How to Successfully Promote Merch on YouTube

Whether you’re a gamer, musician, vlogger, or diehard fan of a popular K-pop group, you’ll never run out of ways to make more and more money out of your Youtube brand and content. And one of the surefire ways to gather more income while strengthening your relationships with your avid viewers is by creating and selling your merch! So buckle up because, in this article, we’ll be showing you some of the most effective methods to achieve success in promote your merch on Youtube.

But before all that, let’s gauge how prepped you are first!

Why sell your merch?

We get it. Selling your merch would require more work and effort than just creating your usual content and having your viewers dangling on your every word. However, establishing your line of products your subscribers can treasure will surely be worth all the hype and hustle in the long run.

And in case you’re still quite hesitant, here are more reasons why you should sell your merch now.

It’s part of building and growing your brand.

Having your merch line lets you further establish the “who” of your channel and content. It also allows you to explore more possible breakthroughs for your brand and even open up new business ventures. Just imagine how building a strong brand will provide you with a broader pool of opportunities to jumpstart your own eCommerce business, collaborate with other brands and create more content for your Youtube channel!

It lets you immortalize your milestones.

No one understands the struggle of building a brand more than content creators. And if there’s anything that truly reflects how far you’ve come in building your channel, it’s by looking into all the milestones you’ve reached and seeing yourself grow throughout time.

And what better way to do just that than having tangible products you and your fans can cherish for years?

It helps you add value to your relationship with your followers.

Having fans who are just as invested in building your brand as you are is truly one of the most rewarding things to have. And by stimulating their inner #shopphile, having your merch will undoubtedly strengthen and add value to the bond between you and them.

It gives your followers something to look forward to.

There are always those loyal fans who love everything about your channel and content. And building up to your line of merch will surely give them something more to look forward to!

In addition, your subscribers will surely like it even more if there’s something else associated with your brand, aside from your videos, that they can get their hands on.

It can boost your income.

We’ve said this a couple of times already, but in case you want a rough idea of how much one can potentially make in selling merch when you promote your merch on Youtube, here’s a list of the average figures earned by some of the most popular Youtubers every month, as reported by Sell Merch and Purple Moon:

• PewDiePie : $6,834,645
• MrBeast: $504,210
• Nigahiga: $246,940
• Collins Key: $1,780,780
• JennaMarbles: $565,460
• Logan Paul Vlogs: $847,295
• Markiplier: $1,783,195

Some things to consider before creating your merch

Sounds pretty enticing, right? But before you start sketching and working on your merch ideas, here are some things we suggest you take note of!

Your audience demographics.

Who are your most avid viewers? Which regions are they from? How about their age and gender?

You won’t figure out all these by just reading through your videos’ comment section. Most users on the platform use different nicknames that are sometimes entirely unrelated to their actual identity. That’s why there’s Youtube Analytics.

If you want to get to know your audience better, you can always check your Channel Analytics and access Youtube’s Demographics report. Apart from the age range, country, and gender of your viewers, you’ll also get to track your channel’s impressions, impressions, click-through rate, unique viewers, and the average time your audience spends watching your content.

The products you’re selling.

Once you’ve gotten to know your audience well, it’ll be much easier to determine the kind of merch you should be selling. You can focus on those they’ll surely use and appreciate or those that are on the trend.

To give you some more ideas on which items you can start with, here are the top 10 best-selling merchandise products in 2021 as reported by Sellfy:

1. T-shirts
2. Leisurewear
3. Home decor
4. Tote bags
5. Embroidered Sweatshirt
6. Mugs
7. Hats
8. Phone cases
9. Stickers
10. Face masks

Your partner and supplier.

Doing this on your own may be not only time-consuming but also incredibly overwhelming. So it’s best to partner with a supplier or print provider who understands your creativity and let them do the hard work for you!

You might also want to research print-on-demand (link an article) and the POD companies you can trust to do the heavy lifting of fulfilling your orders once you’ve finalized your merch items and design.

Your selling channels.

How and where will your viewers find your merch?

Research about the online marketplaces accessible to your followers and set up your shop on these platforms. You might also want to try leveraging on the social media platforms pertinent to your audience and utilize these to promote and sell your items.

Let’s get to the point!

Now that we’ve gotten all the why’s and other basics out of the way, we can finally get into the how’s. We’ve listed down all the foolproof ways we know that can definitely help you promote your merch right away!

Make your audience curious.

Spark excitement amongst your audience and make them more curious by buildup before your merch’s actual release. You can create and post teasers and countdowns through Youtube Shorts, scheduled community posts, and other social media accounts you own that your followers frequent.

If you have subscribers that are pretty vigilant when it comes to the subtleties of your content, you can also keep them intrigued by throwing in some easter eggs in your videos and let your viewers discuss them in the comments.

Start big!

By starting big, I don’t mean you should sell lots of items right away and risk not fulfilling your orders. What I mean is that you make your products’ launch quite unforgettable by making a live Youtube event or an announcement video that would excite your viewers more!

Consistency is the key.

Constantly promote your merch on Youtube alongside your content. You can put your products’ links on your video descriptions, create and post promo codes, and showcase the merch themselves by using or wearing them in your videos. You can also organize giveaways and raffles that your followers can join by commenting on your posts or joining your live events.

Lastly, you can always get a hand from the other social media platforms you’re on. Take your hashtags to Twitter, Facebook, and IG and let your followers spread the word. Speaking of Instagram, you can also post stories on this platform integrated with swipe-up features that would take both unique viewers and your existing followers to your Youtube channel or online shop.

Partner up with other content creators.

Find content creators in your niche and work with them! This will help you attract more potential subscribers, widen your reach, and let more people know about your merch. You can do crossover videos with another Youtuber, feature each other’s links and products on your content, and even use their merch to show them to your audiences. You can also create a merch bundle deal where you give away your merch at a low price when they purchase the merchandise of another.

Listen to your audience.

Always go over your videos’ comment section–this is where you’ll discover what your audience wants and what they think about your content and products. Your fans are also more than happy to give their opinion on what designs they like and what items may get more attention! They might even notify you about new merch that they think would be great for your channel!

Maximize trends, holidays, and special seasons.

Keep an eye on current trends, holidays, and special seasons to promote your merch on Youtube. Make the most out of them by making well-timed promotions and even releasing limited editions.

You can take advantage of significant events by building hype around them and putting your products on sale. And since you’ll have a pretty good idea about the interests of your viewers, creating merch for specific holidays is also another great way to create buzz among your audience.

Offer irresistible deals.

“Limited time offer,” “Buy two get 1”, “Offer expires in 24 hours”–these are just some of the deals that would urge your viewers to purchase your merch as soon as possible while you promote your merch on Youtube. You can integrate these in your description boxes together with the links to your shop and product listings. You can also offer and mention exclusive discounts on your videos themselves.

Utilize Youtube Ads.

If you’re willing to shell out some money, you can use Youtube ads to reach more potential audiences and buyers. And, of course, you’re not just limited to in-stream video ads most people usually skip. Here are other ad formats you can choose from!

• Overlay ads

Overlay ads are non-video ads that appear on the lower part of the video. These can contain images, logos, and texts.

• Bumper ads

Bumper ads are short videos that last up to six seconds and are non-skippable. You can use these not just to promote your merch on Youtube but your channel and content as well!

• Discovery ads

Discovery ads on Youtube work like the ads in Google search. These ads contain images and texts and can appear on the Youtube homepage, video watch page, and search results page.

Check out the Youtube Creator Academy

Youtube itself can help you build your brand further and promote your merchandise through its creator academy. The Youtube Creator Academy has a free three-part course that’d equip you with the know-how of selling merchandise on the platform.

And now that you’re all set…

Keep in mind that your merch is an extension of who you are and your brand’s identity. Grow with it and make your viewers part of its success!