Merry Marketing for Print On Demand

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It’s November now and therefore officially acceptable to be able to mention the Christmas word. The truth is that if you are in a business like ours, Christmas can be all year round. This year orders were being placed for 2023 diaries and calendars back in June. Personally, I can only envy that kind of forward planning and organisation. You’d think that might make me a little sick and tired of Christmas by the time it gets here, but the opposite is true, and that’s because over the years I’ve developed the habit of not doing any personal Christmas planning until 1st December. That’s plenty of time, and it stops me from getting overwhelmed when we are busy dealing with everybody else’s Christmas shopping.

There is no getting away from the fact that Christmas is the busiest time of year for people’s buying and spending. Whatever people’s budgets, it’s being spent on Christmas. So, have you thought about how to get your share of that? You may have all your marketing ideas all wrapped up, (‘scuse the pun, ha!) strategised and planned. But if you haven’t and would like a couple of tips and a bit of help, then this is for you. The first thing I would say though, is that you do not need to be a Christmas business to be able to fully embrace it as a marketing theme for your own store. So here’s a few suggestions to promote your online store, hopefully get a few more sales and make the most out of everybody’s Christmas shopping.

This first suggestion might seem a bit obvious and really it’s more of a reminder than anything else, especially if your product store is not the main part of your business, or it’s a charity fundraising store, or if it’s a supporters online shop for a sports club for example. But here it is anyway. Have you reminded your followers that you actually have this store and that there are amazing products available for them to buy? Just because you made an announcement on social media when your store first opened, do not assume that everybody knows about it, or has even remembered, even if they did see it. Therefore, you need to remind them. And if the link to your store is tucked away on your main website, rather than on its own page or whatever, then you may need to give people directions for where they can find it too.

This is exactly what I mean by the fact that you don’t need to be a Christmas product business. People are looking for all sorts of gift ideas. I don’t know about you but I’m grateful for any inspiration I can get to be honest. If your store is merchandise for your sports club, your products will make ideal gifts for the supporters.

Okay, so now that your buyers have found your store and are off to have a browse at what you have to offer, is your site Christmas ready? You don’t have a bricks and mortar store to decorate with a tree and twinkly lights, but you can still make it look inviting and festive.

That can be easily achieved by creating a cheerful page banner for example, and then you can use it on your social media pages too. If you don’t know where to start with that idea, then I would highly recommend taking a look at using something like this great tool here, Canva – https://www.canva.com/ . I could write a whole blog just about Canva, and I may just do that, but for right now, I’ll have to leave you to explore it for yourself.

Once you have made the store itself look all inviting and jolly, now to the products themselves. Have you added anything to your range or made any changes recently? What about adding something that is only available for a certain amount of time, or only a limited number available. It works for Harrods when they have a different bear every Christmas. It just has the year embroidered somewhere, and they’re collector’s pieces. It could be as simple as adding the year to an existing design and limiting the number available to sell. Or you could also add products with Christmassy designs. We have a whole library of Christmas designs that you could use.

You could also think about creating a special offer or a discount for your shoppers or something like Free Shipping if you don’t offer that already. You can even make it so that a certain amount must be spent to qualify for free shipping. That can all be set up in your store. If your store doesn’t currently allow for gift vouchers to be bought, why not ask us to add that facility to your store? That way of the person isn’t too sure what to buy, they can buy the Gift Certificate instead to give and the recipient can come back and buy at a later stage.

If you aren’t too sure about discounts and special offers, you could use a theme like the 12 Days of Christmas to highlight a different product in your store each day instead. Alternatively create a gift guide with all the products displayed. Then send that to your list of members or your email list. You can also use that to can post on social media too. Canva again is a great tool that you can use to create a really nice graphic. Making sure that your membership, email list, followers etc. have up to date information about the shop and your products, is a great way to stay in touch and keep the conversation flowing. It’s also a great way to give your followers ideas of what they can buy from you.

At this time of year especially, I know that people can get fixated on delivery time scales. So give your customers that kind of information. At this point of time when postal strikes are causing headaches everywhere, letting customers know that we have it under control, could be enough to reassure them that they can buy from your store with confidence.

Then once your customer has made their purchase, are you including a Thank You note in with your parcel? If you aren’t doing that already and would like to, drop us a line. For those of you that do, are you including an offer on your postcard? Something like a discount off the next purchase or buy before a certain date to receive a free gift. It’s also a great way to include information about other offers or events that you have going on too.

Then there are a few ideas that aren’t directly linked to the products in your store, but will create interest. A great one for this time of year is to have a giveaway or a competition of some kind, with something from your store as a prize. This is ideal content for generating engagement on your social media pages too. You can tell people all about the competition, give them reminders at certain intervals and then again when the closing date is coming up. You can also reveal the winner live on air if that’s suitable. If your winner is willing, you can also ask them to share their own photos on your pages, when they receive their prize.

In fact, it’s a great idea to ask your supporters to show their photos of themselves wearing and using the items that they have purchased from your store, all year round. Posting their pictures on your social media generates more attention for the store, the products and is great marketing for your store too.

On the subject of social media and posting about your shop products, that can be one of the down sides to having a Print On Demand store, the lack of real life photos of the actual products themselves. That’s where I would recommend mock ups could help. Mock ups, with all the variety of how designs can be shown on products, can be a more visually appealing way to promote products on social media. These are some examples using a few of our Christmas designs. There are a number of places where you can buy mock up images to use, like Etsy and Creative Market. If you aren’t too sure though and would like some help, just drop us a line.

My next suggestion is aimed at the charity stores and grass roots sports clubs, those of you that are using your stores for fundraising. Because this is a great time of year to remind your supporters and followers why the store exists, why you are selling the products and how they are helping by buying from your store. If you can show examples of what the funds raised from your store have purchased, that’s an excellent prompt for people to make a purchase.

This last one isn’t specifically for Christmas but it’s a good thing to do with a New Year, fresh start in mind. And that is to ask your followers what it is that they would like to see in the store. Let them give ideas for future products. This is great market research, if sales have been a bit sluggish lately and you’ve been thinking about making some changes. By asking your audience, they can tell you exactly what it is that they would like to be able to buy

Some of these suggestions are aimed at Christmas but can just as easily be ideas to consider all year round. The intention is to keep letting your followers know that you have some great products and show them off. Don’t expect buyers to remember that the store exists, you need to keep coming up with interesting ways to remind them.

If you’d like to have a chat about your store and maybe get a few things in place for Christmas, just give us a shout. We can also put together a promotional video of your products or even just a small festive greeting like this one.

So if you’d like some more information on this, or any of the other suggestions we’ve made, please just get in touch and we’d be happy to help.

Please feel free to get in touch If you have any questions or would like more information on anything mentioned in our article – Contact Us

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