Month: December 2023

Amaze’s year-end celebration: A toast to our creator’s successes!

Post author By Danielle Pederson
Post date December 29, 2023

This year marked a period of major growth and transformation, not only for Amaze but for the remarkable creators we’ve teamed up with. From expanding our product catalog to witnessing powerful creator success stories, we’ve seen how Amaze isn’t just a collection of platforms – it’s a powerhouse for monetization and brand development in the creator community.

As we flip the script to 2024, let’s look back on the key milestones, the success stories, and the remarkable developments that made 2023 a memorable year.

New partnerships to enhance earnings

In our continuous effort to facilitate increased revenue for creators, this year, we intensified our efforts to streamline the process of selling merchandise through our Spring by Amaze platform. We are proud to announce some strategic collaborations that have contributed significantly to this goal.

Spring x TikTok

Our partnership with TikTok has transformed creators’ videos into profitable ventures. With this integration, showcasing Spring merchandise seamlessly on TikTok profiles, videos, and livestreams has become more effective, turning each account into a lucrative storefront. More information on this integration can be found here.

Beacons.ai + Spring

We have also collaborated with Beacons.ai, further expanding earning opportunities. Creators can now integrate their Spring Store URL into their Beacons link in bio, providing direct access for fans to shop Spring merchandise. This feature is available for free here.

Highlighting creator achievements

Amaze has played a pivotal role in the lives of millions of creators, significantly boosting their income through simple yet effective product launches and promotions. We are continually inspired and honored by the numerous success stories shared with us throughout the year.

We value our incredible creators immensely, and while there are countless success stories to share, here are a few highlights from 2023.

Jimmy and Clarence

The social media sensation Jimmy and his black labrador, Clarence, have experienced major wins this year. Their successful Black Friday sales challenge resulted in over 1,000 units from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, thanks in part to a highly engaging video. View Jimmy and Clarence’s Video here.

Danae Hays

Danae Hays achieved remarkable success with her merchandise launch in November, selling over 125 units within the first 48 hours. She used her content to drive a merch strategy that her fans were excited to see and purchase. Explore Danae’s Instagram Post for more insight.

Alex Kidd

Alex’s journey is a remarkable tale of resilience and the strength of community. Battling multiple cancer diagnoses since May 2022, Alex made the decision to relaunch an old design to fund his treatment and support his family’s needs in these tough times. The overwhelming sales he’s experienced since his relaunch this month are not just transactions but a powerful demonstration of communal support and the kindness inherent in humanity.

These stories provide just a snapshot of how Amaze unlocks new revenue opportunities for creators, aiding them in establishing and expanding their brands. Through these experiences, we see time and time again that Amaze is more than a platform; it’s a catalyst for entrepreneurial growth and personal success.

A year of transformation

In 2023, we significantly upgraded our Spring by Amaze platform to focus on simplifying sales and enhancing creator success for our expansive community of over 11 million creators.

A key strategy in achieving this was through the improvement of our social integrations. Creators utilizing Spring’s social tools have experienced a substantial increase in sales, being 11 times more likely to close a sale and tripling their earnings compared to those not using these features.

Key Social Integration Enhancements:

Introduction of TikTok and Beacons integrations for streamlined in-app selling.
Enhanced YouTube integration to tag Spring products in videos, shorts, and live streams.
For Twitch users, a revamped Twitch integration launching in January will provide an interactive shopping experience directly from channels.

Further Developments:

Improved order fulfillment efficiency and reliability.
Expansion of our reach with new fulfillment centers in Mexico.
Launch of “Custom Collections” for better product categorization.
Simplification of custom product request processes.
Modernization of our Subscriptions page.

Review of top-selling products

In 2023, several products stood out in popularity and sales. We recommend considering these for your 2024 lineup to enhance sales potential:

Additional product milestones:

Introduction of 29 new products, incorporating innovative printing methods like Digisoft and Embroidery.
Adjustments in EU catalog pricing, reducing base costs and retail prices while maintaining creator margins.
Diversification of production partners for a more reliable supply chain, particularly for stickers, posters, home products, and more.

Looking ahead to 2024

This year has been unforgettable. We’re in awe of how many lives have been changed by being able to easily monetize their content. We are profoundly grateful to have played a role in the journey of so many creators, contributing to their growth and the diversification of their revenue sources.

As we turn our sights to 2024, our dedication to empowering creators reaches new heights. Anticipate a range of exciting new products, impactful partnerships, enhanced integrations, and a host of other innovations.

Stay tuned as we step into a year brimming with opportunities, pioneering developments, and breakthrough features. Here’s to a year of prosperity and joy – Happy New Year!

Creator success Design tips Insights

How to crowdsource killer merch designs on social media

Post author By Danielle Pederson
Post date December 27, 2023

If you want to succeed as a creator, then learning how to tap into your fans’ desires is key. By crowdsourcing design ideas for your products–meaning, asking your fans what designs they want you to make, rather than just anything you think up on your own–you’re not just crafting merch; you’re building a direct connection with your audience.

By giving your fans a voice in the creative process, you’re not only launching products they genuinely desire but also increasing the odds of success. It’s a win-win strategy that transforms your passion into profits while making your fans feel like cherished collaborators in your creative journey.

But first, let’s dive into what crowdsourcing exactly is. Simply put, it’s the process of collecting ideas and/or content with the assistance of input from a large number of people (your fans) on a topic of your choice. Once you’ve collected those ideas, you can use that info to develop products and refine your marketing strategy.

Now, let’s explore some ways to leverage crowdsourcing.

Understanding Your Fans’ Needs & Wants through Social Media

Crowdsourcing is your chance to learn what your fans are all about – their buying habits, what they’re into, what they love, you name it. And the fastest way to get all these deets? Social media, baby!

How to Crowdsource on Social Media:

1. Understand Your Squad: Social Media Style

First things first, to sell effectively, you gotta understand who your followers are. What are they interested in and what do they enjoy? This is key to creating merch that they’ll actually want to buy.

For example, if you’re a gamer and play mostly first person shooting games, your followers will likely be interested in merch with gaming phrases like “I paused my game to be here.” They would also be more interested in specific products, such as a desk mat.

If you don’t already know the main interests of your followers, try the following:

📊 Polls & Surveys

Use Instagram polls, Twitter surveys, and Facebook questions to get a quick read on their likes and dislikes.

🤳 Stories & DMs

Share stories asking for feedback or slide into those DMs for a more personal touch.

2. Design idea campaigns

Drop a post asking your fans for their help. Announce you’re looking for fresh merch ideas and watch your comments section light up.

Ask followers to comment with their design ideas or themes they’re crazy about and create a unique hashtag for your campaign to make it easy to track all the suggestions.

3. Analyzing What’s Hot

Keep an eye on which ideas are getting the most love. Likes, shares, comments – they’re all clues to what your fans are really into.

Platforms like Instagram and Facebook have built-in analytics. Use them to see which ideas are trending among your audience.

4. Feedback Loop

Once you’ve got a bunch of ideas, throw some sketches or mockups back at your followers. This is where you get to say, “Hey, look what we made together!”

Then let your fans vote on their favorite designs. It’s like having a focus group without the stuffy room and clipboards.

5. Bonus Tips to Amp Up Your Crowdsourcing Game

Collabs with Micro-Influencers: Team up with influencers who vibe with your audience. They can provide insights and amplify your reach.
Creative Contests: Launch a design contest with a cool prize. It’s a fun way to get loads of ideas and engage your community.
Storytime Highlights: Share stories of fans wearing your merch. It’s a solid way to build community and get real-life feedback.
Q&A Sessions: Host live Q&A sessions on your socials. It’s like a digital hangout where you can ask about preferences and trends.

6. Launching Your Fan-Approved Merch

When you’re ready to drop your new line, create a hype train on all your channels. Remember, this is a celebration of your community’s ideas!

Offer exclusive deals for your social media fam. It’s a sweet way to thank them for their help.

By following these steps, you’re not just making merch. You’re creating a movement where your fans are the co-creators. This not only ups the chances of your merch flying off the virtual shelves but also strengthens the bond with your audience. It’s all about making them feel like they’re part of your creative universe. So go on, get out there, and start crowdsourcing like a boss!

Creator success

Just Released: Embroidered Hoodie and Jogger, and More New Products

Post author By Danielle Pederson
Post date December 19, 2023
No Comments on Just Released: Embroidered Hoodie and Jogger, and More New Products

At Spring, we’re always looking for ways to help creators maximize their success, and part of that is launching new, trending products and improving our printing capabilities. Check out our improvements and take this opportunity to create something new.

You can also click here to see all of our new products in the Spring platform.

Embroidered Hoodie and Jogger

Elevate your brand with embroidered designs, now available for our hoodie and jogger— comfy, casual pieces that appeal to just about everyone. If you’re not familiar with creating embroidery design files, check out our Embroidery 101 guide where we discuss the different types of stitches and give tips on creating the best designs.

Embroidered hoodie:

Soft wash hoodie made of 65% cotton/35% Polyester 3-end fleece with a 100% cotton face
3-panel hood and flat draw cords with silver grommets
Embroidery available for left chest and left wrist
Max thread colors: 6
Sizing S-3XL
Base price: $38.73

Embroidered jogger:

Soft-wash joggers made of 65% cotton/35% Polyester 3-end fleece
Ribbed bottom cuff and waistband, flat draw cords
2 angled side pockets and 1 back pocket
Tapered fit
Embroidery available for left leg
Max thread colors: 6
Sizing S-3XL
Base price: $38.28

Camper Mug

This Camper Mug is perfect for those who take their beverages with a splash of style. This mug is durable for the outdoors yet still elegant enough for when you stay in.

Light-weight stainless steel with durable enamel coating
12 fl oz capacity
$12.00 base price
Hand wash only
Not microwave safe

Ceramic Ornaments

Holidays come and go, but ornaments last for years! Our Ceramic Ornaments add a touch of fun to your tree. They are double-sided and offer a vibrant UV printing. It’s a great opportunity to have your brand be a part of your fans’ holiday festivities!

Two shapes: Circle and Oval
Double sided UV printing
Golden thread for hassle-free hanging
Circle – 2.88″ diameter
Oval – 2.36″ width x 3.27” height
Base price: $14.99

Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

Bring your art to life big time with our Gallery-Wrapped Canvas. Now available in three orientations—Square, Landscape, and Portrait—these canvases provide the backdrop to your creativity. From landscapes to portraits, your designs will get a spot of honor on your fans’ walls.

You might remember we offered a similar product in the launcher. See the specs for why these are a superior choice for your designs:

Gallery-wrapped
High-density pigment inks on acid-free archival quality canvas
Sawtooth hanger included for easy installation
Increased frame size (1 1/2″) to better stand out from the wall
6 available sizes in square, landscape or portrait orientation
Giclee Printing
UV & fade resistant

Time to Create

As the year winds down, opportunities for creators are revving up. Embrace the festive spirit, explore our new products, and take advantage of our enhanced print capabilities to set the stage for a successful year ahead. We want all of our Spring creators to have the tools they need to succeed, and we can’t wait to see what awesome creations you’ll bring to life. Happy selling!

Creator success Holiday Season

6 Powerful Strategies for Promoting Digital Products

Post author By Danielle Pederson
Post date December 14, 2023

Digital products are an easy way to make money without the hassle of shipping. Once the design is done, all you have left to do is promote.

We hope you’re ready to elevate your promotion game and ramp up your engagement, visibility, and most of all sales! Because at the end of the day, that’s what you’re here for, and we’re here for YOU! Here are 6 powerful strategies to promote your digital products this winter.

1. Leverage your social platforms:

As a content creator, you’re already plugged into social media. Now you need to leverage it to connect with your audience while promoting your digital products. Tailor your content to the platforms your target demographic uses most.

Run targeted ads, use visually appealing posts, and share behind-the-scenes videos and pics—which brings us to showing off in your posts.

Nothing wrong with a little showboating in your photos and videos (when it’s appropriate and on-brand!). No one likes an irrelevant bragging post. Be clever about it. Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, and X (the letter of the alphabet formerly known as Twitter) are great features to create shareable and interactive content.

2. Create compelling content showcasing you digital products:

The best way to get your digital products seen is to create valuable, high quality content that will resonate with your audience while showcasing your digital products.

Made a cool background? Use it in your posts! Have a song? Jam to it during your live stream. All of your videos, photos, and posts should be related to your digital products that are available so that you’re creating that FOMO if people don’t purchase.

3. Offer seasonal bundles:

Winter is a time of giving, and creating special seasonal bundles is a great way to attract customers looking for unique gifts. Bundle together complementary digital products or offer exclusive winter-themed collections.

Whether it’s a set of recipes, backgrounds, video or image files, providing bundled options adds value for customers and encourages them to purchase multiple items at once. That’s increased sales for you!

4. Request & repost UGC (User Generated Content):

Have you ever heard that it’s not bragging if others do it for you? It’s true. Get your users to toot your own horn by having them post after they purchase your digital products.

It works like this: When your users post using/showing the digital products (whatever they may be), have them tag you so you can repost it. When a product is awesome, eventually the word spreads so quickly, you couldn’t stop the spread if you wanted to!

5. Run limited-time promotions and discounts

Create more FOMO with a PROMO. Develop a sense of urgency by offering discounts and running limited-time promotions. Since digital products can be bought and downloaded instantly, offer holiday discounts and exclusive bundles all the way through the holidays. You’ll catch those last-minute shoppers, and keep the sales rolling all season long.

And don’t forget those promo codes, a vital tool in any digital marketing tool box, as they provide a huge incentive for your fans to purchase immediately for fear of losing out on a deal. Customers who are driven to make quicker decisions equal higher sales. Plain and simple.

6. Create emotional connections through storytelling

What is it to be human? Well, for one thing, we are unpredictable. But there is one thing about all humans that is predictable. We love to be told an intriguing story. People will see through an ad that just says “buy this.” But tell a story…that’s how you hook ‘em.

Not all stories are equally intriguing to all people. You must find out the story your audience wants to be told. A clearly defined brand—your brand—will help dictate what that story will be.

Sometimes it’s as simple as telling a story about how your designs came to be or why you chose the products you created. It’s about connecting with your audience through relatable stories. People buy because they connect with the brand they are buying from. They’re buying you.

7. Use Spring social integrations

Do yourself a favor and integrate your Spring store with your social media. This shouldn’t need to be said, but you’d be surprised how many creators still don’t do this. When a fan of yours wants to purchase your product, why make it hard? Make it simple for them to bounce back and forth between your social media and your Spring store. Why? Because it equals sales. It’s literally the difference between someone saying to themselves, “This is too complicated,” or tapping the “Buy Now” button and saying, “What should I have for dinner?”

Spring makes this as easy as it gets.

You can use the Integrations Tab on your Dashboard to activate your products on Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and others. This way, fans will be able to see the items on your merch shelf within the platform. And it’s just one click for them to get to your store to purchase.

Need a basic refresher on how? Click HERE.

And here’s a bonus fact: Creators who use the YouTube merch shelf integration earn 20x more on average than those who don’t. Once you connect your Spring store to YouTube, you can also tag merch directly in your Shorts and Lives to make it easier for fans to shop!

By implementing these strategies, you’ll resonate with your audience, get the exposure you and your products need, and achieve lasting success in the digital jungle. Adapt to changing trends, constantly refine your promotional strategies, and stay creative. Happy promoting and Happy Holidays!

Creator success Holiday Season

Unlocking the Power of Digital Product Success This Holiday

Post author By Danielle Pederson
Post date December 4, 2023

Why create digital products? It’s a valid question many creators have.

Let this sink in: JPMorgan recently conducted a study revealing that over $54 billion is annually spent on digital goods, and that number is expected to increase to $74 billion by 2025!

Yeah, that’s a huge number, but money is not the only reason to create digital products. Digital designs are cheap to make, you have more flexibility on the profit margin, and there is no upfront cost! Win!

Key benefits of digital products:

Easy for fans to purchase.

After your fans make a purchase, the digital product is in their inbox within minutes. No wait times. No shipping.

Easy for creators to sell.

Digital products allow creators to drive a heap of traffic through our integrations like Linktree, YouTube, and more.

Enjoy Spring’s support services.

We’ve got fan and creator support teams to offer help whenever you need it, even for digital products.

Lots of free digital product templates.

Not a designer? No problem. Use these free, customizable templates to create your high-quality digital products.

Easy to promote.

No need to wait for a sample to arrive. You can start promoting your digital products instantly. Once your product’s ready, use these tools and templates to help promote them.

Not sure what to create? Check out these cool digital products from Spring creators.

Tips on getting your digital products ready:

Use free tools like Canva to help you design.

Canva is a great tool to help you create your digital designs. They offer amazing assistance with images, videos, audio files, other media, text, illustrations, background features and editing techniques, to make a “new” creative work. Truly an invaluable resource.

Simple is best.

Pick designs that are easy to create and not too intricate. Why? It’ll be quicker to create multiple designs. The more designs you offer—the more ways you have to make a sale! And that’s always good!

Offer Freebies.

Weigh the pros and cons of giving out promos. In the long run, it’s really worth it because of the dividends you receive from future sales. One method is to offer digital products as freebies or as part of a promotion for your other products. Another go-to tactic, and one of the more popular methods, is offering a bundle.

Cut off dates? Nope.

Keep selling after shipping cut off dates, right up to the holiday. A good portion of your sales will come from last minute shoppers.

Ready to rock those digital products? Before you go, here are some of the most popular ones trending this year: