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People love inspiration stories. Sometimes the best story is the one that's right in front of you: Your own. On some of the best stores, this means making an About or Our Story<\/a> blog post where you can write up the \"why\" behind your brand. Start by talking about what motivated you to launch your brand, your values, and what your designs and products stand for.<\/p>
Maybe you really care about Climate Change and wanted to use slogan tees to spread a message. Or you might just love retro cars and couldn't find a brand making rad tees, so made your own for other fans.<\/p>
Whatever the reason you started your brand, the startup story is among the most powerful stories you can tell.<\/p><\/blockquote>
And it never gets old.<\/p>
Remember, as with all blog posts, really high quality photos make the difference. Bring this post to life by getting a great shot of you wearing your own product.<\/p>
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If you're still getting started you can fill out your blog post with stats from news reports to add impact, talk about someone who inspired you or share the first moment you knew you wanted to start your brand.<\/p>
2. Show people what you're doing behind the scenes<\/h2>
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Everyone loves watching a design appear from a blank slate. When you're just getting started your world might be full of sketchbooks and look like a messy studio. These moments can be exciting for people following your journey.<\/p>
Showing your process makes your followers feel like they've been rewarded with an insider view.<\/p><\/blockquote>
You could screen record your process if you're making things digitally, or film a time-lapse of your day in the studio. A really fast, simple way to show your designs developing is to take photos of your drawings every 10 minutes as you work, then upload them in order.<\/p>
Talk about your inspiration, the different materials you use or even share why that tattered old pencil that's been sharpened to the end of its life is so important to you.<\/p>
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One of the challenges you might come up against is making your behind the scenes photos look cool. Try using a filter on your phone to make them black and white, which turns clutter and bad light into classy, professional content and makes it obvious to your fans that this is background stuff. When sharing them to social media, black and white images will make your colourful product posts pop and visa versa.<\/p>
3. Write about outfits and where to wear them<\/h2>
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People buy clothes for lots of different reasons, but everyone likes to look good and feel good. It might be that your activism inspired designs would look epic at a demonstration, or you think your tees look great as part of an everyday look.<\/p>
One way to help your customers is to show them how they can wear the products you make. Do this by putting them on models and taking pictures in places that are related to your brand.<\/p>
If you're a skate brand, get down the skate park and show us 10 tees to shred in. They don't have to be traditional catwalk photos, in fact the more unusual the better. People remember unique images.
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You also don't need loads of fancy kit to make this happen. The single best thing you can do is go try out a photo-shoot with your friends. Grab some samples and your smartphone and give it a shot. (You can order discounted samples direct from our factory using the Wholesale Shop<\/a>, found under Samples<\/a> in the main menu of your dashboard).<\/p>
Authentic, real photos will show your brand's personality.<\/p>
It's worth spending time creating amazing images because you can use them again and again on your social media, in future blog posts and on your Teemill store.<\/p><\/blockquote>
And as you get bigger, you won't need to take all these photos yourself. You could offer free tees to social media influencers in return for selfies. This helps spread the awareness of your brand, cuts your work time and grows your network.<\/p>
4. Blog something you know loads about<\/h2>
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Whether it's surfing, drawing, gaming, cooking, sports or anything else, if it means a lot to you it probably ties in with your brand. This is a great way to bring internet folk with similar interests to your store.<\/p>
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You could write mini-entries every Sunday about your weekly surf sessions, interview that friend who's been to every beach ever, or explain all the different kinds of waves for someone who's never put on a wet-suit. Regular content is always good.<\/p>
A blog doesn\u2019t have to be massive, the ideal length is about one side of A4 paper, or 5 or 6 paragraphs.<\/p>
5. Make how to guides and tutorials<\/strong><\/h2>
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One of the best way to get traffic to your blog is to get your posts shared. People will share posts that are useful to them.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>
Ask yourself: What do you know about? What can you teach people, and what knowledge can you share that's helpful?<\/p>
If you're a mountain bike brand show people how you set up your bike or share your top tips on how to go faster down hills. If you're a fashion brand, including styling tips such as how to do a four-stranded plait or share a look tutorial. If you're an adventure brand you can explain how you find the best wild swimming spots.<\/p>
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People use search engines to find answers to their questions or to learn things they don't know. How tos, top tips and DIY posts often pull in high traffic as they provide answers in clear, simple, helpful steps.<\/p>
Start your blog title with a question (How to improve your baking skills), then make your blog the answer to it. Lay it out in clear steps and include loads of images.<\/p>
It's a really good idea to weave in images of your products and links to your collections<\/a> so that people who find your post make the connection that they can buy the products they see in your blog.<\/p>
6. Suggest something for people to try out, then feature your fans
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Similar to how to's, loads of people are searching the internet to find cool things to do and communities to join. Introduce them to your brand by blogging about activities that are fun, easy to do and can be done while wearing your products.<\/p>
If you make t-shirts for protests, list some unmissable upcoming marches and challenge people to make signs from odds and ends around their house. All about self care? Suggest a super relaxing evening plan that doesn't cost anything. If your brand is inspired by your city, recommend all those hidden pubs you love that most people don't know about.<\/p>
Help awareness of your activity spread by turning it into a hashtag. Search for Instagram hashtag challenges that are taking off or create your own, write a blog post about them and invite your fans to take part.<\/p>
Take cool photos of yourself and your friends doing these activities wearing your products. Embed links to your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Kickstarter projects and more in your blog posts so people can find the channel they prefer and join in easily.
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Ask for your fans' thoughts and opinions when you share your post and encourage them to tag you in their own photos of their activities. Getting people talking in your channel's comments is a great way to turn your customers into a community, giving people another reason (on top of buying your products) to check in with your store. This will help boost your social media and blog traffic.<\/p>
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When you spot a good photo of a customer in your products, re-post it. Giving your fans a shout out on your blog (and your social media) is a great way to make them feel appreciated and keep them engaged.<\/p>
As the tagged photos increase, favour posting pictures from people who match your target demographic to help your customer base grow in the direction you want.<\/p>
8. Work together or invite others to write for you<\/h2>
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Not all your blog posts have to come from you. Teaming up with other people can reduce your workload, vary your content and increase your audience.<\/p>
If you're a brand with vegan values, one blog post a month could showcase an emerging animal-free chef. All about nature? Have a regular gallery blog post featuring work by local wildlife photographers. Doing this will give you easy new content, give your collaborator fresh exposure and will help your brand reach new people as you'll tap into your their audience.<\/p>
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Once you've got a neat collection of posts, you can use your blog introduce yourself to people that inspire you and interview them. Ask questions that you find fascinating and useful.<\/p>
Remember, one of the best ways to create high-traffic content is to make a blog post that's useful. People will share things they found helpful.<\/p><\/blockquote>
So, if you're a brand all about keeping the oceans clean you could interview a charity doing just that. As well as being a great blog post, this is a rad way to make connections and create relationships with brands you love.<\/p>
9. Review anything and everything<\/h2>
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Everything can be reviewed. Music, films on Netflix, that festival you went to, your surfboard, your friend's cooking, local architecture, a podcast, even your pen.<\/p>
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Try to favour timeless content on your blog. While time-specific content (discussing something from the news, reviewing the best new games of this month) may pull in short term readers it will quickly fall out of date.<\/p>
Timeless content can be shared again and again and again, making it much more valuable. For example, instead of reviewing the whole festival, you could review that one act that was really iconic as people will want to read about that for years to come.<\/p>
Boost your blog posts by embedding podcasts, YouTube and Vimeo videos, digital radio channels, Daily Motion, Spotify, Amazon Music, Soundcloud and more by just selecting the Embed button.<\/p>
10. The main thing is to do something.<\/strong><\/h2>
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And don't forget that practice makes perfect.<\/p>
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Any content is better than nothing. We all start somewhere<\/a>. Your blog is something that will always be growing and changing, developing as your brand develops.<\/p>
Writing regular blog posts for your Teemill store is a simple easy and way to boost your marketing that doesn't require anything more than your phone.<\/p>