There seem to be alot of t-shirt companies sprouting up. The internet is making is extremely easy to find cheap outsourcing, good freelance designers around the world, and templated store systems. There are a number of t-shirt printers to choose from that make it fairly easy for a new company or individual to start selling their products.
So how does a new company go about attracting customers, getting traffic to their site, and generating sales without blowing all of their budget on marketing and advertising? Below is a list of marketing tools that owners/operators of t-shirt businesses can use to get things going.
Search Engine Optimization
One of the most cost effective online marketing method available. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of modifying a website to increase its rankings in the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This includes altering the code of the webpages to target specific keywords in the Title tags, Meta tags, page copy, and HTML like <h> and <b> tags. This also includes increasing the number of inbound links to your webpages. It is important that the inbound links to your pages use the target keywords in the link text. It’s important to note that it will be very difficult for new sites to rank in Google due to a relatively new part of their algorithm that puts new sites into a “sandbox” until it can build up a certain amount of “trust” or authority. This is done by building links from other authoritative websites.
Social Media Marketing
I’m sure you’ve heard of them. Digg. Netscape. del.icio.us. StumbleUpon. Newsvine. What are they? They are all different but share the theme of content sharing and voting among users. Users sites like Netscape, Digg, and Newsvine post links to articles, blog posts, news items, top 10 lists, etc, and community members vote for or against the content. The submissions that satisfy a specific algorithm (number of votes within a specific period of time, number of comments, posted by X type of user, etc) make it to the homepage. Sites like del.icio.us and Stumbleupon are slightly different in that users bookmark the webpages of interest to them and can then share that content with other community members. Web pages that receive a high number of bookmarks or votes will be featured.
How can you take advantage of these sites to generate traffic and customers for your new business? The first and easiest step is to make your site easier to bookmark and submit to these Social Media Marketing (SMM) websites. You can add site specific icons at the bottom of your product pages, blog posts, forum threads, or articles pages that will allow users to bookmark your site or submit it with one click.
A second, more time consuming, and extremely sensitive step is to become involved in these communities and submit your own articles and/or web pages for voting among other members. These communities will not tolerate promotional content and are very sensitive to spam so this is a delicate issue. Unless you have a lot of patience, an understanding of the community and target audience, and content that is relevant to the site’s focus, I do not suggest this route. For example, Digg is mainly focused on the tech area, so a new product line announcement probably won’t do well. A new t-shirt line produced by Apple that features a built in iPod would have a better chance.
Community Participation
Becoming involved in your community is a great way to get your company’s name out there and generate traffic to your site. It can also be a good way to get relevant links back to your site. Join blogs and forums dedicated to topics in your industry and become a valued member. Ask questions. Help other members. Post quality content and post it often. If you have the time and resources you can start a blog on your website or a forum for your users to interact. This can be a great way to drive repeat users and build a community of your own.
PPC
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is an advertising/marketing model in which advertisers bid on specific keywords and pay when a user clicks on their listing. Advertisers are only charged when a user clicks through to their website. Some of the most popular PPC networks are Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN adCenter. There are also smaller networks such as Kanoodle, Miva, Enhance, GoClick, and many more.
You will need to be cautious if you decide to pursue this avenue. Be aware of the potential costs and set a realistic budget. It can be easy to chew through a large amount of funds if you don’t pay attention to the account. You should test different landing pages, sales copy, ad titles, etc., to improve conversion rates and sales.
Voting / Rating Sites
Within our small t-shirt industry there are a number of sites that enable t-shirt owners to submit product images/photos for community members to vote and rate. Some of these are:
You can generate some traffic to your site, buzz for your products, and potentially some sales by submitting your products to these sites. Just be careful to read their submission guidelines before getting started.
Blog Reviews
A few ways to go about this. You can utilize the services of sites like Reviewme.com and Payperpost.com to pay bloggers for a website or product review. These review services can be helpful to generate some traffic and attention, but it is best to stick within your theme. And it is also best to choose a specific product or service to be reviewed. So, don’t order a review of your latest t-shirt design from a highly popular tech or health blog simply because they have alot of traffic. They will either deny your order, or worse, give you a bad review.
You can also search for fashion and t-shirt blogs like this one using Google Blog Search or Technorati and contact the owner to request a review. Some blogs will require you to send them one of your products. Some of them will give you the option of making a payment or “donation” for a review.
Getting site and product reviews from blogs is a great way to build up the natural traffic to your site and inbound links. It’s a good way to start establishing yourself within the community and making your brand known.
Advertising
Traditional banner advertising can be another quick way to blow through money quickly, but if you are smart about where you advertise and you have great creatives this medium can work for you. Identify sites where your target market can be found on a daily basis AND is the closest the buying cycle. A site like Myspace.com may be great for reaching your target market, but the majority of users are passively browsing and not in a purchasing mindset. Therefore, the conversion rate may be low. Search for websites and communities where your competitiors are advertising and request information on advertising packages and rates.
Affiliate Marketing
This is a way for business owners to enlist the help of successful online marketers and website owners to promote their products and websites. The affiliate may be compensated for each visitor sent (pay per click), exposure (CPM), new customer, or per new sale. The compensation based on sale may be a percentage of the sale or a predetermined rate regardless of the sale amount.
There are a few ways to get started in affiliate marketing. You can start your own affiliate program, but there is quite a bit involved in this. In addition, experienced websites owners and affiliate marketers may hesitate to join your program if they fear they won’t be paid. You will need to accept and manage affiliate submissions, track orders, setup a reporting system, manage payments to affiliates, etc.
An easier way to get started in this market is through sites like Shareasale.com and CJ.com. These websites offer a marketplace for advertisers and publishers to connect. Business owners or advertisers can sign up, set their affiliate compensation terms, upload banners, and connect with affiliates. It will help to offer professional looking creatives and to to make your compensation terms attractive for affiliates.
Email Newsletters
It can take time to build up a valuable email list, but it can be a great weapon in your marketing arsenal. Add a “Subscribe” form throughout your website and allow users to easily sign up to receive updates. Companies like Tshirthell.com and Deezteez.com offer free t-shirts in exchange for new sign ups. Contests and promos like this can be effective to draw in new users and build up an opt-in email list.
Conclusion
New companies come and they go. Some of them may even have good products. But, good products alone don’t guarantee success. The sites, services, and tools above can help your new business get off the ground and start generating customers if you formulate a solid marketing plan and execute well.
Filed under: t-shirt business tips, t-shirt companies | 15 Comments
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Great article …linked to you on the blog keep up the great work
Nice Post – another great way is to play around with gift certificates. Off course your shopping cart requires a coupon system. You can simply combine it with your newsletter campaigns, or even better you can use it as a “bait” for websites or blogs, which you might ask for a editorial review.
It’s often very helpful, since you can offer an obvious benefit (besides your great looking tees
by providing an exclusive coupon for their readers.
a great idea to get traffic that we have helped us a lot is publish our new tees in survivor Tee. People can rate them and it’s a good way if we have a design to print in future tees because we can get opinions and we can view if people has voted it or not.
We only have to promote in our blog with links to our tees at survivor Tee and people seems that they enter to their site.
If the tee survives in the first 5 days with at less 5 votes, it is automatically posted in the main page, where someone can reach a lot and a lot of visits from survivor Tee.
I hope my experience helps you!!!
p.d. Survivor Tee is at http://www.survivortee.com
john
Thanks for the Great article. I didn’t realize there were so many places to submit your designs and get rated. I am going to try that out now.
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great info, thanks for sharing it! I learn a lot, I need more traffic in my tee shirt site.
I appreciate this list. I am especially interested in the idea of asking sites like yours for reviews. That’s something I hadn’t thought of. Thanks!
Great post and very informative, I’m doing a lot of the above myself, but glad to know I’m on the right track. The only thing I need to do now is set up my own independent store and I’ll be sorted. It’s kind of a chicken and the egg situation, you need traffic to sell tees, you need money for stock, I’m hoping a few Threadless Clones will give me a quick route up the ladder, who knows…
Thanks for the tips. As easy as the internet makes it to get visitors it’s always nice to do something in addition to that so that you actually feel like you’re working for your goals rather than just getting lucky. It’s fun and frustrating at the same time to run my t-shirt site.