4 Things to Try for Your T-Shirt Business
Many t-shirt business owners made New Year’s resolutions of some sort to grow their business this year. So after a few weeks have passed and the dust has cleared, who’s still going strong on their resolution? Who needs a little nudge to keep their resolution?
If you made a resolution to grow your t-shirt business this year, this post may be for you. Here are four things to try that can help your business if you are not already doing them.
Accept Credit Cards
Whether you have a storefront, website, or take your custom printing on the road, accepting credit cards is an easy way to grow your business. There are several companies that provide you with the equipment that is necessary for free. Then, you just pay a fee for each transaction.
The benefit to accepting credit cards is that people are willing to spend more frequently and spend more. I find the number of people that actually carry cash on them these days is quickly declining. If they do carry any cash, it’s in much smaller amounts. A credit card allows for larger purchases.
It’s easy to start accepting credit cards. Do you have a smart phone or tablet? Many of these card readers plug right into your devices. You can accept credit cards no matter where you are. Transactions are safe and secure. Since small businesses are using these types of devices more frequently, they are becoming more common for customers.
The software applications that you use with the readers are pretty high tech, themselves. You can enter and manage your inventory. You can email or text receipts to your customers. You can even add in discounts on the spot.
There are many companies offering these readers and services. Search online and find the reader that’s best for you and your business.
Educate
When was the last time you invested any time in yourself? Knowledge is power. Invest some time into growing your knowledge of heat printing. It’s only going to benefit you. The more you know, the better off you’ll be to make better decisions for your t-shirt business.
There are several places you can educate yourself. At Transfer Express, we post to our blog every week day to try to give insight, tips, tricks, and inspiration to t-shirt businesses. We have several categories of topics that you can choose from.
Another great place to learn about heat printing is Stahls’ TV. There are so many videos on every topic of heat printing imaginable, from how-to’s, to guides, to fashion trends. Tune in every Monday morning to the Stahls’ TV Morning Show. All these videos and resources at Stahls’ TV are free. All you have to do is create your own account to log in and watch!
Add a Blog to Your Website
What is a blog and what is the point? For one, a blog is a great place to add content to your website. Don’t be confused with advertising. Sure, you can throw in some advertising at times, but having a blog is a great way to provide quality content; content that educates.
Just as you want to educate yourself on a heat printing topics, your customers are hungry for information on what they want to know, in this case, custom apparel. This is where you come in. Provide information for them on how they can buy custom apparel and what their options are. This doesn’t have to come through sales literature. A good blog and content will inspire your customers and provide them with ideas.
[Related Content: How to Create a Website for Your T-Shirt Business Using WordPress]
When people are ready to buy, most have already done their own research. More and more people are self-educating. Where are they getting their information from? The internet – articles, blogs, social media, reviews, product pages, etc. A good blog will give plenty of educational content to prospective buyers along the entire buying journey.
It’s good to note here, that just because you may start publishing a blog, it doesn’t mean it’s getting eyeballs on the pages. One way to promote your blog posts is to post them on your social media accounts.
A blog is also a way for you to be able to communicate with your “audience”. Open your posts for comments and you can interact with people who want to comment.
Finally, since your blog has all this great content on t-shirt related topics, it can also help increase your search ranking results in search engines.
[Related Content: 9 Reasons Content Marketing Can Help Your T-Shirt Business]
Collect Emails on Your Website/Blog
Now that you have a blog and content, you should start to build and grow your own audience that is interested in your content. This will mostly come in the form of collecting email addresses. Your email list will be invaluable to your business.
Email is a great way to communicate with people that are interested in your business and products. It may seem old fashioned at this point with all the social media that is available. However, it has been proven time and time again that email is not dead and is still a very useful method of communication and marketing.
Building your own email audience is actually very beneficial to your business. In the case of social media, you may be able to grow many followers and fans, however, you do not “own” these lists or the platform. This has been known as “building on rented land”. When you collect email addresses, this is an asset to your business. It is your list that you own. You own your blog; it is your “property”.
As long as you provide quality content, your audience will be very willing to give you their email address in exchange for information that is relevant and of value to them.
There are many ways you can collect email addresses. For example, if you are using WordPress to manage your site/blog, there are several free plugins available that provide this functionality. An internet search will give you plenty of in-depth information on the topic.
This was a short, but mighty, list to help give you some starting areas that you may not be currently using to grow your t-shirt business this year. We want to help you be successful, so let us know how these work out!