Every time folks begin a band, a theatre firm, or a podcast, one demand is inevitable: “When can we get t-shirts?” Podcast merchandise is an effective way to promote and construct pleasure about your present. However, if you happen to don’t do it proper, you may find yourself with containers of merch in a closet or basement, accumulating mud. Don’t fear. We’ll talk about techniques to maintain your podcast merchandise marketing campaign easy and efficient.
Know Your Model and Your Viewers
Earlier than you begin silkscreening t-shirts by hand, pinpoint why you wish to make and promote podcast merchandise. Some causes may very well be promotion, engagement, or increasing on a specific facet of your podcast’s subject.
Different vital issues:
- What’s your podcast’s niche? What makes it distinctive?
- Who’s your ideal listener? Who’s your podcast for?
- How do you’re feeling about your podcast art?
- What’s thrilling, memorable, or provocative about your podcast which you could spotlight?
Figuring out this helps you resolve what to make, tips on how to design it, and tips on how to distribute it. You wouldn’t attempt to promote cat treats to canine, and also you actually wouldn’t promote them in fifty-pound luggage.
How Will You Distribute Your Podcast Merchandise?
Some podcasters give away small promotional objects. Others promote merchandise by a web-based storefront, or use a print-on-demand service. Whichever you select, they’ve their very own set of issues. Plus, you must know tips on how to get your merchandise safely in your viewers’s arms.
Giving Away Podcast Merch
If you happen to’re making a gift of podcast merchandise, it must be cheap and simple to distribute. Choose small objects with a low value level. Stickers and bar mats/coasters are standard, collectable, and performance as promoting. That is one more reason to ensure your artwork is nice sufficient to share. Pencils or pens, too, can transmit your podcast’s identify, model colours, and emblem.
However folks don’t worth free swag as extremely as paid objects. My mom volunteers at her church thrift store, and it’s loaded with every kind of promotional tchotchkes handed out totally free at enterprise conventions. She even discovered a Madoff Funding Securities tote bag.
Whenever you select podcast merchandise, steadiness how a lot it’s helpful, significant, and promotional. It doesn’t should be a billboard if it’s helpful and significant as a result of it’s a dialog starter. If it is a billboard, it doesn’t should be as helpful or significant as a result of it promotes your podcast. However this podcast merch can find yourself at a charity store.
Individuals worth useful, enticing, and pleasantly tactile merchandise. Some examples of excellent merchandise are enamel pins (people really do collect them), flash drives, water bottles, journey mugs, and, sure, T-shirts. In case your podcast area of interest is particular sufficient, branded objects (reminiscent of spatulas for a cooking podcast) may very well be value your whereas.
Is Your Podcast Merch Deliverable?
How do you intend to get the merchandise within the arms of your loyal viewers? You possibly can:
- ship it your self,
- promote it on to the viewers, head to head, or
- use a print-on-demand firm.
Stocking and delivery objects your self provides you probably the most management, however it’s additionally additional work. Until the merchandise is the first focus of your small business, you’re higher off spending that effort and time in your podcast episodes.
Promoting it on to a fan is nice as a result of you may couple it with a dialog. The merchandise will get tied in with the reminiscence of assembly you, so the article turns into extra significant. However, in that case, it’s a must to be the place your podcast’s followers can discover you.
If you happen to’re renting booth space at a conference or internet hosting a stay podcast episode, then a podcast merchandise desk is good. However it’s a must to embody a minimum of a few of the value of sales space rental within the value of your merchandise. Once more, this takes time, effort, and cash. But it surely’s a superb step towards constructing neighborhood. Individuals will keep in mind the dialog they’ve with you once they purchase.
A print-on-demand firm is the simplest choice, although you’ve got much less management. You additionally don’t have as a lot duty. You hyperlink your podcast web site and your present notes to your storefront on the print-on-demand web site. The customer picks out the merchandise, shade, and dimension they need, and the print-on-demand firm prints it and handles the delivery. Additionally they deal with returns, exchanges, or any errors.
Dimension Issues
When promoting podcast merchandise in individual, the smaller and lighter it’s, the higher. Both you’ll should ship it, or the client has to hold it round with them. Something greater than somebody’s hand or heavier than a pound, persons are extra more likely to order on-line. Hold this in thoughts if you happen to’re promoting one thing like glass drinkware or ceramic mugs.
Once more, that is the place print-on-demand corporations are useful. You don’t wish to take an hour of your podcasting workflow to go to the submit workplace and pay $20 delivery to ship a $10 mug.
Choose a distributor with inclusive sizing in case your coronary heart is ready on t-shirts. In case your t-shirts run small, medium, and enormous, you’re telling anybody who wears an extra-large or an additional small that they don’t slot in your viewers.
Podcast Merchandise Storefronts and E-Commerce Providers
You’re employed onerous in your podcast. Making a podcast merch retailer with quite a lot of high quality objects is figure, too. Subcontracting it out to the professionals might be expensive, however not at all times. There are numerous choices, however let’s slim it down by taking a look at an instance of print-on-demand, crowdfunding, and e-commerce for podcasters.
Print-On-Demand: Teepublic
Print-on-demand corporations providing merch for digital content material creators have many similarities, so let’s deal with one as a substitute of many. Personally, I’m an enormous fan of Teepublic’s program for artists, as a result of they:
- pay creators month-to-month by way of PayPal,
- have all kinds of sizes, kinds, and colours
- promote extra than simply t-shirts: they’ve mugs, tote luggage, stickers and extra
- use a design course of that’s easy to be taught and observe
- steadily have gross sales which you could promote to your following (with out reducing into the quantity you make from every sale)
Try our personal Teepublic ‘T-Shirts for Podcasters’ retailer.
Designing podcast merchandise for TeePublic is as simple as making your podcast cowl artwork. Their uploader takes you step-by-step by becoming your artwork onto their merchandise.
As soon as revealed, your podcast merch is on the market with a reduction for a day: alert your followers. The one aspect I don’t like about TeePublic is that I can by no means fairly get my artwork to suit on a espresso mug in a manner that makes me pleased. Your mileage might fluctuate.
Crowdfunding Platforms with Storefronts
Some crowdfunding platforms like Ko-Fi, Purchase Me a Espresso, and Sponsus have e-commerce storefronts as a part of their companies. Most often, you’re accountable for delivery. Once more, you set costs: your crowdfunding platform supplies show house and processes funds. This frees you to supply distinctive podcast merchandise and raises the bar for a dialog about your podcast subject.
For instance, Long Cat Media’s podcast merchandise shop provides extra curiosity to their tales whereas showcasing their many abilities and abilities.
Does your podcast promote signed, authentic, hand-printed linocut artwork? Not many do, however Lengthy Cat’s critically acclaimed present Ghosted does. Lengthy Cat Media sells downloadable audio, entry to non-public workshops, artwork, and even hand-made microphones constituted of classic telephones. Their podcast merchandise store is eye sweet that draws the viewers to their crowdfunding web site. Curiosity might make you take a look at the phone mics, but when they’re out of your price range, you may ship them a latte’s value of assist whilst you’re there.
The great thing about delivery merchandise your self is in personalization. After I purchased myself one thing from Lengthy Cat Media’s retailer, they enclosed a handwritten be aware that warmed my coronary heart.
Podswag: E-Commerce for Podcasters
Podswag helps the podcast networks for Sirius XM and Earwolf, so that you’re more likely to see numerous celeb podcasts of their catalog. These podcasts give PodSwag the buying energy to customise objects outdoors the standard merch realms. Yow will discover Croc charms (no, I’m not joking), jewelry, housewares, and the standard t-shirts and mugs. You possibly can even put your podcast on a vinyl LP.
Repurpose Your Content material
Repurposing your content sometimes means taking an episode and making a weblog submit, video, or social media graphics round it. However repurposing can apply to podcast merch, too.
Printable supplies, like books or posters, are simple to print and ship and don’t weigh a lot. In case your podcast has nice artwork, work with the artist to create variations on that theme. Some podcasts develop into graphic novels, limited-run artwork prints, or cookbooks.
Memorable quotes out of your present might be included on any podcast merchandise. Certain, placing the title of your present on merchandise makes an amazing billboard, however a trenchant quote invitations a dialog.
Can You Make a Revenue with Your Podcast Merchandise?
Until your podcast is an commercial for an current merchandise enterprise, don’t anticipate to make an enormous revenue in your podcast merch. The purpose right here must be promoting your present, getting your viewers excited, and staying related. There are many ways to monetize your podcast, however promoting merch is extra about visibility and engagement than topping up that retirement fund.
Podcast Merchandise, In A Nutshell
Primarily, right here’s all you want:
- terrific artwork,
- memorable content material,
- a strong and particular area of interest,
- a transparent sense of your preferrred listener
- a dependable storefront and supply technique.
See? Making and promoting podcast merchandise is straightforward. It’s good podcast merchandise that’s more difficult.
We’ve hundreds extra suggestions and methods that will help you construct your viewers in our 30 Days of Audience Growth course inside Podcraft Academy. You’ll get entry to all our different programs, from tools and enhancing to voice coaching and monetization. Plus, we run common stay Q&A classes the place you will get tailor-made podcasting recommendation, and options to your podcasting issues!
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