Paul’s approach to holiday selling with Teespring

Paul is US based Teespring seller who specializes in motorsport niches. This is his second holiday season selling with Teespring and we’re so excited he’s agreed to share some of his top tips with the community!

 

Holidizing Designs

During the 2015 Holiday Season Paul had a lot of success holidizing his motorsport designs for both EU and US markets. Typically during the holidays we see the majority of Teespring sales coming from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Australia and France. Below Paul shares tips on holidizing designs and tackling global markets.

How do you determine which designs you want to holidize?

I just go with what I know about first; motocross, snowmobiles and hot rods. I test a few designs and then adapt the winners to other niches…well the ones I thought would work with skulls!

Do you notice any differences in design or product preference between EU and US buyers?

Most of my U.S. holiday sales have been long sleeve tees and most of the EU sales have been crewneck sweatshirts, although this year I’m trying to incorporate more crewnecks in the U.S.

Can you talk about your process for targeting similar audiences in different markets?

The audience demographics and targeting are similar for the most part – I generally just need to adjust the audience location for EU ads. If some of my US “targets” aren’t available in Europe I’ll just find something similar to replace them for that market.

Do you have any tips for other Creators who are interested in creating holiday designs for their niches?

Sure – look for photos of ugly sweater parties online and try to find people/designs that look like they could belong in your niche. Search online for similar sweater designs to the ones those people are wearing in the party photos – you can use these images to inspire your own designs.

 

Holiday Timeline

Can it ever be too early to start launching holiday designs? Just ask Paul! Some Creators start pushing holiday themes as early as August, however we usually see a big boost in holiday design sales during October, November and December.

Can you please tell us about how you prepared for the holiday season last year? When do you start launching “holiday” designs and ads?

Very early…around August. It was so early that some people even complained about seeing Christmas ads, but at the same time people were buying my products so I guess it worked out.

Do you usually offer special discounts during the holidays to boost sales? If yes, when do you run these discounts?

I tend to offer discount promotions (like free shipping) early on (September/October) and then stop using discounts at the seasonal selling peak (late November/early December). Afterwards I may start offering them again once things slow down a little (mid to late December).

Can you give us a glimpse of how you plan to spend your workday on big days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Hopefully scaling up! I plan to have ads running already so I’ll just monitor them and watch for low relevance scores (to adjust the targeting/creatives if necessary). I plan to freshen up any ad with a relevancy score below a 7.

 

Paid Ads

Teespring Creators should consider adding holiday elements to their designs – it can help remind buyers that your product could make the perfect gift or it can create a sense of urgency, prompting them to purchase in time for Christmas.

Did you use any other channels apart from Facebook to promote your campaigns? If yes, how’d it go?

I do sell a little bit on Pinterest; I like Pinterest because once someone “pins” a shirt it stays there unlike a Facebook ad that’s gone when I stop running it. Pinterest can be useful for organic promotion long-term.

How do you plan to holidize your ads in November and December?

Here’s one example of an ad image that I added a holiday touch to; I’ll usually incorporate holiday elements and colors and include text like “Last Chance” to create a sense of urgency for buyers. Even with additional holiday elements it’s important for people to be able to easily see the design you’re selling – so I always include a close-up of the design.

If you could give Teespring Creators one piece of advice when it comes to using paid ads over the holidays what would it be?

Sure, but it’s advice I’ve gotten from Ty and Glyn and it’s “don’t love your shirts” – you may think your design is great but that doesn’t mean it will sell…you need to find out what’s working and go with those designs. Also, look at Facebook’s breakdown of your buyers to see who’s buying your products – if you see a lot of differences in purchasing/engagement between males, females and/or age groups you can optimize your ads by splitting them into different ad sets and adapting ad image/ad copy to make it more appealing for each specific group.