Last week I hard the privilege of participating in the ASI Education webinar, ” The 5 Hot Apparel Markets.”  This webinar was full of information what you can do to approach and work with these  Markets.

The 5 Hot Apparel Markets that you should be focusing your efforts on are:

• Financial Institutions
• Government Agencies
• Health Care
• Education
• Service industry

Nicole Rollendar, Editor of Stitches and Director of Education for ASI Central, did an excellent job of creating this webinar and I had the privilege of working with her, Pat Baldes of Personalizationsolutions and Jennifer Cox from NNEP. Pat and Jennifer are both very sharp and knowledgeable in the embroidery and all areas of the apparel market.

To watch the replay of this webinar click on link and it will take you directly to the webinar “The 5 Hot Apparel Markets”.  I know that you will enjoy this webinar.  You will want to take notes at you are watching it.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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How can I write a blog post?  I cannot write!  How do I not know what to say?  This is what I hear over and over when I am working with my students, helping them to create their On-Line Embroidery Marketing System.

I understand where you are coming from and what you mean!  I have been there myself and I finally discovered that writing a blog post is not hard!

Write As If You Are Talking To One Person At A Time!

I always thought that I was writing to a large group of people and I did not have a clue as to what to say.  I then discovered that I had to write as if I was talking, and you are merely talking to one person at a time.

Before you start trying to write, create a picture in your mind of the person that you are writing to.   He or she is not just a customer, they are a person.

• Who is your target audience?
• Approximately how old is she or he?
• What are their interests?
• Is this a small business person?
• Is this person an end user of your product?
• What type of a relationship do you want to have with this person?

Once you have a clear picture of that person in your mind, it is easier to create your message. 

• What is it that you want them to know?
  
• What do you have to offer them that is going to help them? 

Remember: keep it short and to the point.  People do not have the time to read long posts.   You are creating a relationship with that one person. This may help you to overcome your fear of writing. It worked for me!  Leave a comment and let me know if this has helped you!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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The Best Way To Promote Your Offline Business to Online Prospects And Increase Your Google Rankings At The Same Time!

I wanted to share with you an article about how to promote your business and get higher rankings in Google for your off-line store front that I found this morning when I logged into my Twitter account.  Click on the second title link above to read this article.

It is very important that you read this and follow what he has to say.  The sooner you get this done, the better chances you have to rank very high in your area for your business type.  In this day, we need every bit of help that we can get to promote our business’ and get our name out there.  This can really make you stand out from the other embroiderers in your area!

Newt Barrett is a content marketing expert and his posts are worth your time to read. You will learn a lot from him about marketing your business.

After you read this article, leave a comment below and let me know how you liked it!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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Setting Up Your Marketing System

In Lesson 2 of our “How To Create Your Own Embroidery Marketing System On-Line“, we are going to be going through  and setting up the back end of your Marketing System so that it will be search engine optimized from the very first blog post.  Next Tuesday night July 28th, at 8pm is Lesson 2 in this series.  If you missed the first lesson, you can sign up for the next lesson and get caught up.  Videos of the first Lesson will be sent to you.

Having a website and marketing system is just as important to a home based embroidery business as it is to a large corporate embroidery business.  You need to be able to stay in front of your customers at all times and make it easy for them to find you and purchase from you.  I have created an entire system that will walk you through step by step as to how to create an entire marketing system from choosing your domain name to filling up your shopping cart.

This is not a marketing system that is available any place else, especially for the price that I am charging.  After our series of webinars, I will be creating an entire home study course on  DVD’s with workbooks and it will not be sold at this rediculously low price!

I am making this available to all my Embroidery Tips Club Members for free because I want everyone of my students to succeed.  It is extremely important to me to be able to help all of my students  to succeed to whatever level they aspire to!

How To Create Your First Blog Post

During Lesson 2 I will also teach you how to create your first blog post.  Creating your blog posts is an easy way of keeping in constant contact with your customers.

Step by Step Embroidery Marketing Course

This step by step course is divided into one hour sessions held every 2 weeks for the next several weeks.  This course does have homework with it, but at the end of the course, you should have your fully functioning website on-line and fully optimized for the search engines.

Monday I will be sending out a link to all of the Embroidery Tips Club Members to register for the webinar.   Last month I sent out a link to all of the members to the videos after the webinar.  I will not be doing that this month.  In order to be able to view the videos after the course, you must register for the webinar.

If you are not a member of the Embroidery Tipsandmore.com Embroidery Club you must go to The Embroidery Webinar of the Month website and sign up for the program.

If you have a website that is NOT bringing you lots of sales each month, or DO NOT have a website at all, you need to be apart of this webinar series.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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Each morning I receive a Quote of the day from Brian Tracy.  My quote of the day is “Time Flies.  It is up to you to be the navigator”!  This quote was first by Robert Orben, but it is so timely, I just had to share it with you.  Thank you Brian Tracy for those words of wisdom for the day!

I am sitting here in my bed, recouping from surgery with my foot in the air!  I am working from my laptop, my phone is ringing off the wall with requests for digitizing of embroidery designs, emails are coming in with  more requests for embroidery designs and I am trying to prepare for Lesson 2 of our series teaching home embroiderers “How To Create Their Own On Line Embroidery Marketing System”!   I thought the quote was totally prefect for the day and I know that all embroiderers will understand when they read this email.

When you are involved in your own business, you do not have the luxury of taking too much time off.  You have to keep going and adjust to whatever the circumstances are that are thrown at you from hour to hour.  This is especially true for embroiderers.

Last night about 8pm my Son came in, Mom I need a favor!  He is still the manager of the embroidery shop that I owned for 25 years.  He had a last minute order of caps that needs to be done today and of course had no design for it.  He did not need the digitized design until noon today!  Of course Mom came to the rescue!  I was preparing for my upcoming webinar at that time, but dropped  what I was going to digitize his design!

That is a typical in the life of an embroiderer! That is unless, you are the type that has everything planned out and lets nothing change your plans!  Do you know anyone like that?  I don’t!

Stop, Have A Cup Of Tea And Laugh!

Just remember when you day starts off like this one has for me, the first thing you need to do is Stop, have a cup of tea and laugh!  That is My Quote for the day!!

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Having a website and embroidery marketing system is a major part of any embroidery business, yes, even for the home based embroidery business!  It is just as important to the local embroiderer as it is to one that is trying to reach the market globally.  Before you can begin to reach a worldwide market, you must first reach out to your local market.  The best and most cost effective way to do this is through your own web presence.

Many embroiderers today already have a website but are not receiving the amount of traffic or orders that you need to even cover the cost of the monthly website fees.  This is most unfortunate!  There is a  saying, “Build it and They will come!”  This statement is far from the truth.  You can build a beautiful site with lots of products, but if you do not have a way to market your website, then you have wasted your money.

Marketing Your Embroidery Business-The Missing Ingredient!

Creating a website, no matter what system you are using, takes times and a lot of effort.  Whether you have paid a lot of money to create your website or had it created by a friend, a way to market your embroidery business in the key ingredient that is missing in most systems.

Cost Effective Embroidery Marketing System With Huge Time Saving Features!

I have found a total embroidery marketing system that is very cost effective and has unlimited possibilities.  This system is going to save you a lot of time over many other systems;  however, it is still going to take a little time and effort to get it all set up and indexed in the search engines. This is a system that will work for you if you already have a website.  For those of you who have not yet started the process of creating your own website,  I have found an easy step by step  way to get started that does not cost a lot of money but yet it is not free!  Do not ever make the mistake of getting into any type of free system, they absolutely do not work.

Last Tuesday night was the first in a series of webinars, “How To Create Your Own On-Line Embroidery Marketing System”   showing you exactly what to do to create your own embroidery marketing system.  These webinars will continue every two weeks until your entire system is set up and running.  Even if you missed the first webinar, you can still get caught up.  I have created videos showing you step by step from the very beginning.  This is an exciting series and the reception has been wonderful!   I want to thank all of my students that are participating in this program.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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Starting July 14, 2009 I am starting a series of webinars to show you “How To Create Your Embroidery Business On-Line Marketing System”!   This will be a series of 3 webinars followed by a webinar for Q & A.  You will be able to send in your questions and I will answer all of them during the Q & A session by a webinar showing you the answer to your questions.

I have received so many requests for this type of training, so I decided to add it to the Embroidery Webinar Of The Month  sessions.  Getting your business on line is not easy and creating a marketing system that will help you to connect to your customers is not easy if you do not have the right kind of guidance in this area.  I have found that many embroiderers do not know how to get started in creating a website for their business,  and do not  know who to ask for help.

Creating an on-line presence does not have to be difficult and I have created a simple system that will help you to get your business on-line and be able to connect with your customers on a consistent basis.  You will be able to let them know when you are having a special.  You can create specials on the fly and get your message out to your customers quickly, when you need to bring in some extra cash!

Our first webinar will be July 14th followed by the second one on July 28th.  I will let you know at that point when the next one will be.  You will be able to work on your website between sessions and be ready for the next step. This is going to be an exciting series.

Join us for this embroidery of the month webinar series and get your embroidery business on-line using the simple system that I have created!  Don’t forget all EmbroideryTips and More Embroidery Club Members have the opportunity to attend for FREE!  This webinar series is worth far more than your annual investment in your Embroidery Tips and More Club membership and you are getting two for the price of one!!

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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When I think of High-End apparel or high-end apparel decoration, I think of high-end as expensive or exclusive.  In today’s economy, one might that this would not be easy to market, but if someone is looking for an exclusive product or something that is totally different, then they will be looking at a high-end product.  Even though there is a lot of talk about how our economy is in such a slump, there are many people that are more than willing to pay for high-end service.

You must convey to the customer why your product or service is so different and why it is so specialized.  Most often this type of customer will be looking for one of a kind items or designs.  I personally am a fan of one of a kind designs.  I do not want to walk around wearing something that someone else may also be wearing.  That goes for the designs on my clothing as well as the selection of my clothing.

I cannot afford to go out and purchase one of a kind designer clothing pieces, but If I can take a basic piece of clothing and make it look like a one of a kind designer piece by having an exclusive design created for it; I have then created that one of a kind high-end look!  By doing this, I have significantly raised the value of my garment as well as the overall perceived value of it.

Here are 6 tips that will help you to market high-end apparel decoration.

1. Show your customer how a one of a kind design created for them will raise the value of their product as well as give them the feeling of wearing designer clothing without that high-end apparel price tag.  This can be done using good quality basic clothing pieces and adding a one of a kind design or an exclusive monogram design.
2. Always market your high-end services by appealing to your  customer’s emotion.  When you are marketing high-end apparel decoration, your customers must be made to feel special and extremely important!
3. Insure your customer that their one of a kind design will be kept exclusive.  You must be careful that the design is not repeated for someone else.  This will defeat the purpose and will ruin your reputation.
4. Offer a service that no one else is willing to offer.  Do you have a sequin device?  Even though the stitch count may be very low for a sequin design, the perceived value is much higher than a normal embroidered design and can command a much higher price.  If you can offer an exclusive sequin design for a basic garment such as down the leg of a pair of jeans or on a jean shirt, you can charge accordingly for your time plus the added perceived value of the one of a kind design.
5. Market to Bride’s and the Bridal party and family.  This is a market that likes to have exclusive designs.  You can create a custom monogram for the new bride and groom that can be used on all of their linens.  you can even create a custom one of a kind design for the bridal veil or the skirt of the wedding gown.
6. Market your services to Performers and Show Groups.  They want one of a kind designs and yet you may be able to give them several garments with the same design bringing in more revenue.  This can even bring in repeat orders of the same design for the same customer if you develop a costume or uniform for the performer or show group.

You can build up a following by word of mouth about your exclusive service of one of a kind designs.  I did this with monograms.  I created exclusive one of a kind monograms for my high-end customers and they were very appreciative of the type of service that I provided.  They brought in their friends.  I kept the designs in folders for that customer’s use only, and no one was ever allowed to see or use that design.  Each and every monogram design was a one of a kind.  I created exclusive full monogram sets to be used for their wardrobes or their home decor and linens.

Of course there is a high-end charge for this service, there are many people that will be more than willing to pay for this exclusive service.

Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach

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Increasing customer sales with your current customer base is all about creating relationships.  Many times we have a gold mine right in front of us and don’t even realize it.  Our customers are our gold mine and without them we do not exist!

Creating good customer relationships is the most important duty that we have as business owners and this is something that does not cost a lot of money.  Many times it is the little unexpected things that we do that mean the most and keeps that customer coming back to our business over and over!

I purchased a program a few weeks ago from a large company and was shocked when I received a handwritten Thank you note in the mail.  I have to tell you, I was extremely impressed at this gesture!  Just a simple thank you card that only took the salesperson a couple of minutes to write meant a lot to me and I will remember that the next time that I decide to order another program.

Here are some simple ways for you to increase your customer sales.

1. Offer Exceptional Customer Service
2. More Low Cost-High Profit Services To Your Existing Customers
3. Build A Relationship With Existing And Former Customers
4. Plan A Customer Appreciation Night
5. Create A Web Presence
6. Offer More Than One Price Level Of Products

Is there a service or a process that you can offer your customers that they cannot get from any of your competition. What is it that you can do to be more efficient than the competition? It is usually better to focus on being different in a particular market rather than trying to compete directly.Find a unique strategy or a way to position your products or your business differently in your current market place.

Spend some time educating your customers about the benefits, services and value that they will be receiving by doing business with you.  Point out to them what you are doing that the competition is not doing.  You do not have to say that the competition is not doing such and such; you just have to point out what you are doing that makes you different or better!

You cannot compete with the big manufacturers or embroiderers that have many multi-head machines when you are only a small shop with one or two heads.  Don’t even try. You must focus on what you do best in your smaller market.  If you focus on improving one step or one process that can make you more efficient then this alone will help to make you more profitable!

Those large shops normally are not offering the type of customer service that you can offer.  This can set up far above the larger shops and help to increase your customer sales.  I have seen this many times.  Many of the larger shops have systems all set and they will not steer away from their systems and they are not always customer focused, they are usually profit focused.

In order to be successful in this business, you must be customer focused.  The profits will follow if that is the case! By finding your own unique way to stand out in the crowd, you will increase your customer sales naturally.

If you have found this article helpful or if you have found a unique way to present you or your embroidery business, I would like to hear about it.  I would really appreciate it!

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There are several low cost methods that you can use to prospect for new customers.  You can pay to advertise or you can attract prospects for free.  I have always been very partial to the FREE end of advertising for obvious reasons.  Besides the fact that it is FREE, you usually will  find better prospects using the Free methods  That has been my experience in the past.

• Networking  Off  Line
• Networking On Line
• Donate Products & Services To Charity For Fund Raising Events
• Ask For Referrals
• Attend Trade Shows In Your Niche
• Offer To Trade Your Products & Services
• Press Releases

In the past I spent a lot of money on advertising only to find out that most of the time it did not work the way that I expected it to work!  The newspaper was the most expensive method I ever tried and I never once received the results that I was looking for.  I never even broke even on my investment.

The only paid advertising that ever worked for me was the TV and of course that is not free but I did trade my products and services for the advertising and it made it very low cost.  In today’s market you can use the  trade dollars to advertise on their websites that a lower cost rather than actually running an add on the TV. Your name is displayed for a longer period of time and can be seen by people over and over.

There are so many ways to prospect for new customers and many opportunities to make connections with people in all areas of your life. If you keep your eyes and ears wide open, you will find a gold mine right in front of you!

If you have found this article useful to you or your embroidery business, please leave a comment.  I would really appreciate it!

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