Merchandising Your Podcast
Podcast Merchandise
Good morning, Podcasters! Today we explore podcast merchandise:
- Do you need it?
- Is it worth it?
- What kind should you get?
- How do you do it?
Do you need it?
The biggest question with podcast merchandise is "Do you need it?" Are your listeners asking for merchandise? Will the time and money you need to create merch.
Is it worth it?
Buying merch can be a big up-front cost. You don't want to get stuck holding boxes of t-shirts if they're not selling. You can take some of the uncertainty out by either doing a presale or ordering a small, limited quantity.
What kind of merchandise should you get?
Obviously, t-shirts, stickers, hoodies, coffee mugs and such are popular. But there are literally thousands of ideas out there. Get creative with it. If you're going to buy merch, consider something memorable that might get others to talk about it and become familiar with your show.
How do you buy merch?
There are a ton of different options from online to local promotional item dealers. However, the two that I have had success with are Threadless and Printful.
Threadless is an online print-on-demand store. It has a good selection of items that are reasonably priced. The quality isn't top notch, but it's good.
Printful is a more robust print-on-demand merchandise dealer. It integrates with Wordpress (through Woocommerce), Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, Etsy, Ebay, and a number of other platforms. They have a great selection of merch, including bigger brands like Adidas and American Apparel. However, the prices are a bit higher, so you will have to charge a relatively high price in order to make margin.
And that's kind of the game with merchandise. You need to either sell it for a lot, or move enough quantity to make any real money off of it.
But, if you want to get your brand out there, there's demand for your show, or you have a brand in your niche that people want to put on their chests, quality merchandise may be the way to go.
Transcript
Fuzz Martin 0:00
Good Morning Podcasters! Let's talk about merch. Howdy y'all. I hope you're having a great Friday. Happy Friday the 13th hope it's not too spooky for you. My name is Fuzz Martin and this is Good Morning, Podcasters!—a show where we explore marketing, advertising, public relations, and social media topics as they connect to the podcasting industry. And more importantly, how you can connect them to your podcast. The idea for this show is to provide you with practical, actionable ideas. I have no place for gurus or those who want to pump you up and make you feel good. I'm a doer. I want you to be able to do so let's do.
Fuzz Martin 0:54
Today I want to talk to you about merchandise. So here's what we're going to discuss one. Do you need merch? Two? Is it worth it? Three. What kind of merch should you get? And four? How do you do it? It'll be pretty high level. sound good to you? Sounds good to me. Let's get into it.
Fuzz Martin 1:20
Do you need merch? Let me answer that question with some questions. Is your audience asking for merch? Or do you just want to have some merch for yourself? Who is going to purchase your merch? Where are they going to wear your merch? Will merch help others start listening to your show? Do you know anyone with a podcasting t shirt? Do you know anyone who wears podcasting T shirts besides Ed canard have the greatest song ever sung poorly podcast. Depending on the size of your audience base and the rabid Miss of your audience, it might be a good idea, but it also might not. Podcasts merchandise might also be good if you're say going to a conference or trade shows speaking at events if you have a local presence, or if you have a nationally recognized show.
Fuzz Martin 2:16
So number two is it worth it is having merchandise for your show worth the money in time and involved in getting it up and running it might be but you need to be careful. Here are some things that I recommend you look out for number one, unless you have a crazy large following and brand. And you know that people are itching to get your hands on that brand. Don't buy merchandise in bulk. You don't want to have a garage or a basement full of boxes of T shirts in size, medium, small, large, extra large, double XL, et cetera. You don't want those sitting around molding in your basement. little anecdote for you, I run a nonprofit, I was convinced to purchase a bunch of T shirts for a fundraiser, which was a great event and we raised a ton of money. We also spent $2,600 on approximately 275 T shirts, and I have approximately $2,000 worth of T shirts left. It's not a good place to be. And you don't want to be there with your show. So I highly recommend not buying a whole ton of merch in bulk unless you know that you have the audience that is going to support and move that and how do you know you'll know? Or you can just ask them do a survey, do a preorder?
Fuzz Martin 3:48
And number two of is it worth it? You need to be sure that your audience is clamoring for merch. It's typically a low margin product. So unless you can sell T shirts at 30 bucks apiece, or move a lot of volume. The upfront work might not be worth your time.
Fuzz Martin 4:05
ndreds of different ideas and:Fuzz Martin 5:19
eated? Again, unless you have:Fuzz Martin 7:43
When it comes to design and what your shows merchandise should look like that's a whole nother episode. There are a ton of different ways you can go with that. Maybe we'll talk about that on a future show.
Fuzz Martin 7:57
That will do it for today's episode of Good Morning, Podcasters! If you have questions for the show, I am very accessible. Email me Fuzz at good morning pod.com That's fuzz F-U-Z-Z at goodmorningpod.com or shoot me a DM on Twitter @gmpodcasters do episodes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Have a wonderful weekend. And I will talk to you Monday right here on Good Morning, Podcasters!
