Ep. 21: How Gingiber Attracted Higher-Spend Customers and Increased Revenue with Angie Classen

Summary

Art + Audience Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Ep. 21: How Gingerbread Attracted Higher-Spend Customers and Increased Revenue with Angie Clawson
Host: Stacie Bloomfield
Guest: Angie Clawson
Release Date: June 10, 2025

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1. Introduction and Relationship Dynamics (00:00 - 03:13)

Stacie Bloomfield kicks off the episode by sharing a humorous anecdote about a past product line failure, highlighting the importance of customer feedback. She then transitions into introducing the episode's focus on successful business strategies amidst economic uncertainties.

Key Points:

• Personal story about a failed sea creature tea towel line due to ink bleeding after washing.
• Emphasis on the value of honest feedback from long-term partners.
• Introduction of Angie Clawson, Stacie’s business partner, affectionately referred to as "Gingerbread" and "big sister."

Notable Quote:

"Wouldn't it be nice if your art business loved you back?" – Stacie Bloomfield [00:31]

2. Navigating Economic Challenges and Business Growth (03:13 - 08:35)

Stacie and Angie discuss the economic challenges of the year and their proactive approach to sustain and grow their tea towel business, Gingerbread. They share impressive growth metrics achieved despite the unstable market.

Key Points:

• Despite economic downturns, Gingerbread saw a 10% year-over-year growth.
• Focused solely on physical products sold wholesale, direct to customers via their website, and a minor presence on Etsy.
• Emphasized the importance of staying focused on strategies that benefit the business during tough times.

Notable Quote:

"We've grown about 10% year over year, which is phenomenal in any climate." – Angie Clawson [02:38]

3. Mother’s Day Sale Strategy and Results (08:35 - 19:50)

The core of the episode delves into the strategic overhaul of their Mother’s Day sale, shifting from blanket discounting to attracting higher-spend customers. Angie presents detailed analytics comparing the previous year's sale to the current one.

Key Points:

• Last Year’s Sale:
  • Discount: 20% off site-wide with no minimum spend.
  • Orders: 281
  • Revenue from Discounts: $18,000
  • Total Gross Sales: $42,664
• This Year’s Sale:
  • Discount: 20% off with a minimum spend of $90, including free shipping.
  • Orders: 203
  • Revenue from Discounts: $21,500
  • Total Gross Sales: $46,301
• Significant increase in revenue with fewer orders by attracting higher-spend customers.
• Introduction of a meal route to sustain profitability by moving fewer, more profitable sales.
• Ticket Average Increase:
  • Last Year: $64.24
  • This Year: $106.39

Notable Quotes:

"We brought in more money with fewer orders, which means... we're making more money off each sale." – Angie Clawson [06:27]

"Our ticket average this year was $106.39, that's four times what our product is." – Angie Clawson [08:27]

4. Data-Driven Decisions and Understanding Profitability (19:50 - 26:56)

Stacie emphasizes the importance of using data to drive business decisions, particularly focusing on profitability over mere revenue growth. Angie adds insights on balancing organic and paid traffic to optimize sales.

Key Points:

• Profit vs. Revenue:
  • Revenue is meaningless without understanding the costs involved.
  • Importance of tracking gross profit to ensure sustainable growth.
• Balancing Traffic Sources:
  • Aim for 40% organic and 60% paid traffic.
  • Current split at 30% organic and 70% paid.
  • Goal to increase organic traffic by 10% in Q2 through SEO and content marketing.
• Stacie introduces the Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA) Generator, a tool designed to help artists identify and understand their target customers more deeply.

Notable Quotes:

"What good is $100,000 in sales if you're spending $99,000 to get there?" – Stacie Bloomfield [05:51]

"Organic traffic is something that everybody wants and that you need." – Angie Clawson [09:24]

5. Crafting the Ideal Customer Avatar and Marketing Strategies (26:56 - 28:54)

The discussion shifts to identifying and understanding the ideal customer, emphasizing the psychological and emotional connections necessary for effective marketing. Stacie introduces her free resource, the Profitable Art Launchpad, aimed at helping artists price their work and develop profitable strategies.

Key Points:

• Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA):
  • Detailed profiles that include demographics, shopping habits, and emotional triggers.
  • Importance of creating content and products that resonate with the ICA.
• Sales Psychology:
  • Connecting with customers on an emotional level to drive sales.
• Resources Offered:
  • Profitable Art Launchpad: Free email course with pricing calculators and strategic planning tools.

Notable Quotes:

"When you know your numbers, you have something to measure against and grow against." – Stacie Bloomfield [25:03]

"We have to think about who Charlotte is and how to speak to her, because you're not selling it to yourself." – Stacie Bloomfield [17:49]

6. Product Development and Customer Feedback (28:54 - 23:40)

Sharing a personal story about a product failure taught the importance of customer feedback and adaptability. Angie highlights the necessity of receiving honest feedback to grow and avoid stagnation.

Key Points:

• Anecdote about the failed indigo blue sea creature tea towels due to poor quality.
• Importance of maintaining open communication with customers and partners.
• Learning from failures to refine product offerings.

Notable Quotes:

"If you want to work just in a little echo chamber, then nothing will happen, your business won't grow." – Angie Clawson [23:40]

7. Practical Tips for Artists to Increase Ticket Average and Attract Ideal Customers (23:58 - 29:07)

Stacie and Angie provide actionable advice for artists looking to enhance their business strategies, focusing on understanding customers, knowing financials, and utilizing marketing tools effectively.

Key Points:

1. Understand Your Customer:
   • Engage directly with your target audience to gather insights.
   • Use tools like the ICA Generator to create detailed customer profiles.
2. Know Your Numbers:
   • Track profit and loss meticulously.
   • Understand cost structures to make informed discounting decisions.
3. Leverage Marketing Tools and Content:
   • Utilize blogging, SEO, and social media to attract organic traffic.
   • Create targeted content that speaks directly to the ICA’s needs and desires.

Notable Quotes:

"Artists tend to underprice their work. You need to find your profitable art launch pad." – Stacie Bloomfield [26:56]

"You have to look at other businesses in your industry doing what you're doing. And that's a better indicator than just, I'm going to copy this big company." – Angie Clawson [25:03]

8. Conclusion and Additional Resources (29:07 - End)

The episode concludes with Stacie promoting the Profitable Art Launchpad and encouraging listeners to implement the discussed strategies to achieve sustainable business growth. She invites feedback and engagement from the audience to foster a supportive community.

Key Points:

• Promotion of free resources to assist artists in business growth.
• Encouragement to review and utilize provided tools and calculators.
• Invitation to subscribe, share the podcast, and follow on social media for ongoing support and future episodes.

Notable Quote:

"If you're listening and thinking, I have no idea who my ideal customer is, you are not alone." – Stacie Bloomfield [15:41]

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Additional Resources:

• Ideal Customer Avatar Generator: Available through Stacie Bloomfield’s course, Leverage Your Art. Visitors can visit leverageyourart.com to learn more and join the waitlist.
• Profitable Art Launchpad: Free email course offering pricing calculators and strategic business planning tools. Sign up via the podcast notes.

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This episode of Art + Audience provides a deep dive into strategic business practices tailored for artists, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's ideal customer, leveraging data for profitability, and implementing effective marketing strategies to attract higher-spend customers. Through candid discussions and practical advice, Stacie Bloomfield and Angie Clawson offer invaluable insights for artists striving to create sustainable and thriving art businesses.

Transcript

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Back then, we could afford one color tea towel, single color printed, single color screen printed, and we decided we were going to branch out a little bit. And so we were like, oh, let's do a sea creature line, which P.S. no one was asking us for sea creatures number one, but two, we were like, let's do it in blue ink. Indigo blue. It'll be so beautiful. It'll stand out. So we launched it, people started ordering them, and then one of our longtime wholesalers wrote to me and said, stacy, I don't know how to tell you this, but I washed one of your towels and the blue ink is running everywhere.

[Angie Clawson]

Yep.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And unfortunately, we're not going to be able to sell these towels. Wouldn't it be nice if your art business loved you back? Hi, I'm Stacey Bloomfield. After years of trial and error and late night doodling, I went from being a coffee shop manager to running a vibrant seven figure art business that I love. And now I'm on a mission to help more artists create an art business that they love too. So I invite you to find a cozy spot, pull out your favorite sketchbook, and listen in. It's never too late to chase your your creative dreams. Welcome to the Art plus Audience podcast.

[Angie Clawson]

Hello. Hello.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Welcome back to the Art plus Audience podcast. We're here for season two, first episode back, and I'm so excited because I'm here with Angie Clawson. Hi. Also known as my partner in crime, Gingerbread, and my big sister.

[Angie Clawson]

Yes.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

You know, so many of you wrote in after the last episode because Angie and I did the finale together for season one and people were so, like, excited, excited to hear about our relationship. Angie, people are always, like, saying we're sister goals. And I'm not gonna lie, it did make me feel pretty good because, like, we weirdly just do well together.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah, we really do. Yeah, it's been cool.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And it's so great because since we last did an interview which was like the end of 2024.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah, it's been a while.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

A lot has happened in our business at Gingerbread and Product, and today we're going to talk about, like, what is actually working in our business, because it's been a. I don't know if you heard about it. It's been kind of a weird year economically here in the US And a lot of businesses are either struggling or they're afraid because they don't know, like, what actually is working in today's market.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

So we, like every business, have been kind of holding our breath a little bit. But we have been really determined to make sure that we can make the best decisions when it comes to how to keep our tea towel business Gingerbread up and running.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And actually even growing, which has been the biggest surprise of all.

[Angie Clawson]

Yes, yes. To grow in a year like this is been fantastic and it's been a lot of effort. Right now we've grown about 10% year over year, which is phenomenal in any climate.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

That's phenomenal.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah, yeah. But especially in light of everything that we've been facing with the economic ups and downs, we've just tried to really stay focused and do the things that are good for our business and it seems to be working.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And P.S. we're talking just product. We're not talking about licensing, we're not talking about education. We are talking about GingerBR physical product that we sell wholesale and direct customer on our website. And occasionally the Etsy Sailor too. Occasionally. It's a little tiny piece of those.

[Angie Clawson]

Are starting to pick up actually. Yeah. All right, way to go, Etsy.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Come back to us. So, guys, what we want to talk about today is our Mother's Day sale.

[Angie Clawson]

Yes.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

That we just finished up. And honestly, it. It knocked our socks off how well it went, right?

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah, absolutely. Because this year we've seen a big change in customer behavior, as I'm sure many of you have too. And so we were trying really hard to make some pivots in what we've been doing. So last year we, like many people, sometimes you get into this habit of discounting, discounting, discounting and wanting to get customers to buy from you. Sometimes the temptation is to over discount your product in order to pull in those customers. And so what had happened is we had unintentionally attracted a discount bargain shopper.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Give me that coupon code. Give me, give me, give me.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah. And they would be like unwilling to buy unless we're having like a huge sale. Which, as everyone knows in e comm q4 is when you are slashing prices, you're giving your best deals and that's great. But then those customers, when you move into Q1, it ends up being kind of a sticker shock for them because they just bought your product at 40% off and their Boxing Day sale, and now they don't want to pay, pay the full price. And so we found that in January we saw a significant dip and we started working with a new group of people who are helping us reposition ourselves and how are we attracting the right type of customer. So that's kind of where we started the year.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Absolutely. And something that we're also always focused on is the three parts of our successful business is like, the products we're making, the customers we're meeting, and the way we are running the operations side of our business, AKA how we're moving like a business. And we are always using data to inform the decisions that we make. And a lot of people shy away from this, especially in the beginning parts of their business, because they're like, I don't have any data. I'm barely making any sales. So if you don't have data to inform the decisions you're making, you really have to look at the customers you want to attract and where they're at online, where they're shopping. And like we said, we realized we were attracting the coupon buyers, which I love a good coupon. But we need year round to have people who appreciate our product for the value that it is. It's a great product, it's a great detail. The designs are amazing. And so that's what we've been focusing on, is attracting those people.

[Angie Clawson]

And I actually ran some numbers recently and I was shocked to learn if I had reduced my discount rate last year for Black Friday Cyber Monday just to the rate we're planning to do this year, I could have sold 8,000 fewer tea towels and made the same amount of money.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Isn't that crazy?

[Angie Clawson]

And so I was just like, oh, you know, we always are living and learning. But the point that Stacy's making is like, you have to understand your profitability, not just what you're selling in revenue.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Absolutely. And people are often looking at the top line. But what good is it if you make a hundred thousand dollars in sales, if you're spending $99,000 to get there?

[Angie Clawson]

Right, Right. It means nothing. And so for Mother's Day this year, our goal was to attract a higher spend customer and be able to do just as much as we've done in the past, but selling fewer times because. Because you know, if you do invest in ad spend or anything like that, every dollar you spend to acquire a customer, it costs you something. Right. To get a new customer. And so you want to make sure when they're buying from you, you're recovering that cost and you're making money off of it. And so that was our number one goal for this Mother's Day sale.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

So, Angie, let's talk about what happened in 2024 versus 2025. So let's talk about how much money we brought in in 2024 for Mother's Day what our ticket average was and what discounts we were running.

[Angie Clawson]

Okay, great. So last year, I'm just gonna pull up my data here. So I got it. We ran a sale for about the same length of time, which it was just about two weeks of time. Last year we did a 20 off site wide sale. So that means everything and anything on our site was discounted 20%, no minimum spend. It didn't matter. This year we did the same length of time of sale, but we did a 20% off with a 90 minimum spend. So. So the only way that somebody could get that 20% off meant that they had to spend at least $90, which also qualified them for free shipping, which is a double incentive for them. Last year we actually did 281 orders and we brought in $18,000 just on our discount code. This year we did 203 orders and brought in 21,500. But here's another key indicator. Last year, total gross sales outside of just the discount code, we did 42,664. This year we did 46,301. So what we did is we brought in more money with fewer orders, which means when you think about free shipping, things like that, we actually spend about $6 per order in shipping every time we ship order for free. So that's about $500 overall that we saved in free shipping. We made more money, we got customers willing to spend more, and then they're now in our funnel. And what's awesome is like our returning customer rate both years was about only just 40%. So we're bringing in about 60% new customers off of things like ad spend, organic traffic, blogging, gift guides. These are all the ways that we're bringing in these customers. That means 60% of these sales are now in our funnel. They're getting resold to. They're going to become repeat customers for us. So overall, a huge win.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And ticket average. I don't think you said last year ticket average versus this one, because this is the big one, guys.

[Angie Clawson]

So our ticket average last year was $64.24. This year our ticket average was $106.39. That's huge.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

That's incredible.

[Angie Clawson]

Here's why. Our signature product is $24. Okay? So to have a ticket average that's $106, that's four times basically what our product is, which means we're selling more to fewer people. We're getting people spending more money. It's a lot more lift for the same amount of work and what's wild.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Is, I mean, we were anticipating a decline in sales because of the economy. So we weren't going into the sale thinking, okay, we're going to grow this year. Our goal literally was to be smarter with how we were attracting people onto our site and to increase the ticket average. So if we, we still would have thought it was a win if we had this ticket average and had had fewer gross sales, we would have been thrilled with that. But what we did is because of how we positioned ourselves, not just with ad spend, but we also have started doing a lot of blogging and pinning.

[Angie Clawson]

So.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And what do you talk about that strategy?

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah. So organic traffic is something that everybody wants and that you need. And so ideally you want to be at about 40% organic, 60% paid traffic if you're doing paid traffic. So for a business like ours, or we do invest in ad spend quite a bit, we need to work on always making sure we're staying at that level. Like right now, we're the 30, 70 split it. So a goal right now for us in Q2 is to increase our organic traffic by 10%. That's like my number one goal. And so how am I going to do that? There's a few different ways. Right. So SEO, Search Engine optimization is one, and that's something that I'm always interested in because it's something that you can do that just brings people to your website and costs you nothing except your time. But hear me, everything costs you something. Right? And time is the thing that I can invest right now in organic to try and bring in more money. So been working on SEO and one of the ways you can do that is through blogging for SEO. So we started doing this. We use a Handy Dandy chatgpt, a wonderful tool for those of you who don't use it just to help us find and figure out what are the terms that people might be looking for when they're searching for details. And so I have a lot of information. I have my ica, which is I Ideal Customer avatar. Stacey, want to talk about that tool that you're offering right now?

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Oh, my goodness. So I have created an ideal customer like generator. So whenever I teach Leverage youe Art, which is my signature course, it runs again this August. Early on in the course, we're talking about, you know, the three ends you're meeting people, your ideal customer, you're making the right products or art for them, and then you've got to build the business and move like a business. Well, artists like to focus on the design. And sometimes they get real giddy about the product. Whether you're manufacturing it or you're licensing it or it's print on demand, they get excited about that. But when it comes to finding an ideal customer and we go through this lesson, I mean, it's like crickets. Everyone's like, oh my gosh. I think my ideal customer is a woman and she likes color and she sleeps at night. And we're like, yes, no, that's everyone. We can't, we can't all have the same ideal customer. And so the truth is, when you're in the beginning of your business, trying to figure out who you're marketing to is very hard because often we're thinking about ourselves. We're thinking, what would I want? How much would I pay for a product? What do I like to use? Well, it turns out oftentimes we're not our own ideal clients. And so what I did is I created a really great tool that you'll get access to if you take Leverage youe Art. But I'm also thinking about creating a smaller version of it available to everybody so you can get on on this. And it helps you walk through who you are as an artist, like your style, like what you like to create. And it gives you some prompts about who you think might like what you're creating art wise. And then with a few clicks of a button, it will generate your in depth ideal customer. Give her a name, tell you where she lives, how much money she might make, where she likes to shop, and it'll even generate a list of products that might be a good fit for her. And so I've been testing it out with my small group coaching program Thrive and in my Mastermind and people are having incredible results. And the truth is, the reason I built it is because it's what we use ourselves.

[Angie Clawson]

I use it every single day. Like I filter every decision for sales strategy and marketing strategy through the lens of what would my ICA want or need from me right now? And we'll talk about some email marketing strategy as well in a few minutes. But ICA is basically where we started whenever we're working on this blog SEO optimization. And so using that tool, understanding our Customer, we're putting it in and we're saying what are things that our customers would want to know from us and how can we blog and answer those questions? And so that's just the starting point. So I started doing this, been doing it consistently, doing really fun things like gift guides for Mother's Day that We're curating ourselves using our products, things that we know people would love and that are our best sellers, and putting that out there and then just helping people find, like, what's the thing that you might want for Mother's Day this year? And so we used all of that. And once we created those blogs, then we're making pins out of that blog. Going into Canva, super simple, strong graphics with, you know, interesting calls to action and then putting them in, scheduling pins in Pinterest, and then of course, using that same content on Instagram, Facebook, social media. Just finding a way to leverage everything that we're doing to really widen the net for our customer. It's a wonderful way to get organic traffic. And Pinterest can be a great way to get some organic traffic.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And PS the reason why this matters is because most of us weren't born great marketers. Okay. Like, I can't realize the opportunities I've had over the years that I missed because I was just like, buy a tea towel, buy a tea towel. It's a cute tea towel. But now that we're framing it like the best gift for your mother in law, for instance, this is kind of what got us started. We were, we've been featured in the New York Times wirecutter gift guide two years in a row, maybe three. And they put us as a great gift for mother in laws. And we were like, oh, that's a really nice positioning. And I think that we didn't even realize at the time that like what they were getting at is we're not just selling a tea towel. It's like, who is the person who would love to receive this as a gift or who would want to buy this to give to someone? So instead of a subject line just being like eight great tea towels, check it out. It's more like, it's more like gifts.

[Angie Clawson]

For the person most difficult to buy for or who's hard to buy for. We have the perfect gift for you. And so I do it really better when I'm like.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Because we're not saying mother in laws are difficult. No, not at all. Not.

[Angie Clawson]

You never.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

No. Never know that.

[Angie Clawson]

What we are saying is that there are certain people that are harder to buy for. Right. You might have that person in your life who you don't know what to get them, but you want to like delight them. Or maybe a friend who you're kind of competitive with and every time you go to her house, she has like the coolest stuff. But then you're like, I brought you a hostess gift.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And they're like.

[Angie Clawson]

And so that's the feeling we're trying to evoke from our people. And we're trying to cast that net. Why? Because we know that's a common problem that people have is I just don't know what to get for this person. And so we're reeling them in through all of our blogging, our social media, our pins, and just trying to get some organic traffic in from people who don't already know about us.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And P.S. we're packing in a lot of information into this episode, but we get really excited.

[Angie Clawson]

Yes, we do.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Quick note before we dive back in, if you're listening and thinking, I have no idea who my ideal customer is, you are not alone. That's exactly why I created the Ideal Customer Avatar Generator, a custom tool available for the first time this year. Inside my course Leverage your Art. It walks you step by step through identifying who your art is for based on your unique style and generates a detailed customer profile you can use for marketing, product development, and more. You'll get access to this tool when Leverage youe Art opens again in August 2025. Until then, you can learn more about Leverage youe Art and get on the [e-mail] so let me just tell you another thing that matters here. All of this is like, it's like dominoes and you like tip one over and everything keeps going. So it's not just who your ideal customer is. It's not just thinking about who you're attracting. It's also thinking about the triggers that makes your person tick. So sales psychology, which is everyone's favorite topic. I've been reading a couple of books on this about like, how to sell to people. And in truth, we have the type of products where we are focusing on an identity connection or an emotional response connection with people. So by identifying with like the identity, we're we're talking a language that only a specific person may respond to. Like, my husband wouldn't see that that blog post and be like, oh yes, I can't wait to read this blog post. But the person who we're selling to, who is. I won't give you her full name, but our ideal customer, her name is Charlotte. Charlotte. We thought a lot about this and Charlotte will have an emotional response because she'll be like, yes, I can finally bring a better hostess gift right to someone's house and be impressive. But I'm going to act nonchalant about it. Like, oh yeah, this whole thing is us from a brand that I really like called Gingerbread Arkansas designed, you know.

[Angie Clawson]

You know, and our ideal customer wants to be somebody who discovers things unique that not everybody can find everywhere. And so it's really a fun hook for us to be able to use and, like, then find people who this will meet a need for them. But you have to remember this, like, everyone's ideal customer is very different. And if you're trying to build your ideal customer, like our ideal customer, it just isn't going to work.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

No, you can't have Charlotte. She's ours.

[Angie Clawson]

She's ours. No, but it really doesn't work. We have plenty of people who we've met along the way who, who are.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Like, oh, you guys do really good tea towels.

[Angie Clawson]

I'm going to take my art, I'm just going to throw it on a tea towel. And, like, they haven't done any research. They haven't even figured out whether or not that's going to appeal to their customer base. And it fails. And they're like, well, why did that fail? And it's like, because you can't just copy and paste somebody else's business. You have to be able to, like, identify with your customer and your business. And what do you actually want to do? What brings you alive? It's not just, oh, we all want to make money. No, it has to be something that you want to do sustainably for years, and it brings you joy. And so if that's not what you're doing, then it's not going to really work for you.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And to hit this home and why this matters for Mother's Day. The truth is, I'm not our ideal customer. I'm not Charlotte. Even though I launched the detail line and I design it, like, the reason I do it is because I love creating. I love seeing my art on products. But, like, that's us from the maker side. The buyer doesn't, like, get giddy. But look at this art on a product. Like, that's how we think as the brand. So you have to think about who would love this product and how would you speak to them? Because it's not how you're going to speak to yourself. It's not. You're not selling it to yourself, you're selling it to someone else. And so when we go to our Mother's Day sale, and this was so strategic because once we knew who Charlotte was, it impacted the new designs that we released. Like, for instance, we have a hydrangea towel out right now. It's a part of our tea towel. Club. By the time you're watching this, I think it'll be sold out. Yeah, it'll be sold out. But we knew after Atlanta Gift market in January, which you can watch that episode, hear how awesome that show was. It was just great. Um, we do looking around at other products and who was stopping in different booths. We're like this color right here, this blue. What would you call it? Like, cornflower? Cornflower blue. Yeah. With hydrangeas. This will work for Mother's Day. This will hit. This will hit Charlotte. Charlotte will love this. She probably has hydrangea bushes growing in her backyard anyway, so she's going to love this. And it's kind of a universal design. It will appeal to a lot of different people. So we fast tracked making sure that we had a hydrangea towel ready for Mother's Day. Right, Angie? Right.

[Angie Clawson]

So, like, when we're doing our product development, we're always looking well in advance and trying to figure out what's going to appeal to our audience in this particular upcoming season, which I'm sure you all do as you're doing your product development as well. Just like getting into the head of your buyer and helping, you know, trying to figure out what's it going to take. But anyways, all that to say, there's been a lot that went into getting ready for this sale, and it's stuff.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

That we all have to do.

[Angie Clawson]

I mean, you literally have to think about these things, or it doesn't just happen.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

But let's how about this as we wrap this up. If we were to give someone who's, like, earlier in their journey three things to focus on so that they can improve their average ticket and they can better attract organically whoever their ideal customer is. What would like those tips be to.

[Angie Clawson]

So in order to, like, attract the customer, obviously, first you have to know your customer. So I think the first tip would be to get intimately acquainted with who your buyers are. And if you're like, I, I don't know, then you need to go out and get face to face somehow with your buying audience, whether that is at craft fair or doing social media, or you're actually engaging with an audience or even serving people who have bought from you. Because surely if you are selling something someone's bought from you, serving those people and figuring out, like, what do you like? What do you not like? Stacey and I were just talking about a funny story this morning about whenever we were early in tea towels. And Stacy, you want to tell them about the indigo blue scenario?

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Yeah. So we early on doing tea towels only in one color. Black. Black line work. That's it. Our tea towels didn't look like, okay, this back wall, it's from one of our tea towel designs. I painted it recently. It's a mural, so a lot of color right now, a lot of movement. But back then, we could afford one color tea towel, single color screen printed. And so we would do one big animal on a giant tea towel. Health. And we decided we were going to branch out a little bit. And so we were like, oh, let's do a sea creature line, which P.S. no one was asking us for sea creatures number one, but two, we were like, let's do it in blue ink. Indigo blue. It'll be so beautiful. It'll stand out. And so we launched this trio because we realized we could sell them in trios and get a higher ticket average, and we could do it with our wholesalers, too. So we're like, score. So we launched it, people started ordering them, and then one of our longtime wholesalers wrote to me and said, steve, Stacy, I don't know how to tell you this, but I washed one of your towels, and the blue ink is running everywhere.

[Angie Clawson]

Yep.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And unfortunately, we're not going to be able to sell these towels.

[Angie Clawson]

I mean, and that's a perfect example of, like, she had a relationship with a retailer who was honest enough to say, hey, like, this isn't working for us. Here's why. It's bleeding all over my whites. Yeah, that's not ideal, but, like, that's the thing. When you're starting your business and you're growing your business, you have to be in touch with your customers. Like, you have to know, like, what are you interested in? Like, Stacy said, no one was asking us for sea creature details. We still fall into this trap sometimes when we fall in love with something. Actually, I was just hearing from another maker yesterday, and she was saying, it's like the kiss of death. The second that I love a product that nobody's asked for, it doesn't sell, and it flops. And it's like, we're all prone to that because we fall in love with our designs, and we're like, I'm gonna.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Make, but I'm gonna make that Foxtel work. Dagnabbott. I designed an amazing Foxtel towel, and I think that there were external factors as to why people haven't purchased it. So we're refocusing it for the fall, and I expect each one of you to go take a gander and buy it and tell me that it's not a me problem, it's a you problem. No, I, I mean that with love. But if you don't have some way to communicate with your customers, to ask them things. Because what we had done in this case with the feedback we got from this retailer is we regularly, after they receive an order, we send a follow up email asking how they like the order. And he was the only one who actually responded to us at the time and said, well, here's what's actually happening. Then we had the opportunity to fix it and now we're not selling those details anymore.

[Angie Clawson]

But that's okay. Like, that's the thing is you have to be willing to receive feedback in order to grow a business. If you want to work just in a little echo chamber, then nothing will happen, your business won't grow. And so my first tip would be to get like very acquainted with who your customers are and talk to them, get connected with them. So that would be like my first tip. But Stace, what do you think the.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Next tip, second tip is going to be? Whenever you're first starting out, even if your volume is much less than like your fellow art BFF who's selling products, you have to actually know your numbers, which no one likes to take the time to sit down and go through this spreadsheet and know their profit and loss statement. In fact, we didn't really have a profit and loss statement those early years. It was just like, how much money came in, how much money is going out, that's where you're at, that's fine. But you actually need to look at each product you sell and now what your profit is. At the end of the day, a lot of people overlook this and then they'll see someone like us running a certain type of sale and they'll be like, gingerbread did it. So I'm going to run the same sale. But the truth is you may not have the profit margin that we have because when we were ordering like 20 tea towels at a time, we could not give the discounts that we can give now. Ordering a thousand tea towels at a time because the price of your product decreases typically the more you're able to order at once.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

So you have to look at your actual numbers and know what your gross profit is before any discounts are coming out. And then you have to determine, well, I can't run a 20% off Mother's Day sale. What can I do realistically?

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah. And also, like with that is understanding your ticket average, which if you're in Shopify, you can just pull a simple report that tells you, what's my ticket average year to date. And that is really important because if your product like ours 24 is actually a low cost product. But let's say that your product costs 75, your signature product is a piece of artwork that's 75. And you sell your ticket average is 105. Well, you know, in order to really connect with those customers, you need to do very different things than somebody selling a 24 item, because it's easy to make a purchase on a cheaper item like a 24 items and easier impulse buy. But if your product is 75, sometimes that takes a little bit more thought and consideration. And so what you should do is, is understand what am I putting into this product? What's my cost of my goods? What's my labor cost? If it's original artwork and it costs $400? Well, it's a very, very different animal. You may not even want to discount that. Your, your thing may be completely different. And so you have to look at other businesses in your industry doing what you're doing. And that's a better indicator than just, I'm going to copy this big company. Oh, Target's doing a sale, I'm going to do a sale. You're not. We're not even the same. So you have to think about that.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And P.S. i actually created something that you all can get a hold of right now. I created a free email course called your profitable art launchpad. And whenever you sign up, absolutely free, you got to give me your email address though. I've created pricing calculators, free pricing calculators for original art, for product, even for licensing, and for running workshops and teachings. So you literally get access to four different calculators whenever you get a hold of your profitable art launchpad. But it's not just the calculators. I walk you through figuring out which path might be the best for you and how to create a 90 day plan for how to get that up and running and then how to price your work. Because at the end of the day, artists tend to underprice.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Oh yeah, we have underpriced for years. We actually just increased the price of our signature product that we had the same price for eight years. We increased it in Q4 of 2024, and we probably should have increased it sooner.

[Angie Clawson]

Yeah, absolutely. In fact, you know, depending on the item you're selling, you know, most people are not remembering what you sold your product for. You think they are, they aren't. They're busy. So they go onto your website and they're like, oh, it was 18. Oh, now it's 20. Wait a minute.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Did they raise their.

[Angie Clawson]

No, nobody cares. They're just busy doing life. And so if you need to raise your product price by a little bit in order to be profitable, then you need to do that. Otherwise, what's. What are you doing?

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Otherwise you have a really expensive hobby.

[Angie Clawson]

That's right.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

And we don't want that for you. We want you to have a profitable art business. So you can actually find your profitable art launch pad. You can find it in the notes of this episode, and we'll have it linked there. But I highly encourage you to check it out and at the very least, use these calculators. They're gold. And they're going to really help you figure out, like, how much can I afford to charge and how much can I discount? And so with that, I'll say the next time you have a sale coming up, maybe you're going to do something for the Fourth of July. July. Maybe you're gearing up for Q4. Maybe that's where all your attention's going. Go through these notes from this episode and just think about where you're at and what's possible for you. If you look at your business through the eyes of your ideal customer. And when you know your numbers, you have something to measure against and grow against. And so maybe today, just be brave and go catch up on the last five months of spreadsheets that you haven't gone through. We, you know, I've been there. When Angie joined my team, I had, like, a shoebox and I said, angie, here are all my receipts. Help me fix this. And she said, oh, good. And look at how far we've come now. We're so far. But I just encourage you that next year could look different for your business because of a little bit of strategy and looking at things differently. And I hope these best practices will help you see what's working right now to help us grow. And it can help you, too.

[Angie Clawson]

Absolutely.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at Connecting to, and my team will take a look at it.

[Angie Clawson]

But I'd love for you to go.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

Ahead and send us a message and let us know what your biggest takeaway was, because we want to know what helps you grow.

[Angie Clawson]

Absolutely.

[Stacey Bloomfield]

All right, that's it for this episode of the Art plus Audience podcast. Thank you, Angie, so much for being here with me. Thank you. All right, and we'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks so much for tuning in. Hey, could you do me a favor? Could you subscribe to this podcast and then share it with one of your best art friends? I'd really appreciate it. And then head on over to Instagram and follow me at the Leverage your art account and you can keep up with all of our future episodes. Thank you so much for your support. It means everything to have you here listening and learning.

[Angie Clawson]

Bye.