How To Find the Perfect Niche for Your T-Shirt Business

Thinking of starting a t-shirt company? The single most important thing you need to do is find your niche audience. With all the online noise out there your brand can’t be something for everyone. So, the real success comes in connecting the right product with the right audience. We’ll share how finding that niche audience can be the determining factor for companies that make it.

A perfect example of success with this strategy is the Bad Dad’s Club. The Bad Dad’s Club a clothing brand that blossomed from the realization of a hole in the apparel market where tattooed, motorcycle-driving, bearded, creative-type Dads were not being targeted. This demographic didn’t fit in the mainstream market of the “khaki and button down polo” look for fathers. This void was identified, and the Bad Dad’s Club was born.

Another innovative example of a perfectly identified niche audience is the PAL Campaign; a clothing brand trying to bridge the gap between religion and “cool.” This was created due to a community of individuals who wanted to wear apparel that incorporated great design, with Gospel truth, and avoid being “in-your-face” while doing it. The pursuit was not without struggle, but the PAL Campaign prevailed in the end.

Benefits of a Niche Audience

When searching for a niche you want to target, the most helpful strategy could simply be taking a look in the mirror. Your most unique opinions you believe to be exclusive yours, are very likely the opinions shared by others. There you will find your niche audience. Reflecting like this will help you create a more genuine approach to business, better serving the community you’ll be inadvertently creating.

Staying Relevant in Your Niche

Find a platform that speaks to your niche or where that group of people interact with one another. Everyone is involved somewhere online. Whether it it’s joining BuzzFeed Groups, reading Reddit feeds or following certain Instagram accounts, insert yourself in that community and stay engaged.

By doing this, you will be able to maintain brand consistency while simultaneously identifying opportunities to set trends. Brand consistency is crucial when starting any new business; it teaches your audience what to expect from you, and therefore lays down a foundation of trust.  This trust, however, comes with the future responsibility of leading them in the right direction, so it is your obligation to remain well-versed and poised for new opportunities to expand.

This is what happened for the Bad Dad’s Club. Their success with Dads in their target niche community lead to a desire from the Moms in that same community for better, more individually-reflective clothing options for them, and the Bad Momma’s Club extension materialized. The community desire was larger than expected, but the brand voice was able to remain consistent with the Bad Dad’s Club. The expansion made sense, was backed by clear demand and executed in a timely manner.

A common misstep is trying to expand too fast, too large and too general. Movement in any of these directions without enough thought can cause you to lose your corner of the market, the trust of your audience, and your connection with them as a whole. Prioritize your audience, they can make or break you.

Finding The Best Blank Apparel for you Audience

Choosing a blank is one of the more vital choices you will make when it comes to selling in general.

For example, when you choose BELLA+CANVAS, you know that their high quality is consistent, and you will feel confident selling it. BELLA+CANVAS has a trustworthy reputation which ends up being a large selling point for all who use it.

Keep in mind when starting a business it’s an experiment and print-on-demand companies can be a huge help.  For example, at Printful, they can help you to upload a product to your site just to see if people are interested in buying the design before actual production. This feature eliminates high financial risk for business as well as paves a way to define your target audience.

So what new audience do you fall under? Are you in the Bad Dads Club, or maybe your passion is food and you have endless illustration ideas for avocados and lattes. Let us know in the comments below!