A Design Secret That Will Help Boost TPT Store Sales

Kirsten 0:00

it's time for a CTP q&a. All right. Well, we have a another question that was submitted. The question is, what is the best way to come up with a TPT store name. Now this is perfect. If you're considering going all in with a TPT store or you're just getting started, you're trying to really kind of see where you want to go before you start posting a lot of resources or go you know, you don't want it to be where you're getting three years in and you regret ever choosing your name, one thing you could think about is you know what you really stand by value wise, maybe you're encouraging, you're motivating. Maybe you like a specific grade level, or maybe you can think of incorporating some of your interests. Outside of teaching in general, this could be a geographic location. This could be you know, your favorite fruit or, you know, your favorite type of decoration, there's so many different things along that line. Another way to go about it is just to go with your name, you know, you can just have your name as a TPT store, you can say like, you know, first last name resources, or creative resources for educators. But make sure that whatever you choose, you don't regret later. Let's say maybe your maiden name is a certain name and you end up getting married later down the line, it's going to be really hard to have to go back and change all of that. Same with if you were, you know, teaching second grade, and then you were moved to fifth grade or you start teaching middle school later on in your teaching career. And that's kind of really hard to go back and have to go change every single resource that has that second grade on it. So I would definitely refrain from maybe using a name that could possibly change, or even just a grade level that could possibly change as well. My name, the way I came about it was not really anything special. I wanted southern teacher, but that was already taken. So I shortened it to southern teach. I later on added the southern teach. But there was a certain part of time when I was getting back to, you know, taking my business seriously that I was southern teach in third, because I was a third grade teacher. But I quickly realized that I'm not always going to be teaching third. And I'm not always going to be creating resources for a third grade. So I'm glad I changed it back to what it is now the southern teach it kind of you know, showcases my geographical location. I've always lived in the South. And of course, you know, I'm always a teacher at heart. So that is kind of where my name came into play. So you don't have to overthink coming up with a TPT store name. You just really go with something that you can envision down the line you don't anticipate changing very much. It can be something along with what you believe in what you stand for, or just what you like in your personal life and what you like in your professional life. Well, that's it for the CTP q&a. If you have a burning question about TPT branding, product listings, marketing, or life in general, submit it at the forum provided in the link in the show notes or on the blog. I would love to potentially have your question featured on the podcast with an answer for me and you never know someone might have the same question you may be thinking

You're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact in their teacher businesses. I'm Kiersten, a teacher business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of the creative teacher podcast. This is another remix episode that I think is super valuable. And so I'm going to go ahead and share that clip with you. Today's topic is all about a design secret that will boost your TPT store to new heights. Are you guys ready? This is the design secret This is It seems simple, but there's so much more that goes into it. But here it is. One design secret that will boost your TPT store to new heights is to be specific in your business brand. And we're gonna go into some mistakes in that, that I've personally gone through, and what to do instead.

So thinking about your business brand, it's something that is prevalent everywhere, if you have a specific plan, if not, it's going to look all over the place, it's going to be very confusing to your audience about what you sell, who you're all about what vibes you give off, and it's going to be really hard to be memorable. So some of the mistakes that I made related to having a business brand is not having a plan. When revamping my store, I spent a lot of time last summer, revamping my store. And something that I really regret was not having an actual plan about what I was going to do with my store brand, having a set color scheme, deciding on what type of products I'm actually going to sell what niche I'm going to go in, or narrowing down my niche in general so that it's actually specific to a certain group of people. And also just not really thinking about, you know, what kind of adjectives would describe my business or just in general with my brand.

So that's just one thing I wish I had done was to really just before I decided to just start revamping all my things, my product listings, my resources, just really thinking about having a business plan. Many businesses out there do this all of the time, they have a business plan. If they're deciding to rebrand what they're going to be selling, they actually have a plan. But I just went in and just started doing things. And I wish I actually sat down and really laid out what I was going to do and put things together before I went in. Because what ended up happening is I had to go back and change stuff after already going back to change things. Because I had decided on, I finally decided on my colors, I finally decided on the color scheme, the fonts that I was going to use, the type of resources I was going to sell. And so that kind of took a lot of extra, it was a lot of extra work to have to do it all over again.

Another mistake that I made is kind of related to not having a plan, but it's creating products for as many types of teachers as possible. So when I set out to revamp my store, the southern teach it was had already had been K through five resources, because that was the experience that I had. But I was also just still creating a bunch of different products for primary grades and upper elementary grades and even sometimes some middle school grades. And something to remember along these lines, if you're trying to reach everyone, you end up reaching no one it just gets really confusing for your audience about like, okay, so you have some products that will work for me, but then others won't. I don't know about that I need some more math products and you have some there's not really a lot coming out. It's just really confusing for the audience. And so niching down was the best thing I did as far as you know, really putting myself out there as mainly focusing on upper elementary.

So here's a little bit about what to do instead. So instead of not having a plan instead of creating products for as many Types of Pete teachers as possible. One way to be specific in your business brand is to niche down. So attracting your audience by being specific in the problems they may have, and the unique way that you solve that problem. So what type of resources do your audience members need? What is your ideal customer? What are their pain points? What are their struggles? Whether it's in the classroom or outside of the classroom? And what unique way? Do you solve that problem? How do you solve that problem? Or what resources do you provide that or it's different than similar resources in that same niche, and you may be thinking, well, if my niche is k, and one, it's super oversaturated, it's really hard to get my name out there. And that is absolutely not true, you can absolutely still have a niche and what may feel or seem like an oversaturated market, because if as long as you have a unique opportunity, a unique way to solve something that nobody is doing out there, you can actually bring in customers that way.

Another thing to do instead, to be specific in your business brand is to have a plan, do not try to revamp your whole brand at one time, having a plan on how you introduce your new brand can really benefit. And also, it's really great to just focus on a little bit at a time. So maybe just one thing I have in my branding or teacher business workshop is I have this cyclical way of revamping your brand. And that starting with your values, just first and foremost, thinking about who your ideal teacher customer is thinking about the problems, you may have the pain points and how you solve that problem. So just kind of really focusing on your brand values, and then going into a story or a small series of stories that may help other people see where you started, what problems you had, and how it's helped, and how you're here today with your business. A third thing would be the brand personality. So thinking about brand adjectives and voice that make up your brand. And then lastly would be your brand visuals. So thinking about the logos, and the colors, and the fonts and all that fun visual stuff that people see as the face of your brand. So kind of going through that sense of having a plan of knowing exactly who you're going to sell to personality story, and then visuals, and then go into deciding what type of product listings are you going to change up or you're going to start with your product covers just kind of give your product covers a little facelift, maybe change up your logo, whatever you do have a plan and do it a little bit at a time. Don't try to do everything at once. And it's just like a complete shock to people who are just like, well, I thought you were selling this, but I see that it's this. So definitely have a plan.

Alright, so that is my design secret that will help boost your TPT store is just being specific in your business brand. But there's so much more than just that that goes into it. So hopefully, you got a lot out of that secret that I have for you. I loved listening to that clip. Again, it's so valuable still and so relevant. I think it is so important to make sure you have a plan for your brand. get really specific and understand what your brand is about. In general, not just the visuals, but everything else surrounding your brand identity.

If you're thinking after this episode of I need a little bit more guidance on defining my niche, figuring out my values, and my story and all of that stuff that was mentioned earlier. I do have a workshop available that really focuses on branding your business. And it's called branding your teacher business super straightforward. It's a bite sized course. But it is at the Southern teach.com forward slash workshop. It's an evergreen course so you can enroll at any time of the year. So just think about your brand in general. Do you have a plan? Are you just putting out products and content willy nilly or do you actually have some type of strategy? If not, I highly recommend that you check out the workshop I offer to TPT sellers. Well that's the end of this episode. Thanks again for tuning in. And I'll see you guys again soon.

Thanks for tuning in to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I cannot wait for you to join me in the next episode for more tips and inspiration. Have an amazing day.