With the fashion industry on the rise and new entrants piling in, things can get tricky for established clothing businesses, let alone a start-up entrepreneur. Lacking experience in marketing and advertising can put you in a critical situation if your goal is to get more reach, whether online or through word of mouth. This blog is here to help you identify the most relevant marketing strategies for your t-shirt business – all FREE, of course. You’re not alone in this – we’re here to get your business up to speed with all things marketing for beginners!
Create Social Media Accounts
This one might sound obvious, but it’s not as commonly known as you think. Many start-ups and established t-shirt businesses don’t advertise their services. In addition to this, they don’t even use social media tools. You could be part of the growing space on these platforms by developing easy marketing strategies for your t-shirt business! Even just creating social media accounts and not posting is a lot better than not having an account at all. It puts you on the map and shows your prospective clients that you’re making the first step to putting yourself out there. So even if you’re not sure of what to post or making content on just yet, at least grab that username while you can.
Create Content
Now, when it comes to making content, it’s best to come up with a schedule that suits you and pre-record or shoot photos and videos for your platform. This will allow you to understand how frequently you’re able to post and how much time you have to invest in social media marketing. At first, your schedule might be unclear and inconsistent, but over time you’ll get the hang of posting at set times, which will also give your viewers an idea when to expect new things from you.
You can use www.later.com to schedule posts for free. Alternately Facebook business suite gives you the option to schedule all your posts for Facebook and Instagram!
Design a Website
This one might be easier said than done… but it’s not impossible. There are loads of great website builders out there, like WordPress, Wix etc. that have pre-formatted themes to use and there are extensive YouTube tutorials to help you find your way. Having a website allows your audience to find your products and services in one space. Marketing strategies for your t-shirt business is essential, especially a website, since a website works as the central space for your advertising strategies.
Importance of a Website for T-shirt Business
A website is much more important than social media because it defines your business in its colours, fonts and overall style, giving your audience a glimpse into the vibe you want your business to give. It is the centre point for branding and theme for your clothing business. Aside from this, your website displays information that would seem too wordy on a social media post, which allows advertising on a professional scale.
Find Your Target Audience
Finding your target audience is one of the key marketing strategies for your t-shirt business. If you’re going to get into marketing, you need to know who you’re trying to reach in terms of demographics. This means you need to know what age group, gender(s) and regions your t-shirt business either relates to or is directly made for. This is so important because much like the website, this ties in with everything else. If you are targeting the wrong audience you will not generate engagements.
Knowing Your Audience
Designing a website made for kids would be a lot different than designing a website made for adults. The same goes for regions and other demographics such as interests. Decisions like these will impact your colour choices and style of the website. This can extend into social media advertising. Try and find out what platforms your audience uses and which features appeal to them. Your target audience may be more inclined to view Instagram Reels rather than a TikTok. Therefore, this is something worth looking into. Use these marketing strategies for your t-shirt business by observing the audience’s behaviour!
Create a Brand
Though you may already have clients, it’s still important to have a brand to promote. ‘Brand’ is not just a word, it is more of like a person who has personality. Before creating a brand, you need to visualise what your brand would look like if it was a person. Is your brand male or female? Is your brand rich or middle class? Is your brand classy or cool? Reflecting all these elements when creating a brand will help your customers associate with your ‘brand’ when they wear your clothes. If you’re not a garment supplier, there’s no need to implement your brand name in your products. Instead, your products will speak for themselves to represent your brand.
Take into consideration your target audience and the market you’re in. For example, does your font need to be quite formal, casual or eccentric? Whatever the case, your brand name and style will create an identity for you that can be promoted along with your product and services.
Naming Your Clothing Brand
There are a lot of websites that can help you name your brand. Here is a list of websites that can help with naming your apparel brand:
Start Blogging on Apparel
Blog writing is the single best marketing strategy for your apparel business. It is great to engage with your community off of social media platforms. It gives you a space to write about whatever you want without having to limit yourself to short social media posts and informative text on your website. Your blog can be another page on your website, or you can have a completely separate website dedicated to your blog.
This can vary depending on the vibe you’re going for. If you’re writing a blog based on creating informative content, you’ll probably need to do more research than what you’d do for a blog post based on your business’ products and services. It also impacts what photos and videos you implement into the blog, but remember, use your target audience as a guide.
Free Longtail Keyword
Research Tools
It’s best to conduct long-tail keyword research to start blogging. What this means is finding relevant keywords related to your business to use in digital posts. There are a few FREE resources available to find keywords for t-shirt business. Google search results is an excellent way to find what people are searching for. Keyword research tools like UberSuggest is also a free resource to find related keywords. You would want to find keywords with high volume and low difficulty as they’re easier to rank. Keywordtools.io is another free tool!
Free Google Chrome Extension for Keywords
You can also find long-tail keywords by downloading Chrome extension. We recommend Keyword surfer and keywords everywhere.
Still confused with which ink to use for printing? Read our blog Plastisol Inks vs Water Based Inks: Which one is better
Offer Free Samples
Offering free samples to prospective clients allows them to see what your business is about and more importantly, how beneficial your services are to them. Free samples not only give your clients a preview of what ordering from you is like but also what they can expect from you as a business.
Free Samples Help in Brand Awareness
Using this marketing strategy pretty much speaks for itself as there is no specific campaign attached to offering samples to a prospective client. Of course, it’s also useful to advertise this, but isn’t completely necessary. Depending on how casual your business is, you may just add it to your social media stories section, you may implement a whole section in your website dedicated to samples, or you might just ask prospective clients directly.
Get Free Heat Transfer Samples From Innotex Transfers
If you are still unsure about heat transfers, why not try us before you buy? Innotex Transfers offer free heat transfer samples to all its business customers. It not only helps you with getting to know about our products but also helps in building longterm relationship. You can request your heat transfer samples here.
Ask Clients For Testimonials
If you’ve already got a client list, big or small, you can use this to your advantage and receive customer satisfaction reviews for your products and services. Receiving good feedback directly from a client gives prospective clients reassurance that your services are as good as you say they are because the review isn’t coming from you.
Free Word of Mouth
This tactic allows you to promote your services without really promoting much and provides a backup of what your website and social media are all about. If your customers are keen on your products, it won’t be difficult to reach out to them to ask for a customer review. It’s good to build a relationship with your clients anyway, and this is an excellent way to keep the ties.
Give Discounts to Your Existing Customers
Discounts are a great way to start a relationship with customers. You can offer them to both existing and new customers, while having different promotions for each. This way, customers will be inclined to order from you if they receive that incentive. In addition, discounts work great in a sense it gives your clients special treatment to the point where if they really love your products and services, they’ll come back for more, willing to pay full price the next time.
You can also work out who likes your products enough and who doesn’t. If discounts don’t work with your audience, it may be that the decrease isn’t enough or that there is work to be done elsewhere, whether that’s on your website or your social media campaigns.
And this is pretty much all you need to get started with marketing strategies in the t-shirt industry. Overtime, you’ll find what works for you and what doesn’t, as well as the opportunities that may be available to you in the future. Also, check out our other blogs and socials for more information on what we do and help you with! You can always contact us and discuss tailored heat transfers for your clothing business. We have one of the most competitive prices in the industry for single colour sheets.
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