Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, link building, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
What's going on everyone. I'm really new to this whole t-shirt thing and I was wondering how most of you were able to start selling your shirts and what is the best way to sell your shirts? Is the "out of the trunk" method as useful and as productive as trying to find promoters and places to sell out of? What say you, T-Shirt Nation???
I'm pretty new to this too. My web site is going up this week.
I just got back from a confrence hosted by Mircosoft all about starting new businesses. The biggest message that I took away from it was get your name out there. Blog, write on the t-shirt forum, E-mail everyone you have every known.... Basically do everything you can to get your name seen. The more your name is seen the more chances people will click on it and discover what you are all about.
I wish you well
Well, I'm fairly new also. A good way is to find an event in or near your town to see if you can set up. I hope to have my website up and running in the next couple of weeks. Just make sure you have your stuff protected properly.
Yes advertise the hell out of your website,company,etc...The way i get my sells is by wearing my own t-shirts with a link to my website on my shirt. Hope this helps
Word of mouth is a huge one, throughout my city word of mouth has sold us so many shirts. Also, promote on as many forums and whatnot as you can. Do link exchanges with other sites and things like that, anything to help get your company out there.
One thing we did that has helped sufficiently was when we decided to sponsor one of our local big DJs and that has gotten us a lot of customers as well. Good luck!
You guys have got to be the greatest!!! I did however have a few questions.
To Peargirl; What state are you in and how did you find out about this workshop?? I would love to take hold of something like that.
To KayHix24; What do you mean by having my stuff properly protected and how would I do so??
To ambitious; What other ways besides the ones you listed can I use to promote?
And finally to khay; That sponsoring avenue sounds like a rock solid idea. Is that route expensive, is there a going rate for that type of thing, and would you recommend sponsoring anywhere/anything else??
Once again, you guys are the greatest. Thanks in advance for your help.
The route really isn't expensive at all. If you find a good DJ, skater or whatever it may be, they'll likely do it for free in exchange for free gear. So really, it's a cheap but good way to get out there though you'll lose a few dollars giving out free stuff. You can sponsor events and whatnot if you have the money as well.
Word of mouth is a huge one, throughout my city word of mouth has sold us so many shirts. Also, promote on as many forums and whatnot as you can. Do link exchanges with other sites and things like that, anything to help get your company out there.
One thing we did that has helped sufficiently was when we decided to sponsor one of our local big DJs and that has gotten us a lot of customers as well. Good luck!
You know we all have what we think or consider our "niche" in this t-shirt game, but the reality is ppl get nervous about whether someone is going to steal their idea/concept...possibly,(and I'm scared but hey) anywhooz...make sure you copyright/trademark as needed. United States Patent and Trademark Office Home Page is a good start.
You know we all have what we think or consider our "niche" in this t-shirt game, but the reality is ppl get nervous about whether someone is going to steal their idea/concept...possibly,(and I'm scared but hey) anywhooz...make sure you copyright/trademark as needed. United States Patent and Trademark Office Home Page is a good start.
Thanks to you guys for all the advice.
I'm not scared to share info if I have it. All the information that we are all sharing on this site has been used at one point or another by countless others, in one variation or another. This type of info is not ours to horde IMO, because at the end what works for you may not work for me.
Thanks again for the help and I wish you ALL the best of luck!!!!!
Wow, you guys all have great info to share. I am new to this, as of today actually, but already I can see the value.
I get my shirts out there! I actually give them to the food vendors to wear (I live in Portland, ME). My website is slow, but I am doing pretty well in the stores.
paula
Last edited by Solmu; July 10th, 2008 at 08:25 AM.
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selling starts with getting seen. We get seen by using google adwords (be careful with this because you can lose a good amount of money if you do it wrong), linking with other sites and relevant directories, search engine marketing, relevant advertising, this forum and other related forums, and the list goes on. Basically your first step is to define your customer. Who is craving your products and what do you know about them. Once you know this, you just need to put your ads/product in the places people are looking. If you want more detail, feel free to PM me.
I have had good luck with putting my shirts on everyone I know. It is actually a cheap way to do marketing. The hot dog vendor looks mighty cute in her t shirt. We just had a huge soccer tournament here in Maine and Addidas had everything sewn up -- hard to get anyt-shirts in any venue. Frustrating.
Last edited by Solmu; July 11th, 2008 at 07:29 AM.
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