Many content creators dream of designing and selling their own merch. However, when it comes to launching an online shop, you’ll most likely have to spend money before you start making a profit. After paying for website hosting, product samples, and the initial run, you may not have anything left in your budget to actually promote your merch.
Here’s how to market your merch on a $0 budget.
Model your own merch.
You need product photos for your site as well as your social media. Rather than hire models, you should pose for the pictures yourself. Your fans will love to see your face in the marketing materials, and your presence will also make the campaign’s branding stronger.
If you want your promo shots to show how your designs look on different body types, then you should recruit your friends and family members to help you model. You can offer to promote their social media or personal projects in exchange. If they don’t have anything to promote, then you could offer to help them clean their house, watch their kids, etc. in exchange for their assistance instead.
Use a free graphic design program to create your marketing materials.
If you want additional marketing materials, then you can create them yourself rather than hiring a graphic designer. Programs like Canva make it super easy to design your own graphics. Just be sure you’re choosing the free templates, vectors, and backgrounds.
Canva has different canvas sizes and templates for different social media sites platforms. You can even use Canva to design the promotional emails you send to your mailing list. Follow the tutorial below to get started.
Engage with fans who promote your merch by sharing their orders, unboxing videos, etc.
One of the best marketing tools available to you as a creator is your audience. Every time a fan shares a picture, video, link, or post related to your merch, they’re essentially promoting your products to their own followers. While you don’t pay them to promote your merch, you should compensate them in other ways.
You can reward your fans’s promotional work by engaging with them on social media. If someone posts a screenshot of their order on Twitter, retweet it and follow them back. If you’re tagged in a fan’s picture of your merch on Instagram, comment on the post and share it on your story. The more attention you pay to fans who promote your merch, the more excited they’ll be to keep posting about it.
A nonexistent budget shouldn’t keep your from promoting your merch. Implement these marketing strategies to get more sales without spending anything.
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Kristen Harris enjoys listening to a wide range of music, from Taylor Swift to, on occasion, Celtic instrumental. She also spends her time writing, reading, and baking.
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