Promote Your Merch Line: Top Tips

The journey isn’t over after you make merch; now it’s time to promote your merch line!

We’ve seen too many shop owners make the same mistake. They put time and effort into opening their shop: coming up with designs, customizing their site, building their brand. But when it comes time to promote their merch: crickets.

You’ve got to do some leg work if you want your merch to sell. Get the word out on socials with eye-catching posts and even giveaways. This helps generate excitement and engagement for your merch, and hopefully sales.

Find out how to successfully promote your merch line!

Promos! Promos! Promos!

Promos are a big incentive when it comes to promoting your merch line. When you launch your shop, your customers can get 15% off all orders from your shop for a limited time. And it doesn’t stop there.

We run exclusive promo offers every month! They range from FREE shipping to 20% off. You’ll find upcoming promos posted in your Spreadshop dashboard.

Use these promos to your advantage when promoting your merch. Plan merch drops accordingly to drum up even more excitement. People are more likely to support your merch line when there’s an incentive.

Create Standout Posts

It’s important to have a presence on the most relevant social channels for your audience. It makes it easier to promote your merch line when you know where your followers are. Then you can get to creating content that makes an impact.

But promoting your merch on socials is trickier than you might think. A lot of shop owners don’t know the best posting strategies and make common mistakes. Here are some dos and don’ts when promoting your merch on socials:

DON’T

Use screenshots of your merch or shop.

Rely on stock images to showcase your merch.

Copy and paste the link of your shop in captions.

Ignore comments or feedback from your followers.

DO

Take professional photos of your merch. Get family and friends to model your designs.

Direct people to a link in your bio to buy merch. Instagram now allows up to 5 links in your bio.

Respond to comments and repost positive feedback. Take any negative feedback and use it for your next merch drop!

Run a Giveaway

You don’t need to offer big ticket prizes when you run a giveaway. To effectively promote your merch line, offer a FREE T-Shirt or a merch item of the winner’s choosing as the prize.

There are a few ways you can go about setting up your giveaway:

Ask your followers to LIKE and COMMENT on a merch-related post.

Run a design contest. Your favorite will be included in your next merch drop!

Require people to sign up for a FREE newsletter or course you’re offering.

Consider Paid Ads

If you have some extra cash, it might be worth it to put some money behind your social posts. You don’t have to go crazy, either.

Think about your audience and where it makes sense to run paid ads. Boost an Instagram post you created using the DOs above. Market it to a specific age demographic and find keywords that resonate with your audience.

We recommend running these ads about a week out from your merch launch. This gives people plenty of time to make up their minds. This kind of targeted marketing makes it easier to reach your audience. Your merch shouldn’t appeal to everybody under the sun, so target the people that will actually want to buy your merch.

Do Dedicated Live Streams

Create an event out of promoting your merch line with a live stream. This allows you to reveal the stories behind your merch line and talk about the process of opening your shop.

YouTube has made it easier for eligible creators to sell their products in live streams and videos. Schedule your live and tag products from your Spreadshop.

At any point during the live stream, creators can pin any of the pre-selected products to prominently display it to their viewers. When your viewers click on these products, they’ll be able to purchase them directly from your shop.

Promoting your merch line isn’t as complicated as you might think, but there are some key things you should do to get the word out. If you take the time to design your merch and set up your shop, you want to make sure sales follow.

Want to design your own merch line? You can do so for NO COST with Spreadshop!