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How to Promote Your Merch on Tiktok

So, you opened up your own Spreadshop to make and sell merch. But how do you go about promoting it on a platform like TikTok?

Creators of all different niches are competing for attention and a chance to get noticed on TikTok. When you promote your merch, it needs to tie into your brand. Even though you’re trying to sell somebody something, it shouldn’t feel like it. It’s okay if it feels like every other video on your page. The ultimate goal is engagement with your audience.

Using trending songs or challenges in your content is an organic way to pop up in peoples’ feeds. If you’re trying to reach a certain audience, make sure you’re creating content they’ll respond to with likes, shares, and comments. And merch sales! See how some of our partners are promoting their merch on TikTok.

Announcement Time!

Make your merch announcement in style, like comedian Eric Feldman. He has an alter ego he calls Tami Langalang: a sassy, blonde-bobbed Facebook mom. His videos often feature him typing up funny Facebook posts in signature Tami style with plenty of exclamation points and emojis. What better way to announce his merch!

The TikTok video is fun and instantly engaging. What really sells it are the adorable pictures of him in his merch. The photos feel candid and capture Eric at peak Tami. You want people to feel connected with your merch and wearing it makes a bigger impact than you might think. It creates a personal connection and can motivate your followers

REMEMBER: your followers are buying your merch for YOU.

Integrate Merch into Your Videos

Since we have so many products, you can find any kind of merch you want to feature in your TikToks videos. It’s easy to wear a t-shirt whenever you go about making your everyday content. Incorporate unique items like fanny packs and bucket hats when you’re making trendy or fashion-related videos.

Spreadshop brand ambassador Clueless Bushcraft (Tom) makes videos about how to survive in the wilderness. He made a TikTok testing our water bottles in frigid temperatures. He discovered that our insulted water bottle prevented water from freezing, and that our regular water bottle would come in handy if you needed to boil water.

Tom found a unique way to promote his merch but still provide value with his content. These are the kind of tips and tricks that his audience wants to learn from him.

Find Trending Songs on TikTok

Adding trending songs to your videos is a great way to get more engagement on TikTok, in general. TikTok will boost content that is relevant to what’s currently trendy among different audiences. You can find trending songs when you browse the Discover tab. Check out the top hashtags and see what songs are being used. You can click the song and add it to your favorites to save it for later.

Creator Sicily Rose showed off her new merch by lip syncing to a trending song in one of her TikToks. She’s known for singing and dancing, so this kind of video works with the rest of her feed and comes off as being more authentic. You can use these trendy songs, but you need to keep your personality in the content you make.

Promote Your Brand

Wearing your merch obviously promotes your Spreadshop, but it can also help bring awareness to other projects you have going on. Maybe you want to raise money for a fundraiser or shine a light on an important issue. Merch is powerful in that way.

Mixed Tarxan has been practicing to be a contestant on American Ninja Warrior. He filmed himself prepping for his appearance, whether that was lifting, completing practice courses, or rock climbing. It’s not out-of-the-ordinary for him to film himself in the gym or doing intense activities. Wearing his merch and making a nod to the show in the hashtag is enough for people to connect the two.

Promoting your merch on TikTok is easy when you know your brand and are comfortable making content. You just need to be yourself – the rest comes naturally.

Looking to make your own merch? Open your own Spreadshop today. It’s free and easy!

Behind the Merch Table: Talkalots

Behind the Merch Table is a place where we can highlight some of the amazing bands and solo acts that use Spreadshop for their merch needs. In our last post we talked to the band Trestles about their plans for music in 2022 and the power of band merch.

This time we’re featuring Talkalots, a rock band that hails from Flagler Beach, Florida. They describe their music as “simple, catchy, and fun”. Some of their inspirations include Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, and Smashing Pumpkins. Talkalots formed in 2018, originally with Jude on guitar and drummer, Cameron. The two have known each other since middle school and become friends over their mutual love of alt rock and punk music. Friend and bassist James later joined the lineup.

They’ve released a few singles since. “Summertime” is an angsty scorcher, perfect for blasting on those hot summer days. Their most recent single – “Where Did We Lose Track?” – reflects on their adolescence and how fast time has gone by since. Talkalots are currently working on recording two albums (!) and planning to release their debut this year.

It’s important for artists just starting out to brand themselves with merch. Opening up your own Spreadshop is a great revenue stream. It can be hard to make money from music itself considering streaming services like Spotify pay musicians mere pennies. Playing live shows and selling merch is how a lot of acts make their money.

Talkalots wanted to make their merch look simple, yet feel unique. So they used a couple versions of their logo for merch designs, which are available to shop on hoodies, hats, and buttons. They looked at other bands’ logos for inspiration, which is something they’d recommend to artists looking to create their own. As long as you don’t try to rip off material and credit it as your own. Having those influences and inspirations is important. Make sure to check out their music and merch when you get a chance.

Do you have a garage band? Play cafes or open mic nights? Start making and selling merch for FREE with Spreadshop. Open your own shop today.

How Merch Helps Your Side Hustle

Looking to take your side hustle to the next level? Merch can help!

Launching your own Spreadshop can open up so many opportunities for you and your business. Merch gives you credibility when you’re connecting with potential customers and business partners. It shows you have a solid understanding of your brand and that you want to see it grow.

Read on to learn about the ways merch can help you up your side hustle game!

A Solid Foundation

Just having a Spreadshop signifies that you want to expand your side hustle. Brand identifiers like colors and graphics are key to solidifying your brand, so why not seal the deal with themed merch?

Take the components that represent your business and put them on items to use for promotion and profit. Upload your logo and even toggle off product color options that don’t go well with your brand. Born in a Barn Boutique out their logo on merch to help promote their restoration furniture business. And it would look great in a photo op when you’re promoting your side hustle on socials!

Some common and successful merch items you can sell through Spreadshop include t-shirts, totes, stickers, and water bottles. We have hundreds of merch items to choose from.

Get Creative

Your merch doesn’t have to look like the standard marketing fare. Get creative with your design style and make merch only your followers/supporters will understand.

Emily runs The Kind Mind Project, a podcast all about supporting women and helping them move mountains. She could have uploaded a logo to her merch and been done with it, but she wanted to create something that was stylized and felt true to her message.

She has phrases like “Put more honey in your head” or “Honey head” that tie directly into the purpose of her brand. Those are the kind of things that will provoke a reaction from people and get them to ask questions. It’s going to be more effective than just slapping your logo on different products.

Networking Made Easier

Merch makes it easier for people to identify your brand, and that includes potential partners and customers. It really is the new business card. It’s personal and will leave a bigger impact on people than a tiny piece of paper.

People want to know that they can trust your brand, that you’re legit. If you have merch you can show to potential partners or investors, it’s going to prove you’re serious about your side hustle. That whatever service you provide is reputable.

Whether it’s in your community or the niche group your business is in, it’s important to stand out from competition. Merch gives you that edge. When others continue to do the bare minimum, diversify your business with t-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers, and more. It’s important to set yourself apart!

Got More Than One Side Hustle?

If you have too many side hustles or hobbies for your own good, we’ve got great news! When you create a Spreadshop account, you can open up to 10 shops with it. Think that’s an unnecessary amount? It’s a nice option to have when you want to start a fundraiser or run a business that’s seasonal.

Having these shops under one account makes it easy to track your earnings and access the backend of all your shops. You don’t need multiple usernames and passwords – it’s that simple.

Start growing your side hustle with merch and open your own Spreadshop. It’s FREE!

Create Your Own Content Compass

Today, we’re pleased to release our first in a series of “Creator Compass” workshops designed to help creators live a more sustainable creative life, and ditch the hustle culture. This workshop couldn’t come at a better time for creators considering May is mental health awareness month.

At Spreadshop, we believe creators are more than just a “commodity” or a buzzword to be exploited. We’re raising an early red flag on an issue that is turning into a real mental health crisis for many creators. In the age of the “creator economy”, there’s more pressure than ever to produce and feed the “content machine”. That pressure also with comes anxiety, creative depression, burnout, and even worse.

Brands and middlemen try to tell you what to do, how often to do it. Gurus of the “hustle culture” want you to post content hourly or sacrifice all to try to beat an algorithm that is ever changing, and in all actuality, unbeatable.

We know this because you, the creators out there, our friends, have told us this personally. Many are also beginning to feel lost, like they forgot why they started. They need to find their compass.

Our first “Creator Compass” workshop is hosted by Modern Millie, a well-known influencer coach who will help you find and develop your “Content Compass”. By completing this workshop you will be able to:

– Establish and stay on track with hitting your ultimate goals/dreams.

– Stay true to YOU as you grow as a creator.

– Maintain healthy boundaries to prevent burnout.

– Stay on track with your content without added stress.

The workshop is completely FREE to watch, and best of all, you can work at your own pace.

Join the community group now to get started!

Sustainable Merch: 5 Shops to Support

Hotter summers, more and longer droughts, environmental disasters – the effects of global warming are already being felt in many parts of the world. Climate change affects us all, which means the time to act is now. Let us introduce 5 trailblazing Shops for you to source inspiration from.

These environmental stakeholder organizations have different issues at heart, but their common goal is to stop climate change – for a better future. This requires raising awareness of their cause and their projects. Selling merchandise really helps boosting their sustainability efforts with their Spreadshops. The money they earn goes directly to their projects, and they manage to draw attention to their cause. Here’s how they get their message out there:

KlimaKohleHoffnung – less CO2 through plant carbon

Too much carbon dioxide in the air and not enough time to take action. The KlimaKohleHoffnung (German for climate, coal, hope) project shows us how urgent it is to take action now. This means reducing CO2 emissions in the air is vital, and a great way to do so is by using plant carbon. Find out how exactly the carbon is permanently bound, from which input materials plant carbon can be produced and how everyone can become a climate savior! Among other things, this is explained on the project’s YouTube, Instagram and Facebook channels. The goal is to double the use of plant carbon in the next couple of years, and everyone’s attention and support is needed for plant carbon now.

With the KlimaKohleHoffnung Spreadshop, the trade association is taking an important step towards achieving just that. Their designs have a clear message: there is still hope, but we can’t waste any time. This is why their Install Update design shows a mouse pointing at the “Now” button – and not the “Later” button.

On their designs, the world can briefly cool down in a cold bathtub. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work in real life – unless we pay more attention to plant carbon now.

Earth Day – not just a day, but a movement

Diversify, inform and activate: EARTHDAY.ORG is the world’s largest environmental movement to create change for us humans and our planet. How? With bold, creative, and innovative solutions.

Behind EARTHDAY.ORG is a coalition of people around the world. Every individual or organization can make a difference! Since 1970, over 1 million people have joined the movement. Numerous people also follow their work on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

The merch in the Earth Day Spreadshop is partly based on their projects. They have a Canopy project that sees to planting trees around the world, and 10 million trees have already been fostered since 2010. The locations chosen for these trees have a direct and positive impact on climate change in the affected areas.

The slogan “Make every day Earth Day” sends a clear message. International Earth Day on April 22 isn’t the only day we should be aware of climate change. When we live every day in an environmentally conscious and sustainable way, we can make every single day Earth Day.

National Parks Conservation Association – protecting national parks

The National Parks Conservation Association – or NPCA – is the voice of America’s national parks, aiming to protect and preserve its most famous places for present and future generations. On the ground, in the courtroom, or on Capitol Hill – more than 1.6 million members work tirelessly to defend the parks. Together with policy experts, dedicated volunteers, community organizations and communications professionals, they inform and inspire the public on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The sustainability merchandise from their Spreadshop gives supporters the chance to send out the message, for example with a cap that reads “NATIONAL PARKS ADVOCATE”.

Their “PROTECT YOUR PUBLIC LANDS” merch says is like it is – a clear message to make more people aware of what’s at stake.

Beachcleaner – for a healthy ocean

They provide education, offer simple plastic alternatives, and initiate projects that prevent the destruction of ecosystems through plastic waste. Beachcleaner from Nuremberg, Germany are aspiring a plastic-free environment and sustainable (waste) culture. On Facebook and Instagram, they share footage of clean-ups, draw attention to grievances, and demonstrate how a plastic-free life works.

Their Beachcleaner Spreadshop offers lots of merch with their red-lettering logo and two waves underneath – maybe waves of hope?

What’s really cool about their sustainability merchandise is that it looks great while helping to avoid plastic waste and sending a message to protect the environment. To get an impression, check out e.g. the Beachcleaner insulated bottle.

Glacier initiative – made of fossil energies

It is the organization’s aim to realize the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, and to put Switzerland on a sustainable climate course. Because we all want a better world and a future worth living in, right? The Glacier Initiative is one of the largest projects from Verein Klimaschutz Schweiz, which in turn is part of a worldwide climate movement. They pursue the goal of creating a future without fossil fuels, in which man-made greenhouse gases are reduced to net zero emissions by 2050. The glaciers in Switzerland and everywhere else in the world are at risk of vanishing as a result of climate change, and this is why the phase-out is so important. Their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts will tell you why and how.

In the glacier initiative’s Spreadshop, supporters find lots of merch like T-shirts, hoodies and bags, all printed with their colorful logo. The mantra “If we don’t act now, we will soon have no more glaciers” is embodied by their logo on products in different sizes in Switzerland’s official languages German, French and Italian.

Want to reach people with your message? Thinking about selling your own merch? What you need is a clear vision and your own logo. Your Spreadshop is just a few clicks away.

Open Your Spreadshop