One of the best things about selling printables online is that it’s an affordable business model that’s easy to scale. Unlike a traditional brick-and-mortar business, you won’t need to worry about paying for raw materials and maintaining inventory. The products are digital, and customers will either print their own products or, for POD products, you can connect your shop with a supplier.
The trick, of course, is knowing HOW to scale your printables business. The good news is that there are multiple strategies you can use to increase the number of products you sell, grow your customer base, and earn the income you need. Here are 6 strategies to try.
#1: Add New Products Regularly
Let’s start with a strategy that might seem obvious: adding new products. Any time you add a new product to your online store, you’re giving potential customers another way to find you – especially if you vary your keywords!
The key here is to add products that appeal to your target audience. While you may eventually grow your store to appeal to multiple audiences, when you’re just getting started, it makes sense to create products that will appeal both to your existing audience and to new people who may be finding your store for the first time.
If you get stuck, try using your existing products for inspiration. Do you have printable bullet journal pages in your shop? Try creating some stickers to go with it! Selling a wedding planner? Create some customizable save the date cards.
#2: Bundle Products
You want people to buy your products and you’ll need to give them a reason to do so. One of the most effective strategies to scale a business is to take your existing products and bundle them to create new products.
Bundling is a terrific way to increase sales. If you price them properly, bundles make buyers believe they’re getting a bargain while encouraging them to spend more than they might otherwise. In other words, they’re the ideal way to boost your sales.
When you bundle products, be strategic about it. Bundles should include products that people are likely to buy together if you want them to sell. For example, you could bundle a planner with a set of planner stickers.
#3: Look for Audiences That Intersect Your Original Audience
Once you’ve made some sales, you know that your printables are selling. People may not buy the same product again but a good way to scale and encourage them to revisit your store is to offer products that are likely to appeal to your original audience as well as introduce your products to a new audience.
Wedding printables are hugely popular. If you have a shop where you’ve sold some printable save the date cards and other wedding-related items, a good way to expand to a new audience is to add baby shower items to your store. People who bought the wedding items might be looking to start a family, but you can also get a share of the huge audience of people who are adding to their families – even if they have been married for a while or aren’t married at all.
Another example would be to add a new subject or a new grade level if you’re focusing on educational printables. A parent who’s looking for worksheet pages or flashcards for their kids can turn into a repeat customer as their child grows – or as new children reach school age!
#4: Offer Personalization
Personalization is a huge trend in online products in general and that includes printables. A recent study found that 80% of consumers want a personalized experience when they’re shopping and 42% are more likely to buy personalized products than generic ones.
Personalization can take a couple of different forms. The first is to sell printables that are editable PDFs. That way, when someone downloads a printable party invitation or calendar, they can edit the file to make it suit their needs.
The second option is to integrate your shop with a print on demand supplier who will print your personalized items as customers order them. This is a great option if you want to add products that aren’t printable at home, such as wall art or apparel.
#5: Expand to Print on Demand
Printables and print on demand are natural partners in eCommerce. If you already have a shop where you sell printable planner pages, calendars, or educational products, it’s quite easy to expand your product line to include other items.
POD suppliers such as Printify, Printful, Zazzle, and Society6 offer an extensive range of products, including:
- Mugs
- Tee-shirts
- Shower curtains
- Kitchenware
- Athletic equipment
- Tech accessories
Expanding can be quick if you take some of the same designs from your printable products and either use them as is on POD products or modify them to work with different products.
#6: Tap into the Power of Social Media
While selling your printables on Etsy or Amazon can help you attract customers, you’ll do even better if you work to get the word out about what you have to offer.
Two of the best social media sites for selling printables are Instagram and Pinterest. Both are highly visual and attract people who love to use their feeds to find new and interesting products to buy. Users often seek out the brands they like to follow, and they also use hashtags to find things they like.
The key to using social media is to make sure to create a clean visual style that helps your brand stand out from other printables that may pop up on your follower’s news feeds. It may be helpful to use Canva to create a template that you use for all your product posts.
Conclusion
If you have a printables shop online, scaling it is easy to do and is the best way to attract more customers and increase your profits. The strategies we’ve listed here will help you accomplish the task quickly!
Do you need help scaling your printables shop? Click here to work one-on-one with me!
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