Print on demand, a form of ecommerce where sellers design the product, then a third-party manufacturer & ship the product, can seem like a daunting field to break into. Between the multiple selling platforms, large niches, and competitive market, it can feel overwhelming and difficult to succeed. That’s why we’ve assembled a guide to help you master print on demand in four easy steps: learn, design, list, and sell.
Learn
Before you can dive into print on demand, the first step is to get educated and familiarize yourself with the game. Ask yourself if you understand the print on demand process. Do you know why you should sell print on demand? Who are the key players in manufacturing products? Understanding the basics is the first step.
Print on demand allows you access to a pipeline of products that you can design and sell without holding inventory, managing supplies, and other hassles that come with traditional business.
To sell print on demand, you’ll also need to understand the players in this game. Shopify is recommended when getting started, as it can be an ecommerce hub that integrates with Etsy, Amazon, and other major players.
There are also several print on demand platforms, offering a large variety of products. With the Quadra Shopify app, you can select a unique product such as a teddy bear, create a personalized design, and list it on Shopify, Etsy, or Amazon in a matter of minutes.
Quadra generates images and descriptions and ensures that your customer receives your product once it’s purchased.
Now that you’ve mastered the basics, it’s time to put that knowledge to use. The first step in creating your product is to design it. Decide what product you want to design, and use Pinterest, Etsy, and other sites for inspiration.
When you’re ready to design, use tools like Creative Fabrica, Canva, Vista Create, Photoshop, or whatever design platform you prefer. With Quadra, you’re provided a design template that shows you exactly where your design will go. Once you’ve created your design, you can upload it into the Quadra App.
List
After you’ve uploaded your design, your product is almost ready to sell. To wrap up the product creation process, you’ll need to create your listing.
When creating your listing, you’ll consider a title, description, tags, discounts, pricing, and other personalized options for your listings. Be competitive in your listing strategy, and consider finding reasons to prompt your ideal customers to purchase your products.
Once you’ve made these choices, your listing is ready to sell.
Consider this last step as one that never really stops. Selling print on demand is an ongoing process that you will need to work on. What marketplaces will you want to sell on? How will you market your products? Will you create a tracker for your work and profits?
Every move you make to get your products in front of an audience is selling, and this is where you get to make the calls. That’s one of the benefits of being a business owner!
In conclusion, mastering print on demand may initially appear challenging to enter. The landscape is marked by various selling platforms, expansive niches, and a highly competitive market, creating a sense of overwhelming complexity. However, by following these steps, you can master print on demand and increase your chances of success in this dynamic field.
What do Doritos SuperBowl commercials, the Chick-Fil-A cow or even grocery store coupons have in common? They’re all advertising!
Advertising is a marketing strategy that businesses use to promote their products or services to potential customers, and it’s everywhere! Businesses are always searching for new ways to reach their target audience with the goal of creating awareness, generating interest and encouraging people to take action.
Effective advertising campaigns are designed to appeal to consumers’ emotions, needs and desires and to provide them with information about how the benefits of a particular product or service could help them.
Have you ever seen a commercial that made you laugh or cry? That advertisement successfully connected with your emotions and life experiences.
Advertising can take many forms, from traditional print and television ads to more modern methods such as influencer marketing and social media advertising. The rise of the internet and the abundance of digital media channels have transformed the advertising landscape, making it easier for businesses to reach a global audience.
There are several types of advertising and each form has its own set of benefits and challenges!
Print Advertising:
This refers to physical forms of advertising typically such as newspapers, magazines or direct mail. Viewers tend to pay more attention to print advertisements (ads) than they do digital ads because print is less distracting.
Because people are most likely to read newspapers, magazines or books that reflect their interests and opinions, print ads have the benefit of easily reaching their intended audience. Print ads can also be very cost-effective and easily customizable (Indeed).
Broadcast Advertising:
This form of advertising utilizes television and radio. Broadcast advertising can reach large audiences quickly and efficiently. It also utilizes more senses than other forms of advertising by incorporating images, music and motion. The variety in these ads keeps viewers interested and engaged (allbusiness).
Outdoor Advertising:
Also known as out-of-home advertising, outdoor advertising appears on billboards, transit advertising, signs and public benches. The location and scale of these ads make them very eye-catching.
Outdoor ads are well accepted by consumers opposed to digital or online ads which are frequently perceived as annoying and distracting. Similar to print advertising, outdoor advertising can be very cost-effective and is preferred by businesses with smaller budgets (bmediagroup).
Digital Advertising:
Digital advertising encapsulates everything from banners on the side of a web page to sponsored ads in search engines or emails and social media. Because a majority of consumers spend so much time online, digital advertising is essential for most businesses.
One of the benefits of online advertising is that it makes it simple to collect data on how ads perform by collecting data on who clicks on the ad and if they purchase the product or service. This is much different than traditional forms of advertising such as outdoor advertising where it’s impossible to know how many people were convinced to buy from seeing the billboard or park bench. This data simplifies the process of finding the right customers and provides insight into the success of the ad.
Because ecommerce businesses sell products online, digital advertising is almost always the best strategy. One of the most popular and extremely effective methods of digital advertising is paid ads on platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Google. These methods are relatively simple, cost-effective and provide ways to target your exact target audience.
These social media and search engine platforms collect tons of data on their users. If you created a product for moms who have sons that play baseball, Facebook can show your ads to those exact people.
Visit our membership site at learn.goquadra.com to learn more about paid ads.
Why is Advertising Important?
The role of advertising cannot be overstated. When a new product is developed, advertising is a crucial first step in its lifecycle. It acts as an introduction to the product and helps to establish the brand in the market. Through effective advertising, businesses can get their product in front of a wider audience, which can lead to increased sales.
Moreover, advertising plays a significant role in creating demand for a product. Before production, businesses calculate sales projections to determine the cost of production. Advertising helps to turn those projections into reality by introducing the product to potential customers and generating interest.
In today’s digital age, advertising has become a science. Businesses can use highly targeted campaigns and track every conversion from an ad with ease. This level of control and traceability makes advertising essential for attribution modeling and conversion rate optimization.
Advertising also allows businesses to get ahead of other players in their fields. This healthy competition shapes the market and can lead to big wins for businesses. Promotional advertising, when done as part of an aggressive marketing campaign, can be particularly effective at getting quick results.
Advertising is a critical part of promoting a business. With the right strategy and execution, advertising can help businesses achieve their objectives and succeed, even in competitive marketplaces!
You’ve likely seen social media influencers create posts and videos about products they love, but did you know that they get paid every time you purchase a product they recommend? This is called affiliate marketing and it’s one of the most profitable marketing methods today.
Many people falsely believe that they need a large social media following or vast marketing experience to become an affiliate, but anyone can make money as an affiliate if they use the right strategies. Here’s how:
Affiliate marketing happens when an affiliate, i.e., you, an influencer, or even another company, shares a product or service with others through a unique link to a company’s website. A percentage of any sale made through the link is given to the affiliate.
For example, if you love a specific t-shirt and want everyone to know how much better it is than other t-shirts, you could become an affiliate for that brand. You would sign up for the brand’s affiliate program, get your own unique link to the product, and share the link with your friends, family, social media followers, etc. Sometimes affiliate programs even offer discounts for individuals purchasing through an affiliate link. You’ll get paid every time someone makes a purchase using your link, and you’ll get the satisfaction of sharing one of your favorite products.
Affiliate marketing requires three parties:
The company to provide the product or service
The affiliate to promote the product or service
The consumers to purchase the product or service
Occasionally there is a fourth party: An affiliate marketplace. Affiliate marketplaces are like the eBay or Amazon of affiliate marketing. Companies list their offers in affiliate marketplaces and affiliates use the marketplaces to compare and choose offers that align with their interests and goals.
Why become an affiliate?
There are many reasons for affiliate marketing’s recent rise in popularity. Here are a few:
Easy to start
Becoming an affiliate is as easy as finding an offer to promote and deciding how to share it with your audience. Affiliate marketplaces are a great place to start. They make the process of finding offers even easier by listing thousands of offers in one place. This way, you can quickly find companies that share your same values.
Low-risk
Companies frequently provide a script and the other assets you’ll need to market their product. You don’t have to deal with creating marketing material, working with customers, or manufacturing or shipping products. You simply share the company’s content with your audience, and start collecting your commission.
Little to no experience necessary
Anyone can be an affiliate! You aren’t required to have a large following or specific training to join most affiliate programs. You can learn as you go with the brands there to support you!
Wide variety of options
With nearly 80% of companies doing some type of affiliate marketing, there’s an affiliate offer for every affiliate marketer and for every type of product: Digital, physical, service, etc. You’ll never have to worry about being able to find companies you love
Lucrative
Companies typically offer 25-75% commission for every product sold. Because products are sold in a wide range of prices, affiliates can earn anywhere from $1 to over $1000 for each sale. In addition, affiliate marketing requires little to no capital from the affiliate so it has unbeatable profit margins.
Passive income
When you share your unique affiliate link in your YouTube videos, blog posts, emails, social media posts, etc., you are giving people a way to buy products from your link at any time. That means you can be making money while you do the dishes, walk your dog, work at another job, or anything else! As you grow your platform, you will be able to promote products and receive large volumes of sales without much work after the initial ad.
Flexibility
Affiliate marketing can be done anywhere and anytime, so it compliments any schedule.
These are only a few of the incredible benefits you can gain from starting affiliate marketing. It could change your life! Are you ready to get started?
Getting started with affiliate marketing
Find your niche.
Do you love travel, reading, gardening, or painting? Maybe you’re really interested in cleaning and organization, or fixing up old cars. Just how there are companies who sell every type of product, there are countless people in the world who share your same interests and would love to read and watch content from you. If you already have an audience, great! If you don’t, no problem! Create a social media account, blog, email list, etc., and start creating all types of content. Your audience will come naturally.
Pick affiliate offers
Decide where you are going to find products and services to advertise to your audience. There are two main options for this: First, go straight to a company you admire and join their affiliate program directly, or second, join an affiliate marketplace and choose from their selection of companies and offers.
Start promoting
Most affiliate programs already have marketing materials ready for you to send to your audience or post on your platform. Once your affiliate link is created, you can start promoting those materials however you want!
From there, it’s all a matter of tracking your campaigns, growing your audience, and collecting that commission.
Quadra affiliates promote Quadra’s free masterclass. During the free masterclass we teach the strategies our founders used to create a 7-figure ecommerce business and showcase Quadra Pro, a platform where ecommerce sellers can get valuable and ongoing ecommerce and print on demand trainings, low pricing on unique, customizable products, and a library of high-converting product designs.
To make the process easier for you, we’ve already created the masterclass and all the marketing materials you’ll need to share it with your audience. All you have to do is send them your unique affiliate link.
The auto-webinar has a 41% show-up rate and a 15% conversion rate on cold traffic. This means that 15% of people who have never heard of Quadra watch the webinar and purchase the product. This is a much higher conversion rate than most products in our space which means you have a high chance of making commissions, even if you don’t have a large audience yet.
You’ll earn 50% of sales generated through your affiliate link throughout our entire funnel. That’s up to $662 in commissions for each person who purchases from your link!
If you’re in the ecommerce space, you’ve probably heard of print on demand, or POD, but you might not be sure what it is or how it could benefit you. Keep reading to learn how print on demand could help you establish or scale your ecommerce business.
Print on demand is a form of ecommerce selling where sellers connect with manufacturers who create white-label and easily-customizable products such as mugs, wall signs, and t-shirts. These sellers then upload their own custom designs on the products to sell in their stores. With print on demand, manufacturers only produce and ship products after they have been purchased.
Print on demand products are fully customizable and unique so they stand out in the crowded ecommerce marketplace. That’s why print on demand could be the perfect next step for your business!
Why Customers Prefer Print on Demand
Your customers will love your print on demand product offerings! Not only will they benefit from the robust creative abilities and quality of the products, but they’ll also be able to request customizations personalized to their tastes. In fact, 1 in 5 customers are willing to pay up to 20% more for personalized products so this could significantly increase your profits.
As a print on demand seller, you won’t have to worry about inventory or shipping products yourself! The traditional way to sell online is to find a product, order that product in bulk, and then start selling. This form of selling puts a lot of risk on your end. You could sell out within the first week or you could be left with hundreds of products still in your inventory at the end of six months. This reality makes selling online a large risk to small business owners and large CEOs alike.
Print on demand manufacturers take responsibility for maintaining stock of all their products so you have one less thing on your mind as you grow your business. They will also ship the product directly to your customer for you! This process is called dropshipping.
Dropshipping creates a low point of entry for businesses, making it a great option if you are looking to start a business but you have limited capital. It also removes you from a number of the messier operation components of running a business so that you can focus on what you love such as creating designs, advertising, and/or expanding your brand.
Quadra Simplifies the Process
The benefits of print on demand are clear, but you might be asking yourself: Where do I find manufacturers? How do I make sure the manufacturers receive and print the right design? How do I know which products to launch? How do I know the manufacturer is reliable?
Quadra simplifies the process. Quadra builds the manufacturer relationships for you. All you have to do is select products from our extensive catalog of unique products, upload your own design onto the product of your choice, and launch it in your Shopify store. You only pay for products to be manufactured after a customer has purchased them.
We send the product with its design to the manufacturer. The manufacturer prints the design on the product and ships the product directly to your customer. That’s all there is to it!
By using Quadra you get all of the benefits of print on demand such as spending more of your valuable time creating designs, marketing your products, and building your brand, without going through the hassles of starting a business.
Subscribe to Quadra Pro and you’ll receive early access to unique products and manufacturer-volume pricing so you can save up to 50% compared to our free plan. Plus you’ll get access to training videos from Quadra’s Print on demand experts.
