spreadsterzone header

Menu:

Basic Steps to Marketing your Spreadshirt Shop

by Justin Dean

 

PART 2

In part one I went over how to get your site ready to advertise and then went over some of the easy and inexpensive ways to start advertising and promoting your shop. When you are ready to spend a little money to make money then these tips should help you to get on your way.

• The best online advertising with the most promising returns is Google Adwords (www.adwords.com). Start out with $50. Pick some good keywords that pertain to your site and see how it goes. The trick with Adwords is to find the right amount to spend. You don’t want to spend too little because then you won’t get enough buying visitors to get your money back. You don't want to spend too much because it will be even harder to get that money back within a 30 day period. You'll probably find a good medium around $100 to $200 a month. If you've got a couple hundred to risk then try it out and you'll see that it actually works. We have never run an Adwords campaign that didn’t pay for itself within a 30 day period. Adwords isn't designed for the amateur in mind, so read up on it first and do it right.

You’ll want to steer clear of the high cost obvious keywords like "tshirt" or even "funny tshirt." But you may get less expensive results by altering it a little. It’s far cheaper to advertise for "funny t shirts" than it is for "funny tshirts." Notice the space. Or go specific like, "Chicks Dig Me TShirt." Best thing about Adwords is you can play around with it. If you get clicks then cool, if you don't then delete that keyword and try another one. Don’t be worried about being #1 right away. You want to try and get in the top 10-15, but taking on the #1 spot means you are competing directly with tshirthell.com and bustedtees.com and they aren’t sites you really can afford to compete with at this point.

• If you're ready to invest more money and you're already doing Adwords then you're next best bet is to target some popular websites in your demographic. MySpace is a very good choice. An ad campaign on MySpace starts out around $2500. You might even be able to talk Spreadshirt into splitting some of the cost with you if you ask and if you’re site is already selling pretty good. Find a site that meets your customer’s style, not yours. If you're shop is full of geek and gaming shirts then try an ad on your favorite geek site or forum. If you are looking for just general traffic try community sites or something more generic. Ads on blogs can be very inexpensive and very effective.

• www.Adbrite.com is a good site to start an ad campaign with also. Although they can get very expensive before you see results. They offer banner and text ads on a lot of major sites, as well as little guys, blogs, etc. I've always found it best to give them a call and speak with a sales representative before investing too much. They are very helpful in suggesting the right sites for your audience and within your budget.

• www.Adengage.com is another advertising site that works well. Try them both and see what works best for you.

• Press Releases. They can work wonders! You can sign up at PRFree.com and send press releases out for free. Of course for a $10-$100 donation you can get them out to everyone, newspapers, magazines, major blogs and newswires, etc. A press release can say anything you want. It can announce your new site; announce a new line of tshirts, a new site feature, a sale, etc. We send them out about once a month. The more you send out the better chance someone important will pick it up and do something with it. We've been contacted and written about by USA Today newspaper, FHM magazine, major blogs, and podcasters. Not all of them will follow through, but all you need is one and you're set. Press Releases also create more links back to your site which increases your search engine rankings. Its also a great idea to use SocialMarker.com again and post articles and bookmarks directly about the press release.

Everything mentioned above will get you great results without having to spend more than a couple hundred a month. If you have money to invest then by all means do several of them at a time. For $500+ you can get radio and television ads through Google Adwords. Spread it out and pace yourself though. You don’t want to do too much at one time because you won’t get a return on that investment and you’ll get discouraged.

Find out who your competitors are. They aren't just every other Spreadshirt shop. It might be me, or NekkidTees.com or Jerkass Clothing. Maybe even TShirtHell.com or BustedTees.com, two of the biggest t-shirt sites out there. Find out who you consider to be your competitor and then advertise how and where they do. If they buy Adwords for "funny tshirt" then you should as well. If they advertise on a certain web page, try getting your ad on there as well. There is nothing wrong with doing what they do.

There is a coffee shop chain in California that saves millions a year on research and development, simply because they don't have an R&D department. They only open up coffee shops near Starbucks. They know that Starbucks will only open a store in certain demographics, in areas with only a certain amount of traffic, etc. They let Starbucks do all their work for them, and then come in and take some of the profit. They may never be as big as Starbucks but they are doing a lot better than any other coffee shop in the state, just by offering the same customers something a little different.

Running a successful shop is a full time gig, so put aside some time each week or each day if you can. It will pay off.