Images Magazine Digital Edition August 2018

www.images-magazine.com AUGUST 2018 images 29 KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT exposing yourself to those losses that lead many long-time decorators to ignore these potential merch mavens. It’s quite possible, by providing the right tools to help these customers with their marketing and organisation, properly valuing the work it takes to handle these orders and teaching best practices, to limit your risk and create viable revenue. The pre-order strategy If you stalk favourite artists on Instagram as I do you’ll be familiar with the usual pre-order strategy. It’s far from a new technique and is practised by many customers, from independent clubs and gatherings, to schools and small businesses. For customers who may not have upfront funding for a speculative buy, pre-ordering offers assurances and defrays costs. The practice of pre-ordering was born out of screen printing’s need to condense orders into a single set-up and printing session, Erich Campbell explains which tools and processes are needed to create a successful pre-order marketing event for independent brands, fan clubs, schools and small businesses Pre-order priorities with multi-head embroidery also benefitting from this approach. DTG may make automation and one- off prints possible and profitable, and single-head embroiderers have always produced single pieces, but even these businesses are likely to prefer to condense jobs to a single set-up, especially when customers require special finishing or fulfilment: a single-order will always be more cost- efficient, unless the customer agrees to pricing that justifies the labour required for just-in-time or direct-to- customer solutions. Encouraging and enabling pre-orders enables you to take a potentially low- volume client and help them attain a minimum quantity that you’re happy to decorate and which matches their budget. Packaging the preparation The oft-cited drawback that pre-orders require costly pre-contract labour is half-true: you’ll have work to do before decorating, but that doesn’t require you to expose yourself to The trick is to get paid for the preparation it takes to secure these orders Ensure online pre-order countdowns can be seen on mobiles and tablets as well as desktop screens “I have this awesome design idea – I’m going to start my own clothing line!“ The chances are you’ll have heard this from at least one prospective customer – after all, who doesn’t have an awesome idea for a new line of T-shirts these days? Like many other decorators your response may also have been one of quiet derision and a much stronger desire not to get bogged down in managing single and low- count orders from over-enthusiastic start-ups. That said, there’s no reason why – in a world of long-tail marketing, where there are multiple ‘tribes’ with niche interests and communities built around minor celebrities – these ‘awesome’ shirts, caps, and patches shouldn’t become profit centres. Rather than scoff at potentially low- count orders from excitable customers carrying concepts incomprehensible to those outside their fandom, you could choose to make their decorated apparel dreams a reality without Design forms so that they collect all the information needed to fulfil the order and share the production and delivery schedule with customers