Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Attach to every tag in your shirt a unique raffle #. Have people rip out the tag and mail it to you (with their name/email attached). Winner gets a big prize (perhaps the more shirts you sell by a certain date, the bigger the pot). As a bonus, by ripping out the tag, it makes the shirt non-returnable.

Ok, to start with shirtfall doesn't do it for me for a name. Shirt says kind of what you do, but fall generally has negative connotations. But, be that what it may...

You main menu is a bit annoying. The "about" "contact us", and "Printing technique" links all disappear after they have been moused over or sat for a little bit of time. Makes it hard to get to them.

And also, your web site talks and shows how you are using social media to promote, but fails to say what you are promoting clearly. After poking around the site some, it looks like you allow customers to make custom t-shirts and other clothing - putting designs they want on various parts (front, back, sleeves) of the t-shirts, and choose the color and size of the base shirt. I think this needs to be clear - shouldn't take more than looking at the front page to understand this. You aren't a social media company, you are a custom clothing company.

Ok, on to what you asked - perhaps use your clothing as part of the promotion. For example:
- Run a contest for the best design t-shirt created on the site. Promote through the social media, and maybe even use the social media followers as the judges.
- Or sponsor some off the wall event, where you provide clothing as part of it. Maybe some event where there are teams of competitors, and your site is used to create the team shirts.
- If you weren't aiming at family friendly, you could always sponsor a wet t-shirt contest.

I think people will stop and read motivational words and good quotes printed on a T-shirt and also, you can print an artworks that create positive excitement. This could market your product.

Ray
Primus Advertising
Ghana

For consideration:
Since you are obviously web-friendly, how about a YouTube site with various (individuals or group) people wearing their/your designs--kids included. My teen daughter loves that "Fred" guy; maybe you are (or will find) the next Fred and make Shirtfall a household name...jag
MarketBase

Dear Joshua,

Crazy, out there anything is not a selling strategy.

Crazy says: fad; crazy speaks of one hit wonders; crazy yells
"short term, here today, gone tomorrow", and crazy offers nothing of lasting value because it shouts empty phrases about ephemeral products.

As a t-shirt printer you need slogans and designs that people
will be proud to wear.

To achieve this you need to concentrate on generating a following—you need to create your own version of a starving crowd, people who literally cannot wait for your next great designs to become available.

You need eager, committed fans. You need loyal customers who will buy from you again and again, and who will refer you to their friends. When your marketing can do this, every dollar you spend on marketing will be do the work of two or three dollars.

This means your return return on investment goes up, your rates for returns and refunds goes down, your sales increase, your ability to generate word of mouth goes up, and your following grows. Which in turn, means you sell more to happy customers and so on.

You do this by being passionate about your craft, and by doing your best to be the best—no matter what it costs and no matter how long it takes you.

This means everything—every facet of your business: shirt fabric sourcing, fabric feel, label design, shirt design, printing, print quality, print durability, logo or design placement, website design, website navigability, ease of use, calls to action and product description, product views and images, sizing, ease of ordering, ease of and forms of payment, account information for returning customers, order fulfillment, packaging and package design and invoicing, shipping: boxes and packaging, thank you letters, special offer coupons, returns, refunds—everything ties together and everything works seamlessly.

You do NOT do this with balloon boy style coverage.

Balloon boy coverage smacks of arrogance, smugness, and self righteousness.

Balloon boy-style coverage—if it's done badly and in a ham fisted way, as was the case with balloon boy's parents—balloon boy coverage puts firmly in the public arena the full reality of taking responsibility, of being authentic, and of being open, honest, and truthful.

When balloon boy style coverage is done badly it tars you with the same brush as every other 15 minute wonder where often, fame turns to infamy, which in turn turns into the object of the attention becoming a laughing stock.

If you REALLY want or need balloon boy style coverage you need a publicist to advise you and you need to do it properly and with the best of intentions.

I don't think you need a gimmick. I think you need committed buyers who want your product because it—your product—says something about them.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Dear Joshua,

I'm glad my ramble was of value.

Following on from my points above there are four GREAT companies doing what you're doing that I URGE you to look at.

One is based in my native UK, the other two are here in the US.

They are:

In the UK: www.howies.co.uk

and

Here in the US: www.threadless.com
www.johnnycupcakes.com
and
www.lifeisgood.com

There ARE other companies offering t-shirts and clothing but these are my favorites. These guys ALL live their brand and embody their passion.

Study them. Research them. Buy from them, study their ordering process, their packaging, the kinds of boxes they ship stuff in, the kinds of offers and other goodies they include WITH their packaging, how they follow up on orders, and how they up-sell and cross sell.

Track and record every detail and then ask yourself how you—WITHOUT COPYING THEM—how you can emulate what they're doing.

Sounds like a lot of work I know (that's because it WILL be a lot of work) but believe me, it will be worth it.

This is modeling, the big kahoona that Tony Robbins talks about so much. It's all about finding someone who is doing what you WANT to do or who is where you want to be a year or more from now and figuring out what they're doing, what they're NOT doing, and how you can take advantage of the road that someone else has already blazed.

Again, and I can't stress this point strongly enough, it's NOT ABOUT COPYING anyone. It's about emulation. There's a big difference and your brand must be UNIQUE to you, even—and i know you may not like this, even if that means changing the name of your company because to many people's ears, Shirtfall may sound too much like shortfall, which has a lot of negative connotations.

I know that might be a tough pill to swallow but I urge you to at least CONSIDER the logic behind it. Joshua, it's truly not my intention to screw with you, I want to see you kick ass! I am also well aware that you're currently running a t-shirt company: that's a given. However, you might find this article helpful:

www.inc.com/magazine/.../how-to-start-a-t-shirt-company.html

The other vital, kick ass resource to get your hands on is a copy of
Gary Vaynerchuk's book "Crush it!: Why Now Is The Time to Cash in on Your Passion"

Gary is the host of www.winelibrarytv.com and using social media, video, and his passion for wine he took his family owned liquor store from annual sales of $4 million per year to annual sales now of $60 million.

I bought and read this book two weeks ago. At 134 pages it's an easy read but it is chock full of stunning insight, brilliant guidance, and really helpful resources. Here's a link that will take you to Amazon's
Website https://bit.ly/CrushItByGaryVaynerchuk

If you'd like to chat off forum, if I can offer other advice, click my name at the top of this entry and you'll find links to my e-mail, and to my modest, none-design-award-winning blog.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you Joshua.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer