Marketing Tips for Makers

You may have noticed some exciting additions to your Spoonflower experience over the past few weeks: subtle restyling changes, new product releases, Bulk Discounts, and, perhaps our most anticipated addition, the launch of Spoonflower Pro. We wanted to take a second to go “back to basics” and give you a few tips and tricks to help keep your designs visible in the Marketplace.

Two of the most important (and sometimes overlooked) steps when creating a design are 1) giving your design an accurate and descriptive name and 2) adding a design description. There are dozens of designs floating around the Marketplace with titles like “IMG” or “Image”–and that ain’t helping nobody. Don’t let yours be one of them! Adding an accurate title and description allows your designs to be found by including important keywords that shoppers may use when searching the Spoonflower Marketplace.

Mermaids in purple by heleen_vd_thrillart

For example, if you’ve created a beautiful mermaid design, but don’t have the word “mermaid” in your design name or description, it will be much more difficult to find.

So, what makes a good title and description?

Be sure to include important keywords in your title. What colors did you use? Is there a specific theme or surface pattern you drew inspiration from? Don’t forget to Include those, too. Let’s use Mermaids in Purple as an example: While purple is a predominant color there are also other predominant colors in the design a shopper could be looking for. The design name could potentially be “Mermaids in Purple and Pink” or “Mermaids In Purple Swimming with Cats.” Whether someone is searching for mermaids or searching for cats, they would still come across this adorable creation.

Now that you’ve thought about your design name, it’s time to write up your description. Here you will continue to include keywords pertaining to your design, but you can create a more robust description. Don’t be afraid to add a little whimsy and be creative!

Cute_Retro_Robots by jumping_monkeys

Our friend Jumping Monkeys hit it out of the park with this description for “Cute_Retro_Robots.”

“You’ll find the lost members of Rosie’s family floating on a creamy 50’s retro backdrop. The background features the ever popular mid-century boomerang design with a few atomic symbols tossed in for good measure. Ideal for children’s clothes, quilting and other cute projects.”

Your description could include the inspiration for the design (robots), the style (50’s retro), color (creamy) and  ideal uses for your pattern.

Don’t forget to add tags to your designs! This is another crucial step to ensuring your design is searchable. You may choose up to 7 short phrases that describe your design and Spoonflower will rate your tag for its strength; the stronger, the better! If you find that your tags have low tag strength we’ll suggest related keywords. You can also add up to four colors from the suggested color options which match to your designs.

All of these optimizations work retroactively, so make sure to update your existing designs, as well as new designs you’ve just uploaded. You’ve put a lot of work into your design, now make sure the descriptions get noticed and help you reach more shoppers. Who said you can’t teach an old design new tricks?

Want more information on how to achieve success selling on Spoonflower? Check out all the handy resources in the “Seller” section of our Help page. There you’ll find articles on how to become a verified seller, how to promote, tag, and how to handle (everyone’s favorite subject) taxes.

Happy Designing!