In this current ecomomy many businesses are finding it hard to create sales. I have been hearing from many embroiderers that sales are lagging and they are looking for ways to increase their sales and get their name out there to the public.
As a general rule this time of year is an embroiderer’s busiest time especially for those that do a lot of retail embroidery and personalized single items for Christmas gifts. There are a three ways that work great to increase immediate sales.
1. Open House or Customer Appreciation Night
2. Home Parties
3. Email Marketing
The first one that we will talk about is the Open House or the “Customer Appreciation Night”.
“Customer Appreciation Night”
An open house is one of the fastest ways to let your customers, friends, and family know that you truly want to increase your business. Instead of calling it an open house, call it “Customer Appreciation Night“. Be creative in putting together your invitations and planning what specials you will have to offer. Make sure the invitations are the same high quality workmanship as your embroidery.
Let them know that they will receive a free gift just for attending. Create something embroidered for them to take home. This can be done very inexpensively. If you are having a Holiday Party theme, you could make some felt ornaments or purchase some inexpensive napkins or even some inexpensive caps. All of these items should be embroidered with your logo and contact information on it.
The best hours for your “Customer Appreciation Night” are from 4 pm until 7pm. This will give people a chance to come during business hours or after work which ever works best for them. Two nights usually work better than one night in case someone that wanted to attend was out of town.
If you have a home business, it can be held off premises. A small room in a hotel or a meeting you in a club or organization will work for this purpose.
If the Open House is at your place of business, have your machines running. This is very impressive. You can be running the items that they are going to be taking home. Seeing the process actually done is very exciting to someone that does not know anything about embroidery.
Serve refreshments, but keep it simple. You want this to be a fun event for you and the guests.
Have a variety of different samples displayed in an attractive manner and encourage them to ask questions. Help them to visualize their ideas on a garment or other item. You could have some gifts baskets made up for different themes. You could have one that is for a bridal shower, one for a baby shower, one for a House Warming gift, one for a ladies birthday and even a child’s birthday. These items are very easy to sell. The baskets could contain various items but most of all, embroidered products. An example of products could be for a bridal shower, a bath towel, hand towel and washcloth set along with a roll of embroidered toilet paper and embroidered soap. They could all have the bridal couples new initials on them.
Have plenty of business cards and brochures for them to take. Make up a form for them to fill out with all of their contact information on it including their email address. Have a bowl for basket for them to drop this form into. You can have a drawing for a gift certificate at the end of the evening.
An open house does not have to be expensive to be very effective. Keep it simple and most of all have fun and make sure that it is an event that your guests will remember.
In my next post I will talk about Home Parties to help bring in Holiday sales. If you have some ideas of your own, I would like for you to leave a comment and let me know about them.
Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach
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