It has been repeatedly said that building customer relationships is integral to business. If you want to maintain a good and profitable business, draw in lots of customers.

This does not mean though that you simply need to get new customers all the time and forget about your existing customers. It is important to remember that keeping old customers often translate to bigger sales than attracting new customers all the time. Why? Because your old customers already have knowledge of you. They trust your brand and your products or services, so they are likely to come back to you and increase their purchases. What’s more, they are likely to refer you to friends, colleagues, and other people as well.

The reason for marketing to existing and old customers is actually simple. It means more money for you. However, the common mistake of business owners is to focus on marketing to new prospects. That is perfectly understandable as marketing to them is easy. You simply need to talk to them, develop a connection with them, and convince them to buy your products or get your services. It is practically easy.

There is actually a lot less complicated and costly way to generate more income, remember your past and present customers. If you are not marketing to them right now, you are leaving a huge opportunity to earn money.

It is generally easy to market to past customers. You simple create a catchy marketing material, perhaps an informative brochure or catalog printed clearly and prudently, and they are sure to come back to you. (A word of advice, be wary of hiring just any printer in printing your materials. Make sure to hire printers of high caliber reputation. It is best to read printing reviews before deciding on a printer.)

Keep in mind that your past customers trust you, they know your capability, and they are convinced with the value of your products or services (that is if you did a great job for them the first time).

So how do you market to them? You can offer your past customers incentives, discounts, or additional services. You can also send them holiday cards, post cards, or greeting cards; just make sure to send them frequently as once a year will not help them remember you. Remember that your goal is to refresh your business to your past customers, so send them frequently.

How about your existing customers? When you are able to make a sale today, it does not mean that your relationship with your customer stops there. It is imperative to market to them long after the sale is done to keep them for long term.

How do you do this? By direct marketing, newsletters, and even emails. Send them flyers, brochures, or note cards to offer them a special gift or to notify them of special offers and new products. As always, make sure to create effective and high quality marketing materials. Avail of good quality printing to make an exceptionally compelling material. There are many printers these days that offer high quality output and fast turnaround at incredibly affordable prices. You might want to check out printplace reviews to see if deals fit your need and budget.

So, even if you own a small business, start marketing to your past and existing customers. By building strong relationship with them, you are sure to benefit from repeat sales and steady flow of new business. The bottom line is, never forget about your current and past customers or else they will definitely forget about you.

Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of the developments in printing reviews and printplace reviews industry that help businesses in their marketing and advertising campaigns.  

  One area that can be profitable yet is much misunderstood by many t-tshirt printers new to the business is selling to the school market. While most people believe that schools buy lots of custom printed t-shirts and similar products, this is not always true and more often that not, what schools do buy are often sourced from many different vendors.

Most school markets are very competitive with a great many printers (both local and national) going after their business. It often involves a great deal of politics to obtain those orders. It is not unusual to find that there are “insiders”  (teachers, coaches, etc.) within schools who fast track jobs to their friends, relatives, or even have a sideline business doing screen printing themselves.

One recommendation is that if you want to secure print jobs from school markets and do not have any experience or inside connections, start off by choosing a private school for your first attempt at the school market. You will find that private schools are much easier to solicit than public schools or colleges. 

Another avenue to consider is to hire some “student salesmen” to work for you. Pay a small commission for every order they provide or give a discount to them for orders they bring to you from the school organizations they are involved in.

PTA’s (Parent/Teacher Associations) and PTO’s (Parent/Teacher Organizations) within most schools purchase plenty of custom printed school and team “booster” products. These groups are usually easy to find in your community. They too make a good “starting point” for securing your first school orders. Booster organizations are typically volunteer organizations and are easier to work with than school officials and administrators.

Another easy target to go after are independent nursery schools or daycare centers. Be sure you’re capable of printing infant and youth size shirts. You will find that printing (and giving away) a few custom samples of “school logo wear” can work wonders in obtaining business from these type of schools.

Take it slow and learn what works best soliciting schools in your area. Build on your knowledge obtaining school orders and repeat what work best with the various groups and organizations within your individual school system.  If you can develop a reputation as the local t-shirt shop that prints the “school shirts” in your area, the payoff can very lucrative and long lasting.

The content of this article is an excerpt from the ASPA training course The Secrets of Printing T-Shirts and How to Make Big Money!

As years have gone by and as technology is becoming more and more advanced, marketing is also becoming more complex than ever before. Nevertheless, many of the same basic principles still apply. Moreover, professional entrepreneurs and small business owners overlook the basic techniques that have separated successful campaigns from those that never turn a profit.

Here are the basic marketing tips that always work every time:

- Never forget to research. Research is the key to help you carry out a plan. Every person who wants to start a business always have an idea on his mind of what the overall plan he wants for the business- from the type of products up to the selling strategies. But don’t rely solely on your intuition. You need basis and facts that is why you need to do some research before implementing your plans.

- Identify your target customers. After you have gathered all the necessary information through research, it is now easy for you to identify your customer genre. Many successful campaigns get that way because marketers know their Audience. They fully understand their needs, how to help meet those needs and how to create the demand for their products and services. Knowing and understanding your Audience through proper market segmentation means a well targeted campaign that generates a profitable return.

- Set your offer as a focal point. Just focus on one idea and one product line. If you want to run a shop for bookmarks, then focus on creating only bookmarks. But if you want to offer other services such as custom bookmarks for example, then concentrate on marketing these. Don’t incorporate some bake goodies in your printing store because that is not a good idea at all. A marketing offer is the driving force of marketing promotions that drive results. In fact, market testing has proven that the offer is the most significant criterion for conversion. Focus on your offer if you want to be successful.

- Dry run a test. Follow this rule in marketing your products: never ever run campaigns without testing them. One of the most common types of testing used mainly by marketing professionals is a split test which allows you to simultaneously test two versions of your offer. It can be a web page, postcard, or email. This split testing is essential for improving performance and customer retention.

- Create a team. Don’t work by yourself. Remember that the most creative ideas come from working with other creative people. Don’t feel like you need to have all the answers or great ideas. You may start with an idea, but an open dialog with creative individuals will make it better and productive. They can even suggest ideas that have never come into your mind. Pick a team that has experience on the field of your business.

- Make a profit. This is what an entrepreneur must think. You are in the business world to make profit. Unfortunately there are so many marketers that fail because they sell on price alone. This leads to a discounting war, lower profitability, and often bankruptcy. Rather, focus on creating so much value that the perception of price becomes insignificant.

- Build good customer relationships. Don’t just think of the sale today but also the after sale. Make a good impression on your customers so that they will become retained customers in the future. What is more important is that they continuously patronize your products. As good marketers, it’s your job to understand the market segment and build relationships; not turn people off at the front door of your store and make them walk away. Focus as much of your energy on building relationships with customers as you do prospects.

It would be very rewarding to your business if you apply these helpful marketing tips to be truly successful.

Learn how to create custom bookmarks – http://www.printplace.com/printing/custom-bookmarks.aspx

Source: http://www.PopularArticles.com/article319272.html

MYTH # 1 => The ad needs to be substantially large to generate a good response. Wrong. Some small ads dramatically out pull the big ones. Many of the most successful ads in history were quite modest in size.

MYTH #2 => Use a lot of "white" space because people will not read crammed copy. Not true. Some very effective ads are packed with so much information that they look pretty awful — yet they make the telephone ring and they sell a lot of products and services.

MYTH #3 => Ads in reverse, white text on black or color background get better response. Quite the contrary — ads in reverse print, when tested against traditional layout, generate significantly less interest (and fewer calls).

MYTH #4 => The best section for your ad is your own business trade section. Not necessarily. Some of the highest quality leads you can generate are from people who are not actively looking for your kind of service or product.

MYTH #5 => The shorter your message, the better because people get bored with a long copy. Quite the contrary. People who are not interested in what you have to offer will be bored, but those who are interested will read every single word, even if it is long copy (unless it is boring copy, for example bragging about you and your business).

MYTH #6 => Use original titles and clever words so that your ad gets noticed. Not a good idea. Cute and original advertising often confuses serious shoppers. The most effective advertising is quite "low brow" stuff.

MYTH #7 => Watch what the big guys are doing and follow their proven ideas. Ouch! Large companies have different objectives and quite often expect different results from their advertising than do small businesses. They generally get more benefits from so called "institutional advertising." Small businesses have no matching budget and have vastly different needs. Now, when you know what doesn't work – would you like to find out what works?

Visit http://www.advertisingcoach.com for many tips, strategies and teleclass "How to Make Your Advertising Work" *   *   * Wanda Loskot is professional speaker and business coach for small business owners and self-employed professionals who LOVE what they do – but HATE selling. For a cornucopia of free business strategies, marketing tips, teleclasses and other valuable resources visit Wanda's Success Connection at http://loska.com

(c) Wanda Loskot

The content of this article is an excerpt from the ASPA training course The Secrets of Printing T-Shirts and How to Make Big Money!.

Have a very limited or no budget at all for advertising? That is no reason why you should not be able to advertise your t-shirt printing business. Here are some "el cheapo" yet effective ways to advertise that you may want to consider.

LOCAL PUBLICATIONS From school programs to church bulletins, you will find that there are many small publications in every community. By placing low cost or no cost advertising in these papers you may be able to land sales.

FAIRS AND FESTIVALS By setting up a small booth at a fair or festival, you"ll discover that this can be an inexpensive way to show off your products and meet new customers. You"ll also show support for your community at the same time.

BULLETIN BOARDS Posting sales fliers at in your local supermarkets, schools and library bulletin boards can be a very inexpensive way to inform the public what you have to offer.

HAND OUTS AND FLIERS An unusual but effective way to distribute your fliers could be as follows: try to arrange a deal with a local pizza shop to attach your flier to their pizza box in exchange for some free t-shirts that you'll print for them. This can work wonders at getting your name out there.

RESIDENCE NEWSLETTER Apartment villages and condo complexes can offer a unique opportunity to market on a limited budget. Many of these multi-residential developments have tables or ledges in their mail or community room. One of your sales flyer on a condo lobby bulletin board might be read by as many as 2000 people in just few days. Placing your ad or flyer there may generate many sales.

Have you ever wondered how some companies always seem to obtain good placement in print publications, online, and even on TV? What's even more impressive is that many of these companies don't even spend a single cent on advertising. Why would they? They're getting all of the media coverage they need simply by following a few basic public relations principles. Position yourself as an expert. The media relies on experts for their information. The news that gets printed is only as credible as the source from which it comes. Begin by selecting a news related story to comment on. It should be a story that you are qualified to speak about, aligned with your area of expertise. If your background is in engineering, and a building falls down, you are qualified to speak about the structure and answer possible engineering related questions. Being an expert simply means that you have a background in a specific area and can lend your expertise. Do your homework. To get coverage, find the reporter who is covering the news you wish to comment on.

For example, if the news is about a specific current event, then Google the current event name followed by the name of a popular newspaper like the Wall Street Journal or USA Today. You'll quickly find the reporters who have written on the subject. Call the newspaper (contact information available on their website) and ask for the reporter by name. If the operation asks what your call is in reference to, simply state that you have information related to a specific news item. Compliment the reporter. When you locate the reporter, and contact him, start with a compliment. Reporters take great pride in their work. Be sure to compliment their position on a given topic or their previous work. After complimenting them, you're ready for the pitch. Talk to them about your position on the given news story and what you have to offer. Again, referring back to our earlier example of the building, mention that you have an engineering background and have a position on the story. For example, you might be able to comment on why buildings collapse and the structural aspects that could be the cause. Let the reporter ask questions but have a point of view. After the dialogue, the reporter will verify your information such as name and company. Leave a compelling yet non-descript message.

If you're unable to get in touch with the reporter directly, leave a message, but be discreet. You don't want to show all of your cards before speaking to him directly. However, if you leave enough information to get them to return your call, they will call you. Reporters follow up with any leads they consider opportunistic. When leaving a message, simple say, "I have something you need to hear about (fill in name of story here)." Be specific with regard to the story the reporter is covering. You want them to consider your possible information valuable. State your expertise. After complimenting the reporter about their coverage on a specific article or issue, let them know your position on a given topic and why you are qualified to comment on it. Give them your pitch and be confident that your opinion matters base on the experience you have to offer. In today's environment, it's difficult to attract the media's attention. The best way to get PR for your product or service is by commenting on current stories being covered by the media.

The process is simple. When you hear a news story that you can comment on, find the reporter using Google and the name of a major publication. Read a few of the reporter's previous articles for background and then contact him directly. Let him know that you have some information that he may find valuable or a comment relevant to the story. Be sure to provide him with your credentials. After just a few calls, you'll be quoted in some of today's leading media.. Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. To discover how to improve search engine rankings on Google and other major search engines, visit  http://www.blogger.com/profile/10079648585125237892