Hello, I’m Jennifer! I started my Etsy shop PrintableForPlanners three years ago in 2018. I’ve sold over 40 thousand items so far and here I am sharing some tips and experiences of what I’ve learned throughout my journey. There are tons of other great articles and youtube videos on the internet that are very helpful as well. However, in this post, I’ll share my personal experience with you and what I do and not recommend doing when starting out as a seller.
If you are interested in selling printables on Etsy and you’re looking for an easy planner software to use, check out our blog and click here to check out the newest planner collections and goodies which you can use commercially in your shop as well.
Establishing a Memorable Brand Aesthetic
If you know my Etsy Shop PrintableForPlanners or if you are familiar with my IG account @printable_for_planners, you might instantly think of the color pink. Each listing, product, and theme throughout the shop is pink.
Not saying that you should instantly change your shop to be all pink, all blue, or all green, but a distinguishable and memorable aesthetic can help you in many ways when selling printables on Etsy:
- Customers will recognize your products when searching on Etsy and will be able to differentiate your products from other sellers if you have a clear branding that is easily recognizable.
Directing customers to your shop from the Etsy Search Engine isn’t the easiest. Your goal is to rank high in the search algorithm and second, to stand out the most and be recognizable as a brand and shop, by having an easily memorable brand whether that be a certain color, font, specific style, etc.
- A cohesive/distinguishable look throughout your shop and listings will look more organized and pleasing to the eye of the buyer.
Rather than offering a Weekly Planner in all different kinds of styles, try to narrow down your color palette and theme. This doesn’t mean you should only choose one color palette, but I recommend you to have a certain cohesive theme going on throughout your shop that is different from all other shops.
Enhancing Your Planner Shop's Appeal on Etsy
Here are some examples of what you could do when selling printables on Etsy:
- Have a 3 color theme: You could create a theme throughout your shop where each listing is offered in 3 colors, like black, blue, and purple.
- Pros: You will attract a wider audience.
- Have a 1 color theme: You could also choose to have one main color stand out in your printables. Examples would be to maybe have all lines, bullet points black or grey/neutral, but a colorful border on the rings to add a pop of color and make your printables appear less “boring and general”.
- Important: It might be a good idea to always also offer a borderless version as well, as there will always be customers who prefer neutral designs. Pop of colors should be used to attract attention.
- Minimal Planners: The minimal style has taken the market within the last year and has grown in popularity. If you’re planning on leaning towards the minimal design, please keep in mind that the current market is filled with neutral and minimalistic/black and white inserts. It will be much harder to stand out if you lean more on the minimal spectrum. This doesn’t mean you can’t offer any minimalistic simple planners in your shop. What I recommend is to bring in some colors or patterns that will differentiate you from others when selling printables on Etsy.
- Remember, you want to be different from others. There already are tons of simple minimalistic inserts out there. Try to stand out in your own way and maybe make it a theme throughout your shop to offer both, a colorful or pastel version and a neutral, minimal version. With a colorful or aesthetically pleasing product, you’re more likely to attract customers to your shop when selling printables on Etsy. If you also offer the same product in a neutral, minimal theme then chances are higher the customer will purchase from you.
- Decorative Planners: There also are a lot of people who love everything colorful and pretty, decorated with stickers. If you decide to target decorative customers, then try to make as many columns in your inserts 1.5 inches wide (in all sizes) as you can, so they’ll fit all stickers on the market. Also, make it clear in your listing description that your inserts are sticker-friendly and that the columns are 1.5 inches wide.
- Pros: A Sticker-friendly planner printables shop with 1.5-inch columns is a rare finding. It takes a lot of effort to resize planners in all sizes and to make all columns 1.5 inches wide if you’re using Adobe Programs or Canva. However, on Planify Pro, you can size the columns to be 1.5 inches wide for any planner size by selecting the 1.5-inch column button on the Layout Panel.
- Customers are more likely to convert to loyal, returning customers if the quality and design are consistent throughout the shop (Strong branding).
Your goal when selling printables on Etsy is to get new customers daily and to convert existing customers to loyal and returning customers. A consistent theme throughout your shop will help you achieve that.
Customers who once bought from your shop and love your designs will most likely repurchase from you if the same design/aesthetic and quality are reflected throughout all your listings. Not only will the customer spend less time in deciding if they will repurchase from you again, but they will feel more secure in repurchasing from you, if they already know what to expect in the downloaded file. Customers are more likely to buy multiple products at a time, or set up an entire planner just using your printables if they have established a sense of trust in your shop and products.
Have at least 100 listings uploaded to Etsy
The more planners you have listed, the higher the chances are you’ll get discovered when selling printables on Etsy. Please also keep in mind that you’ll also get charged more since every listed item on Etsy will cost you 0.20 USD. However, if you do want to grow your business then there isn’t any other way around. Offering only ten or twenty listings won’t be enough to get discovered in the search engine. 50 listings might be a good start as well, but try to upload more to cover each planner category.
Offer different kinds of Dailies, Weeklies, Notes, Work/Office Planner, Monthly Planners, Yearly Calendar, Dated and Undated inserts. Functional Notes Essentials, Covers, Dividers, etc. And of course, offer each planner in at least 8 planner sizes. If you offer all types of planners in at least 8 planner sizes, you’ll easily reach an inventory of 100 listings!
The bigger your selection of planners is, the higher are the chances a customer will purchase more than one planner.
Offer as many planner sizes as you can when selling printables on Etsy
I highly recommend you to offer as many sizes as you can when selling printables on Etsy. The planner community is bigger than you think. There are tons of different planner binders (in different sizes) to buy, but not every planner printables shop does offer every insert in any size. The more sizes you offer, the more listings are in your shop and the higher are the chances you’ll pop up on Etsy’s search engine.
A short story about PrintableForPlanners' biggest mistake with not including all sizes when selling printable on Etsy
PrintableForPlanners’ biggest mistake most likely was not to offer planner inserts for the pocket size.
My issue with pocket sizes has always been the fact that pocket size inserts are really small which gave me huge troubles in resizing them. Pocket sizes are only 3.2 x 4.7 inches. This meant that I had to recreate the pocket size versions, reduce lines and to-do lists with fewer bullet points, etc. instead of just scaling up or down the planners as I did with all other sizes.
Resizing pocket inserts was very difficult for me. Even Though I now offer some pocket sizes, that hasn’t been the case for a long time. The bigger my shop and planner selection grew, the more requests I received for pocket inserts. Had I invested that extra hour in recreating pocket inserts, I would have sold at least a couple of thousand more items till this day.
There was one point where I just had to accept that it wouldn’t be possible for me to offer every planner in pocket size. That would have taken me at least one full week of work which I didn’t have, so I made peace with the fact that I simply couldn’t offer everything, which is fine! However, if I could go back in time, I would have invested that extra hour in recreating a pocket version for every planner.
This is what I mean with taking advantage of Planify Pro’s resizing panel. What took me an entire day could only take you a couple of minutes. You’ll only have to select a planner size and it’ll automatically resize it for you!
So please, use the sizing feature on Planify Pro to your advantage and generate as many sizes as you can, since it almost takes no time but is of great value for your shop, growth, and time investment.
Use Etsy’s listing promotions - Buy 3 get ??% off promotions
You can create special promotions on Etsy, like offering a discount when purchasing three or more items, etc. Offering a discount on more than one item can help you boost sales!
Customers usually prefer to purchase multiple items with a discount than just one single product full price.
Use Etsy Ads
I prefer not to go too deep into Etsy Ads since there are both positive and negative aspects to Etsy Ads.
- The cons are that the Ads usually don’t pay off if your products are priced under 10 USD, which usually is the case when you’re selling printable planners.
- The pros are that they might help you in the beginning of starting your shop and might bring in some views to your shop and might also help generate your first sales.
If you activate the Etsy Ads, you’ll be able to set a daily budget for how much to spend on Ads. Speaking from personal experience, I do recommend running ads in the first few weeks of opening your shop, just to get the ball rolling and to generate the first few sales. Later on, after your shop does get in sales regularly, you can turn off the ads or just have them running when you’re running a sale to get more views and traffic.
Running Sales when selling printables on Etsy
Speaking of Sales, I recommend you run a Sale every few weeks on Holidays, such as Black Friday, Xmas, New Year, Easter, etc. Try to have a small sale once a month that lasts a few days (1-3 days).
Packing multiple products into one Bundle/ Offer Promotional Bundles
Offering bundles can generate you more revenue than having customers buy each listing separately. Remember, there is a listing fee of 0.20 USD you have to pay back to Etsy for each item you sell.
Here is a quick example:
Let’s say a customer would purchase the following planners; 1 Daily, 1 Weekly, 1 Dated Monthly, 2 Notes Sheets, 2 To-do Lists, which are 7 items at checkout, you’ll have to pay back a listing fee of (0.20 USD x 7 items) 1.40 USD.
However, if you would pack all these planners into one listing and sell it as an “Essentials Pack”, you would only have to pay 0.20 USD in listing fees, which means you could save in fees or and you could also offer bundles for less money to your customers.
Use social media account to connect with others and to generate your own traffic
You could rely on Etsy’s search engine only, however, please also consider having an Instagram account or any other social media account where you can inspire, share and connect with others. Your social media account should be like your business card in real life. Besides Instagram, you can also use Pinterest or create a private Facebook Group.
As mentioned above, 100 listings uploaded to Etsy might sound crazy, however, if you’re uploading 3 items every day for 3 months, you’ll easily reach an inventory of 100 listings. The key is to stay consistent. Show Etsy that you’re active and that you’re working on your shop daily. This will also bring you into the habit of working a little bit every day. Things will take time, but you’ll eventually generate one sale, then 5 sales, then 100 sales.
If you have one happy customer, then there is no reason why you can’t have 10, 100, or 1000 happy customers. The same goes for selling items. If you’ve sold 10 items and you’ve received good feedback, then there is no reason why you can’t sell 1000 items.
Consistency is key in everything, especially when selling printables on Etsy. Trees take time to blossom and so does everything else in life.
Feel free to message me anytime on social if you have questions. I’ll respond the fastest on Instagram @planifypro
Good luck, my friends! Happy Selling
Want more tips and inspiration for building your own custom planner or launching a personalized planner brand? Check out our blog for a helpful beginner’s guide: “What You Need to Start a Planner Shop” and Courses to help you get started. Planify Pro has more DIY tips to help you personalize your planner, whether you’re designing a gift, building a product line, or just creating a layout that works for you.
Check out these easy tutorials and bring your custom planner ideas to life Click Here! Don’t forget to visit our Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest for more inspiration—and to explore our wide selection of premade planner templates, design stickers, and fonts for making your own personalized planner. Let Planify Pro help you on your journey to planner success!
