João’s top tips for reaching 10,000 product sales with Teespring

João is a Teespring seller based in the beautiful city of Lisbon, Portugal. When he’s not selling with Teespring he likes to spend time traveling with his family and supporting Benfica, his favorite soccer team. This week João hit an exciting sales milestone—10,000 units! João has kindly agreed to share advice and insight he’s gained on his journey to this milestone with the rest of the Teespring Community.  

João and his son visiting in Madeira Island

 

Facebook

João starting selling with Teespring as a way to monetize his Facebook pages. He’s built up his followings on eight Facebook pages and has over 1.3 million fans combined (mostly US based).

I get a lot of organic sales still just from posting a photo or a video. I publish around 4 ‘viral’ posts per day (usually photos and videos sent by fans) and at least 1 ‘promotional’ post per day (usually a slideshow). I also use Facebook Advertising. Although ads are harder than they were before I still get positive ROI’s. In my ‘Website Conversion’ ads I always ask questions or tell viewers to tag friends. This way I get  a lot of engagement and extra organic sales.

João’s top tips for sellers is to use Facebook slideshows as they tend to get a lot more reach and engagement than photos. He also suggests creating a Facebook Shop; João says he’s able to get extra sales by tagging his Teespring products each time he posts. He also uses Facebook Messenger to engage with fans that leave a comment on his posts.

After posting a ‘promotional’ post and having comments, I always send them a message asking ‘Hi, did you order the shirt?’. If I get a reply saying ‘no’, I send another message saying ‘We can offer you a 20% OFF coupon… are you interested?’

Creating a slideshow post

Creating a Facebook Shop allows you to tag your products in posts.

Instagram

Recently, João has also started growing several Instagram accounts. He says the good thing about Instagram when compared with Facebook is that it offers a lot more reach and engagement, which means that you start seeing results even with fewer followers.

With Instagram I’m using Teespring Creatives human model mockups because I think the images ‘blend’ much better. As the Holidays approach I will start sharing ‘promotional’ post more frequently, hoping to increase my sales from Instagram. If you’ve got several Instagram accounts I would consider getting a desktop app that helps you manage and schedule all the content.

Teespring Tools

Apart from Facebook and Instagram, João gets an additional 15% of his sales from the Boosted Network. He tries to optimize all of his campaigns with relevant hashtags and keywords so shoppers can easily find them on teespring.com.

Keep an eye out for posts regarding special events in the Teespring Blog. There’s always a hashtag that you can use (example: #BoostedChristmas) that will help you make more sales. Also, with the #BoostedEU promotion I’ve already duplicated my most successful designs for the Boosted Network. And from now on, I’ll create an EU version of every design that I launch in the US. It’s just a small extra effort, but the reward can be quite good!

João also uses the Teespring Messages tool in conjunction with the Promotions tool to get extra sales from past buyers.

I use Messages as much as I can; 3 times per week. Usually, I send an email at 9 AM EST on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I don’t only use this tool for new designs. From time to time, I grab an old design and offer a discount (I usually use a 20% OFF coupon) and get a lot of sales this way.

João visiting Las Vegas with his family

Unique designs

When it comes to creating new designs João’s process is simple. He mainly uses Google and Pinterest as sources of inspiration. If he comes across an interesting idea he always tweaks that idea and to make it unique to his niche.

Many of my top designs are a mixed concept using my main niche and a secondary niche—or adding “layers” to the design message.  The most simple example is mixing Christmas or Halloween with your main niche. Many times there are dozens of holidays, commemorative dates, and awareness months that can be applied to your main niche.

Apart from the tips mentioned above, João’s advice for up and coming sellers is:

• Be positive (instead of spending 10 minutes per day complaining or being negative, use those 10 minutes to research design ideas) 😉
• Learn (but choose carefully your sources…)
• Always think outside-of-the-box (copying designs won’t work in the long run…be unique!)
• Test, test, and test (you’ll eventually find something that works)
• Plan your work week (this helps ensure you take care of important and meaningful tasks)

João runs several online businesses in addition to selling with Teespring. These businesses have allowed him to “be his own boss” and live the life he’s always dreamed of. We’d like to thank João for taking the time to share these useful tips and advice with the community, and help people achieve their own Teespring milestones too!  

I’ve got other sources of income, but Teespring has become an important part of my online business.  Having your own business means that you’ve got a lot of work, but the freedom and flexibility that you get from being your own boss is priceless. Thank you Teespring!

 

Screenshot from João’s Teespring account after hitting the 10k milestone