1ClickPrint News

If you own a relatively small business, or even if you are running a larger company, your marketing budget is more than likely going to be restricted.  This means that you need to be very creative with how you invest that budget in order to get most return on investment.  Developing a strong brand and raising the awareness of your brand is key to generating new business and keeping your foothold in the market, be that on a national or global level or on a local level, the principals are the same.

Undertaking a variety of marketing tactics to promote your business can be very expensive, and one method of promoting a strong, consistent brand is start on your own doorstep…literally!  You need look no further than your own shop to find a way to communicate a strong and professional image to your customers, and these days a great way to do that is by using printed t-shirts.

T-shirts you say, and I say yes.  It is so simple it is often overlooked as an element of your advertising and promotional activity, yet it can be so effective.  You may think that printed t-shirts are just worn by people shouting about what band they like or what movies they love, you may also think that a simple t-shirt is not ‘corporate or ‘professional’ enough for use in a business environment.  Well I’m here to tell you that they are.  Despite their simple appearance, when dressing you staff in a well design and printed, quality t-shirt, you are giving a consistent and professional image to your company.

By using branded t-shirts as your corporate uniform you are automatically making your employees recognisable to your customers, who will have both an impact on their experience in your shop, as well as elevating their perception on your brand.  You have taken the time and care to make it easy for them to get advice or assistance from the staff in the shop, and you care enough to want to promote a professional environment which will increase the level of quality of service they will receive.

You are making sure that all of your staff looks clean and smart in appearance and instilling confidence in the customer that you have strong brand ethics and customer satisfaction.

Another element and use for printed t-shirts is that you can give them away to customer and potential customers to promote your business externally.  They make great giveaway items or even as part of a loyalty scheme.  Get your customers doing some PR and advertising for you by wearing your branded t-shirt, obviously to do this you must ensure firstly that the t-shirt is made of quality material and is professionally printed, then you need to ensure that the design is both eye catching, yet subtle or desirable for the customer to want to wear it, and finally that your brand is an ethical and positive brand that they are happy to support.

Whether you have a professional marketing background or not, every business owner should appreciate that the only way to generate new business and increase your revenue is to undertake a strategic marketing campaign.  Within your strategy you should considering lots of different marketing tactics which will basically come together to form your marketing mix.  Its important to ensure you have a consistent brand message and style and this can be achieved by running all elements simultaneously to get maximum impact.

From your shop front signage, to your despatch notes, business cards and website, to undertaking a leaflet printing and distribution direct marketing campaign…all of these tactics are great and important to do together.  One additional PR/advertising tactic that is growing in popularity, but still often overlooked, is using your staff, friends and family to promote your business for you by wearing a branded t-shirt.  This is something not to taken lightly and ignored, how often have you been walking down the street and someone in a brightly coloured t-shirt catches your eye?  You have noticed that person and will take note of what the message is on his brightly coloured t-shirt.  That means this tactic is working, and if it works for someone else, then it can just as easily work for you too.

Why pay significant amounts of money to advertising is a publication with a shelf life of just one week, when you can undertake a t-shirt printing campaign and get a much longer length of time and therefore more impact.  You can build your brand awareness and communicate specific messaging by using people to become you walking A-Boards!  This means, everywhere they go whilst wearing your t-shirt, they take your brand and your messaging with them.

Whether you elect to use T-Shirt printing simply just for your staff to wear as uniforms to make them easily recognisable, this will still help, or if you employ promotional staff to wear your t-shirts directing people to your shop whilst handing out promotional flyers, again this is a very effective use of branded t-shirts.  You can even print them ‘en mass’ and hand them out as giveaways to the public so that you can get a wider group of people wearing and displaying your brand for you.  You have to agree that in comparison to a traditional advertising campaign, this is a fun and exciting new way to promote your business.

If you opt to just invest in printed t-shirt for your staff to wear as uniforms in your shop, then this is a great way to ensure consistency in appearance, whilst making them easily distinguishable from members of the general public.  It will increase the professional appearance of your company, which should instil confidence in customers visiting your shop.  When designing and producing your staff uniform t-shirts, you may wish to consider using them more inventively that just having your company logo on there.  By this I am referring to utilising t-shirt printing to advert special in-house promotions and offers.  Realistically to do this cost-effectively it would maybe be a monthly promotion and all staff wear the same t-shirt promoting this offer.  As customers see them whilst in the shop they will notice they are a member of staff and they will also ne inclined to read the message on the t-shirt.  This may lead to them purchasing additional items to take advantage of the special offer.

As mentioned before, once you have decided to give this a go and invest in t-shirt printing, be it just for staff, promotional campaigns or even as giveaways, you need to design your t-shirt artwork very carefully.  You need to ensure that you brand appearance is consistent and that you elect to use a suitable font, in regards to both type and size, to make you message as legible as possible, whilst simultaneously giving the right tone, for example the use of Comic Sans can give a completely different impression to the use of Calibri of Arial Black.

You also need to consider the style of t-shirt you go for.  This is another plus for this style of advertising, as you have available to you a large selection of t-shirt and other garment types, in long sleeve, round neck, polo, fitted or children’s as well as a massive range of colour options.  Always ensure you execute this type of advertising to an appropriate standard, using a professional printer who enjoys economies of scale and professional print machinery to give you the best quality and price per item.

This form of advertising is growing in popularity and is sure to help any business in any market.  Consider the points in this article and give it a try! – 1ClickPrint.com

Some people choose to show their individuality through a hair cut, or having it dyed a funky colour, through a tattoo or a piercing, but have you ever considered something a little less drastic, less permanent…have you ever consider a customised t-shirt?!  Of course, there have been lots of fashion conscious people doing this for years and forging brands out of it, but with the developments in digital technology and the online revolution, customising a t-shirt with a professional finish, is now relatively in expensive and so easy to do.

If you are considering designing your own t-shirt, or even if you have never thought about it before, then review the points below and use this to make an informed decision.

Due to the enormous range of products available you can choose a t-shirt with long or short sleeves, in different style and cuts as well as with or without a collar.  You can opt for printing on either left breast only, usually for corporate customers just wanting to brand their staff up with work wear.  You can also choose full body front, full body back or both sides!  T-shirt printing companies can print onto almost any garment and any colour of garment, so you can be very flexible with your design and choose a colour, or range of colours that is personal to you.  You can elect to improve the range of colours in your wardrobe and go for something bright and attention grabbing, a complimentary colour that matches with your existing clothing items.

Customised t-shirt printing is great for expressing your own personal style, making a statement and starting new trends.  A lot of printing companies have standard designs that they have done themselves, and if you like their graphics you can choose to use those and simply customise with the wording your choose to put on the t-shirt.  Alternatively you can do a 100% unique design from scratch and simply upload your artwork to the printer and you can proudly walk around knowing that you are literally the only person in the world sporting that t-shirt!  Remember when designing your artwork that colours and font types can make a huge difference to your design, so take time to scour for free fonts to use to make your design even more unique than standard fonts.

If you have a flair for design and have a desire to earn a few extra pounds, then you could aim to sell some of your own t-shirts.  A lot of people may want to wear something bespoke but don’t have the skill to execute a professional looking design.  That’s where you come in, you can canvas around your friends and family and work colleagues to start with and offer to create them a t-shirt of their choice.  By undertaking this for friends and family you can get your designs out there and potentially drum up more business. If you find you are getting lots of positive feedback then you know you could take this to the next level and create some and sell them online yourself.

If you desire to wear something bespoke and individual to you, remember you could actually develop your own brand style and earn some money from it.  Alternatively you can keep it simple and just design something for you and have it printed professionally, creating a great look for a small price!