In our previous Trade Secrets e-letter, John Shoffner told how he sells t-shirts along with his signs, and produces them in-house with computer-cut film and an inexpensive heat press. I asked readers if any were having success with advertising specialties and promotional items, and heard from several who had.
Three key benefits kept coming up in their comments. First, it’s great to have a product to sell that you don’t have to produce. Just take the order from the client, order the products and call the client when they arrive.
Second, re-orders are likely. And, clients may also come back to order other promotional items later.
Third, is that all this keeps them coming back to you, and establishes you as a one-stop source for marketing help. A long-standing problem for sign shops has been that many customers only buy a few signs during the life of their business. Products like these can bring them back to the shop, giving you another opportunity to sell them signs and other products.
A few readers gave the sources they use to find promotional items, and shared photos of their display areas. I hope their input helps you find an easy way to add to your profits.
Arthur Meeker, Xtreme Graphx, Albany, OR
www.xtremegrafxdesign.com
We offer pens, key chains, etc. to our customers and it adds a nice chunk to the bottom line. We work through a broker, www.kaeser-blair.com. That they have catalogs and an add-on link for our website, which is nice.
We also offer paper printing to our customers, business cards, letterhead, and postcards. Most of our new customers with start-up companies have the whole package done by us so that they don’t have to go all over town to get their marketing needs taken care of.
It’s part of an approach that’s working for us. I started with $2,000 five years ago. Last year we bought a 6800 square foot building, and our sales have increased steadily.
Jolee Moffett and Jeremiah Peterson, 2 Sign Guys, LLC, Jasper, IN
We bill ourselves as a full service sign shop, offering any and all types of marketing, from signs to pens to shirts to business cards. We have the graphics skills and have built good working relationships with the printers and screen printers in our town. We can generally get better prices than our customers can and still get a bit of mark up on them. It saves the customer the hassle of having to go to several different places for their different marketing needs and gives us more face-to-face time with our customers!
Karen Johnson K&R Graphics & Signs, Inc. Woodside, De
I started off just offering business cards along with my sign work, then added flyers, brochures, shirts, hats and more. Because I often create logos for customers, I like to handle whatever advertising items they may need. I provide promotional products, like pens and water bottles, too.
I started doing this a long time ago, because I wanted to keep my customers coming back to me. If I only did a vehicle for them, that might be all they would need to purchase from me. This keeps them coming back.
Suzanne Wright, Creative Edge Signs & Graphics, Weeping Water, NE
www.VisitCreativeEdge.com
I agree 100% with the T-shirt article! It’s a great way to make additional sales, and it always leads to me being a customers "go-to person" for all of their signs and printing. Sales of t-shirts and ad specialties have actually started to surpass my signs and vehicle graphics this year.
I have a display that shows everything I can do. Almost every time a customer walks in, I hear "I didn't realize you did koozies (or business cards or pens or t-shirts)…” About half the time, I end up at least giving them a quote on another product that they would have gone somewhere else to get.
About three years ago I joined SAGE [www.sageworld.com], an organization that connects you with sources for ad specialty products. It saves me a lot of hassle looking for products and comparing markups. It paid for itself with the first order. SAGE publishes catalogs that you can put your logo on and provide to customers, too.
Over the last few years, I've developed a nice little network of reliable suppliers and contract printers. That allows me to focus on what I really love to do, which is designing, and making signs and vehicle graphics. If I had to rely solely on my profits from that though, I don't know if I could make it.
