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.
Here are my preliminary ideas for marketing my shirts (most are free), if you can let me know what you think I'd appreciate it!
Banner or link in signature on various forums that I participate in.
Send samples to popular comics/musicians, hoping they'll wear them.
Hand out tons of business cards.
Online advertising (adwords, ad space on popular sites, make a blog)
Hand out free shirts, or sell shirts outside rock concerts or other events.
I'm not sure I'm thinking big enough about this, but I'm not sure what else I can do relatively cheaply to get the word out about my shirts at this early stage.
how about a postcard, with images of your t-shirts all over the front, and all your business info on the back.
I like this idea alot. It could be very successful if done correctly. Robin and Lou, what are your thoughts on direct mail marketing? Is it best served as a tool for attracting local clients, or can it be successful/cost effective on a larger or more national scale?
We didnt get alot of notice with our post card mail outs. Until.......I put them in envelopes, addressed them myself in my own handwriting, and put a pretty stamp on them. That worked!!
Our next direct mail is going to all of our current customers, and contacts Ive made in the last year. It is an invitation done up in a very festive christmas card. These will be mailed out with caligraphy on the envelopes and pretty stamps. If you want the link for the company that is doing this for me. Let me know.
Thanks for the ideas - I'm working on a Myspace page now, and I'll look into post cards. I'm more of a clothing company than a screen printer so I'm not sure how well direct mailings would work in terms of hitting my target customer, but I can definitely apply that to other areas (giving out post cards at concerts, car shows, events, etc.)
You need to find a copy of Zig Ziglar's book on advertising. It may be out of print, but should be available on Amazon. He was a car salesman during the 50's & 60's in the Detroit area and used very unorthodox methods of getting his name out there. I believe he wrote several books, but his first is the one I'm thinking about. If I can find the name, I'll pm you.
Thanks for the ideas - I'm working on a Myspace page now, and I'll look into post cards. I'm more of a clothing company than a screen printer so I'm not sure how well direct mailings would work in terms of hitting my target customer, but I can definitely apply that to other areas (giving out post cards at concerts, car shows, events, etc.)
We're a clothing line as well. As far as direct mail goes, we recently sent out coupons to our previous customers for black friday.
It was basically a post card printed with some info and a coupon code in there, my wife took her scrap booking tools and made the coupon area perforated.
Here are my preliminary ideas for marketing my shirts (most are free), if you can let me know what you think I'd appreciate it!
Banner or link in signature on various forums that I participate in.
Send samples to popular comics/musicians, hoping they'll wear them.
Hand out tons of business cards.
Online advertising (adwords, ad space on popular sites, make a blog)
Hand out free shirts, or sell shirts outside rock concerts or other events.
I'm not sure I'm thinking big enough about this, but I'm not sure what else I can do relatively cheaply to get the word out about my shirts at this early stage.
Depending on your budget, take out a quarter page ad in a magazine, make it uncluttered with mostly your website address. (Rolling Stone? or some target market magazines?)
Bumper stickers of your website and hand them out at concerts, etc. where your target market hangs out. These are relatively inexpensive....
Links on websites who will let you put their links on their sites.
This is true
$5000 I would definitely consider, I was just blown away by the rates in Rolling Stone. Worth it, no doubt, just way out of my range. I'll definitely be looking at other publications though, seems like a great way to get huge exposure in a short amount of time.
My advertising plans - what do you think? 
