10 Creative Ideas to Promote Your Custom T-Shirt Business Locally

Business Advice
February 6th, 2020

To have a successful custom t-shirt business, you need customers. Fortunately, there are a plethora of businesses, non-profits, schools, and individuals that purchase custom t-shirts and other custom apparel. The fun part is finding and enticing them to order their custom products from you.

Marketing and promoting your business is a task in itself and should be taken seriously. It's important to schedule the time and make consistent efforts to do so. Thankfully, promoting your business can be fun too!

Promoting your business locally is truly about relationship building and being a part of the community. Let's explore some creative promotional ideas that can lead to more sales for your custom t-shirt business:

Think Local First

  1. What are the local sports teams? Donate t-shirts to them and print your logo on the back.

  2. Sponsor a local event. Offer t-shirts to participants in exchange to pass out promotional items, brochures, and flyers.

  3. Follow local businesses and non-profits on social media. Don't just follow, but also interact. Building an online relationship can enhance an offline relationship.

  4. Attend networking events. Networking events are a great way to meet local businesses. People attending networking events are looking for ways to expand their business awareness. T-shirts are a great tool to do so.

  5. Wear your logo all around town. When grocery shopping, attending local events, at parades, or at a local coffee shop, wear a custom t-shirt or other custom apparel with your business name and logo on it.

  6. Donate bookmarks to the library. Libraries are still highly utilized. Donate logo-stamped bookmarks to libraries. Whoever uses the bookmark will constantly see your brand.

  7. Run a contest. A local contest can excite the community. Offer a set amount of custom t-shirts as a reward.

Online Presence

When promoting your custom t-shirt business locally, it's important to have an online presence. Most individuals will search online for a business after meeting a representative from that business. They will search for a business website, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, Instagram, and other social accounts. They may also seek reviews on Google. Therefore, having an online presence is a great way to stay in front of potential customers after initially meeting them and to show off your custom work.

  1. Share custom designs on social feeds. Ordering custom designs is personal and customers want to be reassured that you have the skills and creativity to fulfill their orders. Seeing your designs online can help reassure them.

  2. Ask for reviews. Ask current customers to submit reviews on Google and other review sites. Copy and paste these reviews on your website.

  3. Create an email newsletter campaign. Encourage people to sign up for your newsletter when they visit your website and social feeds. This will allow you to stay in front of these sales leads more. This builds more confidence.

Promoting your custom t-shirt and apparel business does take time and effort, but it can be fun.

All of your promoting efforts will deliver sales leads. Make sure you are tracking and managing these leads in your sales pipeline. Make this time worthwhile and follow through. The featured image was designed by All Seasons Signs

This super cool design was entered into #VOXcontest.