How to market your brand - 9 marketing tips and ideas

Marketing, branding, raising brand awareness - its not easy but it is essential to any new brand in any business, t-shirts or otherwise. I apologise for not posting anything in a while (I've been extra ordinarily busy with LadyUmbrella t-shirts and haven't been able to blog here). A few weeks ago John from J. Benjamin Clothing asked me about marketing and branding and the likes so here are my 9 marketing/branding tips - hope they are of some use.

1) Believe In Your Brand
Not so much as a tip I guess but if you don't believe in it then no one else will. As a result of this all subsequent marketing or branding efforts won't be given 100% commitment as you don't believe in them - or, that's how I roll anyway..100% belief will yield 100% conviction, determination and application - all vital traits for brand marketing. It will take time and effort to build your brand, be ready to sweat.

2)Consistency
In everything you do try have a common trend or a link between designs. In slogans, colour choice, logos and images try make it easy for people to recognize them as coming from one source, one brand. Further to using the above consistently use them constantly...anything that you "put out there" ensure that it has something that links it back to you, be it web address, logo, slogan, image, whatever - make sure that if people see it they recognize it and importantly associate it with your brand.

3) Suspense and Intrigue
Build up a bit of mystique or intrigue about your brand. Don't just show your cards from day one but gradually give nuggets of enticing info that arouses curiosity in whoever may view it. We, humans, are curious creatures and are generally drawn to things that we don't know about, that intrigue us, that leave us wondering a bit. For example, Smirnoff Vodka (oh, how we love it) ran a campaign for Smirnoff Mule which just featured a plush looking velvet stage curtain on billboards. WiMax also ran a suspense rousing campaign that honed it on their target market perfectly.

4) Catchy and Memorable
You want to make it easy for the viewer/reader to remember your brand. Use alliteration when writing slogans etc as this rattles around in our inner ear for a bit. Think of all successful brand names/slogans, they rattle around a bit. Prime example would be Coca Cola (um, with some Smirnoff = win). Another way to make things memorable is to make them shocking, get a response from whoever views it, motivate them into looking twice, taking a gasp or ideally, compel them to view your t-shirt designs. Also, the brain has 3 main sections which and a combination of food, sex and danger seem to spark a response from each region. I strongly suggest reading this blog which talks about the 3 regions of the brain and how to influence them - 11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make them Take Action.

5) Stickability
You want your brand to stick around don't you? to be able to persist? Try think big in every aspect of your branding or marketing and invest time in creating things that won't be instantly dated due to surroundings or other. Think of other avenues you can venture down in a bid to expand your brand - hats, scarves, boxer shorts?

6) Be Remarkable
As Seth Godin says be the purple cow, be a bit different, be something remarkable. Its not to dissimilar to being catchy but instead of going for the majority within a society be remarkable to a few who truly relate to your brand, get your brand and you could quite possibly be good buddies with. These people will help you find niches or possibly even create niches for you by getting all of their friends to like your brand. Brand zealots are a rare commodity and should be appreciated and thanked. Ultimately, you want to the purple cow to a few - watch this video.



7) Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)
Word of mouth marketing is getting people talking about you. Think of what you pass on to your friends? "oh, there is a deal here" or "I got this for free from..." or "you should see this brand, so cool" and 9 times out of 10 you'll act on it, or at least consider it more because it was told to you by a friend. Some stat I heard stated that there is an 89% conversion rate on word of mouth market versus 12% on standard marketing. So, use competitions and freebies to stimulate some chit chat amongst friends. Another key element of WOMM is managing customer expectations. Customers inherently have an expectation of what they are going to get based on price, what you've said and what they've heard from friends. If you meet their expectations you get a pass grade and nothing really happy. If you fall below what they expect then you will have more than likely lost a customer. If however you exceed their expectations they will talk about you, they'll be happy with the product they have received from you and will be compelled to talk about you. How do you try to exceed your customers expectations?

8) Persistence
Marketing and forming your brands identity and persona will take time. There is no overnight solution (not that I have discovered anyway although I'd love to find one) for building your brands reputation so be persistent. Never miss an opportunity to market your brand but don't overkill it. It goes back to my very first point really, you have to keep applying yourself and promoting and pushing your brand - if you don't do it no one else will..

9) Responsive
Ideally what you want is to get the WOMM machine revved up and in high gear. You then have to be responsive to what gets said. How can you use what is said to further your marketing campaign or branding efforts? What opportunities are to be had by getting in touch with people who mention your brand? What if someone says a negative thing about your brand? Be responsive and thank those who like your brand and give them something to talk about. When receiving negative comments deal with them quickly and in a nice manner - turn the negative into a positive.

And so, there it is, 9 marketing tips and ideas. I'm not a guru by any stretch of the imagination but the above are just some of the things I am aware of and try practice myself. Your thoughts on the above, what your marketing efforts consist of, or any tips/ideas/suggestions are warmly welcomed - knowledge is no burden.

I AM THE TREND Interview - A one on one with Adam Hendle

When I first started to explore online t-shirt sites as part of my work with LadyUmbrella one of the first ones I came across was I AM THE TREND and found it to be a very useful and informative site..I've managed to track down the man behind the site, Mr Adam Hendle, to ask him a few questions..get comfy and enjoy..

Rob - Hi, firstly, Adam, thanks a million for agreeing to be interviewed by me. And secondly, apologies for titling this "I Am The Trend Interview - One on one with Adam Hendle" because clearly that isn't doing you justice..you have your hands in many other pies such as watchteev.com and iatt.tv, like to mention a bit about them and any other sites you're involved with?

Adam - Not a problem! Thanks for asking to interview me, this is the first time that the tables have been turned and someone else is asking the questions! The main site I run is iamthetrend.com but I do spend some time running watchteev.com which I'm basically trying to build into the youtube of t-shirt videos. IATT.TV really ties in pretty close to iamthetrend.com, basically just the domain where we host IAMTHETREND TV our weekly webshow.

Rob - So, I AM THE TREND, you recently updated your website and it does look pretty darn swanky but so did the old version (or I think so anyway). What were the motivations behind the redesign did you get better website hosting? Add any cool new features or functionality to the site? make it super SEO friendly (if so, any top tips)?

Adam - Thanks a ton! The main goal with the new site was keep it simple! This is actually the third version of iamthetrend. [Rob - the 3rd version, my bad] When I started iamthetrend.com the main goal was to create a directory of indie clothing lines, bands, artists and indie products. I thought it would be great to have a place where people could easily go find what was new and cool in those categories. I quickly became pretty bored with that site. It was very stagnant, basically people would submit there company, we would put up a yellow pages type listing and that was that.

So when it came to IATT 2.0, I wanted to become a bit more interactive, thus we started doing weekly interviews and a few articles, which really got us on the path to where we are today. Unfortunately with the 2.0 site the layout was a bit confusing and the more and more I got involved with some of these companies, artists and bands the more I wanted to write daily about them.

Long story short I really wanted the site to be as simple as possible and I really think with the new redesign we accomplished that!

Rob - You're famous man!!...I've seen you on TV before, well, internet TV but in this day and age the lines are blurring...we mentioned it earlier, but IATT.TV, nice little site you have going there. You've had some jam packed shows - which were the most enjoyable for you? were you nervous when you first kicked off the show and sitting in front of the camera? And in general how are the shows going for you, what do you want to achieve with IATT.tv? Any juicy shows in the pipeline?

Adam - Hahaha, maybe one day we will be famous for doing the show, but for now we really do it as a compliment to the website. The push for online video is just growing enormously and constantly, so we figured it would be a fun way to make the site a bit more transparent and basically give a face to the brand. On top of that we really wanted to create a place to show off some amazing tees, bands, artists and products! [Rob - check out the most recent show]

The most enjoyable show was probably our Halloween show. We had ten or so companies send in their Halloween/Horror Inspired t shirts and had a blast reviewing them! We even dressed up as zombies for the show!

I still get a bit nervous doing the show just because there is a ton of pressure getting everything together and ready before we go live and it always seems like we are racing against the clock to get the show up on time! But once the show is live and going its pretty much a breeze from there.

As far as where I see the show going, I really hope that it gets to the level of a Winelibrary TV. Gary Vaynerchuk does an incredible job running his show and is someone I definitely look up to for inspiration. [Rob - another Gary Vee mention, he is 2 for 2 now for mentions in interviews - maybe I should interview him?]

Rob - I know you from "t-shirt circles", that is to say I first came across you on the likes of t-shirtforums.com and emptees.com (I think..pretty sure) but I AM THE TREND is about more than tees, you clearly love music - in a band yourself? what sorta music you have on your i-Pod (or you an anti i-podder?)? and I guess, what gave you the kick to start iamthetrend.com and whats your current role in it - or is every role yours?

Adam - When I started iamthetrend.com I really thought to myself how well clothing, music and art tie into each other and I really felt that there weren’t many sites that tried to take on the task of discovering and talking about the emerging players in those fields. So that’s when I decided to take on the task of starting a website that would tackle all of those categories. My first true passion was always music. I have actually been playing guitar in and out of bands for over ten years, which is actually how I met Beau (iatt.tv cohost and iatt contributor). Shameless plug you can check out my current project A Hero Named Hope at www.aheronamedhope.com [Rob - check it out everyone, videos, music, off the good good]. As far as my ipodding goes, I use my iphone for everything! I have currently been jamming on the new Everytime I Die, The Almost, and Dance Gavin Dance.

Rob - You've checked out and reviewed many tees in your time, do you design tees yourself? Any cool t-shirts spotted recently to report? and do you have like a favorite tee?

Adam - I have definitely seen a lot of tees, but as far as designing tees go my skills are pretty limited. Over the years I have designed a few of my bands t shirts, but at this point there are just so many talented artists that are readily available there I found no reason to design my own. As far as cool tees go I try and put my latest findings daily on iamthetrend.com so your going to have to check there for that info ; ) I really don’t have a “favorite tee” there are just way to many amazing designs on there, but I do have a favorite color tee, which would be American Apparel Heather Grey. I love that color and usually love any design printed on it!

Rob - When you relaunched the site after the redesign did you do any hardcore marketing or promo to mark the event? if so, any things that worked well for you guys? And is i am the trend your full time job now or have you cloned yourself successfully so that you can work and maintain cool sites?

Adam - As far as marketing the site goes, we really just tried to hammer hard the social sites such as twitter and Facebook. I also made it a point to try and get some interviews with some bigger names, such as Aaron from Underoath whom also runs Pig Cloth Clothing, and Jordan from Everytime I Die whom is an incredible illustrator.

Unfortunately IAMTHETREND is not my full time job, but I am striving and working hard for it to one day become my full-time job. My long term goal would be to open up a IAMTHETREND store, in which I could sell all the amazing upcoming lines I come across daily. [Rob - sounds like a cool idea to try get a store going]

Rob - Ok so, I think I've delved deep enough...but any random personal fact you'd like to throw out or any anything you want to get off your chest or mention...the mic is yours now and you're the MC...

Adam - Here might be a few interesting bulletins:
-My original idea for the site came while reading Alternative Press.
-The original website was going to be called trendspend.com, which looking back now is just a terrible name! [Rob - I concur]
-The name IAMTHETREND came to me while mowing the grass [Rob - man, I used to hate having to cut the grass, used to take 6 hours]

We are always looking for guest authors to write for IAMTHETREND so if anyone is interested please email us at info@iamthetrend.com Also if you would like to see yourself, your company, band, etc on IAMTHETREND also email us at info@iamthetrend.com Lastly tune in every Monday night at 8PM Central to www.iatt.tv to watch IAMTHETREND TV! Just wanted to say thanks for the interview! It was interesting being on the other side of the questions! Good luck with LadyUmbrella! [Rob - hehe, cheers]

And so thats that...interview two in the can and thanks once more to Adam for taking the time to get back to me...So, who likes I am the trend? Any regular iatt.tv viewers? And if you have some t-shirts to submit or want to get the word out about your band you now know the place to go...also, if you'd like me to interview you just get in touch...

SWOT Analysis for a t-shirt company

In this blog I'll deal with SWOT Analysis (Stengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for a t-shirt company...These are things that I have thought about whilst getting LadyUmbrella womens fashion tees up and running.

I'll start by saying focus on what you can do not what others are doing...by all means, monitor your competitors (once you establish them) and do some good old SWOT analysis...

Strengths - what does/will your company have that your competition won't be able to do, or how will you be different/better than them..focus on this element and make sure that when marketing yourself you make your key strength clear from the get go..

Weakness - how is your competitor than you? in what way? I think its fair to assume that initially the main advantage that all your competitors will have is brand recognition (to a certain degree at least depending on how successful they are). How can you improve on your weakness? before launching get the word out, work, hustle (Gary V style), post, comment, blog, social media yourself to the brink of death so that when launch day comes at least some people will know about it..reducing your weakness...the other key thing competitors will have will be trust from customers that the product/service is reliable so from day one ensure you have everything in place to ensure timely delivery of quality goods so that you can quickly earn customer trust...happy customers talk nicely about you and get you more customers - unhappy customers shout angrily about you and end your business..

Opportunity - what has your competitor overlooked? What area of your niche or market have they not successfully reached out to? how can you reach out to them? what is your USP (unique selling point) that will give you the opportunity that your competitor doesn't have..this may not be an actual tangible betterment of any good or service that your competitor provides but market it differently, bundle it nicely, present cleverly..

Threat - what is your achilles heal? where can it all go wrong? what other company or competitor can compete in your niche? thing of worst case scenarios and how you will be able to turn them into positives or bounce back..always have a reliable plan B..or C..that could be if trying to sell online and it just doesn't work out yet you have a load of stock do some research on potential retail outlets that may stock your tees (or whatever)..figure out how to approach them and start working on associated materials to give to them upon meeting them...and, if plan A (selling online) does happen to take off there is no harm in getting another revenue stream going too..

I've been setting up my brand for the last 3 months or so now and these are things I've thought about and worked on...I can't say it will guarantee anything (I don't even know myself as we are still to launch) but at least you'll give yourself the best opportunity to succeed and be satisfied that, even if it all does go wrong, that you did all you could and weren't half hearted and so will have no doubts or regrets...or thats my hope anyway...

P.S. I'm not a business head at all so my above SWOT could be complete garbage, willing to stand corrected and learn if that is the case...

Facebook Fanpages - How to make them grow..

Hey, we kicked off our fanpage for LadyUmbrella Ladies Tees at the start of August (the 8th of August to be exact) and have done a few things to try promote it..I'll now share some of the things we did with you, hopefully it will be of some use..

- Competitions run via the fanpage
You want people to comment on your page and become fans. Then their friends might check out your fan page as they will see that someone they know has "fanned up" or left a comment..To do this create some competition where people have to leave comments..we did this and it has been quite successful..has gained us about 350 fans or so I think..I have a blog post you can check out where I talk about what we did..

- discount for "fav t-shirt is.."
Instead of 30% for joining give them a discount for letting you know which t-shirt of yours is their favorite. Then again you'll get a comment which their friends might see except it will be the best advertising you can get "My favorite t-shirt is your XYZ design - give me my discount" - imagine if you were getting a few of these a day how many people would be checking out your page to see what its about and how many new fans you might get

- Keep interacting
Try engage your fans, again, more comments = more fans..it will also help you maintain your activity rating which I think increases your chances of your fanpage appearing in the right hand side ad section, where it says "Friend Y has become of fan of Fanpage X"..You don't want to go overboard though, try find the balance, if you notice that you lose fans when you post too much then check yourself before you wreck yourself...

- Create a poll
Get people to vote on things...You can create polls that appear on tabs on the fanpage where people can vote on whatever..make the poll interesting and relevant to you niche and then set about marketing it. On the likes of twitter "link bait" it to a degree so that people want to click on the link to see what the poll is about..the poll is housed on your fanpage so you might get more fans that way..Don't limit your tweets to polls though - tweet til the cows come home...

- Ask your friends to join
Really, invite them all...to your good friends ask them to invite their friends as well..this can have unprecedented jumps in numbers...Also, importantly, when a friend joins your page leave them a comment to say "thanks for joining the XYZ fanpage - spread the word" or something like that..now anyone who visits your friends page will see a comment saying that they have just joined a certain fanpage and us humans are curious creatures so they might just check it out...

- Fanpage Exchanges
Know someone who has a fanpage? How about you suggest their page to all of your friends and vice versa..again, you don't want to do this too often or you'll annoy the crap out of your friends but it can be a good way to get some fans..

- Facebook Ads
Facebook ads can be a good source of a steady stream of fans..you might not get dizzying numbers but done well the costs can be kept down and you'll get steady growth..also, for every person who joins you don't know how many of their friends might also join...you can just hope that some do and that the circle of fans keeps extending...I recently ran Facebook ads and had some success with it, I'll detail in a later post how that worked out for me and what I learned..

- Targets
Set targets for what you want to achieve. Be realistic, break it down into the number of fans you want to get per day and what you can do to get them...Work hard to get these fans..

- Blogs
There is no harm in having a blog, perhaps not for growing a fanpage but for keeping fans happy. Give them a place where they can find out more about the company etc..they may send a link to a friend and then you might get another fan - make it easy to join straight from the blog..also, blogs are a useful tool in the never ending SEO battle so the sooner you start the better..

- Website
On your webpage make it easy for people to join your fanpage..use the "facebook badges" that you can get which are really handy..again, tell them that if they join they can get a discount or find out about competitions or the latest product news..

After doing all that our fanpage has grown to a little about 1260 fan (hehe, and I don't have that many friends).. Not stellar by any stretch of the imagination but a nice start. A prime example of a successful fanpage is Rizzo Tees fanpage which is the type of active fanpage I want to have somday...

Hopefully some of the above will help you and feel free to ask any questions you may have...would also love to hear how any tips you have or what you do to try keep your fanpage buzzing...

Give people the "scent" for better sales conversions..

Giving people the "scent"...

The "scent" is something that I hadn't heard about before but as part of my nightly googling for online marketing/sales/etc I came across the following:

Bryan Eisenberg on Using Trigger Words to Boost Landing Page Conversion

(note: at the end the guy does a bit of promo for himself, I don't know him at all but the video is good - I highly recommend it)

Basically, the scent is when someone finds your page via a google search/ad you want to instantly make them feel that they have arrived at a place they want to be..what the video suggest and what I think is a great idea, is to have tailored landing pages...for example if some one searches for "t-shirts in new york" and comes to your page have a title of "You've come to the right place for T-Shirts in New York" - straight away you are letting the potential customer know that they are at a site they want to be on and creating a link between what they searched for and now what they have found - doing this dramatically increases conversions...to 72% I think...

Now, once you have given the scent to the customer that they are on the right page you want to anticipate their next question and answer..again, following on from the New York t-shirt example your landing page could contain "So, now you've found us would you like to buy one of our t-shirts [and have pictures with buy now links] or just cruise around our site...either way, have a good time"..

By doing this straight away the person who has searched for you, has been welcomed, given the "scent" and called to action to do something that is relevant to what they searched for and has a much better chance of increasing sales...

I know a lot of people have their t-shirts on display on their homepage and may say "whats the point?" but I think if you have a tailored landing page to what people search for then you will have a better chance of conversion...any ads I run with keywords will all have tailored landing pages anyway...generally, homepages are more about who you are or what your company does (whilst also, in most cases, containing pictures of t-shirts and buy now links) and not about reaffirming a searchers belief that they have found something that they have looked for...

Anyway, thats my summary, no substitute for watching the video but hopefully some will find it useful...