We are living in trying times for sure, friends. And while this IS temporary, it may be some time before you can take your show back on the road. With this harsh reality looming, the first instinct may be to panic. Try not to do that and let fear stand in the way from moving forward. The best thing we can do for ourselves right now is to keep going, find ways to pivot, and figure out how to weather this storm.
We at Merch Cat don't have all of the answers, but we do know that it's more important than ever for you to stay connected to your fans so that they are still paying attention when we come out of this. And we do know that merch is a tried and true way to help you through this, even though you can't be out there doing shows. Here are 6 things you should do now to make merch work for you:
In the last segment of Master Your Merch, we covered ‘Merch Basics’. If you missed that, you can find it here. Once you’ve gotten the basics down, you’ll want to come up with a merch strategy.
So what do we mean by merch strategy? We mean actually thinking about your merch from a business perspective, (instead of a last-minute afterthought the week before your tour/shows), in a pointed way, to actually try to maximize your merch income and profit.
Merch is serious business if you want to sustain a career as an artist in today’s music world – it’s a surefire way to put funds in your pocket in real-time, while empowering your fans to spread your message to the world.
In order to fully maximize your true merch potential, you’ll need to have some insight on the different pieces that impact the big merch picture. We understand that this can be a bit overwhelming, so we created a workshop that we’ve brought to SXSW, Music Biz, and other conferences to bring some insight to the process and the areas that should be considered in your merch plan. While we can’t bring the entire workshop to you in written form, we’re sharing some of the nuts and bolts of the workshop, broken down into two sections – ‘Merch Basics’ and ‘Merch Strategy’. We’ll start here with the basics, because that’s where you should start your merch process as well.
Fan engagement and direct-to-fan are hot topics these days because it's finally come to light that fans are the real gatekeepers in the music business.
