The holiday season is almost here which means now is the time to start thinking about selling ugly Christmas sweaters with a holiday campaign.  Ugly Christmas sweaters are the perfect item to show off your festive spirit while staying warm in the Winter.  Use these tips and tricks to maximize your sales when launching your first Print on Demand ugly Christmas sweater campaign.

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What is an ugly Christmas sweater?

Although an ugly Christmas sweater could just literally be a horrendous looking sweater with a Christmas design on it, most people have a certain idea of what it should look like.  The traditional ugly Christmas sweater is typically knitted with wool and features holiday patterns and images knitted throughout.  Some popular designs include images of items like mistletoe, garlands, Christmas trees, stars and other holiday-themed accessories.  However, the idea has evolved over the years.  Now, an ugly Christmas sweater can be a pullover crewneck that contains a mock cross-stitched holiday-themed design. 

Starting from scratch

If you are starting from scratch, you need to choose a niche to narrow down your target audience.  There is too much competition to launch a generic Christmas campaign without honing in on a specific group of people.  Find inspiration from everything around you.  What do you and your friends like to do?  What is trending this year?  Whatever niche you decide to choose, conduct research.  Do you want to target Australians?  Remember, Christmas is during their summertime.  It may be too warm for sweaters.  Instead, offer tank tops.  Be sure to know your target audience and adjust your ideas accordingly.  Once you have chosen an audience, all that you need to do is to incorporate a Christmas element.  Some examples of niche interests include veganism/plant-based diets, action sports, or cooking and baking.

Recycle successful campaigns

If you already have a successful campaign running, consider altering the original design and turning it an ugly Christmas sweater.  With an already established presence in that niche, your customers may want to purchase a holiday-themed pullover from you for the holiday season.  Redesign your image as a cross-stitch, add a festive phrase, and voila!—an ugly Christmas sweater is made.

Making your design

Incorporate festive elements

It’s not an ugly Christmas sweater unless there are some Christmas-y images on it.  Also, don’t forget to give it that cross-stitch appearance.  For a bit of inspiration, consider adding in some of these ideas when creating your design:

• Colors: red, forest green, yellow, and white
• Characters: Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, elves, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (or any of the other reindeer)
• Items: Christmas lights, stars, mistletoe, holly, garland, Christmas wreath, poinsettia, stockings, presents, mittens, eggnog, fruit cake

For more ideas, a quick Google search can help you out.  The ideas are endless. 

Incorporate wordplay

Adding puns is always a good idea for POD.  Read over lyrics of popular Christmas songs to see if you can include a relevant pun to your niche.  You can never do too much research.  It’s important to get a better understanding of your target audience’s lingo to make sure your wordplay makes sense.

Check out some examples below:

Add custom text

During the holiday season, generic sweaters can be found all over the Internet and in the malls.  Offering custom text for seasonal lines will give your customers an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.  

This feature is easy to use and allows your customers to personalize the product.  Watch this tutorial on how to use this tool:

Marketing your store

When should you start advertising?

Although some people insist that the holiday season shouldn’t start until after Halloween is over, others enjoy celebrating the holidays as soon as possible.  When it comes to marketing your ugly Christmas sweaters, sellers should consider advertising as soon as the Fall season comes around in September.  It is better to start early to maximize your sales and ensure that your customers receive their merchandise in time.  Read more on how to market your products on Moteefe Academy.

Pricing your products

Choosing the price is a tricky decision.  Although you want to make as much profit as possible, a high price tag will deter potential customers from purchasing your product.  According to Moteefe POD specialist Thomas Gentleman, a safe bet is to price your sweaters at £27-£30 in the UK or $33-$35 in the US.  Ultimately, it is up to you if you decide to price your products higher or lower than this range.

For more information on selling ugly Christmas sweaters, check out the full live stream broadcast by Moteefe’s Print on Demand specialists Aidan Kessell and Thomas Gentlemen.  

And if you want to watch more live streams, join Moteefe x Marcazo Global on Facebook to get access to all Moteefe live streams on everything you need to know about Print on Demand.  Plus, once you’re in the group, you can engage with the rest of the sellers that are a part of this POD community.

Moteefe is currently running its Print on Demand Winter Contest 2020, making this the perfect opportunity to launch your first ugly Christmas sweater campaign.  The contest runs until the end of the year, December 31st, 2020.  The more units you sell, the bigger and better the prize.  Check out all of the details here.

Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Team Moteefe