Just a little help

[TheWhiteInvite]

Hello all,

I am wondering if I could get just a little help from you all. My shop sales stationery and wedding invitations. I have sold a good bit of stationery; however, now that it is wedding season I would like to focus on my wedding invitations.

I am having trouble with people buying my wedding invitations. Could you please help?

- I am working on pictures, but what do you advise? "Real" pictures or do the digital pictures with a wood background look good?

- What would be the best way for me to advertise?

- How can I get more sales?

Thank you so very much in advance for your help

[Former_Member]

Hi Samantha,

I love your shop.... love the tree with swing invitation! If I saw these (and could afford them for my daughter's wedding!), I would SO buy them! All of your invitations are beautiful, and well priced.

My personal preference is the simple, light or white background. The wood background isn't as elegant. But your photography is gorgeous.

The more items you heart, the more people you follow, the more your page will be viewed. Relist at peak times. I relist one or two things in the evening... I don't really know if it's the best time or not but I take my best guess. Stalk brides. ha. I mean, look often at your list of "followers", and people who favorite your items. Add them to your circle and find something in their shop or favorites to like. I see you use facebook... Pinterest is also a great place to show off your talent.

Your tags - some are one word tags, and I've taken the advise of many people to use multiple words in tags. Instead of damask, say yellow damask, or damask invitation. or Spring Wedding Invites...

Try to reach as many people as possible. There aren't many shops that offer Hers&Hers or His&His items. Having a few listings for LGBT couples shows your range of diversity and is a way to reach a more diverse group of people. Use a couple LGBT invitation tags. If I were looking for wedding invitations, as a lesbian, I would be looking only at shops who were visibly inviting to our community.

Best of luck to you -- I've added you to my faves. :)

liz

[Former_Member]

Personally I find the wood background kind of busy/distracting. Advertising - are you on Pinterest? Lots of people use it to pin wedding ideas, I'd think that would be a great way to get your invites "out there". There must be wedding blogs, right? - maybe you could offer a discount/freebie for some press??

Congrats on your success so far!!

[Former_Member]

Oops, didn't mean to sound closed minded there... I meant that I would not want to patronize a shop who was obviously NOT open to the diversity that includes me, whether it was color of skin, country of origin... you get the idea.

So I would look first at shops who show that they WANT my business, and are thoughtful enough to show it.

[WintergreenDesign]

One little comment in the area under your banner you have a little spot where you have written "Yellow Hype Designs"... that area is actually a place where you should write what you sell (mine says Christmas Ornaments and Paper Quilling)... that will also help people find you.

I am also thinking about trying to break into the "wedding biz" but I think it's a tough nut to crack : ) Keep promoting... especially outside of Etsy where brides and grooms of all types frequent : )

[TheWhiteInvite]

Thanks everyone - your posts have been so helpful!!! :)

I would like to go place business cards at locations in the area. I plan on going to bridal dress stores, starbucks, etc. Do you have any other ideas of where I can place my card?

I am on Pinterest; however most of my followers there are people that I actually know and not so many potential customers. Any ideas on getting more Pinterest followers?

Thanks Liz - this is great information! I love the idea of LGBT invitations, you didn't sound closed minded at all it makes perfect sense :)

Thanks again everyone! Any other information & advertising ideas will be great help!

[MaxplanationPhotos]

I started adding folks thru a basic search of items pinned that are similiar to what I sell :) you would be surprised how many followers you will get :) I started doing it last week and went up in followers about 75% ...

Here's my link

http://pinterest.com/crown1001/

[Orchiada]

Samantha, You have some really pretty stationary in your shop. I love them, very unique and artsy!!

[TheWhiteInvite]

Great idea about Pinterest! I just started following several people based on category.

[TheWhiteInvite]

Thanks so much Sheena, you are too sweet! I had great sales during Christmas - just looking to increase my sales!

[MaxplanationPhotos]

Speaking of pinterest . Has anyone received any sales thru pinterest ? Maybe I don't have the 3000 followers like others , but I don't seem to get any pinterest views . Anyone else ?

[Former_Member]

For the business cards - think about what brides do early on - maybe book a place for the reception, if you live in an area where things book well in advance?

[DontPanicDesign]

Samantha, keep adding invitation listings. The more variety or options you have the more someone has to choose from. You have some lovely designs, and lovely stationery. I see why you have sold more stationery though, because there is more of it to choose from. As far as photo options, I think digital is fine, but you can think outside box a little; you don't have to use a wood background. Just something interesting, fairly neutral, and that you like. Work on SEO, and I bet you'll do fine. Now is definitely the time to be thinking this way! It is the season.

[DontPanicDesign]

Liz, great point regarding the LGBT community. Thanks for that comment!

[SweetThymes]

I love your shop!! It is so cute!
I think your photos are great, the wood is cute but I find variety is good too, so do a few with white backdrops and a few with wood. It will be more interesting to scroll through.
Also get on some of the wedding teams, they are a great support group!

[TheWhiteInvite]

Thanks everyone! I will get on designing more wedding invitations, change the backgrounds, and place business cards out.

I know what SEO is however I'm not exactly sure how to use it. Any suggestions?

[DontPanicDesign]

Search for SEO in teams, there are threads and teams that do a great job explaining. The thing that helped me the most when I got started was repeating keywords in my titles, the first line of my description, and again in the tags. When all three match, they let search engines know what is on your page, and that really helped increase views, and views from the right market. I think someone mentioned your shop description line as well, and that is a great tip. Try to succinctly summarize what is in your shop in that line.

[TheWhiteInvite]

Great help Amy thanks so much for the SEO information I will definitely look that up!

[HullStreetStudio]

For twitter I would suggest finding a blog that you think your invitations would work really well on, find their twitter and start following some of their twitter followers. As a bride I tend to spend a LOT of time on pinterest so I agree with everyone else, pin it all!