How to promote your music merch during Covid-19

You wanted to extend your brand with some merch dedicated to your music and your collection is finally here. But how do you put it out there for your fans to discover in a pandemic? Although live gigs are on pause, there is still some ways you could promote your merch. Here are some tips to get you started-

Create a launch: The first step to creating a successful merch venture is to get the word out there. Once your merch shop is ready, announce it to your fans across all your active platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. Each of them have their own strengths and offer different kinds of content creation opportunities, but a few photos or reels of your merch are a safe bet on any of these channels.

To make the launch truly engaging, you can wear your own merch and include it in your content or have a livestream where you talk about the inspiration behind your collection and respond to fans’ queries.

At Merch.Music, we like to help our artists with their launch by creating an ‘Artist Announcement’ on our social media. Would you like to be our next featured artist? Let’s get in touch :)

Improve accessibility: It’s quite simple- the more your shop is visible, the more sales it is likely to make. One way to do this is take a look at your music and video streaming platforms like Spotify, SoundCloud and Youtube. This is the place where fans discover your music and become that- your fans. So be sure to provide links to your shop in the bio sections.

You can also look at options of our Facebook and Instagram shopping integration, so your fans can make purchases directly from your social media handles. Do you have a lot of fans visiting your website? Definitely consider getting our custom widget on your homepage. You can let your Artist Success & Sales Associate know or contact us here.

Know your fan base: As an artist you surely realise the importance of understanding your audience and what they love about your music. Your merch is too an extension of your artistry and thus it is important to be in touch with what your fans like. So ask yourself- are the majority of your fans a particular gender? What is their average age? What is their style?

If you are not sure, just ask your fans- they’d be happy to let you know. A great way to do this is by creating polls on your Instagram stories, website and newsletter, asking them what their favourite pieces are. Instagram also offers a ‘Ask me anything’ option for its stories where you can get their views on what they love, may be missing or they’d like to see more of.

Make it engaging: There’s a lot of room for creativity in promoting a merch collection and you can make it super interesting-

• Create personalised hashtags for your merch- use it and ask your fans to use it too and tag you.
• Try offering discounts- it can be a first-order discount or a discount you offer when they buy a particular number of items. This way you reward your fans for buying your merch.
• Include a limited-edition collection in your merch based on your new single or album. If it is a collaboration, you can even join hands with the other artist(s) to put it together and sell it from each shops.
• Consider displaying your merch in your next music video- you can have actors & dancers don it or if you want, wear it yourself. Don’t forget to provide a link at the end of the video or in its description.

Think ahead: While the world is still dealing the COVID-19 pandemic and there is plenty of things you can do online, it is important to prepare for the boom of live concerts and festivals that is expected soon. As you book gigs, start asking yourself how you can make sales at the event. We’re also putting something together for you on that and will share it soon.

Making sales from your merch is a potentially lucrative option for artists and can be even more useful when our offline presence is limited. Is there any way we can support you in selling merch? You can always contact your Artist Success & Sales Associate or let us know here.