When brainstorming card ideas for the early 2014 greeting card release, I was hoping to create cards for categories where I was missing cards. I knew I wanted to design a sympathy card. While the Thinking of You Lavender card is a popular seller, I realized I really need a sympathy card that could be used for a variety of occasions. The So Sorry card fills that gap.
Sending a card to a friend or family member when he or she has suffered a loss or experienced a hard time can be so meaningful to the recipient. I hand-lettered "So Sorry" in a dark navy script and surrounded the lettering with light blue hand-drawn flowers. I think it's always a good idea to have one of these cards on hand so you can send it off to someone in need at a moment's notice. You can find the card in the shop here.
I've blogged here before about experimenting with Facebook ads, also known as "boosted" or promoted posts, where you pay a little bit of money to ensure your Facebook posts are seen by more of your followers and their friends.
Recently I've been reading about more and more small businesses who have grown aggravated with Facebook's "pay to be seen" strategy, and I've joined those ranks.
I understand Facebook's desire to make money, but their constant tweaking to the feed algorithm, coupled with the newfound inability to get a post seen by more than a small portion of people who have already chosen to like and follow your business page, has made me grown tired and weary of using Facebook as a way to promote my business.
Another troubling problem is Facebook's system for approving ads. I sell stationery and greeting cards. Many of my cards have a text-based greeting on the front. Yet every now and then when I "boost" a post, the ad immediately gets rejected. Why? Per Facebook's terms, "Ads that show in the Feed are not allowed to include more than 20% text." I end up having to fill out forms and go back and forth with Facebook staff to explain that the text is part of my product, not promotional text, and request that the ad be re-approved. There seems to be no way to get around this issue.
Below is an example of the most recent of my ad that was rejected for this reason.
Ross of Fifty Five Hi's, a buddy of mine in the industry from Tradeshow Bootcamp, shared this video that does a great job explaining the flaw in Facebook's system.
As I plan marketing strategies for Valentine's Day and upcoming promotions, it's hard to figure out how I want to incorporate Facebook into this strategy. Part of me is considering leaning more heavily on Pinterest and Instagram to share what's going on, but it is hard to ignore my Facebook fanbase.
What do you think? Have you struggled with getting your posts seen on Facebook?
It may be below freezing here in Austin, but I have springtime on my mind. More specifically, spring weddings. As part of my early 2014 new product release, I introduced two new wedding cards.
First, the Happy Wedding Date Dotted Heart card features my own hand-lettering and hand-drawn dots. I love the turquoise green and pink palette.
Next, the Wedding Bouquet card has instantly become my new favorite. The idea for this card - a bride holding a large bouquet of flowers - was stuck in the back of my head, and it was such a relief to finally get it out on paper!
I think it makes a great card for a wedding or bridal shower. I chose a soft pastel palette for the flowers and used a light pink background to help the body stand out. On Instagram I shared the original bouquet ink drawing alongside the final product.
You can shop both wedding cards here.
As a small business owner invested in using social media platforms to share news about my company, I'm always trying to figure out the best way to share my content across the various channels.
It seems that many businesses lump all "social media" together and think that as long as you cross-post your blog post to your Facebook page, Twitter account, and Instagram feed, you've covered your bases. While this is one strategy, it ignores the fact that to be a more effective marketer and better engage followers, you need to tailor your content to each specific channel and its set of users. The way your followers use and interact with Twitter is probably different from how they use Instagram. And these days, users are savvy enough to tell when you've just hit the "Share to Facebook" button rather than taking a few moments to reconfigure the content for that particular audience.
Here's an example of how I might share a new Valentine's Day product:
On Pinterest: The image is king on Pinterest, so I make sure to pin the most compelling and vibrant image I have of the product on my site. I then craft a strong description using keywords so it's more likely to be discovered and re-pinned.
On Instagram: Again, the image is king. For product photos, I've found that having a vibrant background (a bright color or a texture) often helps a product stand out in the stream of photos. Hashtags are also helpful for guiding people to your content. You cannot hyperlink to URLs within an Instagram description, so I recommend adding "see link in profile" to direct followers to a particular site.
On Facebook: I make sure to upload an image that is the optimal size for Facebook. I can tweak the description I used on Pinterest and adapt it for my Facebook crowds by asking a question, asking followers to "like" or share the image, or including a link to my site where they can shop the product.
On Twitter: I try to provide the appropriate context, use a link shortener to maximize the number of characters I have available, and occasionally use hashtags to make my tweet more discoverable.
One final tip: Review your settings on each of your social media channels to see if you are auto-Tweeting when you Pin or automatically updating Facebook when you post a photo on Instagram. Nothing will drive your followers crazier than when you go on a Pinning spree and their Twitter stream is overloaded with tweets about your pins, so be careful about your settings.
The minute I shared a glimpse of my new I'm Bananas for You card on social media, I could tell it was going to be a card people liked and responded well too. I sent out samples to different retailers, and Emily from Clementine in Middlebury, Vermont, gave me some great feedback: that this would be perfect as a mini Valentine that kids could give to their classmates and buddies. I shared some brainstorming ideas for other card designs I had with her and embarked on developing a set of little cards.
I rounded out the collection with You're My Main Squeeze, You're The Apple of My Eye, and We Make a Great Pear featuring simple and modern hand-drawn fruit patterns.
I love this little set and think they are perfect for kids and adults alike - whether you are giving them to your classmates with a box of Sweethearts (my favorite!) or to your coworkers.
Each card measures 2.5" x 3.5" and is printed on 100% cotton tree-free paper. The backs are blank, leaving you space to write your own little love note. They are paired with tiny white envelopes, too. Find them in the shop here.
Much to my surprise, my Be My Valentine card was featured on the Etsy blog late last week!
The product photo accompanies a blog post about a great initiative from Etsy to collect Valentine's Day cards that will be given to the elderly alongside warm meals on Valentine's Day. It sounds like a great project, and anyone can participate!
I shared my favorite best-selling Valentine's Day in Part 1. Here in Part 2, I'm excited to share my latest releases for Valentine's Day with you!
I'm Crazy For You Foxes: I drew these sweet little foxes and the sentiment just paired so well with it. I also love the minty green and white heart background.
I'm Bananas for You: While brainstorming new designs, I had a list of sweet love sentiments and I kept coming back to this one. I created a simple banana pattern using a thick brush pen. The hand-lettering is bold and declarative.
Hubba Hubba: This design always reminded of this clip from The Simpsons. I experimented with a new fat brush pen to create thick letters, and then created an XO pattern to add some depth to the design.
Be My Valentine: While many of my designs are pattern-driven and intricate, I wanted to design a card that was simple, yet bold in its declaration. I like the mix of simple cursive letters with thicker capitalized letters.
My Sweet Valentine: Sometimes the smallest doodle in my sketchbook becomes the basis for a card's primarily design element. I sketched a simple heart with tear drop shapes extending from it and knew it would make a great border.
Shop all of our Valentine's, love, and friendship cards here.
I've had this Seth Godin quote scribbled on a sheet of paper and tacked to my bulletin board for awhile now. It's a quote from his Creative Mornings talk in 2013.
In any industry, it's easy to get caught in a trap of envy and anxiety. I feel like I encounter these emotions a lot in the design industry - from myself personally and from speaking with others - wondering how your works stands up against the rest, trying to figure out how some designers seem to have "effortlessly" become successful overnight, thinking about how to stay true to yourself.
It's hard to not compare yourself to others. I attribute a lot of the anxiety designers seem to experience to the constant stream of updates we receive from social media, where we are bombarded by images of others' work and, usually, their "best" selves or top moments.
I particularly like Godin's quote because it serves as an important reminder that nothing happens overnight. That you define your own sense of success. And that, from the outside, you never know the actual story of someone else's "success" (or failure).
In the stationery industry, seasonal designs are planned well in advance. For Happy Cactus, Christmas 2013 designs were first released in May, with a second release of additional designs in early August. It's has been a little tricky for me to create fresh designs for a holiday so far in advance, but it's becoming more natural as I become more seasoned as a stationery and greeting card designer.
Out of a variety of card categories, my love cards have been my strongest sellers to date, and I am very excited about the latest cards I'll be introducing this season. While I love a great Valentine's Day card, I prefer general love cards that can be used for a variety of occasions - a new relationship, an anniversary, a wedding celebration….the list goes on. Here's a round-up of some of my old favorites and best-sellers:
Love Birds: The teal green background makes the sweet and colorful flowers really pop. I love the "Love Birds" hand-lettered sentiment.
Be My Valentine: The sentiment is surrounded by tons of tiny hand-drawn hearts. The hearts remind me of little doodles you might draw in your notebook when pining over a new love.
Love Heart Blocks: Spell out your love with letter comprised of tiny hand-drawn hearts. I love this combination of colors and used a similar scheme for my Thank You Zigzag card.
I'll be sharing my new releases for Valentine's Day soon, so stay tuned!
One of the projects I tackled over the holidays was to edit and revamp my wholesale catalog. (For more background on creating a wholesale stationery catalog, visit this post.)
For the National Stationery Show this past May, I used my existing catalog and created a flyer with new products that could slip inside. This worked well at the time, but as I released more new products in August and early December, I could no longer justify having multiple inserts and knew it was time to revamp my catalog.
I didn't do this sooner for two reasons. First, I knew I'd be releasing a bunch of new cards at the very beginning of 2014 and wanted to wait so these could be included in the new catalog. Second, catalogs are quite expensive to print and I wanted to hold off as long as possible!
Here were my guidelines when revising my catalog:
- Maintain the catalog's existing format. My first catalog was very clear and easy to navigate. I received many compliments on it, remained happy with the existing layout, and knew I didn't need to reinvent the wheel.
- Eliminate slow sellers or tired designs. After two years in business, it's become quite obvious to me what designs sell well and what don't. There were a handful of older designs I really didn't like and I was very ready to remove them from the catalog!
- Make minor revisions to terms and ordering details.
- Add new products.
It was a tedious process, but not nearly as onerous as I thought it would be since I was building off of the skeleton of the existing catalog.
Since this is a relatively quiet time of year, I was able to quickly get these printed from my trusty local printer and ready to send off to retailers! If you are a retailer interested in receiving a catalog, please contact me at hello{at}happycactusdesigns.com to have one sent your way. You can also view the catalog digitally here.
Happy 2014! I'm back from a restful holiday break and ready to take on the new year. Over the past few days, I've spent some time writing thank you notes to friends and family members who gave me Christmas gifts. Growing up in the South, I learned at a young age to always write thank you notes not only for gifts, but also to hosts for events you are invited to attend as well as to people who do you favors or take time to help you out. As the handwritten note becomes more rare, your thoughtfulness in choosing to write one over dashing off an email or text message stands out.
Here's a few guiding tips for writing a thank you note:
- Use appropriate stationery! Have thank you notes or multi-purpose cards on hand. Better yet, invest in a set of custom notecards personalized with your name.
- Be timely. Try to get your thank you notes out within a week of receiving a gift or attending an event. That said, if you forget, it's never too late to send a note. The recipient will appreciate the note no matter how late.
- Personalize what you say. Don't just thank the person for what they gave you, but tell them how you plan on using it. Express your gratitude for someone treating you to dinner, and also mention what you enjoyed most about the meal.
- Close by mentioning how you look forward to seeing the person again soon or sending them your best wishes.
What are your tips for writing thank you notes?