How To Integrate Merch Into Your Podcast Marketing Strategy

If you can get even a small number of people wearing your merch, it’s a great way of promoting your podcast. People will wear your merch around their city in populated areas and even post pictures in it for thousands to see. 

If you don’t have any buyers, ask your friends and family to wear the merch around their city. This is essentially a classic form of advertising, but more subtle. No one likes aggressive advertisements in their face, so an ad in the form of merch is subtle and sparks curiosity. 

Even if you’re making enough money on sponsorships alone, merchandise will always be extra profit and free advertising. Revenue generated from merch sales can be put back into the podcast to make improvements, hire guest speakers, and afford quality equipment. Producing high-quality, stylish merch will only benefit your finances. 

Not only is it beneficial in terms of revenue and advertisement, but it’s also simple to maintain. Websites such as Shopify make it easy to run your online store without going through all the tricky details. 

Once your podcast and business are bigger and generating more revenue, you can choose to go the more independent route and hire a website builder. In the meantime, using pre-made shopping sites like Shopify is a great way to test out how your merch will sell. It will also show you if it’s worth it to put in the money for an independent website.

The Best Merch For Podcasts

1. Graphic t-shirts

Graphic tees are a simple and classic route to take. T-shirts are an excellent merch idea if you’d like to get creative with your designs. 

Graphic tees are always popular no matter what your style is. Offering a wide selection of colors, styles, and designs will allow you to appeal to every customer. 

Merch should include your podcast or business name, but they should also be creative and unique. If you can create a piece of merch that has a design not seen before, you open up the opportunity for people to buy your merch simply because they like the design. This will, in turn, bring in a free advertisement.

2. Hoodies and sweatshirts

Hoodies and sweatshirts are perfect for your fans that are in cooler climates. Having options for different climates is key if you want to cater to every listener. 

Just like t-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts are always in style. Offering unique styles will encourage people to make a purchase. Many influencers and celebrities do offer merch, but it often lacks creativity. This often refrains people from making a purchase. 

While you can always make them simple, allowing yourself to be creative with your designs will only benefit you in the long run.

3. Stickers

Stickers are another classic piece of merchandise. People love decorating their belongings. Whether it’s their laptop, water bottle, cell phone, or car, people love decorating with stickers. 

Stickers are great options for advertising as it allows the opportunity for people to buy in bulk. Since they’re cheap and small, people will often purchase more than just one sticker. 

Since people will be putting your stickers on various surfaces, this expands your reach. Essentially, your podcast will be advertised more.

4. Cups, water bottles, and mugs

While cups and mugs are a little bit more subtle when it comes to podcast advertising, people love them. Offering merchandise pieces that feel more subtle and personal is also a great way of forming connections with your listeners. 

Plastering yourself onto a cup or mug is a great opportunity to be a reminder for your listener. While they drink their morning coffee, they can be reminded of you and your podcast. This can push them to see if you have any new episodes. 

Reusable water bottles are becoming increasingly popular. The market for reusable water bottles is expected to grow by over $1 Billion by 2030. 

Showing your audience that you are staying away from one-use plastic. People love feeling like they’re contributing to a good cause. Offering reusable water bottles allows your audience to feel like they’re making that contribution. Not only this, but you prevent people from using single-use plastics, which is only good for our planet.

5. Phone cases

Worth billions of dollars, the phone case market is one you want to be a part of. Phone cases are one of the most popular ways to accessorize. Almost everyone has a phone case, so producing cool, unique phone cases is a no-brainer. 

Keeping an eye on the last trends in fashion is a great way to make your phone cases not only branded but trendy. This allows your product to go viral. In turn, this will create more sales, more listeners, and more revenue. 

With millions of podcasts out there, it can feel impossible to grow. Luckily for you, many marketing options can allow your business to thrive.

Content repurposing seems to be the favored way to market a podcast, but it’s certainly not the only way. With a little bit of investment and creativity, you could market your podcast in a typically undersaturated market. 

And with the possibility of the merch market blowing up in the future, it’s best to jump in as early as possible. Podcast merchandise is a unique opportunity to promote and make revenue from your podcast.