Last updated on November 9th, 2022
If you have mad design skills and t-shirt week on YouTheDesigner has inspired you to start creating and selling t-shirt designs… then keep on reading. Today’s t-shirt week post is about how to promote your t-shirt design business offline. Selling tees is NOT easy; it takes a combination of both on and offline marketing to succeed. You also need to create and build up your brand so that people become familiar with your line. Branding is a very important aspect of the fashion industry.
So when you are dabbling in offline promotions, you must always keep your brand in mind and your brand identity consistent in your marketing collateral. The same idea should be applied to any business, such as a freelance graphic design business. Below are some very common things clothing line owners use to promote their brands, all of which you can get at UPrinting.com
1. Business Cards
This is the most important thing when running a custom t-shirt design business. As a clothing line owner, you need to network like crazy, and the one thing people always ask for is a business card. If you are caught without one, there is a good chance you will not be taken seriously, and you could miss out on a big opportunity. You might even find everyday people asking you where they can get your tees, and handing them a business card with your website URL is a great way to ensure nabbing a new customer.
So the first thing any t-shirt business owner should get is some spiffy new business cards with your logo, website URL, and contact details on each card.
2. Flyers
Flyers are a great way to promote sales to your customers via standard mail and at events. There are plenty of holidays during the year shoppers associate with sales, and these are all great times for flyer printing and mailing to past and potential new customers promoting sales, contests, and more. Start building up your mailing lists today, and keep a stack of flyers handy at any t-shirt events you attend.
3. Stickers
People enjoy supporting brands they love, and stickers are a great way to create a guerrilla marketing team out of your loyal customers. You can throw a few free stickers in with each order, give them away at events, or stick them around town yourself! When you order your sticker printing, ensure your logo and website URL are on the stickers so people know where to go when they run across your brand’s stickers.
4. Hang Tags
Hang tags are a kick-butt way of reinforcing your brand name on your products. Many clothing line owners create custom clothing hang tags with their logo and attach them to each t-shirt. This is a cheap way to help people remember your brand name, and it is also a good spot to place pricing tags without damaging your t-shirts. You can order several hundred hag tags for cheap, and there are many easy ways to attach them to your tees quickly.
5. Vinyl Banners
Going to concerts, trade shows, and other events is important for any t-shirt business owner. Many brands spend a lot of time traveling and attending events to promote their t-shirts to a specific target audience. If you can find the right audience for your tees at events, you can sell tons of tee designs in just one day. Usually, you pay for a spot to set up a booth, and then it is up to you to draw people in.
I have seen t-shirt business owners create impressive setups to promote and display their tees. Putting up a big vinyl banner is a very good way to draw people in, and the banner is something you can keep using over at any events you go to.
6. Letterhead
A good letterhead design can be used for many things, such as standard letters, contracts, estimates, invoices, etc. It is a simple way to make your business appear more professional and keep your branding consistent across all your business and marketing collateral. A good letterhead printing design should not be too overpowering. Still, it should include your logo design, design elements that work with your branding, and important contact information such as your website URL, email, and phone number.
7. Greeting Cards
The perfect holiday promotional tool, greeting cards, can work wonders for extra holiday sales. Greeting card printing is also a nice way to thank your customers. You don’t always have to pitch a sale or offer with a greeting card. Simple season greetings from your clothing line with your logo and website URL are enough to get people back to your website when they are trying to think of gift ideas.
8. Catalogs
Catalogs are perfect for trade shows and handing out to retail stores interested in selling your tees. It lets people see your designs in stock quickly and can help them order products offline. If you have a ton of products, you can even invest in catalog printing and allow people to order printed catalogs online. You should also carry a small stack of catalogs to events in case any potential retailers like your line and want to take back some samples and a catalog of your products for review.
9. Roll Labels
If you can’t afford expensive custom packaging for your tee designs but still want to make an impact, you can use custom roll labels. The roll labels can be printed in various sizes and placed on standard envelopes and boxes to give them a sweet custom look consistent with your branding. Roll labels can make all the difference when it comes to packaging design. They are super easy to have made and only take seconds to place on your product packaging.
10. Sales Sheet
There comes a time for many t-shirt business owners when expansion is needed. Nothing is cooler than seeing your t-shirt designs in clothing stores and simultaneously making great money. To get your t-shirt designs into stores, you usually need to pitch your line to a retail business that sells tees. A professional-looking sales sheet is a super simple way to let retailers know everything about your clothing line and individual designs, such as what your tees look like, how they are printed, and who your target audience is.
Images from LintyFresh on Flickr