It might look like a humble cotton tee to you, but here are 10 clever ways to use promotional t-shirts in your business or marketing strategy. Event marketers are going to love this blog post...
1. Bring promotional t-shirts when pitching new clients
Do you work with high-value clients who are looking for a highly personal, consultative approach? Bring a branded tee along to meetings with prospective customers or include them in a pitch/tender presentation to make the experience memorable.
2. Send free T-shirts to inactive customers who have a history of high or frequent purchases
Sometimes customers find better deals with competitors, your advocate at the company leaves, you get busy and can't give them the same level of service, or they just fall out of love for you. Lapsed customers occur for any number of reasons. Renew your relationships by giving them a well-designed branded tee. Personalised promotions can make customers think twice about going to competitors or boost your response rate to getting a meeting set!
3. Host a social media contest and give the tees away to the winners!
Running contests on social media can be a great way to increase engagement on your social platforms. Especially if the prize is something the participants value or think is cool. Design a cool graphic and print a small run of printed t-shirts and use them as giveaways! Promo tees are inexpensive gift/giveaway items so make for a great prize incentive. Which means you can give away more of them during your campaign which could boost your engagement rates.
4. Use to build post-event relationships with event attendees
For businesses that frequently attend trade shows or other business events, this idea could help with your post-event relationship building. When you capture your event attendees details at the event, find out their size and send them a welcome pack, with your free branded t-shirt inside, to promote your company. Virtually no-one goes to that much effort, so your business will be a stand-out for the personalised (right size tee) and thoughtful gesture.
5. Distribute your tees at sponsored events
So you're doing a charity event or sponsoring something worthwhile huh? That's great! Now you just need some event promotion ideas! Take things one step further and give away a branded tee as merchandise at the event to help boost positive associations towards your brand. Custom t-shirts can turn event attendees into walking billboards promoting your business. If you get permission, you might even think about including the event branding on the tee also to turn the tee into a keepsake of the event. You can even use shirts or singlets as an incentive for event-goers to exchange their contact details, which you can use in your email marketing and content marketing.
6. Run a "gorilla marketing" campaign
Kit out your staff in branded promotional tees and hit the streets. Stunts, or street marketing campaigns, are highly effective local area marketing and a fun way to promote your business and meet your potential customers face-to-face. Branded promo tees improve brand recognition and can be visually impactful (especially if you use block colour tees to match your brand colours). Bring some extra tees to give away, or hand out samples or discount coupons for your product or service.
7. Bundle shirts with a popular product
Do you sell products? Run a promotion where you give away a free branded tee shirt as a gift with purchase. Promo codes are a great way to measure this type of campaign if you are an ecommerce business. Align the design of the tee with the product for extra impact. A freebie can go a long way in encouraging someone to buy!
8. Use to promote an in-store promotional event
Do you have regular sales in your retail business? Temporarily swap your corporate uniform out for a custom printed t-shirt promoting the sale for your staff to wear during the event. It will help build visibility of your sale and add extra impact in-store for your customers.
9. Match the style to niche audiences or activities
Always keep your audience and functionality in mind when choosing your promo tees. If your audience is quite casual and relaxed, a t-shirt would probably suit. However, if they are more formal, you might opt for a good quality polo shirt. You might also want to avoid unisex styles in favour of male/female styles which are more flattering to wear if you want to encourage ongoing wear. The graphic design of the printed tee should also feel sophisticated, in keeping with the aesthetic of your brand and relevant to your audience. Think carefully about your audience and what they might be attracted to in a free t-shirt. After all, you want them to wear it and keep your brand top of mind!
10. Great for smoothing over a customer service issue
How do you deal with customer service issues that might arise from time to time? They can often leave a bad taste in your customers' mouths. One way to enhance the resolution process is to send them out one of your bulk branded promo tees you have cleverly printed in advance. Send them the tee and thank them for their patience and for bringing the issue to your attention so you can get it fixed straight away. You will be seen as proactive, thoughtful and generous in your customers' eyes.
Get clear on your event promotion strategies
Tangible, high quality products – branded with your logo – are a great way to enhance your future event marketing plan. In the long run, a run of branded tees is a relatively small investment that can yield years of returns as your target audience wears your brand all over town. You might also be interested in growing your business with corporate gifts! Check out our handy guide to all things corporate gifting.
Think about how a t-shirt can be used in your business. With super fast digital printing available to us in-house that delivers some of the highest quality prints you have seen (yes even full-colour photographic images), Total Uniform Solutions can help you turn tangible promotional items into hard-working marketing assets for your business.