# Marketing My Screenprinting & Embroidery Business



## [email protected] (Oct 11, 2006)

Hello Every One,

I have been in the screen printing business since 1996 and now have 20 years expierence under my belt. We can do all types of neat and nifty things with screen printing and embroidery

I retired last Fall from Law Enforcement and began doing this full time. I had a website put on line and thought this would at least help to get the phone ringing but I'm still waiting. What are the best ways to get my name out there to the public? I admit I am a marketing amateur and don't have a clue as to what to do. It looks like to me conventional advertising in printed publications is almost a thing of the past... just not effective any more. Am I right or wrong?

If any one wants to look at my web site to see what it looks like it is Home Any comments on it both good and bad will not offend me in any way.

Any suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated.


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## mrcabdriver1 (Jul 25, 2016)

Change your homepage title name to something other than home. Get rid of the all caps text under services. Prices button on homepage does nothing.

Marketing I would start with visiting area businesses and leave contact information along with a leaflet brochure or something similar. Contact churches, not for profits, schools etc. 

Radio and TV advertising if you have the budget or try trading services. Shirts for spots. 

Target Facebook users with facebook ads and use other social media. Ask your local news outlets to do an article or news segment about your business. A friend of mine just built a new apartment building and the article from the local paper was his best advertisement and it was free. 

My wife and I are currently in the process of purchasing a turnkey brick and mortar store. All of the above is what we will be doing in addition to other marketing strategies.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

For the web site you have a lot of work to do but right away you should:

Change the first page from Home to something more descriptive with words in the title that include what you do. 

On the first page you need your name, address, phone number and as many words as possible with what you do.

Nobody cares about your equipment. Get rid of that and have samples of your work on the site and if you can have a catalog, do that too. 

Register with Google, Bing, Yahoo. It takes about 6 weeks to start getting on the search engines but it is free and if your address is on your landing page you will show at or near the top of search results for all locals that search for what you do even if they don't use your city in the search. 

Don't use an AOL account for a contact, use something like [email protected]

Get 5000 business cards and start cold calling local businesses, clubs, schools and anyone else you see. There is no substitute for this work. 

If you want to get into doing letterman jackets put an ad in the local HS football program. We actually do that and have a booth at the home games and get a lot of business from that. 

Good Luck.


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## [email protected] (Oct 11, 2006)

Thank you for ALL the help. My business has really focused on small businesses and ID logos for these companies. I will leave my competition the school sports business as I have had hit and miss success with that. Clubs, small businesses, churches and civic organizations has been the bulk of our business over the years. I will be modifying the web site to reflect the changes you suggested.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

One more thing, get a Google plus account and whatever bing and yahoo have that is similar. Make a business Facebook page as well with a link to your website


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## [email protected] (Oct 11, 2006)

Somebody else mentioned the Google Plus account...What does that do and how does it work?? As I said I am new to marketing and don't have a clue but am learning!


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## SunEmbroidery (Oct 18, 2007)

Web suggestions:
As mentioned - change title of "Home" to specific searchable title (there are 
Add physical address in footer to help with local searches
Increase font size of phone number
Add policies and fAQ's pages
Update copyright date to 2016
Add catalog link (could sway with "Prices" link)
Link to quality sites (possible a vendor's catalog) 
Add link to your site to your forum signature
Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools

You can obtain positive feedback from satisfied customers through Google Plus


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## chrisj0406 (Aug 14, 2016)

Agree with comments so far.
Your site needs lots of work. Your business is fundamentally a business in graphics on clothing. Your website needs to show that you are savvy in the graphics arena and, well, to be honest, it falls short.
Graphics and colours and the ability to combine those in an eye catching way is what your business is so make sure you reflect that in your site.
Google + account holders get preference in google search engine and so do mobile responsive websites.
As for marketing... don't wait for the customer to find you. Go and find your customer. Sit down and write a list of who your customer is. EVERYTHING. Their age, their business, what sports they would like etc. Once you "know" your client it is a lot easier to find them. Facebook groups are a good start. If you are targeting small business then get into small business networking groups. Think... where do small business owners hang out? and go and hang out with them.
I hope this helps.


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## hvcustomdesigns (Aug 19, 2016)

[email protected] said:


> Hello Every One,
> 
> I have been in the screen printing business since 1996 and now have 20 years expierence under my belt. We can do all types of neat and nifty things with screen printing and embroidery
> 
> ...


we are in the same boat but we just opened a month ago. Not sure the best cost efficient way to advertise.


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## robsox128 (Apr 4, 2011)

Regarding your website, I agree with what others have said (descriptive titles, location, etc) but would add that you should do quite a bit more when it comes to search engine optimization (google SEO for more information then you could ever want.) Here's a good beginners guide to SEO https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo.

First thing, prior to asking google, yahoo and bing to index your site would be to come up with appropriate keyword and description meta tags. Also, if you are going to be targeting Facebook or Twitter users, you should have social cards, here's a link that talks about how to use them https://moz.com/blog/meta-data-templates-123.

Also, you should have (if you don't already) accounts set up on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at least. Try to post interesting content like "how to design a great t-shirt" or "getting the most out of your business apparel investment" rather than just saying you are having a sale. On Instagram in particular, showing pictures of new or recent print runs may work well.

Best of luck,
Rob


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