8 Lessons Learned Selling Squarespace Templates
Is it worth selling templates?
Selling Squarespace templates can be a rewarding venture, but it's important to approach it strategically and with a long-term commitment. It requires a growth mindset, a passion for Squarespace design, and effective marketing skills. If you possess these qualities, selling Squarespace templates can be a great opportunity for you. However, if you don't feel confident in these areas, this probably isn’t for you.
Here are some considerations to keep in mind:
1. Content Marketing
To successfully sell Squarespace templates, you need to develop a strong content marketing strategy. This involves creating valuable and informative content that showcases the benefits and features of your templates. This content can be in the form of blog posts, tutorials, videos, or social media posts. By consistently providing valuable content, you can attract and engage your target audience.
2. Building an Audience
Selling Squarespace templates requires reaching a buying audience. You need to actively promote your templates and build an audience that is interested in using Squarespace. This can be done through various channels such as social media, email marketing, SEO, or paid advertising. It's important to identify the platforms where your target audience is most active and focus your efforts there.
3. Conversion Rates
As an affiliate, I can tell you conversion rates for template sales can be relatively low. This means that not everyone who visits your website or sees your content will make a purchase. It's essential to optimize your website and sales funnel to maximize conversions. This may involve offering freebies, providing testimonials or case studies, or offering a money-back guarantee to build trust and encourage conversions.
4. Long-Term Commitment
Selling Squarespace templates is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires a long-term commitment and consistent effort. You need to continuously update and improve your templates, create new content, and engage with your audience. Building a successful template business takes time and persistence.
5. Explore Other Platforms
While Squarespace is a popular platform, it's worth considering expanding your offerings to other website builders or platforms. This can help you reach a wider audience and diversify your revenue streams. Platforms like WordPress, Shopify, or Wix may offer additional opportunities for selling templates.
Selling Squarespace templates can be a profitable venture, but it requires a strategic approach, consistent effort, and a long-term commitment. By developing a strong content marketing strategy, building an audience, optimizing conversions, and exploring other platforms, you can increase your chances of success in the template market.
Is the Squarespace template market too saturated?
One common question regarding the sale of Squarespace templates is whether the market is too saturated. Is there an overabundance of templates or template sellers, making it not worth the effort? My perspective is this: while there may be a plethora of existing templates, there will always be individuals seeking something unique that they can't find. Perhaps they're from an industry or niche that isn't well-represented, or they require a specific level of guidance.
There are countless variables to consider when it comes to what someone might want in a website template or their website building experience. Even if your initial focus is narrow, it provides a foundation for growth. Therefore, instead of competing with what already exists, strive to create what doesn't. There will always be opportunities, avenues, and gaps to fill. By focusing on the needs of your target audience, you're more likely to identify and fill these gaps.
How much money can you make selling Squarespace templates?
Here’s a framework to mapping out a path to making $100,000 selling templates. This isn't just applicable to selling Squarespace templates, but any digital product. Imagining what it would look like, what it would require, and where you would need to focus is a great starting point.
Most designers who decide to sell Squarespace templates may not hit a six-figure goal, but some will. This will be due to a combination of desire, belief, commitment, and a reason for that commitment.
So, what would this look like? If you break down a $100,000 goal to a daily sales target, it would be $274 a day. The average Squarespace template sells for around that, maybe a little less. So, you would need to sell a template a day to hit that goal.
Another scenario could be having a template library and giving designers access to that library for $100 a month. In this case, you would only need 83 members to hit your $100,000 goal.
In both scenarios, it's important to factor in a runway. You won't just open up shop tomorrow and hit your goal immediately. There needs to be a ramp-up period.
I recommend starting with the problem that your templates are solving. This is crucial because if there's no underlying problem that you're solving, then you're more likely to run out of steam.
Maximizing value is also important. In the first scenario, we said if we can sell a template a day, then we'll hit our goal. But if we maximize our value and think about offering more on top of that, we can increase the potential value.
Now, let's talk about marketing and product development. Because you're solving problems, you'll have customers who will come with requests and problems, and you'll have reasons to create more templates and products.
Once you have something to sell, you want to get in front of buyers. Start with where people are looking right now and then work your way systematically up or down the ladder.
Don't focus on all of it at once. Go through systematically and layer it. Start with an email list, then consider marketplaces, directories, Google, Pinterest, ads, affiliates, Instagram, and your own branded social media channels.
Remember, our first goal here is $274 a day. If we maximize our cart value, we can exceed that. If we're solving a real problem, it's going to give us a reason to keep going. And if we go where people are already looking and we deliver, then we've got a good shot of hitting this $100,000 goal. Let me know what you think in the comments. I'd love to know your success down the road when it happens.
How to get started selling templates
In the past, I've advised those interested in creating and selling their own Squarespace templates to first buy one and learn from a customer's perspective. This approach helps you understand what works, what doesn't, and where you can add value.
8 Lessons learned Selling Squarespace Templates
The Importance of Templates in Life and Business
Templates are at the basis of how we are made and created. Each of our DNA strands is a template from which a new strand is made. This is how we scale up as humans, and it's also how we scale up as business owners. If we have a task that we need our employees to do, we must templatize that task. We must create a mold or something that can be replicated by others. You'll find templates everywhere. It's inside of us, it's outside of us. The first thing we do as Squarespace users when we sign up for the platform is choose a template.
Transitioning from Custom Work to Templates
The second lesson is that as a designer, there is a do-it-yourself mindset shift that you have to make when going from a web designer who's creating custom projects for clients to creating a template that isn't custom, something that someone else will customize. So you're going from offering a done-for-you service to offering a do-it-yourself product.
Earning Back Your Time
When you make this transition, you'll learn a third lesson: you'll ultimately earn back your time. There's obviously still a lot of work to be done supporting your products. But I found that after my daughter was born in 2017, I needed more flexibility. My daughter was born with a deletion in her seventh chromosome, which required a lot of specialist interventions and hospital visits. If I hadn't been selling digital products and running an online business, I wouldn't have been able to meet those demands.
Creating your own custom Squarespace templates allows you to move away from billable hours. If you're already designing regularly, creating templates can be a byproduct of your work, allowing you to serve more clients and reach more potential customers. If you don't have a portfolio, creating templates can be a profitable way to build one.
Monetizing Your Portfolio with Templates
Here's the fourth lesson: You can monetize your portfolio with templates. Just like the example I shared where you create something for a client and the client passes on it, you might have a bunch of cool projects in your portfolio that you can strip of the actual content, your client's logo, and their branding, and use that as a frame for your templates. Template what you've already done. There's no need to start from scratch. You're helping people not start from scratch, but you have to help yourself first.
The first strategy involves converting your portfolio pieces into case studies. This is a powerful tool as potential clients can envision themselves in the position of your existing clients. A well-constructed case study narrates the story of your collaboration with a client, detailing the problem they presented, the solution you provided, any challenges encountered, and the lessons learned. This not only creates a compelling case study but also a sales asset that can attract future clients.
The second strategy to monetize your portfolio involves deconstructing the same designs and removing the content, including the text, images, and brand. This process leaves you with a template that can be filled with demo content, such as placeholder text, stock images, or a fictitious brand. This creates a sellable asset, allowing you to profit from work you've already completed.
Duplicating and Transferring
The fifth lesson is about duplicating and transferring. We get into the technical aspects of how this works. There are two ways: a simple way and a more automated way. The simple way requires some manual effort but is good when you're just getting started. You create your template in trial mode or whatever, duplicate that, and when a customer buys it, you add them as a contributor and transfer ownership to the customer.
Marketing your Template Shop
My favorite topic is marketing, particularly the value of niching down. There are several ways to niche down with Squarespace templates, the easiest being by industry or category. For instance, if you work with many landscapers or construction companies and notice a lack of Squarespace templates designed for these industries, you could create and sell such a template. This could also attract other companies in these industries who want more custom designs.
Your aesthetic and style also play a role in niching down. If you have a unique design style or bold colors, you can create a space for yourself in the market. The key is to identify who you can best serve with your unique skills, aesthetic, and passion. This could be a particular industry you're passionate about. The goal is to serve someone in a way they can't currently be served.
Having a clearly defined niche allows you to target them with more relevant content. The trade-off is potentially isolating other potential customers, but this is a risk worth taking if you can connect with your niche.
It's also helpful to view things from the customer's perspective. Understand their needs and tailor your creations to meet these needs. This could involve asking questions and running tests to ensure you're meeting their needs.
A case study of this is the Squarespace template Thicket, created by a couple of my internet friends for the Wonder and Aim Fully Community. They used a unique pricing strategy where the price increased by a dollar with each purchase, and the template was only available for a few days. This created urgency and exclusivity around the launch. This is an example of a fun and unique way to sell a product.
For more check out my Template Marketing workshop.
Leveraging Marketplaces
The sixth lesson is about leveraging marketplaces. When you launch, it makes sense to leverage places where buyers already exist. Creative Market and Etsy are two places where Squarespace templates are sold, and the Google Shopping section often features links to these marketplaces when you search for Squarespace templates. Ghost Marketplace, which is specific to Squarespace templates, and squarespacethemes.com, which is my directory, are also good places to sell your templates.
Leveraging Affiliates
The seventh lesson is one of my favorite growth strategies, which is to leverage affiliates. Affiliates do the legwork for you and add another layer to your selling proposition. You're incentivizing your best customers to promote and share your stuff. Every time you sell a template, there's going to be a link back to your shop. A couple of affiliate tracking tools that you can use to set up an affiliate program for your template shop are Peachs, Thrivecart and Affiliatly.