Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, local marketing tips, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
it would seem to me that free publicity in magazines via press releases are a good thing for any t-shirt company.( t-shirtsfromhell claim that they get most of their business through press mentions, and do very little paid advertising) but how would one best accomplish this? should you just send your stuff to the editors, or hire a p.r. firm on a per hit basis? those are the only ways i know of doing this. prolblem is that if i send in a press release myself, it may end up in someones cat litter box, becuase i am unkown in the industry. if i hire a pro p.r with the right connects, i might have to sell my first, and second born to pay the p.r. firm. any creative, and reasonably cost effective ways to generate press?
You could hire a pr company, but with that there are no gaurantees.
For me, a magazine wrote me an email one day that one of my shirts was going to be featured in their magazine...I didnt do any advertising specifically to them...Just make sure you have good Search engine optimization, and hope someone finds you.
Start with your local small town paper. I think you need to be doing something newsworthy to get mentioned. Do a little charity or benefit drive, or do something really bad. LOL
We started doing a semi-monthly 10 white t-shirts/one color print/one location for a charity and got a lot of positive feedback and new customers. That's not the real reason behind our contribution though. It was the charity of our choice and they help out a lot of kids. Now we have organizations calling from all around for new orders of which we give a discount to to help there cause.
On the flip side, as DecalDesigns mentioned, do something bad and you are sure to get exposure which in turn boost your search rankings and peak positive curiosity.
There are many PR/News Release sites on the net where you can post your own Press Releases. Small publications often search these to pick articles and stories. But as DD says, it has to be newsworthy or really interesting.
I would first make a list of magazines, etc. that fit your demographic and you would pay to be in there if you had the cash. Then contact those people on your list and see what you can barter. Maybe they don’t have a company tee shirt and you could design and throw them a few in exchange for ad(s). Keep in mind, your ad(s) cost them nothing. Their shirts cost you something! So, if you're going to do this, go LARGE!
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CoolHandLuke - TeeRAVEL
It helps if you have something *unique* about your shirts/company/history/designs. Having a unique/funny store helps to get press. Just starting another t-shirt company isn't unique.
Once you have that, you can send out a press release about your "uniqueness" or you can hire a PR firm to help with that. If your idea is truly unique, the press will FIND you.
There are plenty of ways to gain free publicity both online and offline.
Online
Article Submissions
Forum posting
Blog commenting
Email Signature links.
Bookmarking sites
Twitter and Facebook
create a youtube video.
Having a Email Capture on your website
Press Releases - These can be free but usually I would pay the £60 dollars to send out a press release through PRWeb it is well worth the money able to get the most out of your release.
Off line
Creating a competition
Sponsoring a local sports team.
Running a charity event.
run a recommend a friend scheme for your products to enable people to receive discounts.
Make sure your product and customer service is excellent as the way form of advertising is word of mouth from satisfied customers.
obtaining free publicity 
Re: obtaining free publicity 
