# Finding the best customers for a local DTG shop



## Outlier (Nov 24, 2013)

Hey everyone I'm Brad

I'm trying to help my wife with a marketing campaign for her DTG printing and design business. Right now she's only marketing through word of mouth and facebook. It's been alright but she gets a lot of small orders with really low profit margins.

So I want to design her marketing around customers who deliver the best profit to help boost net profit. When it comes to local shirt sales who are the customers you really like to deal with? Are school teams the best, companies buying uniform shirts maybe local organizations planning for events? 

What I'm really trying determine here is if I want to rank high in google for "search term shirt printing" in "my city" 
What's the search term that's going to give her the best customer?

Thanks


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Small orders should have a high margin. That is your first problem. 

So with dtg you are offering 4 color process printing. Go for both the photo market and the short runs with lots of colors. 

We do a lot of memorial walks with photos on the shirts. Our biggest customer for these orders over 500 shirts every year for this event. 

Car shows where you can do one offs for $30. 

Baby pics

Canvas prints at $90. 

There are a lot of opportunities.


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## Outlier (Nov 24, 2013)

binki said:


> Small orders should have a high margin. That is your first problem.
> 
> So with dtg you are offering 4 color process printing. Go for both the photo market and the short runs with lots of colors.
> 
> ...


Thanks that's a step in the right direction.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Outlier said:


> Thanks that's a step in the right direction.


We just quoted someone that could go to 4 color process otherwise is about 10 colrs but they only want 100 shirts and half of those are 2XL and all have a pocket. We are able to quote $13 each and $14 for the 2XL. 

Why? Because he can't go anywhere else and get it at that price. Perfect for DTG or something like a Versacamm.


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## valleyboy_1 (Jan 23, 2010)

How do you find these memorial walks and car shows??


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## Outlier (Nov 24, 2013)

valleyboy_1 said:


> How do you find these memorial walks and car shows??


I'm sure you just gotta find the event and ask for the sale. I just made a shirt for a cruise night and asked the organizers if they wanted to buy some on facebook.

I got an answer about getting on the approved vendor list for the city and putting in a bid next year. It's not as good as money but it's better than a kick in the face I guess.


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## tchandler52 (Sep 17, 2012)

I also have a local DTG business. I try to participate with all social media sites.


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## Outlier (Nov 24, 2013)

tchandler52 said:


> I also have a local DTG business. I try to participate with all social media sites.


I do better with facebook than anything else right now. Do you get many people asking about work on other social media sites?


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## tchandler52 (Sep 17, 2012)

I also do better with facebook than anywhere else but instagram can also be a great networking tool using hash tags. Twitter is good also if you can get people tweeting about your business.


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## StarDesigns (Aug 4, 2013)

Take advantage of twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Use the Instagram app and it allows you to post to all three from the same page. You need as many followers on all three formats as you can get. 

The younger crowd, while most of them have a facebook account, are abandoning it in favor of twitter and Instagram because of all the "old" people on FB. I use all three to make sure to cover all the bases. I use "FLASH" sales to build up my fan base. (I offer a certain % off for one day only in my retail shop if you are a follower and the % increases if you follow on all three formats)

Social Media isn't the only answer but it is by far one of the best ways to get your product in front of people. One more tip: Always post using a picture. People will stop and look at a picture then read the copy. Videos work too. If I don't have product pics to share I'll find something timely to post. For example, on Memorial Day I found a nice flag with a fitting saying honoring those who gave their lives for our country. I also use the "scheduled" post option on my facebook page and schedule up to a weeks worth of posts in advance. 


Mitchell - Star Designs
Sent from my iPhone using TShirtForums app


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## StarDesigns (Aug 4, 2013)

Meant to post a link if you wanted to see my facebook page;

www.facebook.com/stardesignstn


Mitchell - Star Designs
Sent from my iPhone using TShirtForums app


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## bentcycle (May 1, 2014)

> How do you find these memorial walks and car shows??


try looking in your local free papers. they usually have events calandars

DTG is hard to make money at from everything i've read as it's usually more one off than large order. when orders get large, it's cheaper to do silk screening.

a lot of printers sell on ebay and amazon is a good way to get business if you have some good designs to catch people's interest.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

valleyboy_1 said:


> How do you find these memorial walks and car shows??


We have a retail storefront so they come to us.


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## martinwoods (Jul 20, 2006)

StarDesigns said:


> Take advantage of twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Use the Instagram app and it allows you to post to all three from the same page. You need as many followers on all three formats as you can get.
> 
> The younger crowd, while most of them have a facebook account, are abandoning it in favor of twitter and Instagram because of all the "old" people on FB. I use all three to make sure to cover all the bases. I use "FLASH" sales to build up my fan base. (I offer a certain % off for one day only in my retail shop if you are a follower and the % increases if you follow on all three formats)
> 
> ...


When you say instagram app for all three, how does that work? Thanks. I am new to instagram


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## StarDesigns (Aug 4, 2013)

martinwoods said:


> When you say instagram app for all three, how does that work? Thanks. I am new to instagram


When you pick a picture to share on Instagram it gives you options to edit the pic and then how you will share it. Choose facebook and Twitter with each post. You will have to link your Instagram with each account but after the first time it is automatic after that. Pretty simple. 


Mitchell - Star Designs
Sent from my iPhone using TShirtForums app


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## Vintageinstincts (Sep 7, 2013)

There's a lot of small brands out there who are somewhat new or just starting out and are looking for DTG services to bring their designs to life. I was one of those people and I found my source by researching on the internet. I would look into getting a Google Places page, LinkedIn, Yelp, etc where your business will show up in search engines. Local people will be searching for your services and can find your business online. I would pay for a couple specific keywords like "DTG printing 'Your City'" and people are guaranteed to find you. Social media definitely helps but you really need to show up in search engines. The best way to do that is to get listed in all of the directories and pay for some targeted traffic.


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## SunEmbroidery (Oct 18, 2007)

While sharing on social sites profile "customer of the week" pics. Your profiled customers will love the extra advertising and new customers will want to be your next customer of the week.


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## Outlier (Nov 24, 2013)

These are great ideas this thread is really taking off. Are any of you selling on Etsy?


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