Why building a community is the way forward for your print on demand business

2023 trends and statistics show that building a community is the way forward for your print on demand business

After reading the Shopify Plus 2023 trends report, I’m more than ever convinced that the POD +1 system I’ve been developing for 8 years is going to be the best way to build a sustainable POD business moving into 2024. You can read an overview of the system here, but in short it comes down to focusing on building a community of people who know, like & trust you.

The trend report focuses on five sections: supply chain, money, marketing, ecommerce and retail. And although the supply chain and retail section show interesting trends, I’m going to focus on the other three sections as they are more related to your print on demand business.

I’ll quote some parts of the report and show you how they relate to the POD +1 system. Because the quotes are taken from three separate sections, the flow is a bit all over the place. But the TL;DR is clear: Build your POD business around people, and building a community is the best way to do that.

As brands and buyers continue to see their spending power decrease in light of inflation, both are finding ways to reduce expenses. Shoppers are doing that by seeking cheaper options—which means the 81% of brands that plan to raise their prices (or already have)—need to emphasize their value to keep customers.

If you want your store to stand out, you need to create value to keep your customers. But creating value should start even before people become customers, and should not be focused on products alone. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

Social media–driven strategies create deeper connections and memorable experiences that will keep customers coming back for more. Nine in 10 people buy from brands they follow on social media.

Social commerce reduces friction between discovery and conversion, simplifying one-on-one engagement and potential sales.

According to our global survey results, using social channels for marketing and promotions is the most important customer acquisition and retention strategy for businesses to drive growth in the next few years.

In other words, to find and keep customers - and build a sustainable business - the best way right now to promote & grow your business is on social media.

Strong brands are serving customers while fighting inflation. Other brands are slashing prices as a short-term way to boost sales. The biggest key to flourishing beyond mere survival is investing in one brand asset: customer loyalty.

Selling your products cheaper is a race-to-the-bottom strategy, one which you will lose against brands with deeper pockets than you. or brands that have in-house production.. If you want an example of a race-to-the-bottom on pricing, checkout some Etsy t-shirt sellers.

Loyal customers are worth far more than short-term sales. In fact, a 2021 study estimated that loyalty increases a customer's worth by 22 times. It costs less to sell to loyal customers because they're more likely to buy, with the probability of a sale jumping from 5–20% for a new customer to 60–70% for a returning one.

Strong customer relationships also make price increases more tenable. Almost 40% of loyal customers will buy the brand's product even if cheaper options exist, and 60% of customers tell others about brands they\'re loyal to.

When you read statistics like this, the conclusion is pretty simple. Customer loyalty is key.

When you have a community, marketing becomes easier and cheaper.. Plus it is easier and cheaper to add people to your community than to run ads to find a buyer. And don’t forget that eventually people in the community will do marketing for you, either for free or for an incentive.

Because nearly 90% of shoppers will pay more for a product from trusted brands, strong brands can raise prices with less risk of customer churn.

I fully agree on this as I do this myself as well, and use it in my business. Once you have the trust of a community member and add value to their life, money is no longer the main deciding factor when they want to make a purchase.

It's still cheaper to drive sales with existing customers than to acquire new ones. Brands can reward loyal customers by offering exclusive discounts to encourage them to spend more.

This is what most POD training doesn't even teach, as the focus is mostly on ‘create products’, ‘ build a store’ and ‘run ads’. Their idea most times is that a sale is a sale, and once you have sold something you simply move on to find the next one. And therefore totally forgetting the person that just invested his trust and money in your business.

When I am asked to support a POD business, I always tell them that ‘the money is in the backend’. Existing customers can be a goldmine for your business if you know how to offer value to them.

Membership-driven, gated digital communities are also on the rise. A major draw is the feeling of exclusivity found in online communities, including front-of-the-line access to products and events.

This speaks for itself, although I would advise to start with a free community and not with a membership. Once your customer base is established and you can find something exclusive for a select group of people, a membership may be a great way to increase your revenue.

More than 26 million ecommerce sites compete for their target consumers’ limited time and attention, with more retailers joining the competition daily. But the advertising tools brands used to rely on are getting less dependable. Since the peak of lockdowns, ROAS has continued its decline as the costs per click on the biggest advertising platforms seem to be in a race for the top.

As we are closing in on Q4, CPC is rising already and it will continue to rise. When you need ads to get your product noticed it’s going to get tough unless you have high margins and an already proven product to sell or…. you have a community (or customer base) to market to, and do a bit of marketing for you.

But there is another thing going on as well that already has an even bigger impact on your POD business:

The deprecation of third-party cookies has piled on to the advertising challenges. Apple and Mozilla have already done away with cookies, and Google is following suit in 2024. When Apple started letting its customers opt in to tracking in October 2021, advertisers lost 30% accuracy on targeting algorithms overnight, costing an estimated $10 billion USD in ad revenue. Big tech’s move toward more consumer privacy is making it harder for brands to reach their target audiences, generate traffic, and measure the effectiveness of their efforts.

New and updated legislation around the world, such as in California, China, Brazil, and the EU, is adding to the growing number of privacy laws coming into effect. There’s no denying that privacy regulations are strangling marketers’ ability to target potential customers.

For brands that depend on third-party data in their marketing, personalization at scale is one of the many downsides. But 71% of consumers still expect a personal touch, and 81% of brands agree that unique, personalized experiences play an important role in future commerce growth. So the challenge is finding new ways to replace the role of third-party data in marketing.

In contrast, businesses have total control over their own customer data. They know exactly when, how, and why the data was collected, and it belongs to the business forever. And because this data comes from consumers who directly interact with the brand, the information is more likely to be relevant. What’s more, customers want an integrated, transparent, human experience, which third-party cookies are not cut out to give. Consumers want to connect with people, not just businesses.

So what they are saying is that due to the emerging amount of privacy laws the amount of data on the advertising platforms will become less, while the demand is getting bigger and therefore costs are increasing. Plus it is getting harder to reach your target audience because of this.

On the other hand, even though customers want to share less personal information, they still want the best experience and connect with people who make them feel human. Ads by itself won’t create that feeling, but you can achieve that inside a community.

You know who are already serving people this way? Influencers.

Almost one-third of shoppers say influencer recommendations are more important than recommendations from friends and family, and 71% of businesses expect online influencers to become even more important in the future.

Influencers have been building communities for years and built their business around it. Having your own community can do the same for your POD business, and even open up B2B collaborations that create an extra revenue stream.

Let’s hop back to that human-like experience that was mentioned earlier to emphasize two important pieces of the POD business puzzle:

User-generated content (UGC) is 8.7 times more impactful than influencer content. Reviews, photos, videos, blog posts, comments, shares, and likes are seen as three times more authentic than brand-created content, and almost six times more authentic than official influencer content.

We all know this, but not many POD business owners put in the effort to consistently get and use UGC. Now that you know people value this more than influencer content, I hope you are going to add this to your marketing strategies.

And yes, you can (and should) use the content in your (retargeting) ads, just make sure the customer agrees to the use of it before you use it. Which is pretty simple to implement when you ask for any UGC.

And here’s the second important piece:

Shoppers have a strong view on personalisation and reward firms who get it right. Seventy-two percent of shoppers say they expect the businesses they buy from to recognise them as individuals and know their interests.

Quick heads-up: personalisation mentioned here is not about personalisation for a product. It’s about making the communication personal.

When asked to define personalisation, consumers associate it with positive experiences of being made to feel special. They respond positively when brands demonstrate their investment in the relationship, not just the transaction. Thoughtful touch points such as checking in post-purchase, sending a how-to video, or asking consumers to write a review generate positive brand perceptions.

And consumers reward those that get it right. Over three-quarters of consumers (76%) say that receiving personalized communications was a key factor in prompting their consideration of a brand, and 78% say such content made them more likely to repurchase.

The relationship matters more to people than the transaction. That is why building a relationship with (potential) customers starts from the first time they encounter your business or community. And it doesn’t stop when they buy something. It’s an ongoing process, just like a marriage you need to keep working on the relationship.

Personalisation is especially effective at driving repeat engagement and loyalty over time. Recurring interactions create more data from which brands can design ever-more relevant experiences – creating a flywheel effect that generates strong, long-term customer lifetime value and loyalty.

Companies that achieve the best results from personalisation approach it differently. Rather than seeing personalisation simply as a marketing or analytics problem, they view it as an organization-wide opportunity. Rather than focusing solely on short-term wins, they look for long-term drivers of growth and emphasize customer lifetime value.

Almost 72% of the global brands surveyed by loyalty tech provider Antavo are already planning to revamp their existing programs. To get ahead of the trend, brands are putting their customers at the center of loyalty programs, instead of transactions.

This is taken from a link to a McKinsey article. But it is so spot-on especially for POD businesses that I wanted to include it in this summary.

You need to approach things differently to build a sustainable and people oriented POD business. You need to put the customer at the center, and not just in your loyalty programs. Every decision you make should be based on how it impacts and benefits your visitors and customers.

So stop focusing mainly on products and profits, and start building relationships inside a community of people in your niche. It will lower your risk and investments when you start, and leave you with more opportunities (and profit) once you build that trust within your community. Plus you will feel more satisfied and at ease with the results.

How to do this? I’m working on training to show you how the POD +1 system works. Want to be the first to know when it will be made available? Then join our Facebook group to stay in the loop. The password to enter is ‘Empower’. It’s also the place to ask any questions you have.