Modern businesses have a wide range of marketing channels to choose from. Such channels include websites, ecommerce stores, online ads, and platforms like YouTube. In taking advantage of these channels, marketers and store owners can get their message to potentially vast audiences. Perhaps better still is that these channels are easy and affordable to use.
Among the most popular modern marketing channels is YouTube. The platform is the world’s second most visited website, attracting around 14.3 billion viewers every month. Grabbing the attention of just a tiny fraction of this vast audience can result in an immense boost in visibility for a business.
If you want to sell your products on YouTube, it’s easy to set up a channel and start selling. However, you will need to get various components right if your channel is to be successful. With that in mind, we created this article to help you understand how to sell merch on YouTube.
A Guide on Selling Merch on YouTube
What to Sell
If you’re wondering how to sell merch on YouTube, you will first need a product to sell, and it’s essential to choose the right product. After all, your business won’t make a penny in profit if there’s insufficient demand for your products. You will also need to ensure your product is feasible in terms of cost – you need to sell your products for more than it costs to make them.
If you already have an ecommerce store, you can use YouTube to promote the products in your store. People who already have a YouTube channel with many subscribers can sell merchandise related to their channel. Doing so will not only help generate revenue directly, but merchandise can also help boost a brand’s visibility.
Popular Merch from Youtubers
Items that sell well include T-shirts, hats, mugs, wall art, and accessories. Such products are popular choices because they are in demand and, again, they will help increase how visible a brand is. For example, if you sell printed T-shirts, then your designs and your brand will be seen every time somebody wears one of your T-shirts.
Regardless of which products you prefer to sell, it’s always best to do your research first. One way to do this research is to check out the competition. Platforms like Amazon are particularly useful in this regard because you can get an idea of how well certain products are selling. Amazon also lets you read reviews that customers have left about products, further guiding you regarding which products to choose from.
Build Your Store
Although you can use YouTube to sell your products, you can’t take orders over the platform directly. Instead, you will need to build an ecommerce store if you don’t already have one and integrate it with YouTube.
Thanks to online platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, anybody can now build their own online store even with minimal technical knowledge. In addition, these platforms are very affordable to use, even free, depending on which tools and features you need. Ecommerce platforms will even handle technical details such as hosting and domains for you, helping to ensure your store will remain open and accessible 24/7.
The most popular ecommerce platforms are also compatible with YouTube with help from apps like Zapier. This compatibility gives store owners access to even more functionality, allowing them to use platforms like YouTube to help promote their products and brand. For example, store owners can link their businesses with their YouTube channels. Such a link allows shoppers to click directly through to the store to purchase products.
There’s also the YouTube merch shelf to take advantage of, which helps make it easier for YouTubers to promote their merch. However, you will need to meet certain criteria before you qualify for a YouTube merch shelf.
Design Merch Your Fans Will Love
Once you’ve done research into which products are most likely to be in demand, it’s time to start designing them. This process is usually best achieved in various stages:
- Brainstorming: It’s always good to get other people’s input into your designs, and brainstorming helps you do just that. If you can, get a Flipboard or a similar item and use it to write down merch ideas from other people as they come. Brainstorming with friends and family can be useful, although it’s more productive to get the ideas of design professionals where possible. Asking your followers for their opinions is another great idea. After all, they are then ones buying the merch from you.
Sketching Ideas: Once you have some merch ideas, it’s time to make some initial sketches. There’s no need to go into the finer details of your designs just yet. Instead, create sketches that demonstrate your ideas so you can ask other people’s opinions. - Getting Feedback: With sketches made, you can go back to other people and ask for their thoughts. Getting more feedback will help you fine-tune your ideas to help you get the design that will be in demand.
- Creating Your Design: When you’ve taken on feedback on your merch ideas, it’s time to move on with creating the final draft. At this stage, it’s best to use digital design tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. However, these tools have quite a steep learning curve so many people might prefer to use simpler tools like Inkscape, GIMP, Sketch, and Vectr.
Throughout the design stage, it’s important to consider how your designs are compatible with the materials you are using and the cost. For example, bear in mind which materials you are printing on to help prevent color clashes. It’s also necessary to consider the types of material you’re using to ensure they are compatible with ink and other printing mediums.
Promote Your Merch
Unless people are already following your YouTube channel, they are unlikely to even know about your merch. Therefore, it’s necessary to promote your products and your brand so more people are aware of them.
In addition to YouTube, there are numerous other marketing sources you can use to make people more aware of your products. For example, you can use pay per click (PPC) marketing to advertise your merch and your store on platforms like Facebook. Benefits of PPC include getting results quickly, affordability, and targeting that helps make your investment cost-effective.
Another option is to use organic social media marketing, which means using ads and other content you don’t pay for. For example, you can build Facebook and Instagram accounts and use them to share your content with your followers. This method lets you reach many people quickly, depending on how many followers you have. Another benefit is that content on social media is easy to share, so quality content will reach people beyond those who follow your accounts.
Find a Professional Print on Demand Partner
Products like printed T-shirts and printed mugs, etc., are among the most popular merch from YouTubers. Such products are affordable, useful, and easy to customize, allowing you to sell merch with your own designs.
Of course, printing these products will involve using professional printing equipment that would be expensive to invest in. However, it’s not necessary to invest in this equipment because you can work with a print on demand partner instead.
A print on demand partner will already have all the equipment they need to print your products for you, meaning you don’t have to make the investment yourself. Perhaps even better is that you don’t have to invest in inventory upfront when working with a print on demand partner. Instead, your print on demand partner will print the products for you as they are ordered, and they will take their share from each sale.
Such benefits help to make the print on demand model popular among many businesses, but there are potential drawbacks. One such drawback is that you’re reliant on your partner to provide a good service; otherwise, you may end up with unhappy customers. This makes it important to do your homework before choosing a partner, and research will show Printbest is a professional and reliable partner.
Summary
YouTube is a platform that offers vast marketing opportunities and is a superb platform for driving merch sales. The platform can also be integrated with ecommerce stores, making it easy for your viewers to browse your products and buy them from you.
However, as beneficial as YouTube can be, it’s still essential to get other aspects right, such as choosing the right merch to sell. To help you make the right decisions, you can perform research on your competitors to see how their products are performing. You will also need to follow certain steps when creating your designs, especially asking for feedback to help you fine-tune your merch ideas.
Another key consideration is which print on demand partner you use. A professional partner will help ensure your customers are happy thanks to good quality products that are delivered in good time. The Printbest blog will be able to give you many tips on creating merch and we will ensure your designs look great so your customers keep on coming back for more. The team at Printbest will be delighted to help you with the above, and more, making us a business partner that will help your business be a success.
