Diving into a Wedding Stationery Business using social media
The crux of how to start a wedding invitation business is about how much passion you have. Next is creativity and how much knowledge available to you. The wedding invitations business is very lucrative and rewarding. But diving into it without a guide will prove frustrating at some point.
To make it, one needs to create a signature that stands out anywhere. From the writing on a wedding card to leveraging on social media, make a mark. This post is a guide on everything worth knowing about starting an invitation business.
Define your style, technique, and market
Hand-painted wedding invitations, unique invitation wordings, black tie wedding invitations, etc. Scout social media and the market place to see what is trending. Then settle for a method that sharpens and works with your style.
A wedding stationery range includes save the dates, to invites, down to thank-you cards. A style that works should be cohesive throughout the whole range. And this gives them a signature look.
Choose to cater to a certain group of people, instead of everyone. Opt for either low range, middle range or high range clients. This helps with creating designs to fit their budget and precisely targeted marketing. Catering to everyone means you have no market.
The competition is another key factor here. Check out the biggest competition and see what social media platforms they advertise on. Then go back to the drawing board and create a business plan. Do not use another’s designs, and study about copyright laws to protect yours.
Build a cohesive portfolio
It is not too early to start creating a portfolio that stands out. The stationery business is one to nurture for months or years before a breakthrough. Get inspired with the passion to do something extraordinary with those designs.
Begin with something small and expand as the business grows. Build something original with a synergy across all designs. Let all your designs scream “it’s me” whether it is independent or together. Look for a feature that stands you out and dive right into it.
It may be going bespoke by creating custom hand-made invitations. Or it could be something dramatic, intense, colorful, baroque or calligraphic. No matter how great your works are, they go nowhere if there’s none for people to see.
Be wise about choosing suppliers
When getting into wedding invitations business, choose suppliers with care. They are very critical to a wedding stationery business. From the embellishments to the cards and even envelopes, everything should be top notch. This is because it is the face of the business.
There should be consistency, promptness, and precision. If you specialize in painted wedding invitations by hand, it needs even more care. A situation where the quality of paper or material changing should never happen. It could ruin all your hard work.
For the printing aspect, either outsource or buy high-quality printers. The ones strong enough to handle your ideal paper without ruining them.
Marketing: Website, social media, and Others
An online presence is essential to wedding business. Starting from websites to social media accounts, overhaul everything. Not only will you stay updated with wedding invitations 2019 trends. This is where all the hardcore marketing happens.
First off, every business must have a website that serves as an online shop. Float one and fill the homepage with quality content that tells guests what you’re about. Do optimize photos and designs with wordings to boost its ranking on Google. Launch the website on a very fast host for easy visitor navigation and reduced bouncing. Ensure it also updates with ease.
Create a business buzz using social media platforms. It will bring in massive clients through the door. Give your Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest boards a do-over. They are very popular for everything wedding. This is a place to showcase wedding stationery designs because brides scavenge those places. To network, and make solid contacts, refer to Twitter.
Consider using an online marketplace like Etsy. The audience of such marketplaces is huge, and guests can link back to your website. Again, do not spend heavy cash on attending a fair or getting blog listings. Run adverts instead, because they never go away and it reaches wider audiences. Also partner with planners who’d get a percentage if a referral from them patronizes you.
Structure pricing
When starting out as a wedding stationery designer, work on pricing. Document how long it takes to put each design together. If it takes too long, tweak the manufacturing process without compromising the quality of design.
Note how much materials cost, time spent and overhead cost. This includes marketing, accounting, packaging and posting to clients. Spread the total cost in a reasonable way over your works and set the price. Although affordable, they should bring meaningful profit.
Take crash courses
Starting a stationery business for a wedding, at last, gives an ecstatic feeling. But pause a bit on floating a website or advertising to people. Sign up for courses in wedding stationery business to help you stand out. There are many courses online that could prove helpful and are free or cheap.
Courses like Skillshare is very helpful to new stationery business starters. They cover areas such as illustrator, branding, Photoshop, portfolio creation, marketing, etc. To start a stationery business for wedding proper, work with Atly. This package features an array of courses for learners to choose from.
The best of them is the Design house prep school that teaches only about wedding stationery. Since you are sure about a specialty in wedding stationery design, go for it. It covers everything that has to do with wedding stationery as a whole. From digital calligraphy to artwork, pricing, branding, profitability, watercolor themes, etc. Everything there is to know about the wedding stationery business is here.
This is a way to gain knowledge and excel out there.
Give time: Hold onto your job for a minute
If you’re thinking of how to start a wedding invitation business, adopt patience. A miracle will not happen in split seconds, do some refining. It may take 2 months or even 2 years before a breakthrough. Keep working on the side and practicing to get better on the job.
Do not leave your day job until it is safe to do so. This job serves as your back up and income. It waters down the desperation that could set in when orders do not come. When a struggling wedding invitations business is all without a job, frustration sets in.
This could cause a level of desperation that sees you cutting corners. It is safe to leave your job only when business is good and orders are consistent.
The article above shows how to start a wedding invitation business in details. If you have a passion to become a wedding stationery designer, this is the guide. These tips will help you scale all the major potholes beginners fall into. Apply the tips in our ultimate guide step-by-step and have your business running great!