hi everyone welcome back to my channel
my name is mayo and i teach creative
people how to sell their art online and
today we're all about how to market your
printable store or your digital download
business selling digital download items
and printables has been a huge trend in
the past few years and it's only growing
more and more and it's for mostly two
reasons one
from the aspect of the seller this is an
amazing business to start because you
basically don't have any costs and you
don't have any cost to cover the only
cost you have is your time whether
you're selling printable wall art you're
selling digital download clip art
printable greeting cards or even
printable flash cards or educational
sheets for kids there are so many things
that you can sell that in order to sell
it you don't have to purchase anything
you don't have to have a stock of
anything and you basically can just
design something have the pdf jpeg or
png or svg file of it and sell the
direct file for those of you who are
also into print-on-demand you must think
well in printing a man it's basically
the same because you know i'm designing
this cool design for this hoodie and i
don't need to buy this hoodie i just
have a supplier that makes it whenever
someone makes an order but the fact is i
still have to cover the cost of the
hoodie and the cost of the shipping and
then add my own percentage to it for
someone to buy it themselves and that
still costs money and
sometimes having this beginning to a
business where someone has to actually
spend a lot of money on your brand and
you are completely new and unreviewed
maybe that's a bit too much but with
digital download items and printables
you can start with ridiculously low
prices just to get the ball rolling and
then raise them up as you go along and
that is something that is extremely
appealing to everyone selling printables
or digital downloads as a new business
the second aspect of why this printables
or digital downloads business ideas
became such a huge trend is the buyer
because when kovitz started and
everybody was trapped at home i remember
there was a time that a lot of etsy
sellers were really struggling i was
consulting a lot of etsy sellers in
italy and in spain and france and there
was this huge debacle over donald
trump's twitter account where he
basically said that the united states is
not going to get packages from europe or
something like that which completely
shuts everything down
for a large number of sellers and also
people were afraid to get covered
through a package plus the shipping
times were taking forever and that's
when printables really hit it off
because you basically pay for something
and you immediately get it now if you
have your own home printer and your kids
are stuck at home you can immediately
order extremely
high quality coloring books coloring
pages educational sheets flash cards so
many cool things for your kids to do
that you can print at home you could
also decorate your home or do really
cool stuff for yourself with printables
of any kind and that became a huge thing
when people realize hey i can pay for an
item
and just have it so selling printables
is extremely lucrative and it's still
existing and kicking now in 2022 whether
you're selling your printables or
digital downloads on etsy on pay hip on
shopify on woocommerce so many places
where you can sell digital download
items and printables of any kind the
thing is that when you're selling your
printables on your own store like
shopify or woocommerce or even pay hip
you have to do an extensive amount of
marketing to get people to your store
you have to do correct seo you have to
be on social media and a lot of people
end up losing money because they spend a
lot of money on facebook ads or
instagram ads
mostly doing the wrong thing now if
you're selling on etsy and you think to
yourself hey this doesn't relate to me i
don't need to do my own marketing if i'm
on etsy because etsy is going to market
me well you're kind of wrong because
while etsy is a marketplace that people
come in and search for printables and
digital downloads there are so many
other people selling it there and if
your store is new and unreviewed
the chances are people are not going to
find you this quickly and even if they
do they can still see your competition
down below that has more reviews than
you maybe a better price or a different
package and a more substantial store and
they go and they buy from them and even
if you are getting traffic from etsy why
not invest few hours every day every
week to get more traffic in for free and
that's what this video is about how to
market your printables or digital
download business for free now if you've
seen i've had a previous video a few
days ago in the channel about how to do
the same thing like the free marketing
aspects for print on a man this is going
to be roughly the same but with
variations with the tips i have to give
you that are very specific to selling
printables including actual tips on what
are you supposed to even post on social
media what social media platforms should
you be on and how a website can help you
out so let's just dive deeper in to the
social media platforms that you can sell
through and we're going to start with
facebook because that's the biggest one
and i know that a lot of people are
setting up a page for their shops and i
think that it is still important to set
up a facebook page for your shop if
you're on shopify if you have your own
brand if you're on etsy maybe you don't
really need to show that you're on
facebook as well i've had some i don't
know
in a strange relationship with facebook
marketing in the past few months or even
a few years and i think that it's a
great tool but it requires a lot of
sponsored ads to begin with and to draw
people into your page but you can always
post stuff on your own personal profile
if your personal profile has anything to
do with what you're selling online for
example let's say you're a school
teacher or you were school teacher and
people know you as a school teacher and
you're selling printable educational
sheets for kids posting it on your own
profile might be quite good because you
might have people who follow you or are
friends of yours that have kids and
trust that you know
what kind of educational sheets to give
them or if you're an artist and your
friends and followers really like your
art you can always post up your
printable wall art on your own personal
profile on facebook you can also post on
facebook groups to help you out and in
that case this really has to be very
specific to the product that you're
selling and where you're selling it on
for example if you're selling anything
on etsy there are so many groups for
etsy sellers and buyers where people
literally ask hey i'm looking for a gift
for my mom i'm looking for a gift for my
brother i'm looking for something cool
for myself i'm looking for something for
my kids and if the product that you're
selling matches what that person is
asking for just comment a link i mean if
it is a product that they might enjoy
according to their post no one's going
to block you and this is actually the
agenda of the group there are also
groups that can fit various topics for
example there are groups for people who
do homeschooling and if you're selling
educational sheets that would be a great
place to place them there are also a lot
of groups for people who love coloring
pages you have no idea that community is
nuts and if you're doing really cool
coloring pages that would also be a
great place to post it it's all about
finding a group that matches the product
and the platform that you're selling
moving on to instagram and instagram is
a platform that i wasn't really thinking
much about until very recently because
instagram is basically a place where you
can only put one link one link you only
put one link in your bio and people who
only have that one link that they need
to click on they actually have to get
out of the post that they're reading to
go into your profile to click on a link
and then get to your products and while
you can and should have that link
be to a mini site that shows a lot of
things and not just a link to a store
it's just one link the thing is there
was a huge change on instagram a few
months ago where everyone not just
people with 10 000 followers on their
instagram can post a link directly to
their story so let's say you made really
cool printable greeting cards for easter
you can post them in the story like five
different greeting cards for easter in
five different stories and each and
every one of these stories will
basically have a link to that specific
product on your etsy or shopify store
posting on instagram can be something
that takes time to start with and you do
have to educate yourself on the proper
tags or hashtags to use while you are
selling i know that a lot of people use
etsy sellers of instagram for example if
you're selling on etsy because some
people are just looking to buy from
someone and not from a big brand but
based on what you are selling there are
certain hashtags that can help you out
and you really do need to think outside
the box for that one for example if
you're selling printable wall art
why not hashtag interior design or why
not hashtag bedroom design ideas
bathroom design ideas based on of course
the type of wall art that you're
currently promoting if you're selling
coloring pages hashtag coloring pages
will be a really nice thing including
hashtag coloringbook but don't forget
that coloring can be written with an o
or with an o u based on if your audience
is from the united states or from the uk
the thing is because it's a printable
item and people can just pay and
download it you can sell to both
regardless of shipping rates or if you
can ship to that country or even your
own location so maybe consider both of
them moving on from instagram we have
tick tock and tick tock is
taking the world by storm mostly because
a lot of people with new accounts can
still get trending regardless of how
many people follow them you have so many
accounts on tick tock that are brand new
and don't have a lot of followers but
still have thousands hundreds of
thousands and even million views on
their trending videos so it's a good
platform if you're just starting out and
you're not really sure what to do and
also the tick tock editor is actually
quite fun to play around with so like i
would suggest to just you know try it
out and see what you can do with it
because it is so much fun i was doing a
bunch of stuff with tic toc yesterday uh
trying to do some stuff uh for um
these puzzles that you can see behind me
this is something that my boyfriend is
doing for like opening a new store for
selling these puzzles and we're sort of
trying to upload something to my mrs
jigsaw profile which is going to be all
about jigsaw puzzles regardless of his
store and we were really playing around
with tick tock it was so much fun so
give tick tock a try and check it out
and moving on to pinterest and don't
worry that i'm moving on really fast
because i'm going to give you tips right
after i finish this list to basically
know what to upload to each and every
one of these platforms and which
platforms you should be on so pinterest
pinterest is one of my favorite
platforms to sell anything online it's
basically a huge
google search for photos that people can
save it's sort of like you know if you
grew up in the 80s or the 90s where we
had these like cool binders of bands or
things we want to get or i remember some
of the girls having like a wedding
binder
early on from like being 10 or something
like that
so pinterest basically digitize the
whole process with basically having a
photo that has keywords and is attached
to a link there has been a full tutorial
about pinterest for selling printables
of any kind and i will leave a link to
that one down below so you can go ahead
and check it out next up we have youtube
and i know that youtube might sound a
bit weird for some people but people are
searching youtube more than ever i
remember looking at similar web stats
for you know the websites that people
are using the most the number one
website all over the world that is
ranking in terms of traffic is google
the second one is youtube not facebook
not instagram youtube and youtube is
basically like its own marketing
platform and the thing is that if you
find a way to take your printable or
digital download item and market it
through youtube you have really high
chances of success marketing your own
product on youtube really has to relate
to what it is that you are selling let's
say you're selling printable planner but
you're selling like this huge planner
bundle to basically organize your life
you can make videos on how to be more
organized about how to reach your goals
about how to plan how to use a planner
while showing the usage of your
printable planner and linking to your
store this could be a really cool place
to basically market your etsy store
let's say you're selling printable
coloring books on etsy you can just show
the book or something like bras through
the different things that people can get
when they're downloading your book you
can also start coloring it and do like a
full youtube channel with coloring tips
while coloring your own designs and then
of course linking to them but if you're
selling anything that is not on etsy if
you have your own domain whether using
shopify or pay hip or wordpress
being on youtube
might actually help you with google seo
because
google owns youtube and having a link to
your website for multiple youtube videos
might actually increase the chances of
people finding you through google search
yes that's a thing which leads me to the
last but not least a website now if you
have your own shopify store or your own
wordpress store or even pay-hip then you
do have your own website but if you're
on etsy i would suggest opening your own
website and
that would be pretty much for one tip
that i have to give you that is relevant
for all of them which is to market your
printables by giving them away for free
no wait what let's say i'm selling a
printable coloring book of 25 pages i
can promote on my website a free
coloring page for people to just
download and use people are searching
for google for free coloring pages like
say for coloring mandela's or free
coloring page of a unicorn or of a
mermaid and then when you post that one
item for free you can just write down if
you want the whole book here's how to
get it now if you're doing it from your
own website you can also have people get
that free copy only if they subscribe to
your mailing list which is extremely
important because you get their email
and you can email them at any time so
this is something that i recommend a lot
of people to do whether you have your
own website or you're selling on etsy
because if you're selling on etsy you
pretty much have no access to i don't
know anyone who's buying from your store
all of them belong to etsy and the seo
rank belongs to etsy having your own
website for selling printables and
digital downloads of any kind and
offering freebies could be really
amazing and yes i gave coloring pages as
an example but it doesn't have to be
coloring pages i mean let's say you're
selling clipart you're selling digital
files of pngs of easter for people to
download you can give one of them for
free and then link to the whole bundle
on etsy you can also do something with
your printable wall art i mean if you
have beautiful printable wall art
creations that are extremely big that
people can print them on extremely big
canvases you can give for free a smaller
copy of that piece of art there are so
many things that you can do with it and
honestly if you're thinking to yourself
well my digital download product or my
printable product cannot be a part of
this freebies thing please comment down
below what is your digital product what
is your printable product and i'll tell
you what is the free version of it you
can give out by the way if you're also
thinking how am i supposed to build a
blog to sell freebies there has been a
full tutorial on that in the channel and
of course i'll leave a link to that one
down below now i want to take you to the
most important part which is the small
tips that will help you out throughout
this process of marketing your
printables business or your digital
download business for free so number one
would be consistency because i see so
many people who start marketing and then
sort of stop
it's like i i was talking to a bunch of
etsy sellers and this is not just with
printables this is with pretty much
anything and they go like yeah i used to
do some marketing but it didn't work out
so i stopped and what they meant was i
uploaded 12 posts a day for a week and
then i did nothing for a month and then
the social media platform just thought
hey maybe they stopped or something and
consistency is really important just
think of a number like maybe one post a
day maybe five posts a week uploading to
stories consistently
at the same times try to really make it
like a schedule an agenda put it in your
journal book today i'm posting a post on
tuesdays i'm posting this on wednesdays
i'm posting this on thursdays i'm
spending time on pinterest really put it
into your agenda book and your journal
books and make time for marketing every
single day on a different platform
number two for my tips would be don't
bite off more than you can chew
i remember seeing this one girl that
really wanted to succeed selling
printable wall art and it was insane she
opened up an etsy store and then had
tick tock instagram facebook pinterest
her own website and a youtube channel
and i think she was also on reddit and a
bunch of other social media platforms
and she was doing like google ads and
facebook ads and i'm like
are you not losing your mind doing this
don't go to too many platforms and do
too much because if you try to do too
much you're gonna get burned out really
fast and you're gonna end up doing
nothing try focusing on several of these
and for what i would recommend to most
people to do is to have your own website
pin from it and from the store if it's
not on your own website to pinterest and
use either instagram tick tock or both
because you can program tiktok that
everything you put there will
automatically go to your instagram and
you can also by the way make that make
instagram automatically post on your
facebook so that's something cool too
the third tip i have to give you for
marketing on any platform would be to
actually spend time on that platform
don't go into that platform just to do
your marketing the platform is gonna
know it and people are gonna know it as
well i mean if you're going on facebook
groups for etsy sellers don't just go to
constantly give your link to people
comment on what other people are doing
and show your own genuine interest in
what they're doing and if you're on
instagram don't just spend time on your
own profile no one's gonna see you if
you only spend time on your own profile
actually go to things that you like
things that you're passionate for
searching some tags of things that you
really like and spend time commenting
and following people and actually being
on the platform and enjoying it this is
important for you to actually get
traction in the platform but it's also
important again for you to not get burnt
out another tip i can give you which you
know i think we're at number four right
now is to utilize videos and i know that
for a lot of people a product that is
printable to make a video about might
sound weird but there are mostly two
types of videos that you can make for
your own printables the first one would
be how did you make them i mean you can
literally post
how a video on how you created this
amazing digital art piece for your
printable wall art and have people like
fall in love with the process of how you
made it or even how you did your own i
don't know like mandela or coloring page
basically screenshot and
record the whole process of making your
art piece
and show it to people people might be
interested in seeing it and eventually
while seeing it they also might be
interested in buying it the second way
you can utilize videos with your
printables is basically what i spoke
before when i was speaking about youtube
is to show people how to use them
whether it's making a time lapse of you
coloring your coloring pages or
explaining to people how to use a
journal or a planner properly or even
showing people how it's printed out i
don't know if you've seen i think it was
the most watched video in my channel
which is how to make and sell printable
greeting cards on etsy in that video i
showed you guys how to create a
printable greeting card basically on an
a4 or on a us letter size paper so
people can download the pdf file print
it in their home printer and then cut
around the pieces of the card and then
fold it if that's what you're selling
maybe that's the video you should be
making just make a video of you sitting
next to your computer sending the file
to be printed and then checking the
piece of paper out and cutting it and
folding it it's it might sound like a
no-brainer but these videos are actually
really important because they create a
different connection with a potential
seller they're also more engaging and
interesting and also most of the
platforms these days prefer videos to
any other type of post if you really
don't know how to do videos you can also
create instagram reels and tick tocks
basically doing like a slideshow of
several photos so the process that i
described right now of you know printing
something and making a video of how you
print it and then basically cut it and
fold it you don't have to do it in a
video you can take a selfie of yourself
looking at this on the computer saying
oh this is cool and then a photo of the
printer as the page is coming out and
then a photo of the stages of cutting it
and then a photo of folding it and maybe
even a photo of giving the card to
someone try to bank on emotions try to
make people laugh try to make people say
oh this is really cute or this is really
interesting because emotions are the
best marketing tools that we have tip
number five use as many mock-ups as you
can and really play around with it i've
seen so many etsy stores just having the
same mock-ups in their etsy store as
they do on social media and they have
always the same mock-ups it's like
you're going into their profile on
social media and it's always the same
type of wall art with the same type of
frame and same type of anything if
they're doing coloring pages for kids
they have the same exact mock-up and
it's quite boring after you look at it a
million times maybe play around with it
and have various different mock-ups for
your printables you can find really cool
mockup generators on canva you can
design your own using canvas photos
there was actually a tutorial about how
to create mock-ups for your printable
wall art and in my videos on printable
greeting cards and printable
stationeries i was also showing how to
do mock-ups and all of those i will
leave a link to everything that i'm
discussing every video that i'm
mentioning down below so you can go
ahead and check it out in the
description once this video is done but
a great place that i like to go get
mock-ups from is placeit and there was a
full video of a playset there is a link
down below for place it it's a huge
place where you can design as well as do
mock-ups as well as get video mock-ups
you can literally have a video mock-up
for a piece of printable wall art which
is brilliant or even a piece of card or
a flyer or so many other things because
they upload more and more mock-ups
whether they're jpeg mock-ups or video
mock-ups every single day tip number six
for marketing your printables or digital
download business is more about the
actual business than the actual
marketing if your business doesn't have
a direct targeted audience to it and
it's just all over the place marketing
it might be extremely difficult i mean
if you have a store that sells printable
greeting cards that are like really
quirky and cute with your own
illustrations and then you have
printable wall art that sells i don't
know like quotes or something that is
very text oriented but you also do
printable planners i mean you go into
that store and who is your audience is
your audience people who like interior
design and adding something cool to
their home is your audience people who
are into getting more organized or
healthier with their mental and physical
habits or is your audience people who
are looking for greeting cards if you
are all over the place you're not going
to get anyone same with social media
platforms and
if you do end up making this huge store
for a lot of things maybe your marketing
efforts should be split to various
different things you shouldn't be
marketing your printable wallet with
your printable cards at the same account
unless
those are identical
i mean if you're creating amazing
illustrations and offering them as cards
as well as on wall art
then that's your topic your topic is
your illustration but if you do not have
a specific artistic style you should
really consider niching down in your
stores and not sell multiple printable
items because you're just not going to
get anywhere i've also seen people
combine selling products for grown-ups
and products for kids in the same store
and that could work in theory i mean
if i'm doing printable coloring books
like mandela's for example i can make
really complex mandela coloring books
for grown-ups and very simple and broad
ones for kids and sell them on the same
store because my niche would be selling
mandela coloring books to all ages but
if i'm selling printable educational
sheets in the same place where i'm
selling printable rude coloring pages
for grown ups
my audience might not like it
so think about the audience before you
do anything with uploading products to
your store and marketing them tip number
seven don't forget your branding it
doesn't matter if you're a huge shopify
store with millions of products or if
you're just starting out on etsy with
only three or five or ten products you
still need to have a brand even if the
brand is your own name as an artist you
still need to have a brand the brand
needs a name it needs a logo it needs a
cover photo and it needs your own style
throughout everything that you do you
need to consider your brand fonts your
brand colors and be consistent with your
brand throughout all social media
platforms and the platform you're
selling on tip number eight relates to
our brand and i like to call it one
voice i mean if you're posting a sale
somewhere then you should have sales all
over the place and you should always be
talking in the same voice and in the
same tone in all of your media platforms
because you are one brand be consistent
with the way you approach your audience
because it is who you are and branding
is not just colors and fonts it's also
the language you're using and my last
tip to you is to try to get your buyers
invested in your marketing efforts and
this is something that i mentioned when
i did the marketing video for print on
demand so for example if someone is
ordering a t-shirt from you you can
message them hey
um when you get the t-shirt if you take
a real photo of this t-shirt and either
upload it as a review for etsy or just
upload it to instagram and tag my
account i will send you a coupon code
for a discount for your next purchase
the thing is when you're selling
printables this can even be easier
let's say i am selling uh i'm just
trying to like round up all the
printables and digital downloads in my
head just real quick okay
principal wallart i know it's very
popular okay let's say i'm selling
printable wall art so i can message
someone who bought for me hey
if you print this out and use this
wallet in your home or give it to a
friend and take a photo of it upload it
to instagram and tag me
i will send you something for free you
can literally send them a free file you
can obviously send them a discount code
for the next time but sending them
something for free can be really really
nice a really nice gesture just to get
the ball rolling you can also start
doing it
regardless of buyers i mean let's say
you're selling printable coloring pages
try to check in on some accounts on
instagram that has a thousand followers
2 000 followers and duke coloring pages
and offer them to send them printable
coloring pages for free in exchange for
them to i don't know color one of them
and tag you when they post it on
instagram that could be a really amazing
thing that you can do to help boost up
your social media your credibility
online and get more followers from that
person who is recommending you or
sharing this as well as from your own
credibility you can actually use this
photo and share it in your story and say
hey thank you colormania2000
for coloring my mandela in a beautiful
way by the way if you like this video or
found this content useful please hit
that like button down below because
every time you do it really does help my
channel and subscribe to my channel if
you are not yet subscribed i will be
seeing you guys tomorrow i hope that
i'll manage to do it by tomorrow by
showing you a new print-on-demand
platform that i registered to and
started uploading my designs it's a
print-on-demand platform you need to get
accepted to so i'm gonna take you
through everything and and this started
last week when i was applying to it i
recorded the whole thing because i
didn't even know i need to apply i just
wanted to record opening a shop and
uploading products so that was kind of a
fun surprise and i also recorded you
know starting the process of how i
started uploading the products after i
got accepted the uploading process is
extremely different than any marketplace
i've ever seen it's the easiest one yet
the most complicated one if that makes
sense and i'll also share with you guys
the new art that i decided to upload to
it i also made an order from exo that
will be in a future video where i'll
check out the quality because it's going
to take it some time to arrive to
bulgaria
but i'm also going to show you something
pretty cool because i just started with
this platform and literally two hours
after uploading a design i was appearing
on the first page on search
and
you know not being connected to it
myself just from a random phone and that
was uh pretty awesome to find out and
we're going to be talking more about
that tomorrow
as for next week which is almost the
last week of this month i have so much
in store for you guys including my
favorite fonts to use on canva i want to
do some retro designs with you guys like
a design tutorial for printing man or
for printables as well as sort of go
over what you need to do to open a
successful greeting card business in
2022 whether it's printables or print on
demand i also have a special video to
share with people who are selling
printable wall art of any kind as well
as a video i've been sort of working on
which is called nine reasons why all my
etsy shops failed and
i think you can learn a lot from it
because i have
and i've learned my lessons so much from
it and i'm really anxious and looking
forward to sharing it with you guys but
with that being said that was it for me
for today thank you so much for watching
go ahead invest time efforts and love in
your marketing and i hope all your
stores will be successful and as usual
i'll see you guys in my next video bye
[Music]