Marketing Strategy

Grassroots Marketing with Clothing

Written by Rayzelle Forrest Young for Gaebler Ventures

This article discusses how and why to use grassroots marketing for clothing. It discusses who to speak to and when to enlist their help.

Companies often use this technique to sell a product that appeals to a certain audience.

Such products are often advertised through grassroots marketing to target consumers who may not pay attention to traditional forms of media and advertising.

Often times a clothing company will use grassroots marketing when the clothes are outside of what's being sold in the mainstream. An example of this could be a clothing store that sells country and western apparel or vintage tie die clothing. Promoting your clothing business with grassroots marketing will put existing and potential customers face to face with your products and is an excellent opportunity to develop an interpersonal relationship with your buyers. Here is a quick guide to getting started with a grassroots marketing campaign for your clothing business.

Get Promotion Help

Enlist the help of community members. Ask volunteers to pass out company fliers and postcards in high traffic areas during busy times of the day. Doing this will make get the most fliers passed out in the least amount of time. It's a good idea for your helpers to be dressed in your clothing in order to promote your business even further.

Approach Fellow Businesses

Approach your fellow business owners to see if you can put your fliers in their stores. A good example of this is if you sell country and western clothing, you could see about putting ads and fliers in a rodeo supply shop.

Give Deals

Use in store giveaways to promote your customers to come in and do business with you. This could include buy one get one half off or a two for one deal. People like to tell someone when they have just gotten a deal on buying something. Your giveaways will prompt existing customers to tell all their friends and family and create a wave of new customers for your business.

Incorporate With A Cause

Incorporate your clothing company with a worthy political or social cause. Do this by sponsoring events and gatherings of causes that are popular with the community. Companies that sponsor these type of events are usually mentioned throughout the day numerous times. This is excellent for creating awareness and name recognition for your clothing company.

Use Timing Techniques

Use peak shopping times to your advantage. Run clothing discounts and promotional giveaways that coincide with things like back to school shopping and Christmas shopping This will help to keep existing customers and lure in new ones.

Get Signatures

Collect customer and community member signatures to help get your clothes into large stores. This will demonstrate that there is a large customer base and local support for your business.

Using grassroots marketing to promote your clothing business can be an effective way to keep the customers you already have and gain new ones. With this form of marketing, you need to not be afraid to reach out to your community, as well as use well timed promotional offerings. Grassroots marketing can propel your business to a new level when done correctly.

Rayzelle is an entrepreneur and writer. Based on her experiences as an owner of her own dance studio, she will share her personal tips on being a successful entrepreneur.

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