Category: Creators

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Creators Insights

STEPS TO PREP FOR BLACK FRIDAY

The unofficial start to holiday shopping is the day after Thanksgiving, popularly known as Black Friday. But we like to think of it as Green Friday because some creators sell more during the holiday season than the entire year combined! Make this holiday season your most successful yet by planning your Black Friday promotions in advance so you can increase traffic and sales during this pivotal time.

From designing holiday products, to ordering samples and then setting up promo codes, the weeks leading up to Black Friday are vital. Don’t worry if it seems overwhelming—we’ve boiled it down to 3 Simple Steps to Prep for Black Friday!

Your first thought might be, “What is a content & sales calendar?” Seeing your different promotions outlined on a calendar will help you keep track of what you are offering and when. Especially as you might (and should) run multiple sales leading up to Black Friday. For example, you might do a huge sales push the week before, or offer several pre-sales in the weeks leading up—or both!

Here is a suggested timeline:

  • By November 1st – Create your promotions in your dashboard so that you can switch them on when the time comes.
  • Early November –  Include hints in your social content about upcoming sales and promos. 
  • Mid November – Build excitement & anticipation with pre-sale benefits (like giveaways). 
  • The week before – run mini sales leading up to Black Friday to catch the early bird shoppers.
    • TIP – Run different promo types leading up to Black Friday, such as free shipping in the days leading up and then switch to percentage discounts for your day-of sales.
  • Black Friday – Announce your sale on socials! Offer a percentage discount promo (i.e. 15% off) through Cyber Monday to maximize sales. See how other creators do it here. 
  • December 1st onwards – Start offering digital products as there are no logistics or  shipping deadlines to worry about.

Here’s a free content schedule template you can use for November through the holidays.

DID YOU KNOW THAT FANS WHO VISIT A STORE OFF A PROMO CODE LINK ARE 25% MORE LIKELY TO PURCHASE?

It’s an opportunity you can’t afford to pass up. When you choose to promote your products on social media, it’s good to have a promo code. As we said earlier, these can be planned in advance and switched on when you’re ready. Make sure to have different promo codes for different times – it helps with tracking, what is working, etc.

Don’t fret—making promo codes is super easy! You can create them within the Promotions section of your dashboard. Line up your promo codes in advance and follow your calendar as to when they will activate. Find out more about creating promotions here.

Promo codes can be applied to all of your products. Reminder: You’ll need to ensure there’s enough profit margin to support the promo—no matter what product is being purchased, so do that math ahead of time.

Why does your social content need to include your sales and promotions? It turns a fan into a shopper then into a customer. And there are a few proven tactics to maximize fans’ attention:

  • Create effective promotional content. Canva is a great tool for creating eye-catching images on social media. Choose from hundreds of templates—just don’t forget to include the promo code, the dates your sale will run, and the discount type. You can also sign up with 20% off using Spring’s partnership with Placeit to create sale announcements. 
  • Feature samples. Crazy Stat Time! Creators who show off samples in promotional content earn as much as 200% more profit from their products! That’s a no brainer. Tag @springforcreators and use the hashtag #CreateShareEarn for the chance to be featured on Spring’s socials. 
  • Use integrations. Make sure fans can easily find your store. Pair social content with a link straight to your listing. Use the YouTube Integration, which shows your products underneath the videos, or set up the Instagram Shopping Integration to tag your products in posts. For an easy start, Sprint’s Linktree Integration is available to all creators.

It’s time to stop reading and start promoting. Your Holiday Customers are waiting! As always, hit us up with any questions at creatorhelp@spri.ng. We’re here for you:-)

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Creators

Spring Updates: Promo codes, quick add to cart, and more

Promo code banner

We’ve rolled out a new feature that will make active promo codes visible to all fans viewing your products.

No worries, you will be able to turn the banner on or off in the Promotions tab of your dashboard.

Manage your promo banner

Stores UI/UX

You will notice an updated look and feel to the store experience across mobile and desktop. These updates are already showing improved conversion rate results.

Share your updated store

Fan validation

Whenever you drive traffic to a listing or make a bunch of sales, a cool widget will appear calling the increase in engagement. This will drive FOMO within your community and further boost sales.

Share your updated store

Quick add to cart

Our most recent update to Stores is the Quick-Add-to-Cart feature. This is driving a 20% increase in products being added to cart for creators.

Share your updated store

Recommended products shelf

This new product shelf encourages fans to buy something else when adding a product to the their cart. Just another way we are helping you drive more sales on the Spring platform.

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Creators

Updates to pricing

Spring is constantly working to source the highest quality and most economically priced products for you and your fans.

Due to rising inflation and the ongoing global supply chain crisis, we need to increase some of our base prices in order to maintain quality products and services. 

What you need to do:

  • If you want to maintain your current profit margins, you must edit your product pricing
  • If you’re running any promotions, you must make sure your product is profitable at the discounted price.

If you do not take any action, Spring will automatically adjust the selling price up to the nearest $0.99 amount that ensures profitability (example below)

These changes will take effect September 27, 2022. You can see the example product and categories in the table below. You can also reference product pricing here.

What you can expect

As of September 27, 2022, cost changes will be applied to new product launches.

  • For affected products, the base cost will update once the product’s print cycle restarts (following a sale). 
  • After the base cost is updated, if any products have a negative profit margin, we’ll automatically update the selling price up to the nearest amount ending in $0.99 that ensures profitability (for example, if your product has a selling price of $15.00 but has a negative profit margin because of the update to the base cost, we’ll change the selling price to $15.99 to ensure a positive profit margin).
  • You’ll receive an email notification indicating the products that have been updated so you can make further changes if you like.

These base cost increases will enable Spring to continue offering key features and services like order processing, production, shipping and handling, not to mention our in-house support teams who love to assist you and your fans as illustrated below. 

Have questions? Reach out to creatorhelp@spri.ng anytime!

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Creators News

Spring Updates: SpringScore, social shelf, and more

We are heads down here at Spring making improvements to the platform, and so we wanted to share some of the recent updates.

We aren’t stopping here though, and are always listening to your feedback, so keep an eye out for more exciting updates over the coming weeks as we head into the holiday season.

SpringScore

springscore.spri.ng Find out how much you could be earning on Spring using the brand new SpringScore calculator. It takes less than a minute!

Find out your SpringScore.

Promo codes

You can now simply create and activate a promo code right after you’ve launched a new listing. Promote your products and drive more sales in a couple of clicks!

Check it out by launching a new listing.

Create a promo code for your store.

Social shelf

We’ve made it even easier to start selling on social platforms using our powerful integrations. You will find these cards pointing you in the right direction, on the dashboard and straight after you launch a new product listing.

Go to your dashboard here.

Create button

Look for the big blue button. This is your new gateway to create products both on desktop and mobile.

Create products here.

Products

We’ve added a bunch of new products for you to customize and have made it easier to access the best sellers and latest additions. More products coming soon!

Create products here.

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Creators

Welcome, Rodrigo Velloso

Spring is thrilled to announce that Rodrigo Velloso has joined the company as our first ever Vice President of Creator Success – a new role established to cement Spring’s commitment to the creator community. With creators at the core of all business operations and strategy, his main focus will be to ensure Spring creators successfully engage, grow, activate, monetize and authentically connect with their communities by using the platform.


Rod’s experience and track record of success in establishing and sustaining relationships with strategic partners and content creators alike will be an asset to Spring’s leadership team. He has led teams across several multi-international corporations, including Google, YouTube, Redbubble, Roblox and Twitter, whereby his roles have largely focused on content and partnerships within the general creator economy space.

As VP of Creator Success, he will be responsible for the continued success of Spring’s users and the business in delivering its value proposition to creators and other strategic partners. Rodrigo will be instrumental in organising the Spring team and resources to make certain creators achieve their objectives, across areas of creator management, success, support and growth. As VP of Creator Success, Rodrigo will look to maintain and expand the distance between creators’ needs and the platform’s capabilities, where Spring is always one step ahead.

Here’s some more about him in his own words: 

What led you to Spring?
Rod: What brought me to Spring was the opportunity to take-on a creator-centric leadership role at a creator-centric, late-stage startup that has great traction, outstanding creator and platform partners, incredible potential to scale and a visionary leadership team. Chris Lamontagne has built an incredibly solid foundation for the business since I first worked with him in 2018 and brought in an accomplished commerce platform leader to take it to the next level in Annelies Jansen. I’m excited to join them on our mission to take Spring to the next level.

What will your new role as VP of Creators encompass?
Rod: As VP of Creator Success, my primary role is to ensure that Spring creators accomplish their evolving fan community development objectives using the Spring platform. Creators today want to engage, retain, grow, activate, monetize, delight and authentically connect with their communities. The physical and digital products, services and content they provide are all key elements of those relationships. Creators want increasingly sophisticated capabilities to address those opportunities in ways that are innovative, differentiated, integrated, fan-friendly and sustainable. My role is to keep Spring’s finger on the pulse of creator needs and requirements and work with mine and other teams at the company to make sure that we are responding to creators to the best of our ability and staying ahead of their needs. A key part of that, for which I’m excited to take responsibility, are Springs creator platform integration partnerships with YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitch as well as creator tools and services partnerships we are developing and excited to announce soon.

What is your vision for Spring in the long-run?
Rod: I believe that branded clothing, adornments and objects are the among most tangible and meaningful connections that can be forged between creators and their communities. They are also building blocks of the bonds formed among community members which, in turn, attract others to the community. We all want to belong and merch has always been a big part of our cultural symbolism of community (long before it was called merch). So, my vision for Spring is that we are building the world’s first and best creator community building and monetization platform. To me, that’s the natural evolution of creator commerce and the logical next step of Spring’s journey as a business.

Categories
Creators

Prepare for the biggest selling season of the year!

Fall arrives next week and with it comes opportunity. Many creators sell more in the last 3 months of the year than in the first 9 months combined! You could be one of them. 

The first thing you need is a compelling new design. We’ve researched the color and style trends set to catch eyeballs this season to help you come up with that winning idea. And we also recommend the best Spring products to go with them. Read on and get ready to be inspired!

Shades of Pink & Mauve
Pink and mauve (a pale purple color) are both named after flowers. These bright, youthful colors will bring light and energy to days that will be growing colder and shorter throughout the season.

Cozy and warm Classic Pullover HoodiesAvailable in Dusty Pink as well as Light Pink, Spring’s Classic Pullover Hoodie is the perfect match for this color trend, not to mention the season. The designs can also be pink, but tones of blue, green, brown and gray also work well with these comfy hoodie colors. And you can try them on the Premium Tee in Mauve or Desert Pink too!

Earthtone Neutrals
Earth tones are commonly defined as colors that have some brown in them, commonly mixed with reds, oranges and yellows. It will be part of nature’s changing palette for the coming months in many parts of the world. Folklore floral prints in your design will contribute to the mood.

Banana Cream, Dark Chocolate and Caramel Toffee

They aren’t just everybody’s favorite flavors for the fall, but neutral and understated tones that can match many different styles and occasions. Great for yourself or as a gift, our Classic Pullover Hoodies and Crewneck Sweatshirts come in Mustard or Carmel Toffee and or check out our Premium Tees in Banana Cream, Dark Chocolate and Light Olive.

Tie-Dye
Make the most of this fun autumn trend by creating your own tie-dye patterns and colors. You can apply them to our all-over print products (hoodies, crewneck sweatshirts, joggers, and tote bags, making an entirely unique and exclusive item that only your fans will have. Try using psychedelic prints and fonts for added effect or nostalgic, 90’s inspired prints which are all the rage right now. 

We’re excited for your followers to see all of your fall products and collections!

Categories
Creators

Update – Delayed Creator payouts

Following up from the message I sent on Monday, August 15th, I wanted to confirm that all outstanding creator payments have now been made. If you missed that email, please see the FAQ below.

If you requested a payout on or before  08/06/2022 and have not yet received the funds, please reach out to creatorhelp@spri.ng as soon as possible. We will investigate and respond within 24 hours.

Once again, please accept my sincere apologies for the issues leading to this incident as well our communication about it with you. Unfortunately, we have continued to see an increase in suspicious and attempted fraudulent activity that has continued to drain our resources – we are actively addressing this. Rest assured, the Spring team and I have learned a great deal and continue to make changes to our product & processes to continually improve monetization for creators.

As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at creatorhelp@spri.ng if you have additional questions.

Chris Lamontagne
CEO | Spring

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


What is the situation? 
Some creators have experienced delays receiving their requested payouts on Spring. Impacted creators are understandably upset and have asked for information and action.. 

When will it be fixed? When will I get paid?
We are already catching up with payments to creators and plan to complete all delayed payments by August 29th. Catch-up payments will be made in batches based on the date the payout was requested.

How did this happen?
Making sure creators get paid is a critical and complex part of our business. Over the last 3 years,  more than 5 million new creators have signed up with Spring. This caused a substantial increase in the number of small (under $10) payout requests and strained our legacy payment systems. We are working hard to keep pace and, in the course of implementing a more automated payment solution, inadvertently broke some of the systems we use to ensure prompt payment to creators. We should have done more to ensure we had the relevant checks and balances in place to manage such an important transition. We apologize for the disruption and have updated our protocols to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Why hasn’t Spring communicated earlier?
We were unable to diagnose the situation fast enough and did not want to miscommunicate information or provide inaccurate timelines for fixes. In hindsight, we should have communicated sooner and provided frequent updates instead of waiting for the solution.

What is being done to fix the situation?
We have rolled back the changes to our payment systems in order to ensure we can pay creators on time going forward.

How will Spring ensure that this doesn’t happen again?
We are working on solutions to ensure that we avoid future issues with creator payouts, including but not limited to improvements in our automated payment processing, greater transparency and real-time updates.

Categories
Creators

Important: Creator payouts

FAO: Spring Creators

I wanted to reach out with an important update with respect to creator payouts. 

Firstly, I want to assure you that the technical issue that caused delays in some of your payouts has been addressed and that our team is working through the backlog payments to ensure that all outstanding creator payments are made by August 29th. Please review the FAQ below for additional detail.

On behalf of Spring, I sincerely apologize for these delays. We know how important it is that you get paid on time so that you can keep doing what you do. Your frustration is entirely justified. I will follow up on this message should there be any new information. 

As a creator business, we missed the mark. We hold ourselves accountable for becoming a better partner and we are more committed than ever to supporting independent creators with community development and monetization solutions.

Thank you for your patience and the opportunity to earn back your trust. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at creatorhelp@spri.ng if you have additional questions.

 
Chris Lamontagne
CEO | Spring


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


What is the situation? 
Some creators have experienced delays receiving their requested payouts on Spring. Impacted creators are understandably upset and have asked for information and action.. 

When will it be fixed? When will I get paid?
We are already catching up with payments to creators and plan to complete all delayed payments by August 29th. Catch-up payments will be made in batches based on the date the payout was requested.

How did this happen?
Making sure creators get paid is a critical and complex part of our business. Over the last 3 years,  more than 5 million new creators have signed up with Spring. This caused a substantial increase in the number of small (under $10) payout requests and strained our legacy payment systems. We are working hard to keep pace and, in the course of implementing a more automated payment solution, inadvertently broke some of the systems we use to ensure prompt payment to creators. We should have done more to ensure we had the relevant checks and balances in place to manage such an important transition. We apologize for the disruption and have updated our protocols to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Why hasn’t Spring communicated earlier?
We were unable to diagnose the situation fast enough and did not want to miscommunicate information or provide inaccurate timelines for fixes. In hindsight, we should have communicated sooner and provided frequent updates instead of waiting for the solution.

What is being done to fix the situation?
We have rolled back the changes to our payment systems in order to ensure we can pay creators on time going forward.

How will Spring ensure that this doesn’t happen again?
We are working on solutions to ensure that we avoid future issues with creator payouts, including but not limited to improvements in our automated payment processing, greater transparency and real-time updates.

Categories
Creators Insights

How to sell smarter this summer: run a sale using top tips + free templates

Find out how to run a summer sale and start the season on a high 💰 Follow our steps below and use free, editable social media templates to announce your discount.

Running a sale is easier than you think. The key: create top tier promotional content to announce your summer sale on socials and ensure fans can find your products easily. Follow these simple steps and you’ll be set for the summer, starting with Memorial day weekend.

  1. Plan a sales game plan
  2. Create promo codes
  3. Prepare promo content (FREE templates)

Step 1) figure out your game plan

Determine your content schedule and fit in your run summer sale announcements on social media. There’s tons of ways you can engage fans and keep them shopping your products with promo codes.

Open for sale inspo:

  • Align your sale with an event: Announce a sale to celebrate a special calendar event or a milestone you can share with your community. E.g. You just hit 100K followers, summer just started, Memorial day weekend.
  • New products: Use a promo code to celebrate a new product release (Slides are a great place to start this summer). 
  • End of season sale: Offering discounts on ‘older’ spring designs before your summer product launch is a good way to encourage purchases on existing items while generating hype for what is to come.
  • First come first serve: Encourage purchases early-on by offering a limited number of discounted orders. For example, you say: “the first 50 people to buy my new design will get 10% off with the code FIRST50”. Turn the promo code’s active status to ‘off’ in your dashboard when you hit 50 orders.

Step 2) create promo codes

Head to your dashboard and turn their active status to ‘off’ until it’s time to run your sale. You can create three different types of promotions; free shipping (US delivery only), a discount amount (like $3), or a discount percent (like 10% off). Learn how in the video below. 

Create your promo code

Step 3) Prepare promo content (free templates)

Now, create the social media content you’ll use to promote your sale. Promotional images and videos of you wearing your products work best.

Spring’s design team mocked some up for you to edit and share on your socials for memorial day weekend. Tap a template below to open them in Canva and start editing.

run a summer sale: Promote summer products on social using this Canva story template
Open story template 1
run a summer sale: Promote summer products on social using this Canva story template
Open story template 2
run a summer sale: Promote summer products on social using this editable Canva feed post template
Open post template 1
run a summer sale: Promote summer products on social using this editable Canva feed post template
Open post template 2

Here’s what you need to include in your promo images and/or captions: 

  • Image of your product 
  • Your promo code 
  • The date your sale starts and ends 
  • The discount type – e.g. “Get 20% off”

Ready to get going? Tag @springforcreators in your promotional imagery for the chance to be featured on our Instagram to inspire our community of creators.

Categories
Creators Digital Insights

How Sapien Medicine sold 2,600+ NFTs with Mint-On-Demand™

Sapien Medicine is the most successful Mint-On-Demand™ creator on Spring. With an impressive 69 drops and a community of 2,400 NFT holders—read on to learn how do they do it. 

@SapienMedicine is a YouTube creator who connects with their community of 242,000 subscribers through digital artwork, spiritual wellness, and guided meditation. There’s huge demand and value around their NFTs: find out how to engage your fans with NFTs too.

Sapien Medicine—the youtube creator selling NFTs

Ready to start your journey into web3 with your fans? Take note of the ways Sapien Medicine does it and give it a go. Check to see if you’ve got access (If not, you will soon—register your interest here).

Sell NFTs

Creating hype and demand 

Before Mint-On-Demand, Sapien Medicine started with digital products—selling 4,000+ of them in just over a year. Through only announcing new products via gated forums, the exclusivity around them grew. Sapien’s digital product success meant NFTs were the obvious next step.

Building value and introducing co-creation 

Sapien continued to use their forums to exclusively announce new NFTs and discuss their value; an important community building tactic. They explained:

“Eventually, the process evolved into our community building what they would like in an NFT…then submitting it to me to create. The unique thing about having community project NFTs is that members are pre-invested in the idea, knowing they had a hand in creating it”.

Gated forums give fans the governance to vote on what content comes next, get benefits, and have a say in brand decisions. Becoming an NFT holder became much more than proving ownership—it made them part of the community.

Sapien Medicine's NFTs

Introducing utility for fans

Corpus Spiritus Tarot Deck NFT

Sapien Medicine then decided to take their NFT game to the next level; introducing the Corpus Spiritus Tarot Deck NFT. Each NFT holder received a bonus physical tarot card deck. Adding extra perks made for the perfect way to reward NFT holders for their support and mark the moment physically.

Members of the community went crazy for it. There’s now 205 NFT holders digitally flexing their NFT Tarot Decks. Sapien said:

“We try to add a real world value to it, so there is an actual worth. For examlpe, the Tarot Card Deck is a physical, and the NFT is used as a certifier of the purchase.”

See the full story below.

Now you’ve got tips from one of the best, start thinking about ways you can start co-creating with your community. Create and sell and NFTs for your fans below.

Sell NFTs