How to Market Water-Based Prints

These proven techniques have helped us increase business by marketing one of our shop's printing specialties. June 09, 2011
By Dan Corcoran, Contributing Writer

A great way to market your services is to create a promotional T-shirt to give away. We try to create something that is cool looking and includes our company name and contact information.

Less than five years ago, water-based prints were thought to only be applicable for the fashion retail niche. The soft hand and distressed look of water-based inks printed on cotton garments was trendy and not pertinent to the school or non-profit markets, among others (or so we thought). Most decorated apparel customers had grown accustomed to plastisol prints and weren’t seeking alternative screen printing inks — that is, until they saw an increasing selection of soft-hand printed T-shirts at Target, Macy’s and other big-box stores.

Being attracted to the soft feel, distressed look and eco-friendly implications of water-based inks, many customers questioned whether they could get their custom apparel items, such as fraternity and promotional giveaway tees, printed using the same method, and they approached their go-to decorators about this new printing process. That leads us to today, where water-based prints are more mainstream with end users gravitating toward the smooth, “barely-there” feel and fashion look.

While many decorators are still cautious of water-based inks — mostly due to rumors that they dry quickly in screens and often are wasted — this printing process is one that opens boundless profit opportunities for screen printing shops. Any shop willing to test water-based inks and learn how to work with them can successfully add this process to its services and grab the attention of old and new customers alike.

Since we started specializing in water-based printing, we also began focusing our marketing efforts on that niche. Once your shop gets to a sufficient expertise level, you’ll want to flaunt this valuable service, as it will give you a competitive edge. Here’s how we’ve been spreading the word.

Google It
Google AdWords (adwords.google.com) is an extremely effective and powerful advertising tool.  AdWords is a paid placement advertisement service that triggers ads to pop up in Google’s results when someone searches for particular words or phrases.  These ads also can show up on many affiliate sites that choose to feature Google’s service.

Since we pay for our advertisements, we’re able to create three-line, all-text ads and choose the search words or phrases that trigger the ad to appear next to a user’s search results. If the ad catches the person’s attention, he can then click on it to learn more about the business.

You are charged a fee — based on the price you choose to bid for a particular keyword — only when a user clicks on the ad. To sign up for AdWords, all it takes is a valid payment method, and then your payment will be set up by a daily budget or cost-per-click bid. With the daily budget option, an AdWords account holder determines a maximum amount for each day. This daily budget can be changed as often as you prefer.

For the bids option, the most common route is cost-per-click, which determines the amount an account holder wants to pay each time someone clicks on the ad when it appears next to search results.

While AdWords may sound like it could be an unreliable, hit-or-miss process, try searching for “fashion screen printing” in Google, and you may see one of Forward Printing’s ads pop up next to the search results. We’ve chosen to target that particular phrase, and we get typically high placement. However, we always are trying new combinations based on customer feedback and research. We may even be bidding only on regional terms like “Oakland screen printing” by the time you read this.

If you find it difficult to develop keywords, just watch your return in AdWords on certain phrases or terms. If you notice a few that aren’t being searched as often (so you aren’t being charged as much to use them), try new keywords. Because AdWords shows you which keywords work best, you can test different phrases or terms and determine the ones that work and the ones that don’t. Then, you can delete the keywords that aren’t effective.

Our venture into water-based inks began three-and-a-half years ago, which is roughly the same point at which we began using AdWords for marketing. It has been so successful for us that we’ve pulled back on all other marketing efforts and put our resources almost completely into AdWords. In fact, we just hired a professional AdWords worker on a contract basis to weed through our keywords and advertisements, as well as try other phrases or terms and different advertisements that could bring even more order opportunities.

Activity in the Media
While AdWords is the go-to marketing resource for Forward Printing, we also credit our activity with different media outlets for helping us build our reputation as 
water-based printing experts. Seeking media attention is an aggressive marketing tactic, and while you may not see the results immediately, you will garner more business from having your name bylined in a how-to article, or your designs featured in a monthly industry publication.

We started by entering some of our water-based designs in the Impressions Awards, and when we won, were able to have our designs and company information featured in the magazine. From there, I contacted the Impressions editors and asked if I could write a contributing article, and have been submitting articles for several publications and newsletters since then.

Reaching out to various editors at well-known industry publications can land you a spot as a contributing writer, which helps to establish you as an industry expert. When other decorators have read your tips and “how-to” articles, they begin to trust you. So when they need to contract out a job in which your shop specializes, your name comes to mind.

Since I’ve been contributing articles, I’ve had several shops call to ask questions about a certain process, and when they realize they don’t have the equipment or time to handle a certain job, that’s when we talk about contracting it to us.

Promotional T-shirts
Another marketing approach we use is promotional giveaway T-shirts. We’ll often print up to 400 T-shirts using water-based inks that feature a promotional design — something that is cool and includes our company name and contact information. Then we’ll give the shirts away at trade shows. Even if the people we give them to only wear the T-shirts to garden in, we’re still getting some amount of exposure. The promotional shirts not only are fun for our potential customers to receive at shows, but they also show the quality artwork and printing of which we’re capable.

While there are many marketing avenues to take to promote your water-based printing services, I still strongly recommend using AdWords as your main channel. E-mailing smaller decorators who are nearby, aggressively targeting media opportunities and distributing promotional T-shirts are other options that can drive more customers your way. However, it’s most important to build a reputation for quality products and excellent customer service. Paired with my other suggested marketing tactics, you will see your business grow and become exposed to new markets.

Dan Corcoran is the co-owner of Forward Printing, Oakland, Calif. The shop has three owners and two employees. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Dan at danc@forwardprinting.com or visit forwardprinting.com.



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