We’ve always been fans of printables. While we don’t make physical products ourselves, we’ve found that they’re perfect for businesses that specialize in offering a few different products online and offline (think: coupon sites, crafts books, parenting magazines, and so on). The reason is simple: you can offer them at a low price while still making your profits higher than if you sold the item itself.
For example, say you have an e-course ($20) and a workbook ($21)—the printable is simply another way to get people to buy both parts of the product (an e-course and a workbook). This can be better for business owners because people might not want the whole package—why buy both when one will do?
However, it also gives people a chance to try out your product without buying anything. Prints are available as digital files so you can give them away with every physical order or digital download.
Learning Opportunity
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that creating printables is a learning experience. Even if you’ve been creating printables for your small business for years, this strategy can be used to learn more about the way consumers interact with your brand and your industry as a whole.
One of the best ways to learn, whether you’re an expert or just starting out, is through customer feedback. Since printables are free products that require no physical items to be exchanged between a buyer and seller, it’s easy to gather email addresses in exchange for offering them up. You could even run an email campaign in which emails are sent out with new freebies or updates on existing ones every few months or so. This allows you to connect with consumers and glean insight into what they think about your product or service by simply asking them directly!
Learning is also important because it helps you improve as an entrepreneur and business owner. The only way we can grow as humans (or businesses!) is through making mistakes –– so let yourself make them! People will respect your vulnerability when they see that you’re willing to admit where things didn’t go well but still tried anyway because mistakes lead us towards better decisions in future endeavors 🙂
Building Your Brand
Printables can also be a great way to show off your personality and build your brand. When a customer pays for a printable from you, they see your logo, branding colors, and business card in the package. This is an opportunity for you to get creative. Consider how you want your customers to see you or what you want them to think about when they use your printable. It might be helpful to imagine yourself as a customer receiving this product from another brand. What do their logo and branding colors make you feel? How does the design of their printable help or hinder its use?
One of the best things about using printables to market your small business is that it can help you stand out from the competition. Customers have more than one option when it comes time to purchase something, so if your products are similar in cost and quality, then there needs to be something else differentiating them from other stores’ products – like an amazing freebie! Printables are an easy way to set yourself apart with something tangible that people will love (and hopefully share!)- plus they’re fairly inexpensive! You can also use these resources as part of an email sequence or social media giveaway which is another great marketing strategy that will give people value without breaking your bank account!
Making a Profit
You can absolutely charge for your printables, and it’s a great opportunity to make a profit from your work. If you already have a successful blog or other business, printables are an excellent way to promote your products or services. You can also sell your digital content on Etsy or create your own shop on the platform to get started with e-commerce. In addition, you could opt to incorporate online sales into your existing website if you have one.
Another way to make money with printables is by using them as passive income generators. Passive income is any kind of revenue that occurs without requiring overly active participation once it’s set up. That means that you can continue making money even while focusing on other aspects of growing your brand and business. Printable sales are one example of passive income because they require less maintenance than some other kinds of products–after all, once someone purchases a file, there isn’t much else you need to do in order to make money off of it!
Ways to Use Printables
Printables are a great way to solve problems for your ideal customer. They can be used for educational purposes, like course manuals or student handouts for a class you’re teaching (instead of handing out just a bulleted list of topics, why not make it pretty AND organized?) Printables can also solve problems like short-term challenges. For example, if you have the perfect recipe that you use over and over again and would love to serve it at parties but don’t want to keep photocopying it — design a printable and attach the recipe to an index card or sticker! If you want to share health and beauty tips that work for you — create beautiful graphic printables with your favorite tips on them.
If your customers are journalers, crafters or planners (or all three!) then printables are perfect for them. You could sell a set of weekly page layouts or monthly calendars that they can use in their journals and planners throughout the year. Instead of making unique pages each week, they’ll save time by using your professionally designed templates.
Educational Printables
Educational printables are another lucrative offering for small business owners. These are just what they sound like, products that you create that provide educational value to your customers. Educational printables can take many forms, but some of the most popular options include:
- worksheets
- lesson plans
- planners
- printable art
- calendars
These are especially in demand from teachers, homeschoolers, and parents who want to give their children a bit of extra academic support. While there is a market for educational printables across all age groups and grade levels, the most money is made in the K–12 space due to its sheer size. This can be a great niche to get into if you have teaching experience and feel confident creating relevant printables!
Recipes, Health & Beauty Tips, and Other “How To” Printables
Here are some examples of printables that can be beneficial to your business:
- DIY recipes: give them a recipe for their favorite food or drink, like blueberry muffins or matcha tea latte.
- Health and beauty products tips: give them ideas for how to use your products with a face mask using your product as the main ingredient.
- Other “how-tos”: give them instructions on how to build something, like a birdhouse, or directions on how to do something, like changing the oil in their car.
The possibilities are endless! Be creative and fun with it. If you have fun making it they will have fun taking it home.
Journaling and Planners
Customization is the name of the game!
One reason that printables are so popular is that they can be customized to fit almost any space and sized to fit any need. There are a lot of printable companies that offer their products in different sizes. Whether you like your journal pages small and portable or large and spacious, you’ll find a size that’s right for you. You can even have your printables professionally printed at a printing company if you prefer not to print them yourself. Also serving as a great example of why people love printables: stickers!
Printables are also fabulous for decorating journals, planners, and notebooks. Because there are so many different options available, it is easy to find something that matches your style and taste perfectly. If you don’t like the color scheme or design of a particular set of printables, all you have to do is make changes on your own computer before printing them out. You can make them as big or small as needed – from half-page planner stickers all the way up to full sheet stickers – just by making adjustments in Photoshop before printing them out on sticker paper (or whatever material it is you’re using).
Wall Art
The first item that comes to mind is wall art. These days, it seems the walls in many homes and offices are a blank canvas for what we want to express about ourselves. And there’s no better way to say something about yourself than by using printables!
If you have your own design ideas, you can create your own printables by using software like Photoshop. Or you can download some templates from a site like Creative Market.
Once you find the perfect piece of wall art, there are a few different ways to display it: framed, decoupaged onto an object, or even just hanging on its own if printed on cardstock or photo paper with rounded corners!
You can also purchase printables online through sites such as Etsy or Society6—or even get them custom-made!
There Are Tons of Ways You Can Use Printables in Your Small Business!
Here are a few:
- Educate your customers. Providing a high-quality resource to your customers is an excellent way to show them how much you care about their needs. A high-quality resource will be something that shows you did the research and are willing to provide value upfront before they buy anything from you. This makes people more likely to trust you and purchase from you in the future because they know they can always depend on you for good advice.
- Keep your customers happy. A great way to stay in touch with your audience is by sending resources directly to their email inboxes. You can send them once a month, every other month, or however often works for you! Your only limit is yourself 🙂
- Make money selling printables. Printables have been around for years and will continue being a strong seller as long as there are businesses that need them (which will be forever…). The best part about printables is that once someone buys one, it’s theirs forever: no monthly subscriptions or recurring fees! And since they’re digital products, there aren’t any inventory or shipping costs either which makes this an easy passive income stream for anyone looking into starting their own online store!