My small business is struggling how is the best way to advertise locally??

Question

I have tried newspaper, radio, and flyers, its a small t-shirt screenprinting business and we have been here 2 years and it just keeps getting worse and worse!!!

Answer 1

Don't concentrate on advertisement. What you need is to concentrate on your customer. Take your time and with a cool mind just give it a thought that who do you think is your customer? How can you approach him. If you are in this business for two years then it should not be a small business by this time.
Try a different approach now. Take out paper and pencil and jot down what type of people you think should get their work done from you. Against each type of people write down who are some big player or customers.
Send them a mailer about your work, your specialty, with some product catalog (if you can manage). New year is the best opportunity to introduce your self and through some promotional scheme.
You can study their buying behaviour.e.g. what do they do to get their work done. By this you can know why they are not coming and where they are going.
Now you are ready for your advertisement. I would suggest you explore one medium at a time and check its response. In your market conditions no body else can tell you which one is the best medium. Ultimately you would find which medium is best for you or at least you would find which one is not working at all.
Have faith it is going to help you.
I am sure by this way your business would no longer remain a small business.

Answer 2

You've forgotten the fact that most people watch TV. Call your local cable company to see how much it costs to advertise locally on popular channels like ESPN, USA, etc. Also, try calling other local businesses to see if they do any team or community activities and would need custom shirts with the company name. Make sure you ask to talk with someone in charge.

For something like T-shirts, maybe it's time to consider doing more than local advertising. You could offer shipping services and advertise on the internet. Through services like Yahoo, it's not hard to design your own custom website. You don't need to know any HTML coding because it's all point, click, and fill in the blank. It can be a business website for a very small fee. Good luck!!

Answer 3

Advertising through tv medium is very costly and I don't think you would want to pursue that right now if your profits are wavering.Your advertising is pretty much covered.You should probably focus on your clientele. You mention advertising locally, but you should consider going global for cheap.Having a website for your business is not only reaching your local area, but it's providing access to billions ofpotential customers.Maybe the problem is that you are limiting your clientele to your local area.

Answer 4

Forget tv - too expensive. Start with thinking about who your target market is, then find out where they hang out - including on the Internet. Then target them. Start a website if you haven't already - you can do localized Google Adwords (and Yahoo Search Marketing) advertising so if someone in your town searches for "T-shirt printing in [anytown]" your company can show up.

You can also do something to get yourself some publicity and get your name known. For example, offer some free t-shirts to a charity or a local sports team. Word of mouth is sometimes the best advertising there is.

Contact your local universities and colleges. Students love unique T-shirts. You can try and get your flyer into a freshers' welcome pack or something - contact the Student Union or Association, or Admissions. See http://www.tincancommunications.com for more advice.

Answer 5

You may need to concentrate on sales rather than advertising. That is, contact potential customers and tell them what you can do for them. Come up with ideas for promoting their businesses using your products! Local gyms, salons, restaurants, etc. Offer them a discount for the first order.

Also, try to promote your business to special event planners or radio stations...groups who are likely to buy on a larger scale.

Try getting involved with local charities...offer services at a deep discount - they pay for the stock, you print the shirts. Each shirt should include and ad for your business!

Good luck...

Answer 6

advertise in your local newspaper and try adding some special offers

Answer 7

Go to http://www.hammocksurvivalguide.com/
and check out the articles on advertising, Online promotion and offline promotion.

You might find some useful ideas there.

Answer 8

first you need to contact you local schools and colleges and universities, which you need to contact the book stores of these school and offer them a discount for printing a logos on these t-shirt. also you need to define you target markets. for example you could also contact you small restaurant to help them with their uniform's like have the logo of the restaurant.

thanks

Said Consultant

Answer 9

cable tv. advertise on the station that is most fitting to your demographic-- if teens then mtv, tweens- disney channel, women- lifetime, men- spike etc. It may be costly but it will benefit you definately. good luck to you!