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How do you advertise / promote your business to get more business?
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Sindex Printing
New Member
What has worked for me is trying to find how far I can push the capabilities of items I can produce and show them off as samples to all the customers and people I know. I have a couple customers that business networking groups have done great for them.
FireSprint.com
Trade Only Screen & Digital Sign Printing
Specialize in an industry or two. Really focus on block layers, bakeries, car dealerships, commercial real estate agents, schools, etc. A focus on an industry can help you become the go-to or expert in your field. Become the bridge between an industry and the sign, printing and promo trades.
Or specialize in a specific product, get really really good at interior office rebrands, or vehicle wraps, or even yard signs. Just do it very very well.
Another way to say this is that if you're a jack of all trades, you're a master of none. Extreme focus pays off in today's economy. There are million $ companies all over that have no more than 10,000 possible customers in the US, but they are well known for what they do within that industry.
Or specialize in a specific product, get really really good at interior office rebrands, or vehicle wraps, or even yard signs. Just do it very very well.
Another way to say this is that if you're a jack of all trades, you're a master of none. Extreme focus pays off in today's economy. There are million $ companies all over that have no more than 10,000 possible customers in the US, but they are well known for what they do within that industry.
Bradley Signs
Bradley Signs
I suppose, if you want to be a necktie wearing big wig someday, who knows everything, and his employees know nothing, then think big, and follow the advice of what the other folks say, focus on one or two basic things that might support each other, and specialize in it.
I, personally don't advertise at all.
Word of mouth.
Plenty of work to keep me and the wife busy, with out all the rhetoric of running a big shop!
We are not looking to get rich, just pay the bills and live comfortably.
I have been in the trade since the early 70's, and word of mouth is all I ever needed.
We basically stick to Realty Signs and T-Shirts.
Just look down the road your on, and and decide which fork you will take, and run with it.
Good luck.
Oh, and don't get eaten alive!
I, personally don't advertise at all.
Word of mouth.
Plenty of work to keep me and the wife busy, with out all the rhetoric of running a big shop!
We are not looking to get rich, just pay the bills and live comfortably.
I have been in the trade since the early 70's, and word of mouth is all I ever needed.
We basically stick to Realty Signs and T-Shirts.
Just look down the road your on, and and decide which fork you will take, and run with it.
Good luck.
Oh, and don't get eaten alive!
I couldn't agree more, many small shops expand into so many areas & never look at what makes them money, soon the business is so convoluted that
all it takes is for a key employee to quit and it all falls apart. Specialize as much as you can, become the best in your area for a couple of services and
don't try and be all things to all people.
jakesworld
New Member
Great advise, I've been in business for 18 years, & have tried to stay with a few specialties, and one happens to be wrapping vehicles, but I am re-focusing. I find that printing & shipping the printed products like hard hat decals, prints etc. is where i am going to push. Wrapping vehicles by yourself is tons of work. I just need to market what i can sell & make a living.
Christian @ 2CT Media
Active Member
Are you prepared to become a penny chasing online printer who's only path to profits is mass scale?
You are leaving a skilled market and entering a commodity market. As much as the Gen Pub wants to commoditize the wrap field, they can't. There is absolutely no way currently to replace your skills and it's even harder to find people willing to learn the skills.
I suggest you stick with the wrap focus, find a protege or two and become the expert in your field.
kcollinsdesign
Old member
Depends on your market. If you are in the commodity market, be prepared to spend 10% - 15% of gross revenues on marketing and advertising.
The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue for marketing and advertising if you’re doing less than $5 million a year in sales and your net profit margin—after all expenses—is in the 10 percent to 12 percent range.
Follow this link [ https://nuphoriq.com/create-a-marketing-budget/ ] for a good article on marketing budgeting. The attached chart is from that article.
I have a small design based business and outsource most of my production, installation, and maintenance. My web page is currently down (trying to find time), but most of my work is from a solid core of dedicated clients and word of mouth. The only thing on my web site is contact information and a portfolio.
The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue for marketing and advertising if you’re doing less than $5 million a year in sales and your net profit margin—after all expenses—is in the 10 percent to 12 percent range.
Follow this link [ https://nuphoriq.com/create-a-marketing-budget/ ] for a good article on marketing budgeting. The attached chart is from that article.
I have a small design based business and outsource most of my production, installation, and maintenance. My web page is currently down (trying to find time), but most of my work is from a solid core of dedicated clients and word of mouth. The only thing on my web site is contact information and a portfolio.
Hero Signs
If they let me make it, they will come
For us I tried many different avenues. We now focus on local printing just as any franchise company, outsource paper prints, corro etc.. all the cheap stuff. Print in house and decal work. Also we work for the biggest sign companies and the locals installing and servicing as I have an electrical license and 50' 2 man bucket with material handler. I don't get a lot of channel letters as in Houston there are so many with 30' trucks and guys doing crap cheap. We typically get install work that is $800-$4,000 on the regular but my largest was a $72,000 project.
visual800
Active Member
I dont advertise. But I do check the planning commissions meetings in the tri county area for who is breaking ground and who is building. I check several commercial real estate website for their "news" some will post what they leased, where they leased and to whom they leased. I cold call. It has worked for 32 years some you get some you dont
I have done the chamber, I have taken out ads in local magazines pretty much anything Ive tried in early years was a waste of time
I have done the chamber, I have taken out ads in local magazines pretty much anything Ive tried in early years was a waste of time
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
Those appointment emails are right next to the car warranty calls on the annoying scale. No competent business owner/manager would want to waste their time or their sales reps time chasing around a bunch of unqualified gotcha leads they received through a spam campaign.
gnubler
Active Member
Was going to start a new thread but I'll bump this one since there's some good input in it.
Late last year my shop moved to a new location, all of 2 miles away but different city. I updated my Google business profile and called it done, figured it would be business as usual. I'm based in a low population rural area and winter is always quieter, but ever since moving to the new location I noticed a significant decline in new customer phone calls and website requests, like from a dozen or more a week to zero. Turns out I have all but disappeared from Google, I don't show up in search results at all and on the map results I'm way down the list, even below competitors that are 60 miles away. I'm searching for things like "sign shop near me" or "banner printing" or "truck wrap", tried a bunch of different phrases as a prospective customer might. This was not the case at my old location and I never had to advertise because I was easily found. A lot of my business is word of mouth and repeats, but being found on the internet is crucial for me. At least half of my business is new customers. I often ask "how did you find us?" and they say online.
Met with an IT/SEO person and he gave me some good feedback. Had to manually update my Yellow Pages listing, Yelp, Manta, local directories...none of these are for advertising per se but the more sites I appear on the better for search results. On one search engine (Bing) I was listed as closed. Nice. I'm on the verge of reopening my Instagram page and keeping it updated only as a tool for SEO. My website domain name is also an issue, apparently if you're not a dotcom you don't matter, so I have some back end changes to make.
If anyone else has dealt with a similar situation let me know if there's anything else I can do to remain prominent online. As far as other avenues, I'm running ads in the local paper (it has a large readership) and attending networking functions. Hope it doesn't come down to doing cold calls or going door to door, I suck at that.
Late last year my shop moved to a new location, all of 2 miles away but different city. I updated my Google business profile and called it done, figured it would be business as usual. I'm based in a low population rural area and winter is always quieter, but ever since moving to the new location I noticed a significant decline in new customer phone calls and website requests, like from a dozen or more a week to zero. Turns out I have all but disappeared from Google, I don't show up in search results at all and on the map results I'm way down the list, even below competitors that are 60 miles away. I'm searching for things like "sign shop near me" or "banner printing" or "truck wrap", tried a bunch of different phrases as a prospective customer might. This was not the case at my old location and I never had to advertise because I was easily found. A lot of my business is word of mouth and repeats, but being found on the internet is crucial for me. At least half of my business is new customers. I often ask "how did you find us?" and they say online.
Met with an IT/SEO person and he gave me some good feedback. Had to manually update my Yellow Pages listing, Yelp, Manta, local directories...none of these are for advertising per se but the more sites I appear on the better for search results. On one search engine (Bing) I was listed as closed. Nice. I'm on the verge of reopening my Instagram page and keeping it updated only as a tool for SEO. My website domain name is also an issue, apparently if you're not a dotcom you don't matter, so I have some back end changes to make.
If anyone else has dealt with a similar situation let me know if there's anything else I can do to remain prominent online. As far as other avenues, I'm running ads in the local paper (it has a large readership) and attending networking functions. Hope it doesn't come down to doing cold calls or going door to door, I suck at that.
At this shop we do a few of things.
One is vehicle wraps. It is not the most profitable part of the business since its very competitive here, but the word of mouth from wrapped vehicles is huge for us.
Another is the gratis printing we do for a local radio station. We do a bunch of stuff for them and get some radio spots.
We also do some higher profile signs for charity related stuff that has our logo on it.
One is vehicle wraps. It is not the most profitable part of the business since its very competitive here, but the word of mouth from wrapped vehicles is huge for us.
Another is the gratis printing we do for a local radio station. We do a bunch of stuff for them and get some radio spots.
We also do some higher profile signs for charity related stuff that has our logo on it.
gnubler
Active Member
I've done some donation work, it's good for business. Gets my name listed in news articles, social media, etc.
I don't think anyone in my area is doing wraps anymore. Not sure if I want to get into it. One man shop, need lots of training first.
I had a few thousand $ of credit with a local radio station and they blew me off. Months of back and forth, I finally gave up on it, was busy enough.
I don't think anyone in my area is doing wraps anymore. Not sure if I want to get into it. One man shop, need lots of training first.
I had a few thousand $ of credit with a local radio station and they blew me off. Months of back and forth, I finally gave up on it, was busy enough.
Sorry to hear about the radio station. Not a good way to do business. If they blow you off on a freebie why would you ever buy advertising from them?
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
That sucks gnub... I had my listing go from #1 down to #10 for no reason. Huge drop in new calls. I'm basically living off repeat and referral and thankfully that's more than enough right now.
Stacey K
I like making signs
Website SEO and Facebook. I rarely do donations. As a one person shop, it's a bit harder to absorb. My son is a senior and for 4 years I paid for a radio spot during his football games and I donated like $60 a year to football alumni golf outing. Guess what, now they call me every time any school group goes to regionals or sectionals or state - I say no to ALL except football. I will donate a Carhartt hoodie to random "professional" fundraisers such as the city picnic and the school booster club big event. Donations have never resulted in much business.
One thing that really jerks my chain is all these fundraisers for people who get sick. They have a bigger house than me and a nicer car and I should take money litterally from my pocket and give it to you? Not happening. Had one of these over the last few months. Some kind of "pub crawl" thing. Well, they have a very successful business with employees, a nice home with a new pool and a winter home in Florida. She posted on FB they had to sell their Florida home. Well, guess what???? They turned around after the benefit and sold it for a nice profit then used that to buy a bigger better one! And I should donate to this? No thanks!
One thing that really jerks my chain is all these fundraisers for people who get sick. They have a bigger house than me and a nicer car and I should take money litterally from my pocket and give it to you? Not happening. Had one of these over the last few months. Some kind of "pub crawl" thing. Well, they have a very successful business with employees, a nice home with a new pool and a winter home in Florida. She posted on FB they had to sell their Florida home. Well, guess what???? They turned around after the benefit and sold it for a nice profit then used that to buy a bigger better one! And I should donate to this? No thanks!