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Marketing avenues

Q: I’m wondering how I can promote my stringing business beyond handing out fliers. Clubs have their pros doing stringing at local events so I always feel uncomfortable marketing myself around there. Should I ask the local pro shops if I can provide backup when they get overwhelmed? I seem to be walking on eggshells wherever I market myself in the tennis community. Short of opening up a retail store, how do stringers typically grow their business?

A: In addition to fliers, you could also do a website, on which you make available information for customers and potential customers. To draw customers to visit your website, you could start an e-mail newsletter. It doesn’t have to be very long, or contain earth-shattering information, and you can even report on news of interest to your local tennis community. Tell your fellow players that you are starting an e-mail list for local tennis news, and start collecting e-mail addresses. Each time you send out a newsletter, include your website address.

You are right not to approach shop owners or managers during tournaments — unless the stringing team is clearly overwhelmed. It couldn’t hurt to approach them during a slack time, to see if they have any need for an overflow stringer. It’s also poor form to put up a flier for your services at the pro shop, and this extends to any courts that are adjacent to the pro shop.

One big boost you can give your marketing efforts is to get USRSA certification. If there are other certified stringers or Master Racquet Technicians (MRTs) in your area, you’ll need to be certified, as well, to compete, and if there are no certified stringers or MRTs in your area, certification will give you a tremendous advantage. Depending on your area, players may have a lot of stringers to whom they can turn. If you’re the only certified stringer or MRT, you have a great selling point when talking with potential customers, and it will look good on your website and e-mails.

In addition to passing out fliers, you can also put up fliers with tear-off tabs at the bottom with your contact information. Post these at public courts where there is no pro shop. Public-court players are “fair game,” although you still want to tread lightly because they may string their own racquets, or they may have their best friend in the whole world stringing for them.

Finally, we have compiled many other marketing tips from other USRSA members over the years. All of these tips can be found on our website at www.usrsa.com or in the Racquet Service Techniques book of the Stringer’s Digest.

From the January 2007 issue
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