Last updated on April 15th, 2024
YouTube provides immense opportunities for people from various backgrounds and professions to market their products and skills. This visual social platform is already home to millions of people comprising of subscribers and viewers. On top of that, thousands of new users keep on adding every day, making it a massive platform to promote and sell products or services. YouTube Merch is one such great way to market and sell products by engaging target customers.
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google where users search for products and services. There is hardly any business worth its name that has not explored YouTube to market its products or services. Such is the impact of this visual medium that creating a channel is the top priority of every brand’s marketing strategy.
Now, not only big brands but small businesses also use YouTube to create a niche for themselves. There is already a growing list of successful YouTubers who are today not less than a big brand referring their favorite products to their subscriber lists.
They are the new celebrities and influencers who considered the best of all to recommend products to people. They have acquired that status after working hard to consider them as a trustworthy name.
These YouTubers run highly successful YouTube Merch channels, which many thousands of people subscribe to and look for inspiration. According to a survey, YouTube scored 78/100 Index points on the American Customer Satisfaction Index for 2019.
The stat shows that American consumers have great faith in this channel when they want to make informed purchasing decisions.
What is the merchandise?
Merchandise is any product that is available for sale and purchase. Therefore, all the products that we see in a shop or shopping mall are referred as merchandise. These goods include personal as well as commercial products.
But, merchandise also refers to the ‘freebies’. Brands create merchandise and sell online. These are promotional items such as mugs, hats, T-shirts, hoodies, etc. that businesses use to advertise their products or services.
What is YouTube Merch?
The list of merchandise that is sold by creating a channel on YoutTube is called YouTube Merch.
In other words, when brands as well as influencers create a channel to sell merchandise by using the platform is termed as YouTube Merch. It can be an online store to showcase your merch designs or influencer’s channel to review products.
In both cases, you promote and sell several types of merchandise using the YouTube Merch Channel on YouTube. Also, you don’t need to be a manufacturer to sell YouTube Merch.
Many YouTube Merchandise channel owners do not sell their products. Instead, they recommend branded merchandise to potential customers. They are kind of influencers who have millions of followers and fans not just on YouTube but across all the major social media channels.
Their followers trust the word of these influencers and buy things they recommend. So, overall, YouTube Merch is a place where you, as a creator or influencer, sell products, or simply encourage others to buy.
Therefore, YouTube Merch is also about influencers selling their T-shirts etc. merchandise with their logo. This is because they have millions of followers who want to buy those shirts to show their support to their favorite YouTubers.
What is merchandising?
Merchandising is about the marketing activities that help boost sales of a product, particularly in the retail sector. Generally, retail stores refer to their products for sale as merchandise.
In retailing, visual display merchandising, for instance, implies sales using display, design, selection, packaging, and pricing. In this way, a store owner entices customers to buy products. So, when we see such luring tags – ‘buy two get one free’ – it is also part of merchandising.
Why should YouTubers create their own merch?
Hundreds of YouTubers have started their channels on this platform. But, they are not merely selling merch. They accomplish their brand merchandise sales goals as well. YouTube is not just a shop to sell things. More than that, this platform benefits you in so many ways.
Here are some benefits YouTubers enjoy in creating their own merch:
Earn money regularly
Every YouTuber is out there to make money on the channel. You can earn money from YouTube, basically in two ways. First, you sell merch to the buyers. This is your main source of income on this visual platform.
You will direct the interested buyers to your main sales site, such as an online store, from the YouTube channel. Your earnings from sales will depend on how aggressively you promote your channel and merch.
The second source of earning money on YouTube is from advertisements. You will surely earn big if your channel continues to attract viewers and subscribers. More viewers will result in more income from selling branded merch and also from advertisements on your channel.
Build your brand
A brand is about what perception its customers hold for it. Their opinion of a company’s product or services makes it a brand. YouTube is a visual platform where you can build a certain perception of your products amid the target audience.
You can use your personality, charm, catchphrases, visuals, and other measures to impress your viewers and customers. As compared to blogging and other marketing tactics, YouTube can help you build your merch by selling a business into a trustworthy brand.
Even if you can hold your visitors’ attention for a few seconds, you can show them your logo and other brand visuals on YouTube.
They will remember your logo for many days and even months. So, just create a collection of merch that has your logo and display it on YouTube merch channel. It will always be available to the viewers to make an impression on them.
Take advantage of YouTube’s massive traffic
When you create your YouTube merch, you take advantage of this channel’s huge traffic. YouTube is the third largest visited website after Google and Facebook, and it is the second biggest search engine. You are at the platform that already has an audience readily available.
All you need to do is to drive some of those people to your channel. You can surely find a group of people who are interested in buying your merch. If they find your videos interesting and engaging, you can turn them into buyers of your merchandise.
A unique advantage of starting your YouTube merch is that even if you speak only one language English, your merchandise promotional efforts reach a massive audience. The English speaking market is about 30% of all YouTube viewers.
Emerge up in Google search ranking
For a business to compete online to get noticed by customers, its high rankings on Google’s search pages are important. When customers type some keywords related to your business or industry, your website or online store get visible on the search results immediately.
This is where your YouTube merch channel helps. Google considers videos as a source of useful information and ranks them in the search result pages.
Therefore, when you write high-quality blogs and create YouTube videos about your merch, you create backlinks to your site. This ultimately results in your merch selling website becomes visible on the first search result page for keywords of your business.
Increase conversions
Another big advantage of creating your YouTube merch is that it helps in increasing conversions. If you can create videos with a personal touch, people will have trust in your merch and business. You must establish an emotional connection with them through your creative videos.
In case you intend to drive traffic to a certain landing page, your YouTube channel to showcase and sell merch can help a lot. As the owner of your merch channel, you speak directly to the audience about your merchandise. In this way, you generate more leads and sales.
So, these are some of the major reasons you should think of while planning to launch your YouTube merch channel. You should surely include videos in your overall marketing strategy to promote your merch creating and selling business.
But before launching your merch video channel on YouTube, consider some key tips also about how to create merch that sells.
How to create your YouTube Merch?
You may be an artist who creates beautiful illustrations or a photographer with a creative urge or interested in any other art field. YouTube channel offers you plenty of opportunities to sell merchandise related to your interest and specialization.
However, before you set out to sell your merch using the channel, make sure that your merchandise itself is well designed as per customers’ expectations.
Here are quick tips to follow when creating your merchandise to sell using YouTube:
Research your target audience
Which set of customers is likely to search and buy your merch such as custom T-shirts, custom hoodies and accessories like mugs, bags, caps, phone cases, etc.?
You need to do some research in your way on offline and online to create merch. While talking to people and researching online, consider some questions, and find out their precise answers.
For instance, you should know who the people most likely to order your custom t-shirts are.
Find out where those customers are on the web and how you can interact with them. What for they want your merch? Are their any catchphrases, jokes, motifs, etc. prevailing amongst your audience? Make such queries and come up with concise answers.
Create the designs for customers
You are an artist, but that should not be an excuse to design a merch that is creative but does not engage people. Such art will not sell more. Therefore, create your merch based on your research about your customers.
You should consider what styles and colors are trending amid your customers. Take a look at some inspirational designs that address the ongoing design trends very well. Check out what merch designs others are creating and come out with the art pieces that stand out.
Think of design elements and placements
When creating your YouTube merch, consider some design elements and where to place your design. Some surveys have revealed that 37% of YouTubers use quotes, while 27% use their logos as the main design element on T-shirts. Other elements include faces and pictures, new custom designs, and real names or channel names.
The surveys also point out some crucial stats about the placement of the design on shirts. 87% of the surveyed YouTubers liked to put their design on the front of the T-shirts. Only 5% preferred printing design on the back. Consider such stats while placing your designs.
Promote your merch actively
After you are finished with creating a unique merch design, do not rest there. Start promoting your merch aggressively to sell merch so that customers can locate in the web jungle.
To do that, schedule your posts on different social media channels, especially on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Post your merch content many times in a day. You should show visuals of people or yourself wearing your merch.
Now that you know how to create YouTube merch and what are its benefits, it is time that you open your online store.
You will sell your merch T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and accessories such as custom hats and caps from the store. This is the site where you will drive your potential customers from your YouTube channel.
Look for a trustworthy online platform to sell
Many online platforms allow you to sell your merch. PrintShop is one such reputed platform that you can depend on to sell your merch. PrintShop is owned by Designhill, which is a leading creative marketplace with a massive audience from the world over.
You can quickly open your online store on PrintShop for free and access the ready audience of the owner site. You also earn a bigger profit margin at this site.
Wrapping Up
YouTube merch helps you create your merch in your unique way and sell it through YouTube videos. But create engaging and interactive video content that can generate leads and sales. For this, know your audience, market niche, competition, and then design your merch accordingly for your target customers. The advantages of the merch are plenty, including earning money regularly, building your brand identity, drive traffic to your online merch store, and increase conversions.