going to benefit them. What do your marketing pieces say about you? Are they leaving the kind of impression that you want to make?
You Must Tell Your Prospect What To Do!
What is it you want your customer or prospect to do? You must let them know by the marketing piece that you hand them.
- Do you want them to call you?
- Do you want them to visit your website for a FREE gift or coupon?
- Do you want them to come to your place of business to receive a FREE gift, coupon or discount?
You want to make sure that your message is clear and that you are giving them a call to action. You must give them a reason to come to you! Your business card is the first item to take into consideration. What does your business card look like? Is it one that they will remember? You want your marketing pieces to be items that they will look at and say “WOW! I need to check these people out!”
Many people overlook the importance of a high quality business card, one that will actually leave a great impression. Remember, the first impression is the lasting impression Most people will buy the cheapest business card that they can, never thinking of what an impression that is actually leaving with the new prospect. Many have a standard logo or a logo from a company that is printing them on the back of the card. Do Not Ever Do This! A cheap business card with no real thought behind it says that your business does not pay attention to detail. Bad mistake!
What Does Your Business Card Say About You?
Thank about how your Business Card is representing you and your business. Here are the important components that need to be your business card.
- Business Name
- Logo
- What you do (Your tag line)
- Address (if applicable)
- The best way to contact you (email-phone or both)
- An offer on the back (You can send them to your Facebook Fan Page or your website for a FREE offer!)
Only have 500 Business Cards printed up the first time. You may want to make a change on it. You can then make the changes and have more printed. Give it some color. Use a color that you love and one that you are going to use in all of your marketing materials including your website.
Have a coating applied to the front side. Do not put coating on the back. You may want to write a note on it. The colors that you choose should be part of your branding process. Yes, you will make changes. You may want to change your offer or your message. I did this several times until I came up with exactly what was working the best.
Here is the Front of my Business Card Here is the Back of my Business Card
I get a lot of compliments on my card. You can see that I have all of the information on the front that is important and I have an offer on the back. This has worked very well for me and has brought in many prospects. I had my business cards printed on line through a company that offered overnight service. I did not choose the overnight option, but their service was excellent and fast.
You can also have a postcard created with one lead product or some type of promotion on it that you can hand out at different functions that you go to. It can really work for you. Again, make sure that you have an offer on it, one that they cannot resist! It does not have to be expensive, just something that will make them take action. If you have a post created make sure that it is 4″ x 6″. I have learned that people do not pay as much attention to the normal sized 3″ x 5″ postcards as they do the larger ones.
Remember, that first impression is so important and if you want the opportunity to create customers out of your new prospects you absolutely must create a great first impression!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Do you ever wonder how you can create more profits and have more Embroidery Business Success? The better you serve your customer, the better your customer will serve you. This is a service business and I cannot emphasize enough the importance of excellent customer service and the effect that it has on your profits and your entire embroidery business success.
Your customers depend on you for guidance in their selection of your products and services that will help them promote their business. The more that you help them and show them that you truly do have their best interest at heart, the more business they will do with you and they will help you promote your business!
Here are 5 tips that will help you to serve your customer better!
- Educate them so they know exactly what to expect up front.
- Be willing to work with them and give them a reason to come back for more.
- Always return their phone calls and emails ASAP.
- Have samples tagged with product information to make it easier for the customer to make their selection.
- Deliver On Time!
Educate your customer so they know exactly what to expect up front!
Do not have any hidden costs with their order. Make sure that at the end of the order taking process you have given them every bit of information that is needed to complete that order. If there are any art charges, set up charges, color change charges, hard to hoop fees, leather fees, wool fees or whatever other fees that can be applied to their order, let the customer know this upfront. Never make the mistake of going ahead with the order without their permission.
Unless it is a request that is going to take a lot of research such as a certain product that you do not carry on a steady basis, you need to have price lists ready and be able to give them an instant price. This always makes the customer feel very confident in you and your services.
Be willing to work with them and give them a reason to come back for more.
Today, the customers are demanding more and more from their suppliers in the way of services. If you do not meet their demands or wishes, someone else will. If it is not possible for you to accomplish something that they are requesting, given your situation, you must let them know up front immediately. Do not mislead them in any way. If you do, you will not see this customer again!
Your customer will be very happy that you took the extra step and will gain more confidence in your company. You want to make sure that you give your customer a very pleasant buying experience and they will return for more!
Always return their phone calls and always respond to emails ASAP!
When a customer or potential customer calls and has to leave a message, make sure you get back to them right away. If you do not return their phone call, they will feel that you do not want their business. All present and future customers need to be made to feel important.
The same principal applies to emails. If a person takes his time to email you, you must be courteous enough to take your time to reply to that email. They do not care how busy you are; their time is as valuable to them as yours is to you! This type of customer service is expected!
Have samples tagged with product information to make it easier for the customer to make their selection.
Having good samples tagged with up to date information is an excellent way to make it easier for the customer to make a selection. This gives them the feeling of confidence that you know what you are doing! Have some sizing samples ready for them to use.
Many customers are not looking for a high quality shirt, especially businesses like restaurants or construction businesses. They go through a lot of shirts and are usually looking for a low priced shirt.
Embroider your logo on the samples that you are tagging. The customer will be able to see your high quality work and when you have discontinued samples, you can give them away and have free advertising.
Deliver on Time!
This is by far the most important tip that I can give you that will help you serve your customer better and create more success in your embroidery business When you take an order, the customer must be given a delivery date. That is expected right up front. The average turnaround time today is 2 to 3 weeks. If you can deliver quickly, you will be servicing them better than the average embroidery business.
You must deliver on time or ahead of schedule of the agreed date. This is an excellent way to set you and your business apart from the crowd!
Just remember, the better you serve your customer, the your customer will serve you and you will see more profits and greater embroidery business success!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
In a previous I talked about how I had three major life changing events that occurred in 2012 and I shared with you the first major change; I went back to work to manage my old embroidery business!
In this article I want to talk about the other two major changes that took place in my life and how they affected me physically and emotionally!
A New Embroidery Training Website
At the beginning of every New Year we all want to set new goals for the coming year for both our personal life and our business! After taking a long look at the goals that I had set for the previous year, I discovered that my TheEmbroideryTrainingResourceCenter embroidery training website was not doing what I wanted it to do. I was devastated but I really did not know what do do about it.
I sat down with my business coach and she told me that I had no choice but to start over with my website if it is not allowing me to accomplish my goals! Starting over meant another year of work that I had not planned on but if that was going to help me reach my goals then that was what I was going to have to do!
We Must Willing To Make A Change
Change is not always a welcomed visitor but we absolutely must deal with it and be ready when it shows up! When I was faced with the fact that I had to rebuild my embroidery training website I was not a happy camper, but when I realized that this was standing in the way of me being able to reach my goals I did not have any other options.
The accounting system in the back end was not working like it should and I could not even add any more membership levels. My goal is and always has been to help the new embroiderer and the existing embroiderer with all of the information that they need to start and grow their embroidery business.
The back end system behind TheEmbroideryTrainingResourceCenter was blocking me from being able to build the kind of complete system that I had envisioned. This required me to lay out a new plan, start from scratch and build a brand new embroidery training membership website, I wanted a complete embroidery training site, one that would help the brand new embroiderer with the basic information to get started in their embroidery business as well as more advanced levels of information for the more advanced embroiderer.
Embroiderers need ongoing training to teach them how to create and tweak their designs, how to create the right type of business plan, how to price their embroidery products, how to market their embroidery, get their questions answered and help them through the rough times when they are first starting their embroidery business.
With this new system that I have created, I am now able to keep adding more information each week. It is still a work in progress but there is so much more inside of TheEmbroideryTrainingResourcecenter than I was able to upload into my old system. I am so excited about this new website. It is going to be everything that the embroiderer needs within a few short months. There are monthly Free trainings trainings in addition to the videos and other programs that I already have uploaded.
I am very excited about this new embroidery training site and I look forward to being able to help more embroiderers with their embroidery issues!
Surgery That Made A Huge Difference Physically And Emotionally!
The third major change this year was the surgery that I had on August 14th to have my left knee replaced. It was a surgery that was long overdue and as a result I had complications that caused me to be laid up for 10 weeks instead of just a couple of weeks that I had planned. I knew that I would not be able to be back to work in two weeks, but I had no idea that I would still be off my feet most of the time after 8 weeks and still in pain. I had lots of time to think but I was not able to do any work. During much of this time I was able to digitize but could not write or do any other type of productive work on my websites. My brain just did not want to function right! Digitizing is like an automatic reflex to me. I have been doing it for so long and I do not have to do much thinking about it as I go through the design!
I could not write any articles or even create my newsletter. This set me back a few weeks and again, I had to take a step back and take a good look at what I had done and do some re-planning for the remainder of the year. At times I was starting to feel like maybe I was done with my career and it really scared me. I really do not know what I would do if I could not do embroidery or help other embroiderers. That is a major part of my life! I guess you call it feeling sorry for yourself, but it really made a big impact on me.
I discovered that this was the time that I needed to spend on reflecting and look back at what I had actually accomplished and stop looking at what I had not yet accomplished! This made me feel a lot better and even stronger. I made lists of what I had accomplished and then I made a list of what I had not yet accomplished and my first list was a lot longer than the second one!
This gave me the courage to change what I was thinking about and helped me to keep going. Through this I was able to pull myself out of my doldrums, shall we say, and get back at it. There are times when we are all afraid of changes that need to take place whether we cause the situation that requires a change or whether it is totally out of our control.
Welcome change when it creeps into your life and make the best of it. By the way, I had a record breaking December in 2012. Change was good for me and I look forward to the next obstacle that causes me to make another change! Change can be great!
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by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
We are about to say goodbye to 2012 and welcome to 2013! This is the time when we need to look back on the old year and see what worked and what did not work! What do you need to do in your personal life or business to make the necessary changes in the areas that did not work? Is it time to let go of some of the things that did not work?
2012 was a year that was very good and yet it was a challenging year for me! There have been so many changes in my life and I have felt like there have been so many new beginnings from those changes and I am happy to say that in 2013 I expect to see the fruits of the labor from all of those changes.
I have always done a lot of planning and I try to work my plans but sometimes our plans just do not work out the way that we expect no matter how hard we try!
When you find an area in your life or your business that is not working the way that you think that it should, it is time to stop and take a good look at the situation and find out what you need to do to make the necessary change or perhaps you need to let it go.
This was one of those years for me. I had many changes that took place in my life that I had not planned for, but there were three changes that were major that affected both my personal life and my business in ways that I would not have imagined. I would like to share these with you.
- Went back to work to manage my former embroidery business
- I had to build a new Embroidery Training membership site
- Surgery for a knee replacement
Managing My Old Embroidery Business!
One morning in January 2012 I received a phone call from the gentleman that had purchased my embroidery business. The business was not making the kind of money that we was expecting and he was having a lot of problems with the employees. He was an absentee owner and he made some drastic changes to the business when he purchased it and closed the retail side of the business. The business seemed to be OK for while, but now several years later, he was extremely frustrated and about ready to close the doors. He wanted me to come in and do an evaluation of the business and let him know what it was that needed to be done to solve the problems and get the business back on track.
This was a real challenge for me, not because of the evaluation, but knowing what he really wanted was for me to fix all of the problems of the business and then stay on to manage the business. I knew that I could give him a great evaluation and let him know what he had to do to make the changes, but giving up some of the hours that I needed to spend on my embroidery training business so that I could fix his business, was a really tough decision for me to make.
I called my business coach and discussed it with her. She told me to evaluate my business and my personal life to see if this was going to be a benefit or a detriment. I wrestled with this decision for two weeks before I finally made my decision to give it a try for a few weeks and see what I could do to improve this business. I also decided that I would share this experience with my students so they could also learn from this business makeover. It is now 11 months later and I am still there.
Changes That I Made In This Business!
During this time I have sold old equipment, changed the work flow, added new production flow forms that must be followed, let go of employees that were not happy or causing dissension among the other employees and retrained the remaining employees. The business was totally divided into departments and the employees stayed in their particular departments and were not willing to cross the line to help in another department when it was necessary. There was no teamwork whatsoever among these employees.
This business was strictly a contract embroidery shop and it is almost impossible for a small embroidery business or even a medium sized embroidery business to survive on contract work alone. It needs some retail sales to help balance out the money flow especially during the lean times and there are lean times or months in almost every embroidery business.
I have also had the opportunity to work with each employee personally and have found out where all of their strengths and weaknesses are. This has allowed me to move them around in areas that they are excelling in and are much happier.
The business now has less employees, there is no division within the company and the production has greatly increased with the current employees. These remaining employees are now happy and are very willing to work as a team and it will be easier to train new employees because of all of the procedures that are now set in place. Do you have written procedures for each area of your business?
Plans For More Changes In 2013
I have more changes planned in 2013 for this business. I am in the process of opening up a retail area in the business and the opening is set for the end of January. I have the retail area 
all planned out and am in the process of getting the samples and the display equipment together. I am creating wall samples to make it easy for the customers to pick out exactly what they want for embroidery. It is going to save a lot of time for both the customer and the salesperson. When they are finished, I will take pictures and share them with you. I will tell you exactly how I created them so that you can duplicate what I have done for your own business.
I am also installing a new accounting system to get the New Year started off in the right direction with the accounting and the work flow. The changes that I have already made have been very positive and the owner is pleased with the progress. The employees that are still there are happy and are very willing to work as a team! I will not be leaving there any time soon. I have a lot that I want to accomplish and I want to see this business become very profitable and it is now moving in the right direction.
In the next Ezine, I will be sharing with you the next major change that affected by business!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
There are many ways to market your embroidery business but first I want to start out by giving you a few pointers about increasing the sales to your current customers and then I will talk about prospecting for new customers. It is much easier and more cost effective to market to your current customers than always trying to find new ones! This is the first step in starting to market your embroidery business.
Increasing customer sales with your current customer base is all about creating relationships. Creating good customer relationships is the most important duty that you have as a business owner and this is something that does not cost a lot of money. Many times it is the little unexpected things that we do that mean the most and keeps those customers coming back to our business over and over!
I purchased a program from a large company and was shocked when I received a handwritten Thank you note in the mail. I have to tell you, I was extremely impressed at this gesture! Just a simple thank you card that only took the salesperson a couple of minutes to write meant a lot to me and I will remember that the next time that I decide to order another program.
Here are some simple ways for you to increase your customer sales.
- Offer Exceptional Customer Service
- More Low Cost-High Profit Services To Your Existing Customers
- Build A Relationship With Existing And Former Customers
- Plan A Customer Appreciation Night
- Create A Web Presence
- Offer More Than One Price Level Of Products
There are several Low Cost Methods of prospecting for new customers.
- Networking Off Line and On Line
- Donate Products & Services to Charity for Fund Raising Events
- Ask For Referrals
- Attend Trade shows in Your Niche
- Offer to Trade Your Products & Services
- Press Releases
I will go over each of the simple ways to increase your customer sales and explain how to prospect for new customers. They can be done at the same time and many of them can be done on a daily basis as you are working within your business.
Concentrate your strengths against your competitor’s relative weaknesses.
~Bruce Henderson~
Make Your Business Stand Out From The Crowd
Is there a service or a process that you can offer your customers that they cannot get from any of your competition? What is it that you can do to be more efficient than the competition? It is usually better to focus on being different in a particular market rather than trying to compete directly. Find a unique strategy or a way to position your products or your business differently in your current market place.
Spend some time educating your customers about the benefits, services and value that they will be receiving by doing business with you. Point out to them what you are doing that the competition is not doing. You do not have to say that the competition is not doing such and such; you just have to point out what you are doing that makes you different or better!
You cannot compete with the big manufacturers or embroiderers that have many multi-head machines when you are only a small shop with one or two heads. Don’t even try. You must focus on what you do best in your smaller market. If you focus on improving one step or one process that can make you more efficient then this alone will help to make you more profitable!
Those large shops normally are not offering the type of customer service that you can offer. This can set you far above the larger shops and help to increase your customer sales. I have seen this many times. Many of the larger shops have systems all set that they will not steer away from, and they are usually profit focused instead of customer focused.
In order to be successful in this business, you must be customer focused. The profits will follow if that is the case! By finding your own unique way to stand out in the crowd, you will increase your customer sales naturally.
Offering Exceptional Customer Service to all of your embroidery customers will make you stand out and is extremely important in this competitive market place today!
Click here for more information on How To Market Your Embroidery Business!
