This week, I received two Help this Hound questions from the owners of businesses that sell T-shirts. I’m including both of them here because their problem is similar—how to attract attention and generate publicity and interest for their shirts. Here are the two questions:
Andrea Ayers of Boulder, Colorado writes:
“I own Tees For Change, a line of eco-friendly apparel that inspires positive thinking. Our tees are available on our website, and about 200 yoga studios, boutiques and green stores, including Whole Foods.
“The tees are made from organic cotton or bamboo and are adorned with uplifting messages such as LAUGH OFTEN, TODAY MATTERS and PRACTICE KINDNESS. We also plant a tree for every tee you buy!
“I am hoping your Publicity Hounds can help us take the company to the next level by giving us some out-of-the-box marketing and publicity tips. The tees have been featured on many blogs and some print media, but we need to reach out to a more national audience and get our name out there, especially now that the gift giving season is upon us.”
Michelle Pratt-Lienhart of Webster, New Hampshire writes:
“I recently started a new business called Just Be Products. Just Be is built around an online community/blog for people to share how they Just Be. We have a presence on social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. People share and show how to Just Be by uploading photos and videos to the blog and the other social networking sites. My main target is tweeners, teens and twenty-somethings.
“The website has been up since June and have only had 2 sales on it even though the hits to the site have doubled each month. I am getting some limited local press and have an editorial in the October issues of Inc. and Fast Company magazine because I won a contest they were sponsoring called ‘Inspired Innovations: The Great Idea Contest’ but I can’t seem to get any more press.
“What is the best way to find out who the publicists and stylists to the stars are? I am trying to get my products into the hands and onto the sets of the TV shows that my target market watches (without having to shell out loads of money). I’ve sent several press releases to all the newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations in the state, but only had a small photo and blurb in one business newspaper. How can I attract more attention and get more press?”
An idea for Tees for Change: I loved the simple but profound messages. How about adding a customized feature to expand your consumer base i.e.
“Live Mindfully” “Laugh Often” “Choose Happiness”
PLAY GOLF PLAY GOLF GO SAILING
“Today Matters”
GO SKIING
or HIT THE SLOPES
You could then market to Golf, Sailing, Skiing magazines and resorts.
Sheridan Bushnell
Durham, NC
My basic comment on the Just Be site is that it isn’t clear that the site is selling Tshirts. You have to get that info right on the home page, real clear, “Buy our shirts” Have some pictures of people wearing the shirts there and also at the top of the blog. Again I don’t know what you are selling. People just don’t spend any time trying to figure out what you do, you have to be super clear. Web sites are one of those places where you have to be a capitalist “we sell stuff, buy it”
Get your blog and follow button down below the buying buttons. Remember your real purpose is about selling stuff, following comes later.
I would also get something in your logo that says you sell shirts. Maybe some text along the bottom, “Fun TShirts and Products” You don’t have to be hitting people over the head with what you do, but it needs to be real clear at a glance.
Your meta description doesn’t say anything about selling Tshirts, “Just Be is a state of mind…a way of life…a philosophy to live by. It’s a good time to…JUST BE.”
Cute and coy really means unclear and confused, maybe something like “In your Just Be Tshirt you will be in a state…” something like that.
Add google analytics to your site (it is free) and see how people are getting to your site. Add a contact form to your contact page and invite people to ask you stuff, give us ideas.
I also follow Ed Dale,s numbers, you should be getting a sale every 200 visits, I don’t think the Fast Company and other press stuff means anything, you just don’t have enough readers in any of those publications to make it worth it, circ is just dropping all over the place, it is all about Google, try to find yourself on google, if you can’t then you have to fix it. See who does come up when you try to find youself, see what the top searches look like and learn and copy from them.
hope that helps
bruce
How about having a contest on YouTube for people wearing your t-shirt and carrying out an act inspired by the message on the shirt? The winner could get a gift certificate for your business and a pre-specified donation to the charity of their choice.
Contact bloggers who reach your audience and offer to send a free t-shirt in exchange for a photo of them wearing it or something creative (like a dog wearing it).
Also, offer up the shirts in online contests with the right sites.
Bruce is right — Just Be shows no signs of selling t-shirts. Yes, it’s under Buy Gear — but I’d recommend showing one product on the home page with a link to more products. Target sites for the different shirts — such as search for breast cancer-related sites and use the pink shirts.
Andrea, your site is not optimized as well as it can be for the search engines. On many pages, the title bar says “Tees for change: sustainable tees on a mission.”
That’s a big waste of space because the title bar is the first place the search engine spiders look when searching for keywords. Nobody will ever type “Tees for change: sustainable tees on a mission” if they are using Google to search for T-shirts.
Some of your pages are optimized, some are not. Go through the entire site and make sure relevant keywords are in the title bar, description, meta tags and headers. If your web designer doesn’t know how to do this, find another web designer.
Michelle, your site has the same problem.
Andreea,
You have quality, eco-friendly t-shirts with great messages. I think you’re doing a great job getting publicity. You might want to consider spending some time focusing on other activities to get sales. Here are a few ideas:
1) You are on Twitter, get great publicity, and are a savvy businessperson – why not work with and grow your community and sales by including a design your own component, similar to the Threadless model?
2) Your tees are all about change. Why not include a political tee or two, maybe having to do with the outcome of the election?
3) Your newsletter sign-up is not featured prominently on your site – a pop-up or pop-under would be good – and explain why potential new subscribers should sign up now – such as getting free shipping or 20% off a first order to get subscribers. Your e-mail list is the number one asset in your business (Joan Stewart has 50,000+ subscribers, which is amazing, and is so important to her business – right, Joan?), as many people who get to your site don’t stay, never come back, or aren’t ready to buy. This way you can keep marketing to them.
4) According to several surveys, free shipping is critical to online buyers this season. You may want to consider offering it all the time, with a big visual on your Web site, or to your newsletter subscribers
I hope this helps. And thanks for being a Pitch of the Month Club member!
Warm Regards,
Margie
Margie Zable Fisher
Zable Fisher Public Relations
http://www.zfpr.com
THANK YOU so much to everyone who responded to this post. I appreciate all your responses and I’ve gotten some great ideas. Off to work now to start implementing them.
Andreea
Hi you all!
Kris just told me about your great endeavor and I congratulate you both and Garrett. We look forward to hearing about your internship at the Lincoln Center. Pls. keep us on your emailings so I am able to see all these wonderful things!
Love, Aunt Lynda
Hi,
If you are wanting to increase your sales quickly, try offering an affiliate program and get others to sell your shirts for you. If you dont want to run your own program, your can use an affiliate network provider like CJ or Shareasale. They have different charges, but if you offer a good percentage to your affiliates, they will be wanting to sell your shirts.
Michael
produce small phone case or pocket that goes with your t shirts, make it as a style for all, it may give you publicity and sale required.
choose famous zoo and make garments for most famous animal available, Have a ceremony and dress them, and advertize the event, u can get the publicity and can increase your sales.