Effective marketing equals success in POD
Some creators mistakenly assume that building a good catalogue of designs is enough for generating passive income from print-on-demand. Smart creators know that they have to upload their catalogue on as many POD platforms as possible, to cast a wide net and diversify income sources.
The most successful creators go one step further. They understand the need to proactively market their designs/products to get customers to notice and generate sales.
These few creators are the ones winning the POD game. The ones whom everyone looks up to. In this post we will break down the key activities of an effective marketing plan.
Let’s call these successful creators, Markreators.
Now let us break down the activities a markreator does to fully understand what is needed to be successful.
- Create designs for currently trending or evergreen topics
- Upload designs taking care of positioning and configuration
- Upload designs to as many POD marketplaces as possible
- Syndicate designs to other platforms to reach potential buyers
- Track performance of syndication
- Advertise designs confidently
PODlify allows creators to optimize results with minimal effort, by uploading well-configured designs to marketplaces like Redbubble, Teepublic, Teespring, and many others using templates. Of course, uploading to many marketplaces is something every PODlifier is already doing, so I’m going to skip ahead and jump straight into marketing.
Marketing your designs all comes down to this rule of thumb: More eye balls = more sales.
Syndicate designs to multiple platforms
Syndication is all about distributing your content and getting it out there, using social media. You should consider sharing your designs through Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Medium.
On most social media you need to build your following, otherwise without any followers you risk having your posts distributed by “the algorithm” to very few people, or worse yet, nobody.
In the beginning it may feel like a hard slog, but with persistent effort growing your followers will get easier. Social media tend to have a snowball effect. Your audience grows faster once you have a bit of a following base. Keep at it. The payoff is worth it.
No one has the time to master all social media platforms, so you should pick a couple and try your best to get good at them. Each platform has its own nuances. Certain strategies work on some but not others.
Some platforms have their own restrictions and limitations. For example, Instagram limits users to just one link in the Bio, which forces them to pay for Linktree. PODlify’s Shop page is a free alternative for consolidating all your links.
Track performance of syndication
If you’re doing everything that I’ve described so far, but have no analytics in place, you’re still vulnerable to doing things ineffectively.
Without analytics you’re essentially flying blind. You have no idea how well your social media posts are doing.
Being able to measure the impact of your efforts is critical. Successful online business operators know this. They install an analytics tool (such as Google Analytics) on their website or Shopify or WooCommerce. Their social media posts link back to their site. This way, the can check their website’s analytics to see which posts resonate with their audience.
When you’re just starting out, spending money on a dedicated website can be hard to justify. Most hosting options cost you $250-$300 per year, sometimes more if you have to move up their pricing plan.
You have an obvious choice of using your own free public Shop page hosted by PODlify. It has links to all your POD stores and to design listings on each POD store.
Back to the topic of analytics, you can embed Facebook Pixel on your Shop page, to give you better visibility over your social media activities. Other pixels like Google Analytics, Reddit Pixel and other tracking pixels are coming soon.
Advertise confidently
OK, this one is a bit advanced. It’s a high-risk high-reward play. We’ve all seen how POD platforms advertise on Google, Facebook, etc to acquire buyers.
There’s no reason why you can’t do the same. Advertising your content allows you to compete in specific topic niches with the POD giants.
To win, you need to know which specific keywords are profitable and then bid effectively.
Running your own ads allows you to reach users without having to build a big following on social media, but it comes with an obvious cost.
You can always run ads to get likes or followers on social media, which is sort of double dipping, giving you best value for your money.
A big decision is the landing page for your ads. One option would be your listing on Redbubble, Teepublic etc. Which begs the question, what is better?
- A page on one website and one price point, or
- A page with links to all your POD stores, allowing your buyers to choose the price point they are happy with.
Personally, I think option 2 has a much higher chance of conversion.
Phew, I’ve covered a lot!
I hope you now have a better understanding of how to market your content. It’s a long game but definitely worth it.
PODlify is a powerful tool in your marketing chest. Use it smartly, and you can significantly increase your income.
May the POD be with you!