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.
Thought I'd share this with you, as it seems to have worked well for me so far -
I've put a competition to win one of my t-shirts on my website, and then added that link onto a contest forum, (where people just search the net looking for competitions, then let everyone know where the comps are on these forums). So far I've had a whole lot more traffic! When they enter the competition on my website they're are asked if they are keen to be updated with discounts, and most have ticked YES, which means I have all these new people for my email database, and can send them regular updates!
Hope that makes sense!! So far it seems to be working really well for me
Well I don't have much traffic generally - I went from an average of 13 a day, to 200!! Not bad, but they haven't actually resulted in anymore sales than usual... But at least I have built up a pretty decent email database....
Very true...I just kicked off one of our first competition "FOR THE CHANCE TO WIN THE BEST THING EVER!"/t-shirts and it is going pretty good so far...really good actually, nuts even..
Anyone else run competitions before? Know any sites that you can submit competitions to? or forums that are dedicated to running competitions? or similar...
Ok so..its a week on now and the results of running a competition are pretty good - for us anyway and what we wanted to achieve..I've found a few sites that are dedicated to just competitions and are insanely useful..I put them all neatly in my blog so you can check them there if you want but if you want traffic, more mailing list members, more twitterers, more facebook fans, more myspacers - run a competition...they are also kinda fun...
Thanks for sharing! This is a great idea. I am just starting and am only getting about 10-30 hits a day on my website. I have been running a "special offer" sort of thing and have been telling everyone following us on twitter, myspace, etc. that if they order by a certain date we will throw in a free pair of sunglasses. We have only received 1 sale so far.... not to good since its been going on for 2 weeks now. Any idea as to forums you can post special offers to? Would you mind sharing forums you can post competitions to? Thanks so much! I really enjoyed this thread.
Hey, eh, well for forums and competitions there is a whole myriad of them out there... I actually did a blog about it a while back - LadyUmbrella - T-Shirts and Life..: Blogs, t-shirts and competition tips.. where I have em all listed and say what I did...I'll warn you though, it is long and rambling but it gets there in the end...
Welcome to the site! I haven't see any posts from you previously. However, I'm glad I found this one today. Good idea! I'll have to keep that in mind for the future when I launch my site! Again, GREAT JOB & thanks for sharing. Good luck to you in business!
Challenging people is definitely the way to go. Its all about getting people involved really. I worked a flea market a few months ago and had a sign in front of my booth that said:
"solve for x get 50% off" with an algebra question.
I made them easy enough mostly because I just wanted to get traffic and I definitely did. It was insane. I lacked womens sizes though and that hurt my sales quite a bit. I underestimated that by quite a bit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ladyumbrella
Hey, eh, well for forums and competitions there is a whole myriad of them out there... I actually did a blog about it a while back - LadyUmbrella - T-Shirts and Life..: Blogs, t-shirts and competition tips.. where I have em all listed and say what I did...I'll warn you though, it is long and rambling but it gets there in the end...
REALLY like your site by the way. Great aesthetic.
Freakin dig the algebra idea - give people no choice but to hang around and check out your stuff - everyone thinks they can do algebra (and most people can) but straight up challenging is a master stroke I think....expect future LadyUmbrella stands to be flooded with a concoction of X,Y's and Z's..really dig the idea....and thanks for liking our site....ole...
I really like the algebra idea, excellent. I have seen someone use a similar idea, they offered a piece of retro memorabelia which related to their t shirts. People had to put the answer to the question on a slip which included their email address, the vendor after the event contacted the first picked correct answer.
The slip had an opt in for future free contests and news, most people ticked the box.
Marketing idea 
But at least I have built up a pretty decent email database....
