Category: Holiday Planning Tips

You may not be a marketing specialist, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use some marketing tips to help promote your products this holiday season. These simple, easy-to-follow tips will not only help generate more interest in your products over the next few weeks but also lead to more long-term business success.

Dive Deep Into Your Google Analytics Account

One of the best ways to fully understand your customers is by using Google Analytics. Reviewing your traffic data will give you a good indication of what your customers are most interested in and which products they view the most. If you haven’t set up your Google Analytics account, it is easy to do — and free! — just follow our tutorial here.

Once you’re all set up, make it a habit to check it regularly. Know how many visitors your shop receives on a weekly and monthly basis, the demographics of your visitors, how they’re finding your shop, and what your most popular products are.

Utilize Social Media

If you see through Google Analytics that your shop is receiving decent referrals from social media, it’s worth allocating some time to further develop your social channels. Whatever your preferred  channel is, these tips could help:

1. Comments are worth more than likes: Not only from an engagement scoring perspective, but meaningful conversations can help you understand your customers’ needs and wants much more than likes.
2. Know what time zones your audience is in and when they are most active. Use this insight to plan your posts at times when there is more engagement.
3. Aim to only share high quality photos, meaning that none of them should be blurry or hard to see. Additionally, candid photos work well on social because they feel more personal, and behind-the-scenes photos shot on cell phones can be just as effective.
4. Build relationships online and offline: Ultimately, you want people to message, contact, and purchase from you. Don’t lose sight of your end goal, which is to generate revenue, not to reach x number of followers or likes.

Don’t Underestimate Word of Mouth

As useful as digital marketing is, word of mouth is still extremely important. If customers are happy with the products you make for them, chances are they’re going to tell their friends and family. Don’t be shy about letting your social circles know about your 3D products. You are your own best advocate, so give out your products as gifts, bring them to holiday parties, wear them, display them, use them at home, at work and when you travel, so that when people think of your product category, they think of you.

Ask For Customer Testimonials

Getting customer testimonials is also useful. Remember that customers are humans, and behind each purchase is somebody looking to make their lives happier or more productive with your product. Ask your customers for feedback and use the feedback to improve your shop, and to let the world know why people have chosen to purchase from you.

So you’ve reviewed our material cutoff dates, refreshed your products, added in the best images possible, and now you’re marketing your products to your target audience. We hope these tips have been helpful and wish you a great holiday season of selling.

The post Holiday Planning Tips: #5 Promote Your Products In Tactful Ways appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

So you’ve taken the time to review your products and our material cutoff dates. Great! But there’s one more aspect you’ll want to consider when polishing up your shop: photography.

Look at your product images: Do they reflect your 3D printing capabilities well? Are the pictures appealing to potential clients? Do they show customers an accurate representation of what they’re ordering? Stellar photography can make or break a sale. It’s simple: People love photos and Shapeways’ audience is no exception. Follow these tips to ensure your images are effectively helping you promote your designs.

Which Images Should You Use?

1. Use photos of printed products. “Default renders” of unrealized products don’t give shoppers the confidence to make the purchase because they can’t visualize what the actual products will look like.
2. Use images that show the material options so customers know exactly what to expect when they order the 3D model in a specific material and finish. For example, do you offer your products in both gold and bronze? Have photos that show the difference in the two options.
3. Use images that are focused and can capture details on your 3D products. If you need help with this, we’ve created a simple tutorial just for you.

Photo Quality and Quantity

1. In your images, show the actual size of your products. In the past, we’ve heard from confused shoppers who thought that the miniature chair they purchased is one they can actually sit on! Including dimensions in your images will help avoid similar problems.
2. It’s best to show three types of images: close up, scale, and in-use (for a wearable object, show it on the body; for a toy, show it next to related items). In addition, you may also want to use photos to show how your products can be the perfect gift idea. For instance, if you’re selling jewelry for women, consider having photos of women modeling the products.
3. Summer is long gone, so go ahead and update the background of your photos to fit the holiday theme. Change that photo you took in the park in the spring to one with snowflakes in the back.
4. Be consistent with having great photos. If you have great photographs next to bad ones it erodes the overall integrity of the look of your shop.

 

In addition, adding a video alongside your images can help tremendously. Most of the top selling 3D products here at Shapeways include videos, so it’s clear that going the extra mile certainly pays off in the long run.

The post Holiday Planning Tips: #3 Attach the Best Images to Your Products appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

If you have been offering the same 3D products for some time, it’s a good idea to review them now before the rush of holiday orders flow in. Possible improvements could take your products to the next level and make them more appealing to potential customers. Here’s a step-by-step guide to polishing up your shop.

Review Your Products

1. Overall, are you as happy with the current products in your shop as you were when you first designed them? Do they still represent who you are as a designer and your skill set?
2. Check your product categories and tags. Are they still accurate or have they changed over time? If you’re not sure how to categorize your products, have a look at the Shapeways marketplace and check out how similar products are labeled.

Look at Your Offered Materials

1. Have you tried printing your products in all materials offered? It’s good practice to test the printed quality to make sure the product prints as expected.
2. Some customers may not be very familiar with 3D printing, so it’s vital that you communicate the difference in materials and finishes you offer to them. Let the customers know what to expect.

Polish Up Your Descriptions

1. When altering your descriptions, start by adding in recipient-based keywords as tags (friend, mom, men, hostess, stocking stuffer) to help people find your products.
2. Wherever applicable, consider tweaking your descriptions and tags to make them more timely with the holiday season.
3. Describe the story of your items. The authenticity of a unique product carries much more value than a mass-produced one. Help gift givers understand how special your product is.
4. It’s best to use photos of printed products instead of 3D renderings. This will help your customer visualize the product much easier. Want to take it one step further? Post a video of your product!

 

Having great products isn’t enough, however. To guarantee success, you need to have great photos showcasing your 3D printed projects. In our next Holiday Planning Tips series, we’ll share some key tips to doing just so.

Want to be notified of future articles from our Holiday Planning Tips series? Subscribe to our newsletter and opt in to the Holiday Planning Tips list.

The post Holiday Planning Tips: #2 Review and Refresh Your Products This Season appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

With the holidays right around the corner, here’s one essential thing you must remember above all else: our material cutoff dates.

From a survey we conducted this summer with our shop owners, we found that 87% of shop owners don’t communicate cutoff dates to customers. While initially, this may not seem like a huge problem, it certainly is when a customer places an order that cannot be fulfilled on time. By not communicating this with your customers, a layer of frustration is added to the process, especially for those who wait to order at the last minute.

Always communicate with your customer

1. Familiarize yourself with our material cutoff dates: Be proactive and take the time to figure out when each of our material cutoff dates are. Doing so will increase the overall efficiency of your design process and will make sure you can accurately communicate with your customer. For instance, our aluminum cutoff date for the U.S., Canada, and Europe is November 29 but for the rest of the world, it is November 27. Take some time to review all of our cutoff dates here.

 

2. Know where your customers are: Some parts of the world experience extreme weather during this time and it can impact shipping time. For example, if you’re sending your 3D products off to places like Buffalo, New York or Vermont in the U.S., where snow storms are usually expected in the winter time, it would be smart to build in an extra time cushion. Better safe than sorry. If you’re shipping internationally, remember that shipping speeds to different countries will vary.

 

3. Orders will not ship until all items are ready: If your order contains more than one item, your package will ship once all items are ready. If you are ordering a new, untested design, it’s possible that we may run into issues while 3D printing, so once again, that extra time cushion is important.

 

4. Delivery dates are not always guaranteed: Remember that delivery dates are not always guaranteed; they are estimated by our shipping carriers. Because of how many orders are shipped during the holidays, placing your shipping request as early as possible is the smartest thing to do.

 

Take some advice from our shop owners

If you’re swamped with order requests this holiday season, here’s some advice from some of our shop owners:

1. It’s better to refuse a last minute order than to apologize to an angry customer for late delivery;

 

2. Print popular products in advance so they’re available on hand.

 

We know this holiday season is going to be a great one for our shop owners. But to ensure efficiency, make sure to follow these tips and keep an eye on our material cutoff dates. Communicating this with your customers will make for a much smoother and pleasant design process.

Want to be notified of future articles from our Holiday Planning Tips series? Subscribe to our newsletter and opt in to the Holiday Planning Tips list.

The post Holiday Planning Tips: #1 Communicate Material Cutoff Dates with Customers appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

We know that many businesses have already started selling to holiday shoppers. Based on a survey to our shop owners this past summer, 55% reported that they receive the highest volume of orders during the pre-holiday shopping season, from October through December. And 95% of shop owners said that most of their orders come from individual consumers, rather than businesses. This tells us that many shop owners deal with a high volume of gift orders, which will need to arrive in time for the holidays.

55% of Shapeways shop owners receive the most orders from October through December

To help your shop and 3D products shine and sell this season, we are kicking off a series of Holiday Planning Tips on everything from assessing product offerings to updating descriptions to photography and marketing for your 3D printing shop. Our goal is to help you take full advantage of the next few weeks in selling your products to your ideal customers.

Our survey also tells us that nearly 90% of shop owners do not communicate with their customers about material cutoff dates, which can be crucial in printing, packing and shipping out gift orders on time. So, in our next post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about our material cutoff dates and how you can use those to prepare your business this season.

Want to be notified of future articles from our Holiday Planning Tips series? Subscribe to our newsletter and opt in to the Holiday Planning Tips list.

 

The post Coming Soon: How To Ready Your Shop for the Holiday Season appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.