Everyone wants to make sales, everyone wants to build a popular shop with thousands of followers — and all these dream-like things start with the products you create.
Winning Creative Market Strategies for 2021
by The Designest & Pixelbuddha
We’ve gained lots of experience on how to create & develop a shop on the marketplace, which we’ve been willing to share.
About This Chapter
Looks like that’s the very chapter you’re here for, right? Everyone wants to make sales, everyone wants to build a popular shop with thousands of followers — and all these dream-like things start with the products you create. You must already have some excellent skills in drawing, sketching, photography, 3D design or anything – however, product development is not only about artistic power.
Contents
Audio Version
Market Research and Understanding Your Customers’ Needs
What to begin with? Which creative field to focus on? These are the questions that pop up in every young designer’s mind and drive them to procrastination. The most straightforward advice here is to start doing things.
Of course, you should consider your creative skills first. Something that you do best can become a popular product – and Creative Market can help you under- stand what this product should be like. The items which go high on the first page of any listing or category are in high demand, and their authors make the most of their money on them. Obviously, you should pay your particular attention to these works.
Once you find the reference product, it’s vital not to end with a rip-off. Try finding your unique approach to any trend or style, no matter how popular it is at the moment.
Also, avoid the role of another trendy wannabe. You should put your effort into surpassing the existing resources in all respects: produce more illustrations than your competitors; make a perfectly pairing font duo instead of a single typeface — or make a product that will be compatible with different design apps.
However, to get the bulk of sales on Creative Market, it’s not enough just to design products. You should be a trendsetter, someone who doesn’t develop someone else’s ideas but creates their own ones.
And to become a trendsetter, you should be more broad-minded about Creative Market or any other marketplace. Design trends come to these platforms from:
- High fashion (colors, patterns).
- Editorial and commercial illustrations (can you remember the flat icon boom or the recent obsession with the illustrations in the Slack landing page style?).
- Advertising and product design (typefaces inspired by the commercial creatives and mockups of the latest devices packaging).
To track the minor changes you should immerse in the world of design and try converting every new move into an idea for your next product.
Where Can You Keep Up With Design Trends?
- Behance. It’s a website featuring the best works in all creative fields. For instance, if your primary focus is graphics, you can check up what everyone likes in the Illustrations section. And the Branding section will help you understand which mockups are now in the highest demand.
- Pinterest. That’s a perfect source of inspiration, which isn’t only about trends, but also about the variety of approaches and unique showcases. Pinterest allows you create huge thematic moodboards, all packed up with ideas for your next design work.
Eventually, a creator should be flexible and adapt to how the market evolves. If nobody buys your items, you should consider switching to something more forward-looking. And that’s fine! As you open some popular creator’s store and check their first releases, you’ll see they mostly get nothing in common with the items that make them money and name. Such shops are not just about creativi- ty, but about business first (so you’ll have to seek the balance), and only being pragmatic, you can do more.
Product Development
It’s pretty hard to speak about product development, since the marketplace features such a variety of digital items. Elaborating a set of watercolor illustra- tions has nothing to do with designing stationery mockups, so different the workflow processes are. However, there are still a few essential tips to help you start working on the product:
- Study your competitor’s product files. Formats, available options, settings
– try corresponding to the best ones. If your product looks gorgeous but lacks in customizing options or has a lower resolution, it can impede good sales. - Mind the organization of folders, files and layers. Everything must be flawless, no matter what the product is. Think of how you can better group the layers of your PSD or the files in the archive to obtain ultimate usability for your customer. Don’t forget to create proper names for everything. “”Pattern_- copy-34″” looks like you’ve been negligent or hasty and reduces the likelihood of the new purchases from the same person.
- Optimize the weight of the archive. Of course, products of some categories are always heavy, but you still should do your best to help the users download them fast and with no difficulties.
- Add a comprehensible Help file. Show the customer how to use your project, and it won’t just help them in work with it, but free you from a multitude of support requests. A Thank you file which is a document containing your thanks and extra contact for the feedback/support requests will be a great addition too.”
Product Presentation
Creation of an engaging and informative presentation for your product is a step that can’t be overstated. All in all, the impression that the preview graphics makes on your audience is the factor that’s all it takes. Skip it, and the buyer chooses someone else’s product in the long list of items.
Before you start working on the cover image and showcases, check out how popular creators do it for similar products – so you’ll see what the presentation trends are. You can try making a unique presentation, though, and it will feast the eyes of your potential buyers. But is it your strong side? You may be an outstanding illustrator, but not so good at design, which will make creating original previews quite challenging. In this case, drawing inspiration from someone is a solution (just don’t be overzealous with it).
Presentation is the first test drive for your project, which can help you identify and fix the possible shortcomings before the release.
Finally, if you don’t use the presentation to show what’s your product capable of, how will your potential buyers know about it? Use it to deliver all the major cases and fields of use.
Once you decide on the general concept, be sure your presentation fulfills five
requirements, that’ll help you reach a perfect execution and support the interest of your customer:
Number and Format of Shots
Make at least 5-6 shots to showcase your product. If it’s small, prepare extra showcases of how your work can be used. If there are only 2-3 images in the presentation, you are unlikely to be handpicked or featured in the Creative Market newsletter.
Tips and Tricks
Make all the images the same size, 1820×1214 px. It will allow the customer to check all items without opening the full-size preview. Besides, that’ll be easier for the Creative Market affiliates to share your project and generate traffic to your store. If, at any point, you still need a long preview image, make sure that its short version looks complete.
Cover Image
The cover image is the focal shot of the presentation, which defines whether the user will click on the item or not. Keep in mind that potential buyers find your work in the catalog, where they have only a miniature. This way, ensure that it’s informative and attractive – even being that small.
Showcases of the Product and Available Options
Most types of design products require a showcase of all the featured elements (icons in the pack, mockups in the set, or symbols of the typeface) and options. Your goal is to present everything the customer will have once they purchase your work. Pay attention to the tasks it can solve. Via a few appealing showcases, you should explain how designers will use the product and implement it into the current project.
Video
Make a video of how one of your showcases is made, and it will add value to your product. You should show how fast and smooth it is to create a thing with your product. So let the video be short with an impressive result. It will help the users who like your work but don’t feel confident enough about their creative skills to decide in your favor.
Comprehensive Presentation
Keep in mind that with the showcases and video (if you make one), the customer will have enough information to proceed with the purchase. If, for some reason, they don’t deliver sufficient information (which sounds like a problem), an extra text description on the preview images can make up for the lack of it.
Uploading Your Work to Creative Market
Drumroll, your project is about to go live! All that’s left is a few final touches and technical arrangements. Also, it’s the right time to pick a reasonable price that’ll let you obtain the desired sales. So once your product is done, and the showcases are just brilliant, focus on the uploading, that’s important.
Choose the Right Category
The irrelevant category bodes you no good: you won’t be handpicked and even found. Users search resources by category, and if you are in the wrong one, you’ll get too few views to count on something.
Occasionally, your work can fit a few categories at once. Then pick the category which corresponds to the focal part of the product. For example, if your pack of illustrations also contains patterns, it’s evident that most purchases will be made for the sake of the illustrations, which set up the core of your work. Therefore the Illustrations category will be the best fit.
Set the Price
To set the fair pricing for your work, check similar items in the top, and the recommendations on the price from Creative Market (this hint will be available as you fill the Price field while adding a new product for sale).
You don’t have to stick to the average and can position your store as you feel it. Creative Market has ’boutiques’ where all products come in a uniform style, offer a supreme quality, hardly ever run sales, and every item is 2-3 times more expen- sive than at the competitor’s. Or, on the contrary, there are shops with simple small products, which do dumping. You choose.
Make a Text Description
The description will also help you provide the customer with comprehensive information about the item. This writing is another marketing opportunity for your business, so let it be creative, supportive, and ultimately helpful. Tell what inspired you, share your ideas on how this work can be used, and suggest your assistance to the community. The first words of the description act as an excerpt for the web page, so make sure you deliver the essence of your project in the
very beginning.
Lately, Creative Market has allowed sellers to make an FAQ for their items. So don’t hesitate to grab this opportunity to reach out to the customer too! By filling up the FAQ, you increase the conversion of your shop. There is plenty of inexperienced creators with lots of doubts concerning the use of your product, software compatibility, and their own skills, and it’s you who should reassure them and lead to the purchase.
PDF Guide + How-to Video
One of the main tasks for the product creator is to make their item simple to use and provide it with all necessary instructions. Remember that your customers are all different: some are professionals, and some are beginners. Many of them don’t speak English. That’s why a comprehensible Help file that’ll guide them throughout the creative process is indispensable.
One of the main tasks for the product creator is to make their item simple to use and provide it with all necessary instructions. Remember that your customers are all different: some are professionals, and some are beginners. Many of them don’t speak English. That’s why a comprehensible Help file that’ll guide them throughout the creative process is indispensable.
A video tutorial may be useful, too – especially if you have multiple similar items in your shop. Just make a simple screencast showcasing the whole process and upload it to any hosting. This way, your customers will have fewer problems while using your work, and you’ll spend less time on questions and support requests.
Product Updates
Every design product you create has its lifespan. Sometimes, it remains in demand for years. And sometimes it’s only about a couple of months. It depends on what kind of product it is, current trends, competition in the industry, and how you care about your creation after you have it published.
When your work turns popular within the creative audience, and you are satisfied with the sales, it would be smart of you to keep it valid for longer by making content updates. That’s how you can do it:
- Upgrade your product by adding more helpful tools and elements to it. This won’t just boost sales but also increase the loyalty of the existing audience.
- Create new showcases: extra preview shots, video tutorials, etc. Sometimes the redesign of the entire presentation makes sense, especially if the old one looks ordinary or overused.
- Tell the users who have already purchased your product about the update.
Tips and Tricks
Mention the content updates in the description (with the date included) and presentation of the product. It will show the buyer that you care about the item and the user.
There is another type of an update that might be necessary – a technical update. Whether the item doesn’t work correctly or isn’t compatible with a new version of the software, you shouldn’t hold off on that. Obviously, any technical issues can have a negative impact on the loyalty of your customers and your overall image, so check up for the updates and make them regularly.
Winning Creative Market Strategies for 2021
by The Designest & Pixelbuddha
We’ve gained lots of experience on how to create & develop a shop on the marketplace, which we’ve been willing to share.
Great article and perfect timing as Im working on increasing my sales on CreativeMarket. Thank You!
Hey Annie! Hope it will really help you boost the sales! By the way, you create astounding stuff, we’re in love with your work 🖤