# Creative Marketing Ideas That Work



## trackthistee (Nov 28, 2006)

I've been browsing the forum and reading the recent Marketing discussion regarding "How long till you're successful". There's a lot of good info and insight in that thread. But I would be interested in hearing more about creative marketing ideas that work or HAVE worked... perhaps from those who have been slugging it out in the t-shirt biz for some time now. 

What was your most successful creative marketing idea? Also... any ideas you found particularly successful in exchange for a minimal financial investment?

I think alot of people (myself included) spend more money early than they actually should on online ad campaigns, etc. I've made these mistakes in the past, but I also believe such a mistake can provide a great learning experience.

Any thoughts?


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## PartyClothes (Oct 19, 2006)

it's kinda MLM'ish... but you could hire a handful of high school students to sell t-shirts for you and offer tiered bonuses to the best sellers. Haven't found anything that beats a personal reccomendation


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## trackthistee (Nov 28, 2006)

I appreciate the response... but is this something you have personally tried and seen success with? Frankly, I don't want to be in the business of hiring high-schoolers. Otherwise, I'd manage a McDonald's restaurant.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

trackthistee said:


> I appreciate the response... but is this something you have personally tried and seen success with? Frankly, I don't want to be in the business of hiring high-schoolers. Otherwise, I'd manage a McDonald's restaurant.


LOL  ,

Cant depend on kids.


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## trackthistee (Nov 28, 2006)

T-BOT said:


> LOL  ,
> 
> Cant depend on kids.


I agree... you can't. I mean, I'm only 32 years old. I have two little brothers who are high-schoolers. I love 'em, but they're both lazy and irresponsible. I don't know what's happened in the last fifteen years... I'd like to call it a generation gap, but it's more like a grand canyon. 

I sense that alot of people are locked into the idea of getting teenagers to do the "dirty work", the word-of-mouth, etc. Why not? They'll work cheap, right? And they can leverage pressure on their peers... I think that's a VERY narrow-minded vision. For starters, you'd have to assume that your target demo is teens. That's not always the case. I know one or two adults who like to wear t-shirts too.  

People assume that teens are sheep, but they forget that adults can be sheep too. Long story short... I don't think getting a bunch of high-schoolers to hock t-shirts is a fool-proof marketing idea.


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## ThatJoshGuy (Dec 11, 2006)

Here's my two cents:

If you have the ability, create your own licensed material... No, I don't mean acquiring licenses for things, cuz that costs money... Just make something up!

 

Alright, I admit it's a bit out there, but if you have the ability, perhaps you can try what I'm doing, which is creating web content based around my designs. It gives them life, and if they're good enough, may eventually become viral and boost sales a TON.

See what I mean on my site. There is a short animation I made yesterday featuring a character I use on my designs. I plan on doing several with each character, distributing them on sites like Newgrounds.com, and then tracking the results. I'll let you know if it helps!



edit: oops, sorry bout that Rodney... anyways, the link is in my sig, it's under the "animation" section, first one on page...

BTW, so far the results are as good as anything else I've tried so far! Take that as you wish


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## bobbybobington (Dec 18, 2006)

If your selling online, and you have a design that has a specific design, and fits into a niche lets say cat enthusiasts for example. Find an online forum(s) about cats, and see if it has a market/trade section. Then start a thread about your product and store. Remember not to spam, and to check up on the thread in case someone has questions. An easy surefire way to get page views.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Something that has worked for *me* has been to include stickers with the order that include your brand name/website address. This works better if your brand name has meaning by itself rather than if it's a made up word (like if your brand is "I Love Dogs" as opposed to "wosybu". 

That won't help you get your first customers (unless you advertise free stickers with each order), but it can help the word of mouth spread as people put your stickers on their stuff.


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## BeyondHelp (Dec 10, 2006)

trackthistee said:


> I've been browsing the forum and reading the recent Marketing discussion regarding "How long till you're successful". There's a lot of good info and insight in that thread. But I would be interested in hearing more about creative marketing ideas that work or HAVE worked... perhaps from those who have been slugging it out in the t-shirt biz for some time now.
> 
> What was your most successful creative marketing idea? Also... any ideas you found particularly successful in exchange for a minimal financial investment?
> 
> ...


Hey Nick,

What is the age group that would be buying most of your shirts?


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

BeyondHelp said:


> Hey Nick,
> 
> What is the age group that would be buying most of your shirts?


Im not Nick.  
but i read an article a while ago that basicly said that if you can sell to the age group of 0-100 you will do well. 

I guess this would mean having a wide selction/appeal type designs/shirts etc..


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## BeyondHelp (Dec 10, 2006)

T-BOT said:


> Im not Nick.
> but i read an article a while ago that basicly said that if you can sell to the age group of 0-100 you will do well.
> 
> I guess this would mean having a wide selction/appeal type designs/shirts etc..


Yea, but if you sell shirts with large mouth bass on the front people ages 16 - 30 don't usally buy them.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

BeyondHelp said:


> Yea, but if you sell shirts with large mouth bass on the front people ages 16 - 30 don't usally buy them.


ok, now that you have that market covered, there is nothing stoping you to sell whatever type shirts the 16-30 buys. 

I know this is hard to do, blending a wide age group under the same roof. Thats why there are not many retailers that can do it. But the ones that able to are very succefull.


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## Quattroporte (Dec 27, 2006)

Hmm. I have a friend who plays in a band who says he wants to wear my robot shirt. It might sound a little cheesy, but these aren't just kids who want to be known. They all have participated in band in school and have actual musical experience (rather than just saying "let's make a band!")

Which is probably why they have a bigger fanbase than many other local bands.


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## SantaA (Jan 3, 2007)

I think using the Internet makes a lot of sense. It is the best way to communicate with a large audience with least effort (eg if you have a blog). To have a successfull blog, talk about a topic that matches to your field of work but give it a different twist to make it stand out. this can be done through your writing style, your presentation or your comments for example.


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## Queenofsuburbia (Jan 15, 2007)

My husband is an SEO expert and whilst there are no "Quick Fixes" to getting traffic by ranking well on the search engines, he suggests that submitting your site for free on craigslist will at the very least get you spidered by google very quickly.

Danni.


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## rook1200 (Jan 25, 2007)

Craigslist works very well. Newsletters Works Very Well.


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## LoneStarBrand (Feb 3, 2007)

PartyClothes said:


> it's kinda MLM'ish... but you could hire a handful of high school students to sell t-shirts for you and offer tiered bonuses to the best sellers. Haven't found anything that beats a personal reccomendation


 
how many booster clubs forms do your children bring home for you to buy the Mascott t's? I wouldn't knock it! 

Its as simple as putting a product on the given age group, and having them advertise...how to takle it is up to you!


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## LoneStarBrand (Feb 3, 2007)

Quattroporte said:


> Hmm. I have a friend who plays in a band who says he wants to wear my robot shirt. It might sound a little cheesy, but these aren't just kids who want to be known. They all have participated in band in school and have actual musical experience (rather than just saying "let's make a band!")
> 
> Which is probably why they have a bigger fanbase than many other local bands.


i belive forums are hot and a gate way to doing buisness!

Now who would be incharge in creating a T-SHIRT forums.com run!! get the drift...we all have our little nitches, who other than to believe what we bleive for a target audience! Perfect maket to solicit with ideas that the forums bring!!

EX..car forums/ clubs/carshows! Fishing forums/ clubs/tournament events!!!

I belong to the dentedhelment.com which have thier run of artistry! you got to know how to target the people who belive in what you do!!!


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## Headhoncho (Jan 17, 2007)

best way to market your services is with a website.

then market the site.

I'm up over 30% in gross because of my new site.

-jm


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## getpretty (Feb 6, 2007)

about the highschool kids: they're not so great. 
but alot of college students(i am one) ask who got what, who got it where, how much it cost.not to say they want to buy the same thing but to see if they have similar styles. i kno i ask all the time and girls are always asking where i get my stuff at. Word-of-mouth in college is how companies get known. I don't kno how much of an increase in sales it got for the company.. but i do kno it could help. getting a few college students in a few tees can get the word out pretty fast.


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## chowzer2 (Dec 28, 2006)

if your gonna use high school kids you have to use just the right kids. the responsible ones. a lot of my friends are flakes. its hard to make sure things are getting done. check for ASB or leadership students. they are often popular, at the top of their class and responsible.


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