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900K In Sales. Need Help With Marketing

Marketing, social media, advertising

RNoles19

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Alright so I'll keep this as short as possible. I've posted here before about it before. But I started a T-shirt website in 2015/2016 that did very well. Have done 900K in sales lifetime. Made almost 200K profit my first year primarily off Facebook/IG ads.

Eventually my Facebook ads stopped working/producing results (why control is so important) and my business slowly dwindled to nothing.

I've decided to revive this business after getting let go from a job that I hated... and I know 2 things:

1- I'm good at creating products/shirts that people want and are willing to pay for.
2- I apparently suck at marketing. But plenty of other companies seem to have figured out how to profit off FB/Instagram ads. (I see plenty of what I deem "shitty" shirts with 10K+ likes on FB)

So with that said, does anyone want to help with the social media marketing/overall marketing strategy of this business? Looking for people with EXPERIENCE. If you're interested AND you've had success running profitable on Instagram/Facebook/wherever, reach out to me either publicly or privately and lets figure this out.

I feel like I have the main piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating a profitable business....products that people want..... Now we just have to figure out how to market them properly.
 
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Guest921Y

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Alright so I'll keep this as short as possible. I've posted here before about it before. But I started a T-shirt website in 2015/2016 that did very well. Have done 900K in sales lifetime. Made almost 200K profit my first year primarily off Facebook/IG ads.

Eventually my Facebook ads stopped working/producing results (why control is so important) and my business slowly dwindled to nothing.

I've decided to revive this business after getting let go from a job that I hated... and I know 2 things:

1- I'm good at creating products/shirts that people want and are willing to pay for.
2- I apparently suck at marketing. But plenty of other companies seem to have figured out how to profit off FB/Instagram ads. (I see plenty of what I deem "shitty" shirts with 10K+ likes on FB)

So with that said, does anyone want to help with the social media marketing/overall marketing strategy of this business? Looking for people with EXPERIENCE. If you're interested AND you've had success running profitable on Instagram/Facebook/wherever, reach out to me either publicly or privately and lets figure this out.

I feel like I have the main piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating a profitable business....products that people want..... Now we just have to figure out how to market them properly.

Has this market become saturated in recent years? That's what I had gathered out there. That could be part of it?
 

RNoles19

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Has this market become saturated in recent years? That's what I had gathered out there. That could be part of it?

Ya I think it has to an extent, but people still buy novelty shirts. I just left a company that does 12 million a year in sports/pop culture T-Shirt revenue.

But aside from that, , I also see posts on FB with 10k-30k likes on a shirt, which is tough to do, so people are still having success with it.

And also, there are plenty of apparel businesses that are constantly advertising on IG and FB, so I presume they're having success as well.
 

StrikingViper69

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Ya I think it has to an extent, but people still buy novelty shirts. I just left a company that does 12 million a year in sports/pop culture T-Shirt revenue.

But aside from that, , I also see posts on FB with 10k-30k likes on a shirt, which is tough to do, so people are still having success with it.

And also, there are plenty of apparel businesses that are constantly advertising on IG and FB, so I presume they're having success as well.

It could be they are just dumping money into ads. The ads look popular, people like them, but people are not buying.

I see something similar in the music space. Musicians are taking "marketing training programs" (which should really be called "how to shout loudly", not "how to make money"), dumping money on ads, racking up 1000s of views... and not making any sales.

So I'm not saying that these people are not making sales, but just because they have 10,000 likes, you shouldn't assume they are making sales. Getting popularity numbers is really easy with paid ads.
 
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Xeon

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Maybe you should look for a more interesting angle with your t-shirt business.
You're selling them as commodity and using purely FB ads aka outbound marketing to draw folks in, and once the algo changes / people get sick of the novelty / people get sick of Teespring & Sunfrog / your rivals sell t-shirts for $0.99 each / people realise the design is bad, they stop buying, because they fell for the ad & not the brand.

2015 - 2017 was around the time when these t-shirt + FB/IG ads combo caught on among the money chasing crowd, and everyone and their bro were making big bucks in the gold rush by slapping text on canvas in Photoshop. Only folks like Teespring and Sunfrog are laughing all the way to the bank.
(those 2 have shitty reviews on google, btw)
 
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GrandRub

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Check out Printful and Gooten - There is so much more in the Print on Demand Space than T Shirts.

If you are good at creating designs, finding niches and target audiences - try other stuff than t shirts. sure t shirts arent "saturated" but stuff like all over print,leggings,embroidery is very less crowded.
 

Envious

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Alright so I'll keep this as short as possible. I've posted here before about it before. But I started a T-shirt website in 2015/2016 that did very well. Have done 900K in sales lifetime. Made almost 200K profit my first year primarily off Facebook/IG ads.

Eventually my Facebook ads stopped working/producing results (why control is so important) and my business slowly dwindled to nothing.

I've decided to revive this business after getting let go from a job that I hated... and I know 2 things:

1- I'm good at creating products/shirts that people want and are willing to pay for.
2- I apparently suck at marketing. But plenty of other companies seem to have figured out how to profit off FB/Instagram ads. (I see plenty of what I deem "shitty" shirts with 10K+ likes on FB)

So with that said, does anyone want to help with the social media marketing/overall marketing strategy of this business? Looking for people with EXPERIENCE. If you're interested AND you've had success running profitable on Instagram/Facebook/wherever, reach out to me either publicly or privately and lets figure this out.

I feel like I have the main piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating a profitable business....products that people want..... Now we just have to figure out how to market them properly.

It's very difficult to come up with an effective strategy without seeing your website and your ads that aren't working. For example have you been targeting the same audience on Facebook since you started? Have you changed ad copy, pictures, placements etc? The more information you can give will be allow people to help you more effectively.
 
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Longinus

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T-shirts is a massive me-too-business. I can't remember how many members here started or wanted to start their own cool brand.

It's a fading trend and therefore a business model I would never even consider. The only ones making good money here, are probably the t-shirt suppliers.
 
U

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Have you tried to contact some Instagram accounts to promote it?

Find an account with 50k REAL AND ACTIVE followers and send an owner a tshirt for free + promotion fee.

Make sure the account is relevant to your brand.

I made logos for 5-6 huge IG accounts to promote my graphic design/branding service and it was a decent return. I made mistake because I didnt check how active those accounts are, I could do much better.
 

Einfamilienhaus

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Your Business only survives with marketing. Take the marketing away and you see your Business is slowly dying.

Like in the Unscripted is written: A product of Value doesn't need big marketing strategies.

You are right focusing more on money chasing instead of value creating.

Maybe you should think about a change?
 
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RNoles19

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It could be they are just dumping money into ads. The ads look popular, people like them, but people are not buying.

I see something similar in the music space. Musicians are taking "marketing training programs" (which should really be called "how to shout loudly", not "how to make money"), dumping money on ads, racking up 1000s of views... and not making any sales.

So I'm not saying that these people are not making sales, but just because they have 10,000 likes, you shouldn't assume they are making sales. Getting popularity numbers is really easy with paid ads.

Ya I agree that the bigger companies (ie Patagonia) may not be overly concerned with the ROI, but for smaller businesses, I'd be shocked if an ad with 10k-30k likes isn't making money. It just wouldn't make sense to continue to run an ad and spend hundreds/thousands a day on ads if you weren't making money.
 

RNoles19

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Maybe you should look for a more interesting angle with your t-shirt business.
You're selling them as commodity and using purely FB ads aka outbound marketing to draw folks in, and once the algo changes / people get sick of the novelty / people get sick of Teespring & Sunfrog / your rivals sell t-shirts for $0.99 each / people realise the design is bad, they stop buying, because they fell for the ad & not the brand.

2015 - 2017 was around the time when these t-shirt + FB/IG ads combo caught on among the money chasing crowd, and everyone and their bro were making big bucks in the gold rush by slapping text on canvas in Photoshop. Only folks like Teespring and Sunfrog are laughing all the way to the bank.
(those 2 have shitty reviews on google, btw)

Ya I agree to an extent. I don't use Teespring, Sunfrog, all those websites. I have my own Shopify website, own the domain, sell quality shirts, and all that.

But I think the shitty reputation of people like that affects everyone else trying to sell shirts on social media. Maybe people just stopped trusting those type of ads.

I get the point, but I don't think everyone and their bro did over 900k in shirt sales. If it was that easy, everyone would do it.

And people do still buy t-shirts. Like I said, I left a company that does 12 million a year in sports/pop culture t-shirt sales. The demand for sports t-shirts doesn't really stop imo.
 

RNoles19

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Your Business only survives with marketing. Take the marketing away and you see your Business is slowly dying.

Like in the Unscripted is written: A product of Value doesn't need big marketing strategies.

You are right focusing more on money chasing instead of value creating.

Maybe you should think about a change?

Ya dude. I read the book too. I get it. Not saying this is a Fastlane business, which is why I mentioned the lack of control in my original post.........but if I can make 50K/year in additional income reviving this business, I'm not going to be upset with that.
 
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RNoles19

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Have you tried to contact some Instagram accounts to promote it?

Find an account with 50k REAL AND ACTIVE followers and send an owner a tshirt for free + promotion fee.

Make sure the account is relevant to your brand.

I made logos for 5-6 huge IG accounts to promote my graphic design/branding service and it was a decent return. I made mistake because I didnt check how active those accounts are, I could do much better.

I've done that bit. That's kind of how i started out. The problem with that is that it just isn't sustainable/scalable. You can definitely make some money going with that direction, it's just probably not the most time-effective strategy.
 

RNoles19

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It's very difficult to come up with an effective strategy without seeing your website and your ads that aren't working. For example have you been targeting the same audience on Facebook since you started? Have you changed ad copy, pictures, placements etc? The more information you can give will be allow people to help you more effectively.

Right. I didn't want to post my ads/website in here (I think that may be frowned upon).

I was more trying to see if anyone has had success with social media ads for an ecommerce business. Ideally I could partner with someone that is good with the marketing.
 

Xeon

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Check out Printful and Gooten - There is so much more in the Print on Demand Space than T Shirts.

Printful and Gooten? LOL. It's all about GAMBLING if one chooses this route.
I used Printful (often touted as the biggest POD boy on the block and also the best) recently to print some promotional merch to promote my product.
Screw-ups after screw-ups.....mess after mess.....there's absolutely no control whatsoever.

I can't imagine anyone trying to run an actual t-shirt biz through them unless one is going the money-chasing route.

Ya dude. I read the book too. I get it. Not saying this is a Fastlane business, which is why I mentioned the lack of control in my original post.........but if I can make 50K/year in additional income reviving this business, I'm not going to be upset with that.

Since you've so much experience in the t-shirt biz and running ads, how about identifying a cause that's popular with today's youngsters (post-millennial aka the upcoming Gen Z), and selling t-shirts that speak to them? Basically, build your brand around that with the t-shirts as the medium.

Just throwing some ideas around.

Also, if you're doing so well in FB ads previously, you must have known a great deal about those. How did it suddenly go to rock-bottom overnight?
Just curious if you did do any testing to figure out what changes in the algo.

There's one paid online community which is often praised, AdLeaks, where they've FB ad masters in there sharing insights and critiquing. Maybe you can try the 14-day trial, post your issue there and see what happens.

The other way is to post your listings on Etsy to take advantage of their massive Reach.
 
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I feel like I have the main piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating a profitable business....products that people want

You have it backwards.

Sales is the main piece of the puzzle. Not product.

I can go to one tradeshow overseas and find 100 products worth selling in three days. Product is important, but not as important as sales.

If I was you, I'd work on learning marketing/selling, but I'd do it by concentrating on a niche outside of t-shirts, where the margins are higher and the competition is smaller.
 

Envious

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It ain’t that hard to get into this ballpark of likes for less than $100 using FB ads. Def not an accurate indicator of sales.
Yep. Likes are vanity metrics, and mean nothing when it comes to increasing revenues and profit.
 
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Xeon

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Yep. Likes are vanity metrics, and mean nothing when it comes to increasing revenues and profit.

But Likes (and more importantly Comments) do provide social proof especially for new products / brands. They do indirectly contribute to sales.
 

Envious

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But Likes (and more importantly Comments) do provide social proof especially for new products / brands. They do indirectly contribute to sales.
Yeah no doubt, social proof can really help. That's why a lot of Facebook advertisers will get cheap likes and comments from third world countries and then start advertising to their target market in the west.
 

RNoles19

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It ain’t that hard to get into this ballpark of likes for less than $100 using FB ads. Def not an accurate indicator of sales.

Possibly. Have you personally spent $100 on an ad that had 30K likes? Because that's not my experience at all. Any ad that I've ever done that had 30K+ likes generally equated to a lot of profit. Like 10K+ profit.

Unless they're buying likes or something I'm not aware of, I tend to think if 30K people like a picture of your product, that is a pretty strong indicator that people like your product.
 
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RNoles19

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Yep. Likes are vanity metrics, and mean nothing when it comes to increasing revenues and profit.

Ya I mean I personally never really cared how many likes my ads got. Just cared if it was selling or not. But, in my experience, if a product is generating that many likes, that means people like the product....which leads to sales. There is a EXTREMELY strong correlation between likes/comments/shares and sales in my experience.

Unless they're buying likes or some BS tactic that I'm not aware of.
 

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1- I'm good at creating products/shirts that people want and are willing to pay for.

That is MASSIVE! There are millions of people who can market a product, a fraction who can create one. Concentrate your talents on this, it's wayyy more valuable than a t-shirt.

I don't know if my rage is coming through that you have this gift and you're sad that your FB ads stopped working so maybe this emoticon will work :humph:

Just go create!
 

RNoles19

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That is MASSIVE! There are millions of people who can market a product, a fraction who can create one. Concentrate your talents on this, it's wayyy more valuable than a t-shirt.

I don't know if my rage is coming through that you have this gift and you're sad that your FB ads stopped working so maybe this emoticon will work :humph:

Just go create!

Can't tell if you're mocking me here. A little hard to decipher sarcasm through text. But what's the advice here?

I am still creating shirts/trying to get better at the graphic design aspect. But where I'm getting stuck is the marketing....... You can have the best product/shirt in the world..... but it ultimately doesn't matter if the marketing piece is missing.

Great product + no marketing = no sales
Great product + great marketing = $$$

Still trying to figure out the great marketing part.

So what are you trying to say exactly? haha
 
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Can't tell if you're mocking me here. A little hard to decipher sarcasm through text. But what's the advice here?

I am still creating shirts/trying to get better at the graphic design aspect. But where I'm getting stuck is the marketing....... You can have the best product/shirt in the world..... but it ultimately doesn't matter if the marketing piece is missing.

Great product + no marketing = no sales
Great product + great marketing = $$$

Still trying to figure out the great marketing part.

So what are you trying to say exactly? haha

Not mocking at all and no sarcasm. I'm trying to say exactly, you have a talent for product creation so why are you worried about marketing so much? As others have pointed out, you had pretty much the example of an ads driven business MJ outlined in Unscripted ie as soon as the ads stopped working, your sales dried up.

If you can make products people will buy, which you've demonstrated, then do that and let others do what they do best in marketing. It sounds like you're past the bootstrapping phase, find some expertise. Just my two cents and again, no sarcasm. All the best.
 

RNoles19

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Not mocking at all and no sarcasm. I'm trying to say exactly, you have a talent for product creation so why are you worried about marketing so much? As others have pointed out, you had pretty much the example of an ads driven business MJ outlined in Unscripted ie as soon as the ads stopped working, your sales dried up.

If you can make products people will buy, which you've demonstrated, then do that and let others do what they do best in marketing. It sounds like you're past the bootstrapping phase, find some expertise. Just my two cents and again, no sarcasm. All the best.

My mistake. I misinterpreted what you were saying.

I appreciate that. And I agree with you. I think being able to create products that people want is massively important.

I know some people love to shit on T-Shirt businesses or whatever, but I just look at it as a product that I can create out of thin air with a $15 profit margin and no upfront costs.

Now I just need to find someone with marketing expertise (or learn that part myself). Which is the reason I made this post in the first place.
 

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Alright so I'll keep this as short as possible. I've posted here before about it before. But I started a T-shirt website in 2015/2016 that did very well. Have done 900K in sales lifetime. Made almost 200K profit my first year primarily off Facebook/IG ads.

Eventually my Facebook ads stopped working/producing results (why control is so important) and my business slowly dwindled to nothing.

I've decided to revive this business after getting let go from a job that I hated... and I know 2 things:

1- I'm good at creating products/shirts that people want and are willing to pay for.
2- I apparently suck at marketing. But plenty of other companies seem to have figured out how to profit off FB/Instagram ads. (I see plenty of what I deem "shitty" shirts with 10K+ likes on FB)

So with that said, does anyone want to help with the social media marketing/overall marketing strategy of this business? Looking for people with EXPERIENCE. If you're interested AND you've had success running profitable on Instagram/Facebook/wherever, reach out to me either publicly or privately and lets figure this out.

I feel like I have the main piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating a profitable business....products that people want..... Now we just have to figure out how to market them properly.

Would you be willing to entertain someone who is building their SMMA portfolio? You could probably get his services at a discount / delayed-fee based on results in exchange for using your company as a case study / testimonial.

I met this guy who left the corporate world, also in social media marketing, to do his own thing, and his first client is seeing a positive ROI. I'm going to have coffee with him in the next 2 weeks, but can get you on a call so you can feel him out.

Where are you located?
 
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Bekit

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Alright so I'll keep this as short as possible. I've posted here before about it before. But I started a T-shirt website in 2015/2016 that did very well. Have done 900K in sales lifetime. Made almost 200K profit my first year primarily off Facebook/IG ads.

Eventually my Facebook ads stopped working/producing results (why control is so important) and my business slowly dwindled to nothing.

I've decided to revive this business after getting let go from a job that I hated... and I know 2 things:

1- I'm good at creating products/shirts that people want and are willing to pay for.
2- I apparently suck at marketing. But plenty of other companies seem to have figured out how to profit off FB/Instagram ads. (I see plenty of what I deem "shitty" shirts with 10K+ likes on FB)

So with that said, does anyone want to help with the social media marketing/overall marketing strategy of this business? Looking for people with EXPERIENCE. If you're interested AND you've had success running profitable on Instagram/Facebook/wherever, reach out to me either publicly or privately and lets figure this out.

I feel like I have the main piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating a profitable business....products that people want..... Now we just have to figure out how to market them properly.
Some marketing thoughts (this is more from a direct response marketing / copywriting point of view; not focused on social media, except as a tool in your toolbox)....

Who is your audience?
Is your niche well-defined, or is it pretty vague? The more you can tightly define your niche, the more you can speak your prospects' language, meet them where they congregate, deliver to them exactly what they want to buy, and get rave reviews and viral word-of-mouth from them. Everyone has friends who are similar to them. If Joe is wearing your shirt, his friend Todd is more likely to want one than his neighbor or his coworker. (Look up the Black Milk clothing brand for an example of a brand that appeals to a very tight, clearly-defined niche (and which is killing it for that reason).

Diagnostic ruminations & action ideas based on this point:
  • If the products used to be selling but now they're not, did you lose touch with what the audience wanted? If so, go back to some of your best customers from 2-3 years ago and do some deep-dive research. Sit down with them in person, if possible. Get them on the phone. Let them talk about what they like / dislike. Hear them out about why the current product line doesn't resonate anymore, whereas the first one did.
  • Did you lose access to the audience members themselves? This could be simply because Facebook is saturated and even a page that someone likes will only pop up in their news feed like 2-3% of the time, plus everyone else selling t-shirts is driving up the cost of ads. If this is the problem, hunt the audience members down individually. Find the email addresses of your past buyers. Find the facebook accounts of people who are in your target market. Create things to delight them. Create value that they can't HELP but share with their friends. Make each one feel like a person. Do some unusual things to get them back.
  • Did you never define the audience in the first place? If this is the case, this is a very basic, fundamental step that you can't afford to skip. Take some time to think deeply about - NOT the audience, but the individual human beings who comprise the audience. Who are they? What do they care about? What are their hopes & fears? What kind of car do they probably drive? What stage of life are they probably in (single? married? kids? retired? etc.) Who are some of the people you know personally who fit this profile to a T? (pun intended :p)

What does your brand stand for?
A t-shirt is a commodity. Think of your typical Haines white t-shirt. Nobody cares about a t-shirt when it's a commodity. The only thing that elevates YOUR t-shirts above the status of a commodity is the story that your customers tell themselves in their heads about wearing that t-shirt. In other words, your t-shirt will only be purchased by someone whose identity is bolstered by what the t-shirt stands for.

People's identity is relatively fixed. You can't do much to sway their identity over to a different one just to be a fan of your shirts. Instead, your shirts have to align with their identity.

But which identity is that? That's a huge, open-ended question. It's a judgment call that only you can make.

However, the more your brand clearly stands for something, the more deeply it will tap into the identity and the core values of the people who also stand for that same thing. And therefore, they will be attracted to the brand and buy it. This is timeless. This transcends whether your strategy is going to be primarily facebook or instagram or youtube ads (or whatever). This is the kind of approach that will get you repeat purchases from people who seek you out, not just people who only buy when you've paid $$$ for ads.

This is classic marketing wisdom, but it is more true with t-shirt purchases than with almost any other item. What people choose to display on their bodies is always going to be a reflection (to some extent) of who they are and how they want to show up in the world. ESPECIALLY if it's a t-shirt. They might be forced to wear a blazer and tie when they go to work. But when they're choosing a t-shirt, they're choosing what expresses their personality, their quirks, their passions, their style, and their message.

Here's an example, going back to the Black Milk brand. I looked at their stuff and my eyes hurt. I was like "Who would wear this stuff?????" :p In other words, their items actually alienated me. But when I see a french blue button-down shirt, pearl necklace, pinstriped blazer, slacks, and patent-leather heels, I instantly think, "This is my style."

Now, how does that translate to the story that I'm telling myself in my own head? The story I'm telling myself in my own head sounds like this: "I am a professional who is classy, traditional, and not too flashy. I dress like a professional, and this looks impeccable. That's exactly how I want to show up in the world." I can't jive that story with the Black Milk items. They so violently clash with the story in my head that I instantly reject them.

BUT, it's worth pointing out, the Black Milk brand DEFINITELY DOES resonate with the story going on in the heads of their customers. And their customers would probably look at my "ideal" outfit and instantly feel alienated and reject it with exactly the same fervor.

In other words, different people have different stories in their heads about who they are, what matters to them, and what they want their clothes to show other people about themselves and the things they care about. So you need to enter in to that story. Your shirts need to represent to your customers a story, not just a t-shaped tube of 100% pre-shrunk cotton with a design on the front. And it's the job of marketing to tell that story and convey it to the customer in such a way that the shirt symbolizes something to them about their very identity.

Diagnostic ruminations & action ideas based on this point:
  • If you have never clearly defined your story and what your brand stands for, do it now. Do it in writing. Put up the story on your "About" page, in product description copy, and in ad copy.
  • If you have clearly defined your story and what your brand stands for, then celebrate that blatantly in your ad copy and your product descriptions. Make inside jokes that your core audience will appreciate. Be upfront and proud about who you are and what you stand for. Take a megaphone and start trumpeting your message (not just your products) in the places where people who resonate with that message will be likely to hear it. Be creative (and tactful) about how you do this.
  • Define the story that your customers tell themselves in their heads about wearing your t-shirts. What does that say about them? What does that reflect? How does that validate them and who they are? Tell that story yourself, and your customers will participate with you in embodying it. People want to think and feel, "People like me would wear this shirt." Well, who is that? Will they identify themselves in the group of "buyers"?
Hope this is helpful!

========
Edit: After reading your intro thread, and especially this post (INTRO - New Member... Made 150K Profit Selling TShirts on FB last year...Now at a bit of a crossroads.) I sense there are some much deeper problems than simply the lack of marketing chops. You've read Jay Abraham. You've purchased and learned from multiple courses on marketing. Your shirts were shut down because they depicted sports logos and Facebook deemed that copyright/trademark infringement, which your Lawyer said was fine, but FB disagreed (and they're bigger than you, so they got their way).

But the most concerning thing about the thread (to me) was that you wanted to build an online course teaching people how to replicate what you did, even when you admitted it probably wasn't replicable by other people. With all due respect, it sounds like a lot of money chasing, shiny object syndrome, and confusion.
  • Have you shifted to a different kind of design that doesn't depend on incorporating sports logos?
  • If you've shifted, have you done the same kind of customer research that led you be able to instinctively come up with designs that your customers liked?
  • How do you plan to provide value?
  • Are you focused on "How do I provide value by coming up with what my customers want to buy," or "How do I get people to pay me?" (Are you "me focused" or "others focused"?)
 
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MakeItHappen

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I had some success with the t-shirt - fb ads model a couple of years ago.

The market wasn't saturated back than and it was so easy to make money pretty much with any design. Today you can hardly make little money with great designs.

I would move on and focus on something different.

If you want to continue I would advice you to pick a very clear and specific goal with a deadline as to what you want to do till when. Then look at the results and be honest about if it's worth it to continue.
 

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