Are you staring at boxes and boxes of merch?

Hello from Florida! Woohoo, what a MOVE. Last Friday was such a long day of movers and an evening flight, but it feels good to officially start this new chapter in my life! I’m already enjoying the warmer weather here and I also think my dog is happier with it too. Sorry to have missed you last Saturday, but things move a tad slower here in Florida and we were working on getting the internet connected so that I could get back into my groove!

Looking at all these boxes from the move reminds me all to well about merchandise for my clients. No matter how well you plan or what kind of merch you have, chances are you’ll have leftover CDs, shirts, keychains, whatever at the end of a tour or after a release or any other event. It’s just the nature of having merchandise and I’ve definitely come to terms with it. 🙂

Well, my client is trying to clear out his apartment of merchandise that he’s had for a year now. We made shirts for a tour last year and over-ordered and we wanted to figure out how to get these shirts out in the hands of fans this year. Here’s what we came up with and easy ways for any artist to push their merch out!

1) Bundle your merch.
This is exactly what we are doing this tour to push the tshirts out (and it’s working!) When a person buys 2 or more CDs or live concert DVDs, they get a Tshirt. It’s simple and it’s a great incentive. We’ve already gotten 100 shirts out in one week!

2) Create a Contest.
If you want to give away a few things and don’t have a lot, this is a great option. Create a mini-contest on any social media platform you have a lot of interaction on. Say you always get RTs and mentions on Twitter and you know you will get a response. Tweet out that the next 1, 2 or 5 people that RT you get a free signed item from you! Keep it a low number so you’re not stuck making shipping labels for days. Remember, you want to use your time wisely!

3) Giveaway for a cause.
Another way we took care of some CDs is we donated the music to performance groups who would enjoy the music. He had a choral composition, so we found 40 choral societies to send to. We didn’t even ask, we just looked up their addresses and sent them out. We did however give them a heads up and emailed them the day we mailed them out, saying that we are sending some CDs as gifts. Every single group was appreciative and loved the gifts! It was very successful. The plus side to this one was that interest in his pieces spiked and opportunity for the groups to perform his piece was much higher than before, simply by giving them the music.

Next time you find yourself in a situation where you undersold merch, try one of these (or all three) to get it off of your hands. Maybe one of these will open up some doors for you! Do you have an even better idea to push your merch out? Let me know, I’d love to hear about what has worked for you in the past!

I hope all of you have a happy holiday next week wherever you are. I’ll see you next time!

Cheers,

fionazsig

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