Still Digitizing For Embroidery?

Still digitizing, huh? Why? If you’re still digitizing I’m guessing you either enjoy it or feel as if you have no other choice available to you. I realize there are certain individuals who get satisfaction from creating or reproducing an image by hand. The very process of plotting or punching points (also known as nodes) can be very time consuming and become a tedious job. Once you’ve completed a complex or intricate piece of artwork, it’s only natural to feel a sense of pride for a job well done!

I can remember as far back as 1982, when personal computers were just beginning to be introduced into the Awards & Engraving industry. Digitizing was painful! This was long before the development of computer aided design (CAD) software. All drawings had to be created from beginning to end with no mistakes or you had to start all over from the very beginning. You sure didn’t want the phone to ring or have a customer come through your door while in the middle of any drawing!!

A few years later we were blessed with CAD programs that enabled you to digitize logos and images much faster. Using software commands to create vectors, curves, ovals, arcs and numerous other short cut keys, allowing you to improve your work and in many cases enhancing the original artwork. Certainly one of the coolest things was being able to stop, save your work and pick up where you left off at another time. Whether it was later that day, the next day or sometime the following week. It was nice to not feel “married” to the system and be able to take a break if needed.

As computers became more and more popular, hardware and software progressed quite rapidly. It wasn’t long before people were talking about scanning and converting their raster files into vector formats. Many individuals retired their digitizing pads and began the “on screen” clean up process, believing this was their salvation from the point to point digitizing, we all thought was so nice in the beginning! Well, I must say for me it lacked the luster some were boasting of over the phone. Most all tradeshow demonstrations were what I would refer to as, “smoke and mirrors”!

Honestly I thought it was more challenging to scan and clean up my artwork as opposed to simply digitizing it from scratch. To me it was much easier and faster to continue to use CAD software and turn out a drawing that was much cleaner, with fewer points and maintained a much smaller file size. Most digitizers were (and are) concerned about the overall byte size of the finished logo. This was greatly due to the limitations of numerous proprietary systems. Forcing the digitizer to be mindful of their final output and keeping points to a minimum.

Through the years of now more than two decades, computers and software as we once knew it, has come a long, long way. We’ve all seen dozens of “state of the art” programs and hardware improvements to fill a small garage! Yet many of us still find ourselves looking for that “perfect” solution that would allow us to stop fretting over artwork.

Well, my friend … I have a solution for you. Let me give you an analogy or rather a comparison of digitizing (or scanning, it’s really all very much the same involved process), versus mowing your yard. Yep, you read it correctly … Digitizing vs. Mowing!

Think about it … just because you can mow your yard, does that mean you should? (Again, I realize some people get satisfaction and pleasure from mowing, my wife loves to mow our yard). Much like I stated at the beginning of this article. You may do it for pleasure or feel as if you’re stuck with it! You may choose to push mow with your standard hand mower or step up to a riding mower and sit comfortably within the leather seat. Either way, you’re still “married” to the task at hand.

Digitizing = Hand Mower (push from point to point)
Scanning = Riding Mower (scan across the land)

You’ve heard it and read it many times, “your time is money”. Most of us at some time or another have chosen to hire someone to do our yard work. Whether it be mowing or simply raking leaves, we’ve shuffled the chore to another individual or company. So I pose the question to you, “Why don’t you hire someone else to do your digitizing?” Choose a respectable service and send your artwork to the professionals for digitization.

With technology as advanced as it is today, you can email (or fax) your logo to the pros and have it back within 24 hours (two business days for some). This creates a win-win situation for all parties involved in the process. You win by saving time and money (remember, your time is money), not to mention the mental challenges that may arise should you continue to do everything “in house”. Your customer wins as well! They receive a top quality reproduction of their artwork in a digital format. This could and should open up more avenues for you to “lock in” their business for life. Giving you the slight edge over your competitors and versatility to create more quality products and services for your clients.

See ya sometime ...

Aubrey Richardson
LogoFax

Free Embroidery

How To Kill Your Competitors Product

I’ll never forget the day one of my competitors began copying and imitating our products and services! At first it was “flattering” or at least I told myself that, in order to not get flaming mad. I kept telling myself, “it’s competition that makes the world go-round”.

After several months of seeing similar ads, same size, same publications, same frequency and then showing up at the same tradeshows, I decided to do something about it. I did so in an up front, aggressive, in your face, humiliating, embarrassing, and however legit way, that ended my competitions tradeshow appearances once and forever!!

I knew our product was far more superior and much more stable than that of our competitors. It was irritating to see them capitalize on our advertising efforts and “piggy back” on our success by having a “me too” product. Reading and hearing their claims of how our product was trash and nothing but garbage caused me to take action. My company used their negative comments and turned them into an advertising campaign, that led to the demise of their product and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Due to such similarity in our product and our competition, we often received bitter phone calls about their product. So many calls came in each month that we got smart and started offering a discount on our product if they wanted to “switch”! All they had to do was send us their non-working competing product and we discounted our product (usually 30%, sometimes more if needed) and shipped it to them with a full warranty guarantee and support.

By offering the “switch” it was doing several things for us.

1 – It made us look good, better than our competition. Customers couldn’t believe we would actually take a “dead” trade-in for our superior working product! Knowing that we didn’t manufacture the inferior product astounded them.

2 – It increased our sales. By fielding the “unhappy camper” calls that were coming into our office by mistake, we turned them into positive “happy campers”.

3 – Our reputation as “the good guys” became even more pronounced. Customers throughout our industry were singing praises about our customer service and our product popularity.

4 – Customers began to advertise our product for us. Many of our customers supplied us with personal written testimonies that were then used in trade magazine publications and displayed at industry tradeshows.

As if this wasn’t enough, we then began to publicize our offer while attending national and international tradeshows. This was by far the most effective and best “kill your competition” move; we’ve ever done in our entire 21 years of business.

Remember, they were claiming our product was trash, nothing but garbage. If you listen closely enough to your competitions rhetoric, you can glean some pretty nifty ideas. Especially if you’re inclined to fire back with some “in your face” type claims and back them up with sound action and documentation. It’s been reported that “documentation” beats “conversation” and we had hard-core proof that our competitions product was, well … TRASH!

The best “in your face” action … we hung an acrylic (see through) trash can from the top of our booth at all tradeshow appearances that said, “CAN THE LINK”! (The Link was the name of their product). Stuffed inside the trashcan were gobs of their product!! Jammed in the can, hanging over the edges and dangling 10 feet in the air for all to see. It was so effective that customers were taking pictures of it and giving us “high fives” as a way of support and encouragement. At one particular show it was becoming such an attraction that the Executive Director of the tradeshow asked me to take it down. I asked him if we were violating any tradeshow policies, he said no. So, I politely refused and informed him of the nasty tactics of the competition and let the director know it was our intention to increase the pressure at upcoming shows. We would do this by hanging more trashcans and get larger ones if needed.

To add to the humility some customers had decided (all on their own doing) to wear bright pink t-shirts to the tradeshow that said negative things about the Link. Even worse than just walking around displaying the shirts, they stood outside their booth until the owner of the competing company wrote them a refund check!

That my friends, is the way to kill your competitors product and get a great big laugh while doing it!

See ya sometime ...

Aubrey Richardson
LogoFax

Free Embroidery

How To Lock In Your Customers For Life!

How To Lock In Your Customers For Life!

Wouldn’t you like to keep all your customers coming back to you, for the life of your business? Of course you would! There are numerous ideas for maintaining and keeping your customer a “happy camper” but undoubtedly the top three would have to be concerning matters of price, service and delivery!

Aside from those three, once you gain a customer’s loyalty and have them returning to you for more products and services, what else might keep them “locked in” to your business. I suggest to you, offer to “personalize” their item(s). That’s right, make it unique in a way that promotes them to their audience and shows recognition.

A great way to do this is to place their logo or signature, on the items they are receiving from your company. It’s been reported that once you have a customer’s logo on file, it makes matters a lot simpler for them to return to you for their next order. As long as you a doing a good job on the top three issues, it’s common sense for them to keep coming back to you for their future purchases.

It’s been said a zillion times, “A picture paints a thousand words”! You know, most people buy a magazine and review the pictures first and then read the captions. We’ve all heard the cliché “Never judge a book by its cover” but we’ve all been guilty of it at one time or another. Our eyes are naturally drawn to the image that’s on the paper, card, television, computer screen or any other medium for showing illustrations.

So, picture this (pun intended), you are an Awards & Engraving company and you offer Laser Engraving on a walnut plaque with a nice black brass finish. Your customer wants to offer their customer, a recognition plaque. Showing appreciation for their outstanding contribution to the organizations fundraiser program. (Remember, you want to “lock in” their business and have them wanting to return to you, time and time again).

Ask them for their logo! They may already have one or you may need to facilitate creating them a special design, all their own. If you need help in this area you’ll find numerous aids online right at your fingertips. A great source to search for most any logo or design is LogoFax.com once you register as a member (which is free), you can search for any image by typing in a keyword of your choice.

Example: United Way, once you enter in the words and click search, several renditions of logos matching your keyword entry will appear on screen for your viewing. Make your selection and proceed to download the image for use with your product line.

Think about it! If you were the recipient of an award or the presenter of the award, wouldn’t you have a higher perceived value if it were “trademarked” with a certain insignia? Sure you would, even if it were subliminal your subconscious mind would tell you it’s a special item and cause you to want to show it off.

Now that you have their logo on file it’s much easier for them to email or phone you with their next order. You’ve virtually “locked in” their future business! They know you already have their digital image ready to go, making it unnecessary for them to shop around with any of your competitors. After all, if you’re supplying them with great service, good delivery at a competitive price. They have every reason to return to you and get that special touch, personalizing their items!

See ya sometime ...

Aubrey Richardson
LogoFax

Free Embroidery