# Best marketing advice for our budget



## petek21 (Sep 19, 2007)

Our company has been given a $3000/month marketing budget for three months, in order to get our company out there and "on the map".

What would be the best use of this marketing money? Where should we start?

We'll take all advice.

Thanks to all!


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

$9,000 is a lot of marketing money. The first thing I would do, is caution you to make sure that you are spending it effectively, and not just "throwing money" at marketing.

The fact that you are asking for opinions is good, because just "throwing money" at it, isn't the best thing to do.

For general marketing, I always recommend Jay Conrad Levinson, and his line of "Guerrilla Marketing" books. Check out the "official" site: Guerrilla Marketing Online - The Official Site of Guerrilla Marketing and Jay Conrad Levinson.

For t-shirts specifically, make sure that you have identified your target market. I would take that money, and go see them personally! Get a street team, flyers, posters, stickers, and just go have fun. 

Get out there and meet with them and let them know you exist!

I like the concept, by the way!


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

I would second what the last poster said, make sure you know who your target market is and where they can be found. Then do some research and investigate all your options for reaching that market. There may be forums you can run ads on, magazines in which you can advertise, fairs and expos you can go to and probably other opportunities I haven't even considered. You also need to consider your target market area. If you want to sell nationwide, than you want to find the venues that will give you the most exposure for your money. If you want to sell to a smaller area, then you are better off focusing on venues that only serve that area. 

The one thing I can recommend is, whatever you might choose to do, make sure you have keep your message and brand consistent in all ads. The worst thing you can do is spend a lot of money trying different logos or messages. Make sure you really know what you want to say about your business and how you want to protray it before you do any advertising or spend any money.


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## petek21 (Sep 19, 2007)

Great information from both of you. Thank you so much. I love that people actually take the time to reply to questions on this forum.

Keep the ideas coming!


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## marD (Jun 16, 2007)

I would agree with the posts already made. You have to know your target market and you have to be consistent. Without knowing many details, it's hard to get specific, but there are many things you can do to market your brand without spending anything. Blogging, etc are good ways to get info about your company/brand out there without spending money. If you couple that with others that will not only attract people but keep them coming back you are off to a good start! 

One thing that I would recommend is to talk to people in your target market. Ask them questions about how they would look at your stuff and then take that info and use it to give them what they're looking for.


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

Exhaust all the free options before you use any money. 
Just cause it has a price tag on it doesnt mean it is good marketing. 
With this particular style you are going with (which I really like) it shouldn't be super hard to get people to remember you. "I AM" sticks in your head!
I think establishing a local following should be your 1st goal. Try setting up discounts for people referring other people to go on and buy a shirt. Get a wave of people talking about you by giving them a reason to do it. 

1st rule of economics: People act in their own self interest!! Give them a reason to act and you will see results.

People also feel good about buying something that makes them feel positive so you have another + in your favor. 
With 3k you could put together a pretty fun event, get a permit from your city, choose a theme that fits your style, target demo, run ads about it, go around handing out flyers, get some brands to play at it, have a ton of pizza delivered ( you can get free or super big discounts for it) 
Make the event about a charity (I AM MAKING A DIFFERENCE) that will allow you to get cheaper advertising, may get you a sponsor from the charity to come and help you, brings in an involved group of people, and gives you a great community aura. It also can change some lives if you raise enough money!! 
You can have a booth set up selling your shirts at the event where you would donate partial proceeds to the charity, can make specific shirts about the charity, ( I am doing this with Cystic Fibrosis ) as long as you obtain legal permission to do so. 
Hope this helps. There are limitless things you can do in marketing, basically they are capped by how creative and innovative your own mind is.


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

Note - The above brands should say bands


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## petek21 (Sep 19, 2007)

Peace2therest,

That is a great idea about a community event. We will definitely do that. The possibilities that could arise from a charity event are endless.

As fun exhausting free advertising, what blogs and forums are good for getting our name out there?

Thanks so much!


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

You can always send t-shirt samples to t-shirt blogs. If you do a search on here there are marketing tips about how to get a t-shirt blog to write about you. 
Find any type of forum that has anytihng to do with what your brand personifies. 

Other then that, lots of word of mouth, traveling around city to city giving out shirts to cool, fun, involved people will work. 
Have fun, if your having fun, other people will have fun with your brand as well. 
Don't overextend yourself, hosting an event in itsself is like a full time job.


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## AustinJeff (May 12, 2007)

I would seriously consider spending most of it on a _good_ SEO consultant.

I also second Greg's recommendation about checking out Levinson's work.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

Peace2TheRest said:


> Don't overextend yourself, hosting an event in itsself is like a full time job.


This is VERY true!

I hosted an event last year in March that took about 6 months worth of planning for 1 night!

I learned a lot, and will be able to do more and it won't take as long. But planning for that 1 night took the focus from planning for my brand, to planning for a 1 night event *for* my brand.

The event was a success and we were able to take the proceeds from it, and put it back in the business, but looking back, it was probably a little premature to do the event without having more of the "brand" finished.

So, I would caution you to put more time and effort into your brand, and wait until you've done that to host an event.

Maybe you could look into sponsoring an event. Less out-of-pocket, and less work!


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

Sponsoring is a great idea! 
Also if you want to host one, make it something simple. Although simple gets turned into complex, but simple is way to go. 
I would also put more money into your designs then advertising, get more of them, make them spectacular!!

I am not a huge fan of SEO, I would not waste 3000 on it, but that is your choice. I think you can get the same affect by just doing really simple and explanatory tags and descriptions. 

$9000 over 3 months is a lot of money for a start up. I would like I said before, exhaust every available free or cheap option before throwing money at something you may not even need to. 
A vacational road trip for 9000 to promote your brand sounds a lot more fun and affective then paying someone to put you on SEO lists. 
At least peole can put a face to you. 
Also, I would consider getting an entire line and purchasing a booth at Magik show, or at least attending. I really want to go in August and check it out! Heard it is pretty sweet.


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## highstyleinc (Apr 4, 2007)

Hi Pete,

You should try searching the forums for marketing. There are some useful posts that I remember coming across before where people compared marketing strategies like print ads in magazines vs. community events and such. I think marketing with print ads can be a waste of money if you don't place the ads in the right magazines. So, I think everyone's advise is exactly what you should be doing regarding knowing your target market and then go from there.


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## marD (Jun 16, 2007)

petek21 said:


> Peace2therest,
> 
> That is a great idea about a community event. We will definitely do that. The possibilities that could arise from a charity event are endless.
> 
> ...


You need to look for blogs and forums that deal with your niche market. You want to find places that your target audience frequently go to and then make sure that they can find you there. Take part in the conversations in forums and post your own blog. Get them involved in things going on with your company and you'll keep them coming back. Just make sure with the forums that it's ok to put your information in your sig. Some allow that and some don't...


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## tops4500 (Aug 31, 2008)

marD said:


> You need to look for blogs and forums that deal with your niche market. You want to find places that your target audience frequently go to and then make sure that they can find you there. Take part in the conversations in forums and post your own blog. Get them involved in things going on with your company and you'll keep them coming back. Just make sure with the forums that it's ok to put your information in your sig. Some allow that and some don't...


Well said. I totally agree


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## SoloStampede (Aug 4, 2007)

a list of 155 tshirt blogs that you can either buy advertising on and or get your shirts reviewed on:  Lists: 133 t-shirt blogs + 27 new additions = 160 t-shirt blogsbyHIDE YOUR ARMS


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## Sephirath (Mar 11, 2011)

If you want to go with your marketing online, read "Engage" by Brian Solis. Treat Facebook fanpage like your friend, write something funny on your Twitter account, consider running a blog about what you do. Think about google adwords for some specific phrases, so the ratio of people clicking and people buying will be as close to 100% as it is possible. Also do not forget to send some shirts for the best tee's reviewers in the Internet and try to organise few contests with your products as rewards. Organise contests as well (FB, once again).

If you want to go offline - think about guerilla in one city and expanding it in time. Think about sponsoring and/or giveaways on some events (but only if you have extra $). Posters in every place your targeted customers eat. Also design your t-shirt in a way it will advertise itself (for instance, extra labeltag on the sleeve).

And *regardless* of what you want to do - read "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin. It'll change the way you think about marketing *ONCE* and for good 

When I recall some more, I'll edit that one


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## GCshirts (Mar 8, 2011)

I have a few thoughts on this, which you'll hopefully find interesting and helpful:

1) Whatever you do, track your results (having an idea of what you want the results to be for each of your marketing efforts is recommended as well) 
Your #1 goal should be to have identified several marketing methods that work (ie. you net more money from increased sales than you spend on the marketing) So it's not just about how much t-shirts you sold due to this or that marketing campaign, but how much you actually made after you subtract the campaign costs (any idiot can make 1k by spending 10k for instance)

2) Don't recreate the wheel. Instead of 1)trying to find people who might be interested in your t-shirts and 2) building a relationship with them (takes a long time) look for people who've already done both and see if you can piggy back on them

Your t-shirts are about "I am" in a sense personal development and that sort of thing. Why not look for people in the personal development (or w/e other niche you feel your shirts fit in) and see if they'd be willing to help you? For instance there are blogs out there with an enormous following (thousands of people) and best of all they have a mailing list of people. 

Offer them a deal where they can do an email blast for a % of profits from any t-shirt sales resulting from that blast (use a discount code to track it) doesn't cost you anything up front, in fact doesn't cost you anything at all and not only do you get your name in front of lots of people, but you also make some money and build a relationship with said blogger.

Same thing with local events/groups if you can find such. Perhaps you could team up with a yoga studio (yoga is kind of personal development/self empowerment I suppose) Give free t-shirts to instructos etc.

So, 2 things to maximaze your marketing efforts:
1) Track your results - the goal is to find marketing methods that work for you.
2) Try to use other people's/companie's connections and relationships instead of attempting to build your own (you should build your own of course, but using someone gives much better results) 

PS: Here's a youtube video featuring Jay Abraham (a marketing genious) telling an awesome story about a very successful piggy backing (in a sense) Starts at 5:40 though the whole video is worth watching. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSKVhttSW5E

PPS: Google Adwords is much more complicated than most people on this forum makeit out to be (at least profitable adwords campaigns, anyone can lose money) There are tons of books and courses on it. So I would advise against google adwords because chances are you will not have a profitable campaign there. Facebook advertising is a bit more newbie friendly. 
So if you wanted to go with Internet based advertising I'd recommend buying email blasts/endorsements (from those who have relationship with your target market) facebook ads, banner/text ads on websites where your target market is, and lastly google adwords.


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