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.
I have recently launched my T shirt band WaxGoggles after a year of grinding. I'm pretty proud of our product and especially hyped about the site (which leads to my post)
I have been soliciting blogs for review, offering coupons to their subscribers and I am using twitter but I'm now considering hiring a PR firm or an online marketing company to promote my site with a stronger push. This idea came after a friend (an entertainment attorney in NY) viewed my site. his onion was that I had a very original look and that I should take full advantage of what I had put together by using a promotional team.
has anyone here done something like this or know any one that has?
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
Wow, harsh Kyle...
Anyways, A good PR firm can help some, but at this point in your companies life I wouldn't spend the money on it. I think promoting it your self like you've doing is the best option.
And I say this as some one who worked at one of the largest Ad agencies in San Diego.
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
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Especially at $40+ for shirts.
Oh, and I agree. $30-$40 is VERY overpriced for a t-shirt. Even the coolest, multi-color, high quality tees sell for under $30. I personally won't pay more than $25 or so on a shirt.
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
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Originally Posted by CrossYourHeart
Wow, harsh Kyle...
I wasn't trying to be rude or anything but good advice is not always nice. Telling him it would be a good idea to drop a ton of cash on marketing something that I seriously doubt will sell enough to earn back the money he spent on marketing, let alone a profit, would be wrong.
He needs to keep working on his website and designs until they are marketable. Then possible look into paying a team to market it.
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
It doesn't even load at all for me. All I see is "Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player" on a slate gray background. And I know I can't be more than one version behind.
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
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Originally Posted by Retro Campaigns
It doesn't even load at all for me. All I see is "Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player" on a slate gray background. And I know I can't be more than one version behind.
Yup, same here. If it doesn't load on my iPod touch, its not worth going to..
This site has beaten it to death that flash should not be used on an ecommerce site, but yet people insist...
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
site really needs lot of changes...
check .
Home page title is " . " for that page. Prices can be anywhere from 15 to 25....I won't pay more for new brand. even you have a lot of Marketing budget, it won't sell much. especially when, threadless and Designbyhuman sells at 8, 10 ,15, 18 price points.
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
Here's my two cents....put your store on your main domain, I see that the store is not flash and you won't force people hear the tunes blaring which I, as well many others, hate....
your actual store is alright..I won't comment on the pricing but the store design is simple and pretty good looking. Its still cookie cutter, but a good start. I think you are doing a good job with a common theme/branding. I have seen some real nice online stores using flash, but unless you have the $$ to do flash AND a html store, stick with html. If you want some fancy interface stuff, take a look at some AJAX libraries.
Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day! Don't be afraid to try some crazy things, but don't hurl people at them. My day job is a web developer for a very large site, and can take literally years of experimenting to get something really great.
btw...check your links to make sure they all work, there are a couple dead ones....good luck!
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
I forgot this part, which will actually help with your question
The site I work on for my day job, did all the designing in house for about the first 10 years of its life. Then a couple years ago, we hired an outside firm to help out and give some fresh ideas. They did you a great job! They dug into our site to learn about it and who our target audience was. They gave several comps for a new design to help with the user experience and site tree layout. The redesign based on this company was very successful.
The point I want to make though is, we been around a long time, established our audience, had our brand, and had LOTs of $ to spend. I think you are off to a good start on your own without spending lots of money. Your getting feedback from the right people(even though they are harsh). You have some great designers at your finger tips. I think you should stay the course a while to find how people like your product and how you can evolve your product. Once you get that foothold, go for it! Get those pros in to help with the rest.
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
oops, you caught me with my pants down! lol.
Thanks for the criticism (even the harsh stuff) after taking the weekend to research and crunch numbers I've decided it would be more cost effective to purchase ad space on sites that I know my target consumers frequent. There are some bugs to work out on the site so thanks, especially for the comment about viewing on iphone. As far as price...nah, we're only going up from there. Like I said, I have a target market. Being a new brand, its true that people can be skeptical but the response I've gotten with pre-orders thus far confirms that we are on the right path. I'm not selling generic phrase Tee's on crappy beefy T shirts. and we haven't even listed our limited edition shirts yet ( which have serialized Certificates and are much more pricey. these are insane! from the concept, to the art, to the packaging! "smile") We're in the early stages, even with all that we have done but by the time we go live in October I think it will be clear that we're not just pushing 10 dollar shirts. This forum has helped me every step of the way so I would be nuts to not consider different opinions.
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
You should honestly get your ego in check.
You honestly believe this is worth $40+
You can clearly see where you tried to remove the image from a white background, it looks terrible and it's like that on all occurrences of your "mascot" throughout the site.
If you can't spend the amount of time it takes to create a decent looking graphic, why would any spend $40 to wear it?
It's amateur, bro.
$30 for a shirt with a bevel and embossed font? Please.
Re: thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm
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Originally Posted by AeresClothing
And this ain't flamin'. This is real talk.
I used to post rhymes on an MC forum a while back befor I came to work in iraq and there was this one cat who just for some reason saw it as his place to be an ***! It was ok though because I am truly a much bigger asshole than any jerk that would go to my site take the time to lift one of my images (after I thanked him for his weak little criticism) and post some crap like this. first, that image was never, ever on a white back ground. You seem as if you know a little about CS4, each part of the main body of the image has three layers, that mosaic tile being the base on the head and feet. I'm sorry all shirts are currently post in mock form because we have something special planed for item presentation that will go into effect on the night before the store becomes live. I could go into 20 different ways my shirts are worth what there sold for (each being a bullet from the attributes of our overall product) but I wont fam, because I know that when some cat says, "its not hate, its real talk" yea, you cant do anything for that cat but show by doing. Dude, I've already pre-sold a gang of those shirts. enough to make it available in two more colors and pay for advertising. if you don't like the shirt, don't show the *** of your ego. Just don't buy it. this is america...( just felt like saying that! lol) by the by, your site has been up for awhile you "Should" be doing good whats your prob....oh, your one of those cats selling generic phrase Tees on beefy shirts. Sorry, didn't mean to hurt your feelings fam. much success to you.
thinking of hiring PR or online marketing firm 
