How to Sell Posters Online and Earn a Fortune – A Guide

Summary

It feels so tempting to keep gushing about the popular collections of pictorial posters – starting from the late 1800s to posters in the postmodern era.

But you hardly need to know about that (except if you are a connoisseur of art).

On the contrary, what you, as an entrepreneur, need to know is that posters are a profitable business idea.

A simple search on Instagram or Pinterest, and you will find hundreds of poster designs.

This also means that if you want to make a fortune selling poster online, you need to win over the competition, and establish your business as an authority.

Here’s a full-fledged poster business plan that covers all the crucial aspects on how to sell posters online.

Who Can Sell Posters Online and Benefit From It

• Artists and designers who create their own artwork. Even photographers, illustrators can turn their work into poster designs. Additionally, you can also enable end customers to personalize their posters using a Poster Designer Tool.
• Existing eCommerce or printing businesses who sell products like stationery items, gifts, promotional products, apparel, and so on. If you are looking for ways to expand your product offerings, posters are a profitable idea.
• Online marketplace owners or those who want to build a marketplace to invite artists who can sell their designs.

Sell posters online with an added USP of customization. No matter the type of posters you sell, boost sales by letting customers purchase a custom poster.

Click the link below to know more details about Poster Design Tool.

The rest of the post covers a detailed guide on what all it takes to sell poster online, and turn them into a huge money-making opportunity. Keep reading!

Step 1: Prepare a Detailed Business Plan (Things A Successful Plan Must Have)

Selling poster online appears to be one of the easiest things to do. Especially if you are an artist who already has posters ready.

You need not spend days looking for the best profitable product idea, partner with manufacturers, and suppliers, etc.

So, the immediate thing that one tends to do is jump into the process of building an online store. However, this may not be a wise decision; just like how jumping to conclusions is a dangerous thing.

You need to have an effective roadmap that guides you in your decision-making process. Having a business plan helps you identify priorities, and helps achieve business objectives.

Here are the two most important things that a successful poster business plan must include.

A. Find Your Target Audience

Several times, after business owners have their store up and running, they face a critical problem – an influx of irrelevant traffic on their website.

Their marketing strategies would get them thousands of visitors, but the conversion rate, almost nil.

How can you avoid this when you sell poster online?

By defining your core target audience. It helps ensure that you get the right kind of shoppers actually willing to purchase posters from you.

Defining your audience also affects the types of posters you choose to sell, and personalized marketing strategies you create to boost sales.

Those just starting out, require to do in-depth market research. Study your competitors to know the audience segments they are targeting.

Here’s a list of audiences you can target to sell posters online.

• Education institutions or students who need posters that deal with subjects like history, geography, physics, math, etc.

(Example: UsefulCharts selling infographic posters on ancient history, periodic tables, alphabets)

• Travel enthusiasts, music lovers, sports enthusiasts, art admirers, etc. who might be interested in purchasing niche poster designs.

(Example: AllPosters selling beautiful vintage designs of travel posters)

• Online business owners are looking for promotional poster designs that add to their offerings. For instance, an apparel store might be looking to sell fashion and lifestyle posters.

(Example: Postermywall’s customizable posters for promotional purposes)

• Interior designers or homeowners who want posters to decorate their property.

(Example: Ikea’s art posters and prints)

Turn ordinary posters into a cash dispenser with customization. Irrespective of whether you are starting out or already have an existing business, customization is a must have.

It helps achieve a high customer satisfaction rate, and in getting more deals closed. Let customers create personalized posters in seconds with a Poster Designer Tool.

Check out the link below to know more details.

B. Choose Your Business Model

The next step is to choose a business model that is profitable and helps you scale your business in years to come. There are two common ways to sell posters online.

• One is print on demand or dropshipping
• The second is the DIY route where you take control of all the operations

Each of these models has its pros and cons. Which one you want to choose depends on your budget, and business objectives.

Are YOU Going to Manage Online Orders?

If you have the resources and infrastructure, you can have an in-house fulfilment model. In this model, you will have to carry out every process of order fulfillment without the help of third-party providers.

Luckily, with posters, you might not need an additional space or a warehouse to stock inventory. However below are some important points that one must include in the fulfilment process.

What to Include in Your Order Fulfilment Strategy

• Determine what to do after you get an order. What is the priority of each order? Will you be sending an order confirmation email? What is the time frame for order delivery?
• If you are going to print posters, how are you going to do that? Will you have an in-house printing infrastructure or partner with local printers?
• Find out how you will ship the order. What shipping agency do you want to partner with? How much shipping will you charge?
• Focus on packaging the order. You will need to choose a type of packaging, add labels, and so on.
• Returns are a part of selling online. Consider how you are going to process returns, and have a clear return and refund policy.

Or you want to partner with a print on demand service provider?

Print on demand is an ideal option to get your business going with minimum investment, and without the hassle of handling various business operations.

Once a customer places an order in your store, you transfer the order to the POS provider, who will take charge of everything including shipping, printing, and delivery.

This model also enables you to experiment with other product types. So, along with posters, you can consider selling similar products like wall art, frames, etc.

Two platforms that are very popular among poster selling businesses are RedBubble and Society6. These are online marketplaces for print-on-demand products that allow artists and designers to sell their work.

Set up your account, upload your poster designs, and set the pricing. When you get an order for a design, the marketplace will print and ship on your behalf.

Launch into the world of poster business with a poster customization tool. Equip your customers with an array of features and functionalities to design their posters. Explore in-depth all the features of the tool.

Step 2: Create Amazing Poster Designs

Just one search #posters on Instagram, and you will see some incredible poster designs. For instance this lovely Santorini Greece poster. Any travel enthusiast would love to have such a poster as home decor.

Designs are a crucial part of selling poster online. They play an important role in your end customers’ purchase decisions.

Creative Poster Themes That Will Get You Noticed

There are various designs you can consider when you sell posters online. Here are the most popular ones that you can consider.

A. Minimalist Posters

Minimalism is a word that is thrown around quite often. It started with fashion and clothing and then found its way in architecture, painting, designs, etc. When creating designs for posters, remove unnecessary elements, and convey more with less.

For instance, minimum graphics and only one dynamic image, maximum use of white space, fewer colors, and clean and simple fonts can help draw a viewer’s attention.

B. Typographic Posters

Typographic posters never go out of trend. They are good when there is a lot of information to convey in a poster. So, if you have to create a poster for an event or an institute that needs to promote messages like vision or mission, typography is your go-to option.

When creating typographic posters, experiment with fonts, and colors. Change fonts based on the emotions that need to be conveyed. For example, using Sans Serif to show seriousness, using doodles to convey a fun element in a message.

C. Vintage Posters

Vintage products and designs are the heart of contemporary culture. They are highly popular nowadays. The most common categories include vintage travel, sports, and movie posters. The potential of vintage posters expands to commercial purposes, movie advertisements, promotion for sports, home styling, and more.

Now the process of actually creating poster designs takes place. If you are an artist or photographer, then you are sorted. Once you build an online store, you can upload your poster designs and begin selling them.

Additionally, you can add more value to your artwork by letting end customers add a personal touch using a Product Designer Tool.

You can leverage amazing features like artwork manager where you upload your artwork or create new ones using the tool.

Best Tools That Do The Heavy-lifting For You

If you are not a professional designer you can still create great poster designs by yourself with the help of various design tools available. The top tools to create graphics are Canva, Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Stencil, DesignCap, and so on.

If you completely want to hand over the responsibility of creating designs to professionals, Fiverr, Dribbble, Behance are some good places to find freelancers.

Despite offering the most stunning designs, it is challenging to exceed your customers’ expectations.

Different customers expect you to deliver designs that match their requirements. That is exactly why you need a Poster Designer Tool. It gives them the freedom to purchase posters that exactly match their unique choice.

Features of Our Poster Designer Tool:

• Easily create stunning posters with a wide selection of customizable templates.
• Use AI to create new images and enhance visuals with easy-to-use image editing tools.
• Use AI-powered features to add and customize text to create impactful messages.
• Access a library of 1000+ cliparts to enhance your design.
• Create visually appealing posters with a variety of color options.
• Organize and arrange design elements with ease.
• Share your designs on social media for feedback and review.
• Save and export your designs in various file formats for printing.
• Works seamlessly across different devices.

Additionally, the smooth interface of the tool ensures that every shopper, irrespective of technical knowledge, can complete purchasing a custom poster. Check out the link to know more.

Step 3: Build an Online Store and Establish Authority

One of the most obvious things that businesses who want to sell posters online do, is starting their online journey with Instagram, given Instagram’s popularity, and the convenience to set up a business profile, and leverage shopping features.

And not to forget that selling on platforms like Instagram, saves you time and resources as compared to building a store from scratch.

But forward-thinking businesses know that if they want to make more money, create a memorable brand, and build a loyal customer base, they need to start with a solid foundation by creating an eCommerce website.

The process of building an eCommerce website starts with choosing the right platform. The most popular choices are Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

The best eCommerce platform is the one that helps you achieve all the goals that you have set for your business.

Magento is arguably the best platform given it’s performance and scalability. Shopify too is a great choice because of its user-friendliness. However, detailed research will help you make the right choice.

To further enhance your web-to-print store and unlock its full potential, consider integrating the PrintXpand’s Web-to-Print Storefront Solution. With PrintXpand, you can create a highly customizable online store that specializes in printed products like posters in no time.

Some of the features offered by PrintXpand’s Web-to-Print Storefront Solution include:

• Industry-standard themes to build your dream store within minutes
• Theme customizer for easy customization and adding custom styles
• Compatibility with the Product Designer Tool for a seamless personalization experience
• Integration with ERP solutions for the streamlined print workflow
• Multilingual and multi-currency support to reach a wider audience
• Ability to have multiple stores with different themes
• Dedicated customer accounts and social media login options
• Multiple payment gateway integrations for a smooth checkout process
• Automatic tax rate calculation for accurate order pricing

Step up your online store without any hassle with the PrintXpand’s Web-to-Print Storefront Solution.

eCommerce Best Practices to Make Shopping Experience Better

A. The Latest Trend of Unconventional Layouts

Currently brands are moving away from the traditional grid layout. Instead they are experimenting with unconventional layouts like asymmetrical or a horizontal scroll.

(Statistics Source)

The benefit of having such a kind of layout is that it adds uniqueness to the design, and appears more interactive.

The reason you can consider this layout for poster business is because you will have limited categories to display. It gives your website a sleek look, and makes it easy for the end user to find what they are looking for.

B. Minimalism to Eliminate Unnecessary Distractions

What makes a website design good? It is never just aesthetics or the graphical representation. It is the successful conveying of crucial messages.

You might have an extraordinary web design but what’s the point if a potential buyer can’t find where to place an order from.

Minimalism is all about directing a user’s attention to where it’s needed the most.

(Statistics Source)

This approach eliminates excessive choices, and unnecessary distractions. That results in better user attention, and increased conversion rates.

Visualize the website of either Apple or Nike. They are the perfect examples of design that is crisp, clean, and has zero complexity.

C. Create a Perfect eCommerce Product Page

Your product page is the most important page on your site. Your potential buyers’ decision to place an order on the product page.

This is where you will educate visitors about your products, establish trust, and convince them to shop from you and not your competitor.

An important element of the eCommerce product page is the product image. Other than images, it also needs to have details of the product including, description, price, customization options, etc.

Step 4: Ways to Spread the Word About Your Poster Business

Your job as a business is not over once you build your store.

You offer amazing poster designs, have an awesome designer tool to satiate customers’ creativity, you would want more and more in your store, right?

Here are some ways you can bring more visitors to your website.

A. Take Advantage of Platforms Like Etsy

Today, customers do not look for products only on online stores. They check Amazon, Etsy, eCommerce marketplaces, social media, etc.

And that is why businesses have their listings on multiple channels to reach more customers, and boost sales. Did you know that retailers lose 10% to 30% of sales if they are unable to offer an expected omnichannel shopping expectation to their customers?

To engage in multichannel strategy, all you have to do is set up a shop on different platforms and start selling.

Etsy is a popular marketplace with no shortage of potential buyers. Additionally one of the biggest advantages of Etsy is outreach marketing. The platform provides you with ad campaigns to advertise your products.

And there’s always Amazon. You can become an Amazon seller, and let millions of buyers know about your posters.

B. Promote on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest

Honestly, social media marketing takes time unless you happen to create a viral post and then gets you herds of gaining followers in a day!

But that doesn’t mean you should skip it completely. A planned content calendar, using the right kind of hashtags, and innovative posts will help build a follower base.

You need not just market on platforms like Pinterest or Instagram. You can even sell there directly. Meaning, your audience can pay for your products without having to leave the platform.

Along with social media strategy, take maximum advantage of creating and sharing relatable content. You can create blogs, videos on ways to use posters as decor, etc.

Step 5: Turn Casual Shoppers into Buyers with Customizable Posters

Having the best designed website or a workable marketing strategy helps attract more visitors on your store. But that hardly guarantees they will do business with you.

To be able to convert shoppers you need to fulfill their expectations. But when different customers expect unique styles and designs as per their choice, you wonder how you can best serve their needs.

That’s where selling customizable posters can help you. They are the quickest way to deliver products that end customers are willing to buy.

With Poster Designer Tool, the possibilities are limitless. You can create ready-template designs, and let your customers further customize it.

End users can upload custom pictures, add text, change background patterns, and a lot more.

What makes customization successful is the ease of use of the tool. End users should be able to finish customizing their products without any interruptions.

Our Poster Designer Tool prioritizes improving user engagement which leads to high customer satisfaction, and ultimately more deals.

Win and keep customers using a Poster Design Tool. Learn what our tool can do for your business. You are just a click away from taking a personalized tour of the tool!

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