[Reinhard]

I am desparately in need of a marketing guru's help. I have had my clothing line for over 2 years now and my success has been fairly limited.

I have a facebook page and tried to advertise on there, but for the actual cost, the benefit that I received was not worth it. What could be wrong? I have a couple of theories:
1. My designs do not have appeal (target market 15 - 35);
2. My website isn't appealing (haven't updated in some time due to low traffic);
3. The brand name is not appealing / catchy enough;
4. My facebook content is not engaging enough

I would appreciate any critique or any suggestions from the forum. Any tips on better marketing.

Thanks all

 

[rlaubert]

I looked at your website and FB page. My first thought was who is this market for? You stated that your target market is 15-35. Having 4 kids and 11 grand kids (some of which fall into that range) I can tell you that none of them would ware those designs. SO the first thing is to better define your market. Who actually is buying your shirts. Use your previous customers to determine why they bought those items.
Next the website and FB page will need to be redone once you know who the market is and what they are looking for.
We had the same problem and to some extent still do with identifying our market. We started with campers and found out that it was campgrounds that were are real customers. Changed the whole marketing process for us.

Still have to change the website, but since we deal direct with the campgrounds it is not a high priority atm.

 

[Reinhard]

Thanks for the feedback. Just out of interest - what type of designs would your kids / grandkids wear? I think we would like to address the 15 - 35 age market since we are in that market ourselves, so manybe the question is changing the designs to fit the market.

 

[rlaubert]

The boys are into motorcycles. Some of the grand kids are into religion. Country Music is another area.
Motorcycles and religious themes are two very good niches.

 

[BlueRidgeGraphic]

I agree that you must first narrow down and then work on understanding your "target market". There are 1000s of target markets within the age range of "15-35" and all of them have a demand (some more than others) for custom apparel. You can target country fans, skateboarders, musicians, high school girls/boys fashion, college humor, city fashion and many many more all within the 15-35 age range.

Your designs definitely have similarities to the very popular MMA inspired shirts that companies like "Tap-Out" create. These are highly detailed designs that are gritty and often use skulls as a theme. Companies like Tap-Out focus their marketing on boys/men age 15-35, who like martial arts.

Unless you have a store front, the hardest part about promoting your brand is visibility. People can't see your shirts, so they can't buy them. You could see if there are any local MMA studios around that you could create a special line of shirts for. Skateboard shops would probably be a good fit too.

Ultimately you should try to find appropriate stores to carry your brand as well as work your butt of with internet marketing including search engine optimization.

 

[charrymill]

First you should have good website appearance. And Stay as ethical as you possibly can.
____________________________
Home Profit Masters Systems

 

[Riderz Ready]

Been reading quite a bit lately on national sites like CNN and MSNBC that Facebook is hurting on their advertisements as all the studies show a very small percent of Facebook users click any advertisement. After reading this I realized I had never clicked an ad myself.

I would not change anything based solely on lack of Facebook response.

 

[Fenrir]

I've always felt Facebook will slowly fall into barely relevant mediocrity just the same as LiveJournal, MySpace, Blogger, WordPress, Hotmail, Craigslist, etc, have slowly become. Most of them are still used, none of them are as relevant they used to be. Unless you are absolutely must use it like Google, internet/social sites have a limited time. Even then, AltaVista died a harsh death and it was everybody's homepage before Google even existed. Right now everything is about Pinterest, which I actually predict a very short lifespan for.

Everyone who is going to use Facebook is already there. People flee Facebook every time they do something to tick their users off (like the latest thing where they've force-changed everybody's email to @facebook addresses).

 

[rlaubert]

As with any business you have to know your niche and how to communicate with that niche. Facebook, Craiglist, eBay, Google or what ever doesn't really matter as long as that is where your niche can be found. For some of us, online marketing is not as profitable as offline. For me I can attend a convention and drum up more business than a years worth of SEO on the web. If you want to be in business you have to identify your niche, where to find them and what they are willing to buy before you start spending any money starting the business. Just because it seems cool to you doesn't mean it will be a profitable niche for a business, hobby maybe, but not necessarily a business.

 

[printingray]

Hi, i just come after visiting your site, i see your site haven't too much attraction and also have not more content which grab the attaention of the visitor to stay at it. so, please first of all make your site professional as well do SEO of your site which increase your search engine ranking which is a cause of traffic.

 

[ryan barker]

that's a pretty big age range, isn't it? 15 to 35? i mean, what does a 15 year old have in common with a 35 year old? isn't it likely that they're going to have a pretty different style seeing as how the latter could be the former's father? just my opinion, but i think you should narrow your focus down a bit and either lean one way or another age-wise.

i don't know any teenage boy that's going to wear anything to do with butterflies, so, and again this is just my opinion, i'd be looking to cater more towards the 25-35 crowd. even then what i get the sense of is a site with some nice designs, but no strong brand.

nothing against etsy, but when i see you've had 21 sales since 2009, that doesn't do anything for me. truly, it's a huge turn off.

i didn't scrutinize your site by any means, but at first blush it looks dead or dying. since i can see the number of sales, were i an etsy follower (i'm not), my conclusion is that you're not a has-been, you're a never-was since i'm figuring in that some of those were friends and family. maybe there's something in the blog, but i didn't see an 'about us,' which is something i always check out.

of course, facebook and everything will fade away, but it's nowhere near that point yet. so what if 30,000 ppl get ticked about a change to farmville and bolt, they're not your customers anyway. it's just a matter of striking while the iron is hot, and when it's no longer in vogue you move on to the next hot thing like locust. the thing is, facebook isn't where you're doing your actual commerce, it's a doorway to your site where the real manipulation begins. some people have coupon codes, or some daily special, or *something*.

were it me, i would ditch etsy. i don't think it's a great place for most lifestyle tees anyway, no? and maybe that's one problem, you're selling designs that have some cohesion in general, but they don't represent anything. what do bison, hummingbirds, optical illusion, skulls and cards have in common? beats me. i might like the design, but how do i know it's something for me and not created for some dippy hippy living off bugs he licks off windshields up in the mountains? so perhaps, and i'm just thinking with my fingers here, more brand self-awareness would help? personally, i don't get MMA out of this stuff, but that's just me. hummingbirds and the MMA? bucolic mountain scenery that's an optical illusiong and the MMA? a panda illusion and the MMA? huh?

someone mentioned a skate shop. couldn't hurt. but, again, just because it has a skull in it, it still has HUMMINGBIRDS! lol! hey, go for it, but don't be shocked if they don't sell like hotcakes. then again, surprise me, i'd love to be wrong. i think if you set up a booth in the right venue you're likely to kill the past three years of sales in one day, maybe like some crazy mountain jamboreepalooza.

personally, reboot with a new site, a market with a narrower focus, nail your niche, and design towards their tastes while keeping your brand identity in mind. i do like your designs... i'm just not sure i'd buy them, ya know?

just a couple of thoughts, hope it gives your brain a snack.

 

[EnMartian]

First of all, I second the advice about knowing your market. Judging from what you've done so far, it's seems fairly evident to me that you don't know yours.

Let's start with where your store is. Etsy is a great site, for certain things and a certain demographic. People who do well there tend to sell kids clothes, women's clothes, jewelry, candles, pottery and stuff like that. The demographic is overwhelmingly female. Having a site there with the designs you have is not going to get you where you want to be. You would be better off finding a different venue, or creating a stand alone store of your own.

Now, let's talk about social media. I'd be interested to know how you targeted your Facebook ads when you set them up, as that could have had some bearing on the success of those ads. Also, where did you point the ads, to your Facebook page, or to the URL where you sold the shirts? Trageting makes a big difference in the success or failure of an ad.

Also, I can see why your social media is failing, you're not doing anything with it. One thing I would recommend immediately is taking the social media widgets off your site if you're not going to update on a regular basis. Seeing that your last Tweet was 15 days ago, or nothing at all in the Facebook box does you no good at all. It's better to not have them there if you're not going to update.

On Twitter you were following 6 people and had five followers. That's not enough to know whether or not it works. The first thing you need to do is start following strategically, in other words follow people who you think are in your target market or people who interact with your target market. Hopefully some of them will follow you back. Next your content has to make sense for your business. Most of what you were posting was random stuff. Instead of that, which anyone could post, talk about how you come up with your designs, what you're doing with your store, things like that. Also make sure to be responsive if anyone talks back to you and to work at becoming part of the community.

Facebook is a similar story. Like people who are in your target market. Post stuff that relates to your business. Share other things that are interesting, because that's part of the Facebook process, but make the page about your business and your personality. Just to give you some examples of what I mean, here is the Twitter Page and the Facebook Page that I run for EnMart.

Building a social media following, or a blog following is a process. You have to tweak and adjust and keep talking even when it seems as if no one is listening. You have to look at social media as a marathon, not a sprint.

 

[Padhart Designs]

There's some really good points here. I agree with the last two. Facebook is hit or miss; I can run a campaign and generate a decent amount of traffic, I can run the same campaign a week later to a different group only to get a couple of hits. It's a process that involves tweaking and once you've tweaked, start tweaking again; keep users engaged and above all else, know who your market is. Your design looked kind of bland on your page; IMO. People who like my page like it because it touches on something they can relate to and when I post something; they know what to expect. Fans are awesome but they aren't just going to give you their attention, you have to earn it. I'm new at this too, I'm just staying with it and learning as much as I can. Good luck.

Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More

 

[ryan barker]

rein, i think you're beginning to see a concensus.

i was wondering if adding a little text would help? for example, i have an idea for a brand called 'of cosmic significance.' somewhere on the shirt would be that brand name, and ideally worked into the design. one design that popped into my head was a butterfly (i jotted down several variations, from simple to realistic to more artistic done in a water colour style). a butterfly on a shirt is just a butterfly on a shirt, it's really nothing much to look at. my design has at the top, 'butterfiles...,' the middle is the design (or large and off-centre for the arty one), at the bottom it would say, '...are of cosmic significance.' there's no question which one someone would be interested in (if anyone at all, lol. clearly this would be for the womens category), plus it works in the brand's name. (as an aside, this brand is something that appeals to me probably more than most people. on paper, the designs sound cool, but i'm not sure anyone else would agree. for example, one idea is a rainbow caught up in a tornado. cool idea, right? but, who the hell is going to actually wear it exactly? whereas i could pop out zombie tees and offensive/funny stuff all the time. that's another thing: my sense of humour isn't like a lot of people's. i don't want honey badger this and that, it would have to be original, but is that worth the time and effort? another for example: inside the funny brand there could be a line of 'death' tees, where one crudely drawn design has a screen door hanging off the hinges, the caption reading, 'at death's screen door.' well, it looks funnier than it sounds, at least to me. and that's just it, to me it's all good, and there's nothing wrong with it, but who is my specific market supposed to be for some of this stuff? i guess what i'm trying to say is i feel for ya, buddy. )

 

[Riderz Ready]

Did not go through your site in any detail but instantly two red flags that would prevent me from purchasing from you. First - no telephone or mailing address in Contact section. Second Gallery was last updated 3 years ago. Shows that the site is dead or not actively managed.

 

[Reinhard]

Thanks Jason. All very good points. I need to get out there and find some real stores that fit the profile of my target audience and that would be willing to sell the clothing.

 

[Reinhard]

Ryan,
Thanks for all the advice. I have to admit that our design style has been loose and we don't generally stick to one type. We are actually thinking that it would be what differentiates us, but at the same time, it does hurt brand identity. We have fairly decent sales at flea markets, but that is really not our long term goal to keep on selling at flea markets. I am definitely going to think about some of your tips and see how I can integrate them into my marketing plan.

 

[ros74]

According to some studies, the most engaging types of posts are image posts (even more than video). This is how you do it:
-Upload a photo
-Create an interesting /funny description for it.
-At the end of the description, add a call to action: Ask a question about the picture,Like this post, comment, share...
-Find a way to leave a comment with your link on it.

Timing is very important in Facebook as well: It seems that 7am, 1pm, 7pm, 11pm are very good.

Test it, tweak it, see what happens.

Good luck

 

[Reinhard]

Ros74,

Thank you very much. I find it very helpful that you added actual steps to follow instead of just advice.

Have a great day