# T-Shirt advertising: What is the best FREE method?



## E5Graffix (Mar 13, 2009)

I am just starting out and don't have a lot of money for advertising. What are some of the best free methods to use. I post in forums and I have had excellent luck with MySpace. Suggestions would really be appreciated. Thanks.

Sgt "A"


----------



## MTees Apparel (Dec 28, 2007)

I would say for "FREE" I would go to trade shows and promote yourself with business cards and brochures. 

Also not to sound mean but would you not just print your Business logo on some apparel and wear them yourself as a walking self billboard? 

Last one I would find in your area a networking grouping and link of with them because they have lots of business linked in with it that you might just maybe get a few jobs from.

Just a couple of examples. Hope these help.


----------



## fast1 (Mar 12, 2009)

why not do joint ventures with people with a mailing list of your targetted niche, that way they will promote for you and you can lots of people looking at what you got in a short time.


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

There's also a few ideas here:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/t-shirt-marketing/t20419.html
and more here:
T-Shirt Marketing - T-Shirt Forums


----------



## E5Graffix (Mar 13, 2009)

Thanks for all the advice. I will look into all of them.


----------



## mamabloom (Jun 16, 2007)

Facebook ads can be cheap, but not too sure how affective then can be.

i am just learning that there isn't alot of "free" advertising available. I would say work hard at SEO and be patient really helps!! 

Best advertising you can get is word of mouth


----------



## Fun-Ts (Mar 1, 2009)

Find out what is going on in your area such as
Sports teams
Craft fairs
Local schools
Charity events
Find out who is charge and ask to speak with him/her. Make sure you have printed samples, the more colorful the better. Word of mouth is the best and cheapest way.


----------



## TobiasK (Mar 13, 2009)

I've read that there are T-shirt rating sites where you could pull a lot of business from. If your product is good people will know about it. I guess you could call it word of mouth, best advertising in the world and best of all free. Also, I see you have myspace....myspace has become a great networking tool, send out bulletins and ad as many people as you can.


----------



## GraduateClothing (Feb 22, 2009)

I really like the idea of just wearing your shirts and handing out business cards when someone asks about your designs.


----------



## flirteegirl (Apr 10, 2007)

The BEST free method is Word of Mouth.


----------



## LiveForMMA.com (Mar 17, 2009)

This is the same question I've been asking myself lately. I too am start-up (just started in january). We're going to have a launch party at a local sports bar tavern. I ran into the owner, told him about my business, and he said hey...why don't you throw a launch party, it'll be free if you can pack the place. So me and my buddy have to find 300 people to go to this thing and stay all night. It's not that hard. But so far, that's been the best free advertising we've gotten. Throw a party, the only costs were incurring is drinks for us that night, a banner to put above the door, and the cost of printing off the t-shirts, but we'll make money off of those that night.


----------



## BanTshirts (Mar 17, 2009)

Any social networking tool can be a real help. Myspace and Twitter are my favourites. They do demand some time though.


----------



## SimplyTopUK (Jan 10, 2009)

Print your URL on a tshirt and wear it round in your nearest city centres and give some to your freinds and family, then tell them all to wear it in busy locations and slowly people will notice your site and go on it. 

Or you could just wear a funny costume and hand over mini tees with your url, itll certainly draw some attention at very low costs.

Hope it helps.


----------



## goodtease (Nov 29, 2006)

Set up an account with UPS.
Order the free shipping labels
Run them through the printer
Stick on every telephone pole and sign you can see without getting in trouble.
Urban marketing....lol

I know a tshirt company did this in new york. Worked really well

Or go on to the USPS and order labels on there and make a stamp and stamp them and then use the labels as stickers every where you think people will see it. Bathrooms in bars....signs...college campuses.

That is looooow budget. But it works.

Other ways
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
Blog
Youtube a funny video commercial
also network anyway you can. I got onto the radio for free by this!


----------



## Wrex (Jun 23, 2007)

Facebook or a social marketing site. It's highly targeted and free. You can keep going back to the well.


----------



## tiger24 (Jan 11, 2009)

BanTshirts said:


> Any social networking tool can be a real help. Myspace and Twitter are my favourites. They do demand some time though.


Can it really be this easy? I have been doing this with not much success...
But I am staying patient and working my butt off to make my brand work!

Good luck,
Andy


----------



## Walsfer (Aug 6, 2008)

goodtease said:


> Set up an account with UPS.
> Order the free shipping labels
> Run them through the printer
> Stick on every telephone pole and sign you can see without getting in trouble.
> ...


How did you avoid getting in trouble when authorities approach you for destruction of property?


----------



## tko51 (Nov 21, 2008)

Message boards? If you find the right ones, they are usually free of charge...and can get you a lot of hits to your site. 

The only success I have had so far was advertising a shirt I made on a football team's message board right after they made a move that was "front page" newsworthy. The shirt was of course related. Doing this at a time when the team's message board was so busy it was literally difficult to connect to generated a lot of hits for my shirts. But with that said I'm here reading these threads looking for answers to the SAME question because now I'm back to square one again. I tried craigslist too... nothing...


----------



## Swagbot (Mar 23, 2009)

As Director of Marketing for our company, I've found that one of the cheapest methods with the highest R.O.I. (return on investment) is giving away free t-shirts. As you print your next job, print one or two extra as a giveaway. 

With your facebook or Twitterpage, hold a contest, next person to message me with their birthdate gets a free t-shirt. This does a few things, one it builds instant goodwill and secondly it helps you collect more data about your customers. You could put this in a file and then send them a free t-shirt for their birthday.

Yes with the cost of goods you are going to spend a few dollars per shirt, however if you are targeted with how, who and where you give them out and are always collecting names and emails (and twitter names) you can weave this into a very effective and cheap marketing campaign.

Here's is a real world example, our first year as a company we passed out about 20 free shirts with our company logo on them. 95% of our sales were word of mouth from this initial batch of free t-shirts and some mild visability at a few events in our community.

We spent about $20 dollars for cost of goods and our first year gross sales for t-shirts was around $42,000. So the return on each shirt was a little over $2,000. It sounds crazy, however we can track almost every sale back to that original batch of shirts.

Hope this helps.

Shawn


----------



## nealand44 (Sep 6, 2008)

I don't know about free, but you could print fliers that feature your tees
along with your website address. then have them posted on bulletin boards 
at high schools in your area. the kids will see your flier and hopefully place
an order with you.


----------



## InnovativeMotion (Jul 21, 2008)

I.M.Fly 

Photos from our latest collection, for more info please go to www.imfly.ca or www.imflystore.bigcartel.com


----------



## AngrySpade (Feb 7, 2010)

flirteegirl said:


> The BEST free method is Word of Mouth.





GraduateClothing said:


> I really like the idea of just wearing your shirts and handing out business cards when someone asks about your designs.


Both of these points are very true. I've sold quite a few shirts just by wearing them out in public and when someone asks, hand them my card.

Then, word of mouth comes in to play when that person tells their friend about this awesome shirt they bought.


----------



## teeshirtsdirect (May 7, 2009)

Hi Sgt "A" 

We'd definitely echo what some of the other members have said re Social Networking, its really invaluable as part of a marketing/advertising arsenal. As you mentioned, you've already had some good luck with Myspace, so just translate that over to facebook and Twitter to increase the number of people seeing and talking about you.

Just make sure that once you've put the effort into creating multiple profiles, you have someone who can maintain them so that they look fresh. The potential direct traffic they can push to your site is worth that small effort we think.

Best of luck! 
TSD xx


----------



## outrageoustees (Feb 25, 2010)

I have done SO many free and low cost attempts at gaining exposure and from what I can see - there is no magic bullet. Maybe you will get lucky at some point and something will *seem* like it, but just like rock stars and authors, the overnight successes usually worked long and hard to get there....

Since my business is online(via cafepress) I think the most important tool is to learn about and implement search engine optimization, and keep tweeking keywords, descriptions and such for any websites you have in place.

Having a LOT of business cards and having then HANDY and becoming comfortable with handing them out is important, too. Not pushing them on people, but when you are talking to someone and the topic comes up, give them a card instead of expecting them to remember your email, website, phone number, company name...

Because my niche is rock climbing, I have given plenty of t-shirts away at raffles in climbing events. It gets spendy, but so far as business costs go, it's pretty cheap really. One point I have difficulty with is getting recognition AT the event, beyond just having the t-shirt given away in a raffle. The big companies provide a banner of some sort, and it's part of the deal that banner is displayed - I need to do something more to that end.

I have written informative pages for Squidoo.com, which has actually sent some traffic to my shops. This is akin to writing articles for trade magazines was back in the day(and still applicable). 

I ran a contest/promotion where I gave away t-shirts and...condoms! This was a BIG hit. Condoms were applicable because in climbing we use ru=bber soles on the shoes, and there are always jokes about "trust the rubber".... Here is a link to the blog post about that particular giveaway - ClimbAddict: The Great ClimbAddict Pro-Motion and Booty Giveaway!

Condoms aren't going to work for everyone, but I still have people searching for "ClimbAddict condom giveaway" and getting to my websites 10 months after the fact!

I've just started a Google Adwords campaign with a $50 coupon I got. So far, it's not effective enough for me to want to spend actual real money....

And the old standards: 
- Incorporate a link to your site in an interesting signature line which is added to your emails and posts to discussion forums.
- Comment on blogs and news/online magazine articles, and link your website in the "author name"
- Wear your t-shirt
- have an inexpensive promotional item to give away. Again, this does cost money, but as a business expense...not too much.


I do all this and more - on an almost daily basis - and I STILL am barely getting business. Sometimes I think I am just not "getting it." But I guess it's all just that we have to work work work at gaining exposure. Especially if we don't have money to spend on aiding the process.


----------



## bananastees (Nov 5, 2010)

I just wrote a little article about getting free press coverage for your brand through PR. You can check it here - hope it helps


----------



## trytobecool (Jan 21, 2009)

thanks for the help guys! .... @outrageoustees do you search for specific kind a blogs to market online?


----------



## trytobecool (Jan 21, 2009)

bananastees said:


> I just wrote a little article about getting free press coverage for your brand through PR. You can check it here - hope it helps



your link isn't working..here is copy of it! 
Emptees - Resources - How to get free publicity in the press


----------



## bananastees (Nov 5, 2010)

Don't know why it disappeared - here it is again


----------



## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Like Mtees said, go to local networking groups. If you don't have any in your area, go outside your area until you learn how to start your own.


----------



## DizzyBella (Nov 8, 2010)

MOB Marketing / STREO Marketing would be the way..


----------



## outrageoustees (Feb 25, 2010)

trytobecool said:


> thanks for the help guys! .... @outrageoustees do you search for specific kind a blogs to market online?


Do you mean specific blogs that I would make my comments to? Yes, and No.

WHENEVER I comment to a blog, I will include a URL to ONE of my online shops. I have several - rock climbing t-shirts(ClimbAddict), general t-shirts(OurageousTees), Sobriety-related(zazzle.com/hjanf - I don't have a direct URL to that one yet, and should get going on that) and a hair accessories line I make(talismanshops.com).

Which shop gets linked depends on the type of blog. I would use the hair accessories if the article was on fashion, or celebrities or...whatever. I would use climbaddict if the blog was about climbing or other outdoords stuff. I would use Outrageous Tees if the blog was on socio-politcal events.

That said - I don't actively search for blogs to comment on. I think it is a worthwhile pursuit, but I simply don't have the time to do it. 

Maybe I should.... hahahah


----------



## designnbuy (Jan 1, 2010)

Facebook and Twitter are good option to promote your business but it would take some time.


----------



## bananastees (Nov 5, 2010)

Sorry about this guys, it disappeared again
This is definitely it HERE
I hope it helps - I used the methods I mention and today it got my tees featured in DJ Magazine's online edition. So it can work...


----------



## Relik Apparel (Jul 10, 2009)

Besides rent and labor advertising seems to be one of a company's largest expense.

Besides having an online precedence such as Facebook and Twitter, I think that one of the best "Free" forms of advertising would be to knock on doors. Visit smaller local stores in malls, shopping centers and boutiques that may be interested an carrying your products. This may be a great way to start spreading the word about your label.

.


----------

