To get a toehold on what customers and end-users are looking for in promotional footwear, we spoke with Chloe Ayres, marketing manager for Sock Club, Austin, Texas, and Kaydee Walter, marketing specialist for Strideline, Seattle. Here are five big things to know…
Read MoreEditorial Type: Best Practices
Apparel Contract Decorator Partnerships Series, Part 3: Contract Pricing Refresher (and How to Not Annoy Your Decorator)
A distributor works directly with a client to determine every detail of the order and relays that to a decorator, who completes the technical aspect of the project. Decorators acknowledge the distributor’s role when creating their contract pricing. But what should distributors expect out of that relationship?…
Read MoreApparel Contract Decorator Partnerships Series, Part 2: Building Relationships (and How Many Decorators Do You Need?)
Just like you have different promotional suppliers for different products, you’ll need the same for different decoration methods or geographic locations to reduce transit from your preferred supplier warehouse or to the order’s final destination. So you’ll want to have solid relationships with more than one contract decorator…
Read MoreApparel Contract Decorator Partnerships Series, Part 1: Boost Business With a Sales-Focused Mindset
Distributors sometimes opt to bring decoration in-house, and there are some good reasons to go this route. However, leaning on a contract decorator has one major perk: The distributor can focus on selling while relying on contract decorators who know a thing or two about decorating apparel already…
Read MoreHow to Provide Product Samples Without Going Broke
Clients like samples, but if you’re not careful, they can nickel and dime money out of your business. Here are some ways to provide samples wisely, so you can give your clients the peace of mind that their order is exactly what they wanted while saving money yourself (or even making more)…
Read MoreInventory Shops Have Made a Comeback in 2021: Here’s Why
“Inventory” was once an ugly word to customers. But times have changed and inventory has made a comeback. Knowing the reasons why inventory is now in higher demand can help you guide clients toward smarter solutions and help you sell shops simpler, faster and more profitably…
Read MoreDecoration Diaries: How One Distributor Wowed His Client With a Branded Apparel Kit
Ideas sometimes go beyond finding the latest decoration method. When his concrete installation client wanted to maintain the high price point of its previous employee gifts, but avoid repeating previous years’ promos, John Helder created a multi-piece apparel collection that wowed his client…
Read More5 Do’s and Don’ts of Using LinkedIn for Your Promo Business
We recently covered the topic of LinkedIn—specifically, how a handful of promo pros are using the platform and how you can get the most out of it for your own promo business. But with so much to know and learn about LinkedIn, there’s always more to cover. So we created this list of LinkedIn do’s and don’ts…
Read MoreHow One Distributor Channels His Inner Consultant for Print and Promo Sales Success
If you ask Isaac Ormond of InfoProducts Corp., a distributor based in Sumter, S.C., he’d tell you that he’s really more of a consultant than a salesperson. Part of that means integrating print and promotional products whenever he can—a best-of-both-worlds approach that delivers the best solutions for his clients…
Read MoreCuration: The Most Underrated (and Teachable) Skill for the Promo Professional Today
You’re a professional curator. That’s a surprise to some of you, but that’s what you are. Every day, you sort, sift and select specific products from thousands of options in our industry and then assemble them into collections to present to a client. This is why it’s somewhat baffling that as an industry of professional curators, we’ve never tried to codify the craft of curation…
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