# My marketing plan, any advise?Post/Pre launch.



## Obesetiger (Jun 30, 2009)

I've no idea if this will come across more as an advantage to those starting up, or more for those who are already established to pick me apart.

Bare in mind I'm straight out of University and don't have a huge budget[although everything seems to cost a bomb]. Although this will focus on marketing, I guess it will also be a kind of time line.

So PRE launch:

-> Bought domains[snapped up a .eu for 95p -> $1.30 for 2 years as well], got .co.uk and .com as well.
-> Began blogging on website to try and 'drum up interest'. Speaking about general tee shirts, things to do with being in the summer in the UK, interesting links to partners.
-> Established facebook and twitter groups.
-> Touted to my friends, through FB, texts.
-> Ordered business cards.
-> Used networking to establish some unpaid 'partners' in various locations in the UK.
-> Researched those locations I was likely to be in, and looked at which shops where likely to be liable to buy from an independent producer like myself[mainly singular shops etc.]
-> Ordered labels for tee shirts.
-> Ordered samples of tee shirts, all designs in various sizes.

*-->> THIS IS WHERE I AM <<--*

Post Launch[i.e. actually having stock in]

-> Handing out samples to friends.
-> Contact celebrities who are local to me to offer samples.
-> Contact three bands to ask if they'd be interested showing my stuff, producing designs that were custom made for the band.
-> Contact DJs.
-> Print around 5,000 leaflets per launch of each University year, * 3 locations.- > 15,000 leaflets required. Outlining a few pics of our tees, our message, headlining the 'made in the uk' and pointing out quality and exclusiveness. As well as promoting twitter, facebook and website.
-> Promoting new ideas and creating a 'buzz' by offering free goodies to those who enter a competition to design a new tee. Gets a buzz going AND gives us some ideas of what people want to see.
-> Produce a catalogue to show new customers.
-> Leafleting outside big gigs and dj events in the three chosen university towns.

So basically the main marketing revenues:

-> Twitter and facebook.
-> Local bands/bands I've met through networking.
-> Creating a buzz amongst the local community.
-> Since we are a clubbing/djing/gigging brand, we're targeting the clubbers, djers and giggers with leaflets outside the gigs. These are don't have a problem paying £25 for a shirt at a gig even if it's poor quality, so shouldn't have a problem dropping some top dollar for unique ones they like.
-> Having giveaways to involve the community.

That's five avenues, can you think of anymore?

I didn't want to say cataloguing stores is marketing, because that's more selling the product and going retail.

Any advise/guidance/thanks would be appreciated. At the moment I'm waiting for our samples/stock to turn up but must say I'm slightly disappointed with them taking 4 days longer than agreed, as it's holding up getting up pics of the shirts, the catalogues, the leaflets and handing out the samples!


----------



## ReThink Clothing (Jan 15, 2008)

Dont forget to hit the web for blogs to promote through


----------



## 365tshirtdesigns (Jul 27, 2009)

Man your website nearly gave me a headache! 

Tone down you background a notch. 

You sound quite committed. How many are you making up initially? or are you using a printing service like cafepress?


----------



## jkruse (Oct 10, 2008)

Good plan.

You didn't mention your plans for SEO though. Get some free traffic to your site through google!


----------



## AaronM (Mar 28, 2007)

You might want to think about doing a Facebook page as opposed to just a group. Ultimately I think your plan sounds great and is very well thought out. Honestly the fact that you have a plan in general is a major improvement over many of your competitors I think you will find. Also remember that your marketing/business plan is not a static document. It must be reviewed and revised regularly so you are not going the wrong direction or throwing money at marketing that is not working.


----------



## Obesetiger (Jun 30, 2009)

Cheers guys!

Appreciate the help and comments, the website background, haha, it's only temp and will be changed once we've got our online store sorted.

I'm still actually just about set where I was , maybe advanced a little bit, everything takes ages and everything's linked. Sample shirts took ages to be sent, so couldn't get model photos done[being done tomorrow] which in turn meant the graphics designer couldn't finish the leaflets, and we can't get our online shop up yet.

Everything seems to take a long long time, '1-2 weeks' almost always means '2 weeks' and everything linked to another just means delays upon delays. Nightmare!


----------



## nowitsshowtime (Jan 19, 2008)

good stuff so far. I was essentially in the same boat as you and had many of hte same ideas. I've since put my project on hold, but trying to get back into it.

I'm not on her as much but shoot me an email and we can mabye discuss other ideas since we are at similar stages, and not direct competition (Im in the US) [email protected]


----------



## CarbonJeans (Jul 29, 2009)

You've got a really good plan there. I think exchanging links with different sites might be helpful to boost your visitors. 

I'm currently on the same ground trying to market my site if you wanna talk or exchange links or anything just send me an email: [email protected] Good Luck!


----------

