Ways to promote a t-shirt line for free?

25414 Views 25 Replies 23 Participants Last post by lucycarter, Aug 16, 2019

scarecityrobby

Discussion Starter · Jul 14, 2010

What are ways to promote for free? Online or offline? Basically I have a lot of time when I am at home or out and about and want to do something for my clothing company. And what are good ways to promote for sales or ways to sell? I have lots of shirts and need to sell

1 - 20 of 26 Posts

scarecityrobby

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jul 14, 2010

Re: Ways to promote

Broad question but need help

FatKat Printz

· #3 · Jul 14, 2010

Re: Ways to promote

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace... Etsy is a free site (similar to eBay but less costs involved) all free social networks.

You can build a free basic website with Microsoft Office Live.. you even get a free domain.

Also, check out free yellow pages ad's ..

Hope this helps!!

RespecttheCraft

· #4 · Jul 14, 2010

Re: Ways to promote

If youre doing a clothing line.. youre gonna want people to know your brand. Get the word out to your target market and get them hyped about your stuff. You could give out stickers to your friends to put around town. Possibly go around to the non-corporate clothing stores in your area and offer your merchandise to the owner for a wholesale price.. A business card, samples, and maybe even some free merchandise can go a long way. Also consider getting a sellers permit for a high traffic area in your town or during local festivals and having a presence there. Having presence around town and in your target market boosts your credibility potential consumer and retailer customers.

grunt482

· #5 · Jul 14, 2010

Stickers, Flyers, Post cards, but I think word of mouth is the best way to go. You need to let people know what you have and sell. Get them to believe and wear your product. Tell them to spread the word for you. It could go a long way.

Sent from my iPhone using TShirtForums

Rodney

· #6 · Jul 14, 2010

There are also some good tips here: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/t-shirt-marketing/t20419.html

Connecting with t-shirt bloggers is one way to help get the word out about your clothing lines.

Reactions: 1

scarecityrobby

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 15, 2010

I have a facebook and twitter and have printed out flyers thank you. Many people on here have said social sites have been good for keeping in touch with your buyers but what are good selling promotions. or other random ideas. Like something that can be done anytime

lincolnapparel

· #8 · Jul 15, 2010

I'm not sure I'd recommend Etsy - it's actually my most costly and time consuming selling venue. To get seen, you have to "renew", and each time you do this you pay the item listing fee all over again, so it adds up. I'm probably going to shut my shop later this year and focus on my main site.

I've generated the most attention by selling locally, both in shops and at a local market in our historic downtown district that I do each week. That's done more for me than anything else, and I'd definitely agree that having a local presence boosts credibility. Another thing is to wear your shirts as much as possible - that way if somebody asks you where you got it, you can hand them your card.

CoorsDTG

· #9 · Jul 16, 2010

Black Flys spent years guerilla marketing to get there name out and recognized before they even sold a single pair of sunglasses. They had stickers and flyers EVERYWHERE. I'm not recommending that you litter and deface private property, but something along these lines would be good for someone in your position. Print out cheap flyers at home and blanket schools and parking lots. Leave off your phone number so authorities have no one to call and charge for littering

kraftzy

· #10 · Jul 16, 2010

T-shirt blogs definitely help in this. Find out some t-shirt blogs preferably dealing in the kind of t-shirts you sell and contact them to get featured or get a t-shirt reviewed. You may not get a reply from the top blogs, but at least few of the small or medium seized blogs may pick up your shirt and review it , or may post a guest article by you introducing your store etc.., can be anything ... the traffic may be less is the smaller blogs ..but remember it's still targeted traffic.. so it helps.. and if possible you can also offer coupon codes or discounts specifically made for that blog readers..which will increase your chances of getting featured there ... you can find a list of top t-shirt blogs here ...

A list of top 50 T-shirts blogs by Blog Rank

Reactions: 1

secondtonobody

· #11 · Aug 8, 2011

Go join this blog it's new if you are still trying to promote for free.
streetlegalclothing.blogspot.com they just started but you can go there on the clothing page join and post your shirt designs

Martyncav

· #12 · Aug 11, 2011

Ive just started myself so im gonna try some blogging & social media sites. Its been word of mouth for me that has given my brand an initial kick start but Im hoping the blogging an social media will help.

Quite like the guerilla marketing as well.

Martyn
High Tee — Home

Emma Lifeblood

· #13 · Aug 17, 2011

The best place to start is to identify your target audience, which should give you a better idea of how to reach them.

Social media is free and word of mouth is often noted as the strongest method of marketing, so if you can get some networking happening through Facebook, Twitter, Linked In (if it's appropriate), even create some hype with some videos on You Tube.

Get in touch with some t-shirt blogs (there are tonnes out there), send them some free proddy and a 'press release' or something and if you're tees are decent, they'll probably post a review on their site. A similar approach to street press, magazines, journals, zines etc. is likely to get you at least one or two hits; writers are always looking for new content.

Be consistent, identify your brand values and make sure you're constantly conveying these with your marketing tools.

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Genesis

· #14 · Aug 17, 2011

Like everyone said, Facebook, Twitter, making a blog helps promote your website.
Also, join a forum and have a website as your sig. People might see it and click your sig.
But you have to know for sure if the webiste owner lets you do that because you might get ban.

threadmasters

· #15 · Sep 4, 2011

You can do a sweepstakes give away on facebook, gain "likes" to your facebook page and give a shirt away ...say every 3 weeks...you gain customer base who sees your page and thus a potential client base. Make a static iframe to your business page, require people to link and friend your page to be in the sweepstake give away ....Sweepstakes on Facebook | Facebook Here is an app that is a sweepstakes giveaway....

Reactions: 1

bigswiss

· #16 · Sep 7, 2011

i agree facebook spreads the word faster than anything!!!

STZREEK

· #17 · Sep 13, 2011

Word of mouth could do a world of wonders.

Possibly hand out some sort of incentives to your customers?

Look professional, provide good customer support, and be friendly.

Standout! - Don't be the same old website you're used to seeing from smaller lines.

CenCal559

· #18 · May 6, 2012

im trying to promote my stuff 2

tshtcan

· #19 · May 8, 2012

scarecityrobby said:
What are ways to promote for free? Online or offline? Basically I have a lot of time when I am at home or out and about and want to do something for my clothing company. And what are good ways to promote for sales or ways to sell? I have lots of shirts and need to sell

Online, you can create a website (or if you already have one) and then submit it in various classified sites as well as post product details in Google Merchant Center (its free to post there), thefind site also lets you post product details for free and from such places you can gain good amount of visitors to your site and generate sales. Offer some discounts, and post such discounted offers in coupon/discount sites, people visit such sites and can help you get more visitors (and possible sales) for your site.

ddtk

· #20 · Feb 28, 2013

What has worked for me:
As regards online promotion for me it's working this method I developed over the years:
From my logs:
First Post in Blogs, you need blogs, Tumblr, wordpress, etc.
Link blogs to fb stumble upon Digg Pinterest Twitter
Create profiles in your niche related sites and link to your work.
Link T-Shirts on shop to fb stumble upon Digg Pinterest Twitter weHeart it, svpply, My artpage Google+
Link Pinterest to fb stumble upon twitter
Tweet Often Create more than one account, one for you as an artist and some with keywords in its username ;-)
Comment on ... Blogs with tees
links in about.me
PINTEREST PINTEREST PINTEREST !!! (Create boards related to your brand or niche and you'll get followers if you pin often and good stuff, and add descriptions to your work saying it's available for sale!)
and everywhere you can add many tags, think of what the customer would type in the search box, and what combination of long keywords you should use, for instance I use "cool vector retro vintage" a lot, cos in Redbubble those are filters they use to showcase work ;-)
Let me know if you need extra help!
I love online marketing and helping with it, it's not easy and I had nobody to teach me, so if I can be of any help....

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