# [Selling Printing Services] What is the best form of inexpensive advertising?



## Flaming Drum (Nov 10, 2010)

Hi
I am relatively new at the screen printing business. We have a start-up company in our home. For the last couple of months we did some shirts for a couple of festivals. Now that the festivals are done for the year, we need to start getting into other markets. I have sent out a stack of mailers to local day care centers, schools, etc. with no response yet. I am currently designing an advertisement to go into our local newspaper. We are doing this on a small budget so have to get the most impact for every penny we spend. Does anyone have any advise on what market is the best one to get orders out of? Also, what is the best form of advertising, that is relatively inexpensive, that will also get our name out to the most people who are likely to buy? My husband is in the process of building a website for us now. 
Thank you.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Hi Kay :welcome:

Having a website is a good first step. 

Next, you should read through some of the great advertising tips people have posted here: local marketing related topics at T-Shirt Forums


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## jiarby (Feb 8, 2007)

Vehicle graphics are the best bang for your $$.... even a $50 magnetic car door sign is better than nothing at all. Get rid of your political & sports stickers and stick people... put your business & ph# on there!. 

Targeted interest niche website banner ads (like on a car forum for automotive logo shirts, or BBQ forum for cookoff trophies) are great, but be sure to participate and become a contributing member... not just a self promoting shill. 

Billboard or Fence banner on a busy street. (Wrapped U-Haul trucks parked on the side of the road too) 

Coroplast bandit signs. 

Website, if you also have good SEO work on your website (Articles, Blogs, Photos, Forums, etc... all tagged right). 

Local Chamber of Commerce, Local networking group, etc...

Facebook/Twitter... but be very careful. No one likes a spammer. 

Business cards, Carry them with you everywhere. Give one to everyone you meet... and especially everyone that you give a dollar to.. If you buy anything from anyone give them a card and tell them what you do. They appreciate your support and will be willing to consider using you if they ever need what you do. 

I can't minimize the effectiveness of good face to face customer interaction (old school guys call this "prospecting"). Go beat the streets, call on business owners,schools, churches, municipal office and just introduce yourself. No pressure. Ask them what they do, how they think business is going. Ask them if they found advertising to be effective in the past. 

On Saturday go find the local baseball/soccer field and set up in the parking lot. Laptop, Plotter, table to mask and make cheap window decals. This gets you face to face with team moms, league managers, PTO leaders, coaches, etc... You spend 4-5 hours and give away $10 worth of vinyl.. but pick up invaluable contacts and start to build a good relationship with local buyers. Have samples of other work to show. Take orders! They love rhinestones! 

I found the following to be ineffective, or at least very expensive:
Print advertising (newspaper, yellow pages, school sports & theater programs) 
Direct mail (post cards, brochures, whatever) 
Pay Per Click Ads... just makes Google Guys rich, not you. 
Crooked, dark-hat SEO... gets you blacklisted.


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Glenn pretty much said everything I would have, but I did want to underline a couple of things that were in his post. 

First, Facebook and Twitter can be very valuable local resources, but only if you're there to participate in the community, not just to sell your work and your company. If all you do is post links to your website and repeat the same three or four messages over and over, you won't be successful. If, instead, you let your personality shine through, interact with others and make your feeds fun and informative, you can do well through social media. 

Another nice bit of free advertising that a lot of people forget is press releases. They're relatively easy to write, and a lot of newspapers and even television stations like to have them as filler. Depending on whether or not it's a slow news day, a press release can spark an entire story.


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## IYFGraphics (Sep 28, 2009)

EnMartian said:


> Glenn pretty much said everything I would have, but I did want to underline a couple of things that were in his post.


Agreed...Glenn slammed that one out of the park!

But the best/cheapest advertising is "word of mouth" do good quality work, charge fair prices for what you produce, treat your customers the way you would want to be treated, and the folks will recommend you to their friends....which will produce more orders.

Hope this helps.


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## jiarby (Feb 8, 2007)

one more thing... The press release idea works well if you combine it with some kind of promotion that is interesting to the general public interest. 

Like... You make shirts for a local church fund raiser, school benefit, or cancer walk a thon. They love soldier stuff too. Make some "Welcome Home Billy" banners for the returning soldiers. 

We make posters and signs for the local Army recruiting station.

We made a banner for a West Point Cadet that was competing in a local ultramarathon race that got some TV time. 

Make your press release interesting!


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## Flaming Drum (Nov 10, 2010)

Thank you all very much for the information. We went to a local family owned printer to get the copies made for our mailers we did. While there, the owner looked over our flyer and asked would we be interested in doing the screen print coroplast signs. We actually got a video yesterday about them and saw that they are basically the same as the shirts, except different blanks, larger screen, different chemicals and ink, but the rest is the same. He wants to sub out his larger orders to us. We are going tomorrow to talk to him further about it now that I have done some research. 
We are also planning on getting the magnets for the car and also for my van. Face to face is our next step. We live in the middle of no where in between 4 small towns, and 3 larger towns so we have decided to take them one at a time. 
Our newspaper is a little weekly paper that everyone gets so is read more thoroughly than many are from larger areas as this is the only way locals really get the news so I am going to give it a try. It is only $5.00 to run an ad so even if it doesn't generate anything I won't be out that much. 
I am going to start researching the website banners as my husband finishes up our website. 
I am also going to be burning a couple of screens tomorrow to advertise our business. We just went through our closets and pulled out everything we can print on so we can be walking billboards!!
Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to copy them so we can refer back to them on a regular basis.


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## Flaming Drum (Nov 10, 2010)

Thank you for your help


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