Creating podcast merchandise can be an excellent way to connect with and grow your audience. But before launching merch, it’s crucial to ensure the timing is right, understand the different types of merch you can create, and learn how to effectively design merch and sell your products. Here’s everything you need to know about creating and selling podcast merch!
Should You Create Podcast Merch?
While it makes sense for established podcasters with engaged audiences to create merch, launching products too early can do more harm than good. If you have a consistent schedule, an engaged audience, stable income and brand, as well as a clear plan for how to launch and promote your podcast merch, it might be the right time to create and sell custom products for your podcast.
Why You Should Create Merchandise
Podcast merchandise opens up new opportunities to market your show and grow your brand. Here are a few reasons why you should create podcast merch:
- Build a stronger following: Podcast merch can help you attract new listeners and deepen your connection with existing fans.
- Engage your community: Merch is a great way to help your listeners feel appreciated and part of your show’s community.
- Increase brand recognition: As walking advertisements, merch can expand your brand awareness and introduce your podcast to new listeners.
- Generate revenue: Merchandise serves as an additional revenue stream outside of advertising and sponsorships.
When You Shouldn’t Create Merchandise
Merch collections aren’t the right strategy for every podcaster, and launching merchandise at the wrong time can be an unproductive use of time and resources. Below are some reasons to refrain from creating merch for your podcast:
- Lack of listener interest: If your podcast has a small, inactive, or disengaged listener base, the costs and effort required to create and promote your merch might not result in significant sales. Instead, focus on growing your audience and building engagement, then revisit merch when there’s more demand.
- Unclear brand identity: Inconsistent branding on your products can be confusing to listeners and result in low sales. Nail down your brand identity first so you can create merch that reinforces it.
- Financial constraints: If you’re not confident you can cover the cost of creating merch or you’re relying on a high ROI, it may be best to wait until you’re in a more comfortable spot financially before you explore merch.
- Unoriginal merchandise concepts: Generic merch likely won’t excite your audience. Spend more time brainstorming creative designs that support your unique brand identity to increase the likelihood that your merch will be successful when launched.
- Lack of promotion time: Merchandise is unlikely to perform well if you don’t generate buzz, which can cost you valuable time, effort, and money. Wait to create merch until you have the time and resources to advertise your products in advance.
- Inconsistent release schedule: Creating merch but inconsistently or rarely releasing new podcast episodes may give listeners the impression that you care more about money than creating quality content. Before considering merch, focus on building a more regular release schedule to boost engagement.
Types of Podcast Merch
Creating podcast merchandise that lands with your audience and generates sales starts with choosing the right products. There are several types of podcast merch for you to consider, including:
- Apparel: T-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, baseball caps, beanies, etc.
- Functional items: Tote bags, backpacks, mugs, tumblers, coasters, phone cases, notebooks, etc.
- Decorative items: Stickers, posters, pins, etc.
- Exclusive or limited-edition products: Holiday ornaments, unique collectibles, signed memorabilia, and other types of exclusive merch.
- Novelty items: Bookmarks for a literature podcast, dice for a Dungeons & Dragons podcast, kitchen utensils for a cooking podcast, etc.
Hurrdat’s Creative Director, Scott Miller, points out:
“When creating merch, t-shirts, mugs, and stickers are great places to start. Everyone wears t-shirts, and they are highly visible and easy to customize. Mugs are very practical. Stickers are great because they can be stuck virtually anywhere, and they are an economical way for your fans to show their support.”
All of the products you decide to offer should be grounded in strategy. For instance, you might opt to create apparel if you’re seeking enhanced brand awareness, as listeners are more likely to wear these items out and about. If your goal is sales, create practical merch items to incentivize your audience to replace basic, daily items with your more fashionable alternatives. Or help your listeners feel like they’re part of a special community by designing novelty items related to your niche.
Tips for Designing Your Podcast Merch
Once you’ve decided to create and sell merchandise, it can be challenging to know where to start. Check out these tips for designing merchandise in a way that aligns with your brand and strengthens your listener base.
Remember Your Audience
Understanding your audience is key to designing merch they’re excited to buy. The goal of selling branded merchandise is to create products that resonate with your listeners and that they want to show off. Consider the following:
- Audience preferences: What are your listeners’ interests and preferences?
- Merchandise functionality: What type of merchandise would your audience use on a regular basis?
- Connection to your brand: How can you create merchandise that strengthens listeners’ connection to you and your podcast?
- Inclusive sizing: What apparel sizes should you offer to ensure all your audience members feel considered?
For inspiration on how to create merch with your audience in mind, look to the Don’t Let It Stu podcast. They offer aprons as part of their merch line, which are not only functional, but relevant to the show’s culinary subject matter as well as their listeners’ specific interests and hobbies.
Be Consistent with Your Brand Identity
Because merchandise serves as a physical advertisement for your podcast, it’s essential to adhere to your brand identity when creating merch. Instead of pouring all your energy into over-the-top designs, focus on ensuring your merchandise is identifiable. Being authentic with your brand by using consistent colors, fonts, and messaging makes it easier for people to recognize your merch as your merch. Consider incorporating your podcast’s cover art if it’s something your listeners strongly associate with your brand. Additionally, include memorable quotes and references from your show to help establish a consistent brand identity while also building community with your audience.
By incorporating brand colors and logos on nearly every item of merch offered, the Above Deck podcast does an excellent job of reinforcing their brand identity, increasing the likelihood that their merch will be recognized by their community of listeners.
Consider Multiple Merch Designs
While some merch designs may be versatile enough to work on multiple items, others might be uniquely suited to certain pieces due to size or shape restrictions. Consider the surface space available on each product. Simpler designs tend to work better on smaller items like beanies and notebooks, and are great for brand recognition. On the other hand, items like posters and tote bags allow room for more artistic or complex designs.
Check out the various merch designs offered by the Ologies podcast. While the hat simply features the podcast’s name, the tote bag’s design is more intricate, and the sweatshirt was even spacious enough to include a reference to the show’s content.
Study Popular Merch Trends
Before deciding on the type of merchandise to offer your customers, take time to explore what’s popular. See what your competitors are offering and uncover emerging trends. Staying up-to-date with the best merch designs and creating trending items like enamel pins or tote bags gives you a competitive edge that can appeal to your audience and increase your sales.
The McElroy Merch Squad stays on top of trends, offering new products each month based on demand. For instance, they’ve created a variety of options for enamel pins their listeners can either choose from or collect, all of which call back to inside jokes and references from their various podcast shows.
Prioritize Product Quality
When you design merchandise, keep quality at the forefront. Listeners who feel satisfied with the value of the merchandise they’ve purchased are more likely to become repeat customers or recommend your merch to others. Using high-quality materials, like durable materials for phone cases or comfortable fabrics for apparel, can bolster the longevity of your products. Before putting your merchandise up for sale and sending it off, take the time to examine your products for quality assurance.
Promote Your Merchandise
Don’t forget to advertise your merch to alert your audience that it’s available and prevent your hard work from going unnoticed! Take a minute or so at the end of your podcast episodes to encourage listeners to check out the new items available in your online shop. Dedicate a section of your podcast website to displaying your merch. Showcase your products on social media and consider collaborating with influencers to expand your reach. And offer discounts or highlight exclusive items through your email marketing efforts to grow your audience of paid subscribers.
The Crime Junkie podcast models great product promotion, utilizing their social media platforms to show off photos of their diverse merch collection and keep fans updated on when new products will be available. Their captions also entice followers to join their fan club to gain early access to new items.
[instagram url=”https://www.instagram.com/p/C5WJf7MtdnZ/?hl=en”]
Gather Listener Feedback
Customer feedback helps improve your existing merchandise options and expand your offerings over time. Ask your listeners to leave a merch review to win a free t-shirt or notebook, or run social media polls asking what types of merch listeners want to see in your shop. Tailoring your products based on the suggestions you receive not only shows your audience that you care about their feedback and strengthens your relationship with them, but can also help you attract more sales.
Scale Over Time
Creating too much merch too quickly might result in wasted time or resources. Start out by creating a few simple items, such as t-shirts and stickers. Take the time to understand your market, get to know what your listeners are interested in, and refine your products. As your audience shows more interest in your merchandise, and perhaps even suggests ideas for merch they’d like to see you sell, gradually add more products catered to their tastes.
Platforms to Create & Sell Podcast Merch
Once you’ve created products you’re satisfied with, you have two primary options for selling merchandise to your customers: a print-on-demand service or a custom merch store. Learn about how these methods differ and explore their advantages and disadvantages below!
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Print-on-Demand Services
If you’re looking for a way to start selling your podcast merchandise but don’t want the responsibility of maintaining inventory, consider using print-on-demand (POD) sites. Services like Printful and Teespring handle everything from printing and shipping products to customer support, giving you more time to focus on design and promotion rather than production. Because these services only create merch when demand is present, they eliminate the risk of unsold merchandise while allowing podcasters to experiment with different designs and types of products for a low cost. Print-on-demand sites are great for businesses just starting and offer the ability to scale over time. However, they take a percentage of your profits and limit your role in the production process.
Custom Merch Stores
If you want to take a more hands-on approach, consider running your own online storefront using e-commerce platforms like Squarespace, Wix, or Shopify. This option gives you more control over every step of the process and can make quality assurance easier. You’ll need to spend time cultivating a positive buying experience by setting up a straightforward website, taking high-quality images of your products, and providing convenient payment processing. When creating a custom merch store, costs for materials, production equipment, and production space can add up quickly, potentially limiting the products you’re able to offer. This option also requires additional time and effort, which can demand a larger team or specific team members dedicated to managing your inventory and fulfilling orders. However, you’ll have complete creative control and won’t have to share profits with a third-party resource.
Want to expand your podcast’s reach? Hurrdat Media’s podcasting services include recording, production, promotion, and more. Contact us today!