Andreas already announced it in the Spreadshirt Newsletter: Today we are offering you some advice on how to step up your marketing game a little and get your shop ready for this year’s sports summer. I also recommend reading Alex’ SEO blogpost on how to rank well on Google. Here are 3 things you can do to make your shop more relevant for your customers, especially for the sports season this summer:
1. Add products that match the theme of your shop!
If your shop is about sports then give your customers the opportunity to buy your designs on sports apparel. We have just added some great items that are perfect for sports lovers. You can find anything from our customizable Men’s Sports Tank Top to Women’s Sports Shorts from Hanes. Whether for playing volleyball, athletics or gym – Hanes’ sportswear will make your customers sportive activities a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
2. Plan in advance!
Most dates of bigger sports events can be found online months ahead. Do the research and create designs that match the events. Having these designs ready some time ahead of schedule gives Google enough time to rank your products. Create a description that is informative and not too “advertisy”. Keep in mind that buying clothing online is not like in an offline shop. Your customer will be thankful for as much info on the product as you can give them and will be therefore more likely to buy. Try to erase as much insecurity about the product and the design as you can.
We are also telling you about many things we have planned as a promotion in the newsletters. A great chance to offer your customers great deals. For the next weeks with the Olympics coming up we are focussing on extraordinary sports. Such as parcour, ultimate frisbee, slacklining, underwater hockey or snow polo. Many of these sports have no fan apparel yet and people are searching for related designs on our platform. So obviously there is an audience out there waiting for you. Time to find you niche and create the desired designs. Help us find the most wanted unusual sports in our forum!
3. Find your niche!
Which brings us to the last and most important point. Find your niche and dominate it. Especially for uncommon topics, like those extravagant sports, there is quite a big market that is not filled yet. Google terms like “Parcour” or “Slacklining” and see what the market situation is like. Look for a niche you can become the number one in. Often shops that focus on one specific niche are very successful. This is because the more specific your product is the better you can target your audience. You can place your ads where they are. Maybe you are actually part of your target group yourself. Say you are into underwater hockey, surely you’ll know people who would be interested in buying apparel for that sport. You can create a facebook page and invite your friends to like it. Or you could use your contacts to put together a mailing list to let your customers know about your shop.
If you keep those three things in mind when setting up your shop or promoting your shop you should be good to go for the upcoming events and in general. Note: Have a little patience! Google usually takes some time to rank new pages and facebook pages should be updated with quality content regularly in order to generate many fans.
