year’s subscription if you pay attention. Check
out this site – www.ThreadLess.com (Actually as
I was researching this site – I bought a very
cool T-shirt there – so there’s another reason to
check out the site.)
Threadless.com is a perfect “closed loop” system of
interactivity, feedback and direct sales back to
your “group.” It’s pretty damn smart! They have
over 300,000 registered users who vote on t-shirt
designs submitted by other users in the community.
The shirts that get the best scores are the ones
that are produced and sold right back to the group
who said they wanted to buy it. Those that don’t
make the cut are banished to the design archives.
The winners get fame and fortune (sort of). They’ll
receive a $2,000 prize if they get their T-shirt
selected for printing and their design immortalized.
Actually, it’s pretty cool, because the T-shirt I
bought has the designer’s name on the inside of the
shirt, too.
Let’s explore this a little more…
First off, there is almost no risk in using this
type of system. It’s a perfect closed loop, with
material submitted by users, voted on by users and
then purchased by the users. This is one of the best
applications of the online world I’ve seen in quite
some time. Consider how much less risk there is in
letting your community tell you *EXACTLY* what they
want to purchase and then giving it right back to
them. Actually, I would bet the sales are even better
because the users feel like they are involved from
the very first step. They feel like they have their
hand in the birthing of the T-shirt.
The guys behind Threadless.com have only the risk
of printing up too much inventory – but I’m sure
they’ve got that figured based on the scoring the
T-shirts received and past sales numbers.
Also, they have an ingenious feature built-in that
lets would-be buyers request a reprint of a shirt if
it’s sold-out already.
You provide your email address and which size
T-shirt you want to get updates if your favorite
design will be updated. The website’s shop also
leaves up lots of sold-out designs, which shows
“social proof” of other people buying. Plus, it
gets people submitting their info to be notified of
reprints (once again diminishing the risk of
production).
Threadless.com works on so many levels involving
their users and really building community – which
keeps them involved and excited about the T-shirts.
Plus, it continues building social proof of how cool
their designs are. For instance…
1. They let users post photos of themselves wearing
the T-shirt designs.The more people you see in the
T-shirt the “cooler” you think it is. Plus, it allows
members of the community to get a bit of recognition
and fame. They also get “points” for submitting their
photo in a T-shirt design. Those points are used for
free t-shirts and that’s also how they run part of
their affiliate program.
2. Instead of a “real” affiliate program, they have
managed to activate their users as evangelists for
them in exchange for free tees. Users get points
every time someone buys a T-shirt from their link.
3. On each design submission, registered users are
encouraged to leave their comments. These real-world
comments are more social proof (if they are positive)
and also give the Threadless.com guys some insight
into the designs that are selling.
4. Attaching themselves to celebrities. Their
community gets excited when they see a celeb or
musician wearing one of their shirts. Pictures are
posted on a “sightings” page.
5. Keeping it fun and quirky. If you start glancing
through the t-shirts (yes, I just bought another
one!) you’ll see the staff at Threadless.com really
gets into the photography of the shirt. There’s a
design with Darth Vader from Star Wars pruning a tree.
It’s pretty good – but then take a look at the product
pic. There’s a guy shearing another team member’s hair
(while wearing the t-shirt).
Okay so how this apply to your business if you’re
not selling T-shirts?
Lots. Here are some questions to get your started…
Think about how you can make your product and
marketing more of a two-way street and offer a true
interaction with customers.
* How can you get more interactive with your
customer base and get them actively engaged with
you?
* How can you give them recognition?
* How can you incorporate more social proof?
* Why do you have to do business the same way
everyone else does by “guessing” what your
customers want?
User-generated content is huge!
Look at “American Idol” – same thing but on a
different scale. All the American Idol hopefuls
contribute their content (singing) and the
producers profit from it.
Go back even further and a perfect example before
the online world is “America’s Funniest Home
Videos.” Users submitted videos (content) and the
TV show producers profited. Now today you’ve got
YouTube.com, with millions of video submissions, or
Flickr.com with photos. I’ll cover user-generated
content in another issue more thoroughly, but this
should give lots of stuff to think about.
This is one of the perfect uses for the Internet
that could never happen offline.
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Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on
creating automatic, moneymaking websites…and he still
doesn’t know how to put up a website.
He is the author, co-author or creator of several best-
selling online marketing books and tools, including his
newest resource – http://dariomontesdeoca.com/copywritingworkshop
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January 16, 2010
Online Marketing