T-shirts are popular wardrobe staples and that reflect our personalities and interests of the wearer. Considering their demand is quite high across the world, starting a t-shirt business is no surprise. And it has become one of the popular choices among wannabe entrepreneurs. Another great reason to start a t-shirt business is that the t-shirt printing industry is growing rapidly, and as per the latest reports, by 2025, it is expected to cross US $10 billion worldwide.
Whenever someone thinks of new business ideas, a t-shirt business is probably on the top of their list. Why? It is because t-shirts are the most lovable pieces of clothing. They are worn by people of all ages.
If you have decided to start your entrepreneurial journey with a t-shirt business then you have made the right decision. But starting a business and taking it to the next level is not easy. You need to make a lot of new marketing strategies. And when it comes to marketing, one cannot ignore social media marketing.
The trend of marketing on social media has grown tremendously. And why not? Statistics show that every day, 3.5 billion people get active on social media. Also, if we look at the daily usage by generation, then 48.2% of Baby Boomers, 77.5% of Generation X, and 90.4% of Millennials are active social media users. Wow!! This shows how social media has taken over our lives and why it has become an essential marketing tool for marketers to promote their businesses.
Establishing a presence on social media is not only about creating an account and posting things randomly. There are a lot of other brands that are competing with you. If you want to make your position amongst them, then you have to come up with a well-defined strategy.
A social media strategy is a detailed blueprint that answers what, why, when, and how of all the content you want to post on your social media pages. Creating a social media marketing strategy may look confusing. But don’t worry! This blog is aimed to help small businesses to build their social media marketing strategy from scratch. Let’s get started!
Define your goals
No matter what type of marketing you choose, a good starting point of every marketing strategy is to identify goals. For example, for your t-shirt printing business, the goal would probably be lead generation or getting traffic on your website. Whatever you choose, make sure that it is aligned with your company’s broader objectives. You can use S.M.A.R.T criteria to set a benchmark for success and determine the contributing factors to achieve the objectives.
Know your audience
After gaining clarity on your goals, the next step is to know about your target audience. It is crucial to collect information like gender, age, location, income, tastes and preferences, etc. of your target audience. The more you know about your audience, the better strategy you will be able to make. In order to gain a deep understanding of your target audience, one of the best ways is to create buyers’ persona – a fictionalized characterization of the ideal customer based on research and existing data.
Set your budget
One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make while promoting their businesses on social media is that they spend huge money on their posts. They think that doing this will help them in increasing their ROI. Well, that’s not true! Spending more money does not necessarily bring greater success. If that would have been the case, then big-budget companies would always be ruling in their respective industries. Many companies have succeeded in their marketing game even with a low budget. Therefore, set a realistic social media marketing budget and save yourself from making impulsive marketing decisions that won’t generate desired outcomes.
Choose the right social media platform
Nowadays, there are so many social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Reddit, Pinterest, etc. Every platform has its own merits and demerits. Things that can work for Linkedin, for instance, may not work for Instagram. It is because LinkedIn is widely popular for sharing ideas, building connections, whereas Instagram is popularly known for things like lifestyle, fashion, food, etc. Therefore, before going forward with your strategy, it is crucial to analyze and choose the right social media platform for your business. Doing this will help you in saving a lot of time and effort.
Create a social media content calendar
Now that you are clear with your goals, audience, budget, and social media platform, it’s time to create a winning game plan i.e., social media content calendar. It consists of all types of content that you will be posting on your social media channels such as photos, copies, videos, infographics, blogs, etc. For instance, you want to plan posts related to Valentine’s week. And for that, you may require a creative photoshoot with your original t-shirt designs. Creating a calendar in advance will not only help you in conducting photoshoot on time but also in creating creative copies or content (ex, contests) that are required to promote it. In short, content calendars help you stay organized, improve team collaboration, and, most importantly, ensure you stay ahead of your competitors. You can create a calendar either by using Excel sheets or using tools like CoSchedule, Trello, Basecamp, etc.
Posting times
Whenever an inexperienced marketer tries to promote on social media, one of the biggest mistakes that they make is that they post content at regular intervals. If you want to retain customers, increase more followers, and build credibility, it is vital to upload your content on the right day and time. Every platform has an ideal day and time. For example, the ideal time for posting on Instagram is:
Sunday: 10 AM – 2 PM
Monday: 9 AM – 5 PM
Tuesday: 8 AM – 6 PM, *7 PM
Wednesday: 5 AM, *11 AM – 3 PM
Thursday: 5 AM, *11 – 4 PM
Friday: *5 AM, 9 AM – 10 AM, *11 AM – 1 PM, 2 – 4 PM
Saturday: 9 – 11 AM
*= high level of engagement
Track and analyze
What’s the point of putting so much effort when you do not know how well you have performed? This is where analytics plays an important role. Analytics will give you a detailed overview of which strategy worked in your favor and which not. This way, you can make changes in your strategy at an early stage. Also, it will help you understand your audience better, which will ultimately help you in making future marketing strategies.
Conclusion
There is no doubt about the fact that when you invest your time and effort in the right direction, you get the desired results. The same holds true for social media marketing. If you implement the right strategies, you will get to see the positive results in your business. So follow the above tips and take your business to the next level. Good Luck!
