Million Dollar Website Template Shop Plan from Erica Hartwick
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17,000 of you watched my last video with Erica as she spilled how exactly she built a website template shop which has done over $1 Million in sales. Didn’t see it? You can catch it here!
But today, I wanted to take it deeper, beyond the highlights of her Squarespace template shop which we discussed in the last video to get into the practical bits.
What makes a best-selling website template?
How does she decide from all the ideas in her mind, which template idea to create?
Do you go niche in the template idea?
What kind of demo content is best to make the template sell?
In short… Erica’s Million Dollar Website Template Shop Plan!
Enjoy this interview with Erica Hartwick, the founder of the ever-popular Squarespace template shop Big Cat Creative.
Erica used to be a website designer, building custom sites for clients. But although she loved it, she was dreaming of a business model with more flexibility, an Big Cat Creative was born.
To date she has sold over 5,000 Squarespace website templates and has now made well over $1 million dollars from her website templates.
So there’s no-one better than her to spill the tea on the perfect plan for a million dollar website shop!
What goes into designing a really popular template? And do you know when you're designing which one is going to be a best seller?
(Erica) OK, so so assuming that you're sort of marketing all of your templates evenly, there are definitely ones that end up being more popular than others. For our audience, what I see are the most popular templates are usually the ones that are hitting sort of the design trends or the design marks of the current moment of the time. So usually our most recent releases will be the most popular.
This could be different depending on your audience, because I know that our audience really value having something that's up-to-date and modern and on-trend. So for us in particular, it's those ones that are really fresh and look good and hit all those marks for what's actually just popular at the moment.
Or if you do have templates that are more specifically targeted towards different industries, it might be a case of whatever industry that you're reaching more. So it could be a marketing thing in there. For example, if you had a template for a dentist, a template for a lawyer and a template for a yoga studio, maybe the yoga studio one's doing best purely because you're only reaching that particular market in your marketing.
But in our case, we kind of have one ideal customer or one customer for most of our templates. And so what I see is it's mostly to do with the aesthetics and what they like the most.
Pst… Wanna know what’s trendy right now - check out these 7 web design trends for 2023!
How do you decide on the website template design idea?
So this is what I recommend to everyone when they're starting with templates is to make sure that you've really focused on your ideal client or your ideal customer or whatever you want to call it first, because if you have that in your mind to start with and have a customer in your mind, everything on the template just comes so much easier.
Picking things like
what goes on the pages
what pages you're going to include
what the color palette is going to be
what images or what demo images to show.
So having someone in mind to start with is just going to it's like a snowball effect.
It's like if you don't start with that, it's actually going to be quite complicated and you're going to be constantly like backtracking.
So before I go to create a template, I need to pick my the ideal customer - how specific should that be? Should that be I want this to be bought by yoga studios or should that be more general?
So, you know, you've got your ideal customer for your entire business and then you might specify that more per template potentially. So I know in our business, we kind of have a broader ideal customer and we do templates that sort of narrow down that customer into more specific niches.
So, for example, we might be targeting people who are starting their businesses, mostly females and our business. And then each template, we might have one for someone creating a course or someone starting a beautician business.
And so we narrow them down like that.
If you have a business that even has a more specific ideal customer. So if your business is literally just for yoga studios and you've got three templates for yoga studios, you know that all of those templates are going to be for yoga studios. So it doesn't really matter. But I think getting a little bit more specific with the template if your business isn't super specific is, again, just going to make it so much easier to make those decisions.
Because then you can use that customer and you can almost look at it like you're doing a project for them.
So you create a project brief.
You can write down on the pages that they would need
Write down what should be included on those pages.
And so much of that is industry-specific. So that is really helpful.
So if they have like a particular industry that will really help you get the structure and the content down of the template, you know, you just want to get into their mind and think like, OK,
What is this person like?
What is this person attracted to?
And how does this person want to represent their business?
It’s so so much easier when you have that in mind, because all of those things come back to that person. And I'm thinking at all about, for example, you look at your templates and you see, OK, I've got a little like fun, colorful ones. I want something different, a more neutral tone or something.
Is that also you're looking at what you currently have and what you sort of are missing in your shop? Is that a thought?
Yeah, that's definitely a thought. Again, it depends on the ideal customer, because if for some reason you have a customer that is just into bright stuff, you're not going to go and create something neutral just because it's missing.
But if there is a need to be filled, that's another way to come up with ideas. So looking at your shop and thinking like, OK, what is missing here is a good idea.
And then if you have customers already - listen to what they're asking for.
So if they're saying, like, hey, do you have a template for this or does you do you have a template that includes something like this? Or even though you can change colors and change fonts, you still might get people that ask like, hey, I really love this content. But like, do you have something that's a bit more neutral?
Even though they can change those colors, it's still listening to the customer. The way they see it is just it feels set to them.
So then you might think like, OK, well, it might be beneficial to create something similar and a more of like a neutral vibe. Because obviously there's a need for it. People are asking for it.
So really listening to what your customers are asking for are not even customers, people that potentially might be customers.
And then I remember you also said at some point that you notice courses are obviously the trend of the Internet.
So you would have people messaging you wanting to purchase your templates and being like, hey, really need a sales pitch for a course. So that's also something which you're paying attention to when people are emailing, when people are sending live chats or whatever, what exactly are they asking for and basically making a list of those things.
Once you get over a certain amount of questions asking the same thing, it's a really good sign to create it.
It's it'll probably sell because there are probably thousands of other people who haven't taken the effort to reach out and ask. So yes, anytime I get a question or a comment or anything, I do note that one person might have said that. But probably 15 other people were thinking that and just never reached out.
You have an awesome free training that I want to make sure everyone knows about - can you tell us about it?
So the training is why, for web designers, opening up a template shop is so beneficial in your business! It breaks down the four key elements of running a successful template shop too - how to get started & also the key things you need to know to be successful.
So if you're already a website designer and you are sort of on the fence and thinking about starting with the template shop, if you are even a little bit interested, this is gonna be really beneficial for you!
It's not too long either so you can easily watch it whilst you grab lunch, or a coffee and it’ll be super helpful in deciding if you’re more interested, and giving you a great start along your way if you are!
The other thing that I know is so important is the demo content that you choose to show in the example. I remember Squarespace specifically has spoken about this is that people tend to choose the template just on their Squarespace website based on whatever the demo content is.
So if you're a financial advisor and you see a template with a financial advisor as the demo content, they think, well, I have to choose that template.
How does that go into your thought process?
So I think there are pros and cons to how you can use this. But you're right.
People, even if it's unconscious, choose based on what they like the look of or what's in the demo content on the template. So there are pros and cons to that because if you are really specific about the industry or the target audience you're trying to target, that makes it so easy for you to really capture those people, put the demo content in that are going to attract them and they're going to buy that template.
So if you want to get specific with your niche or your ideal client, this is something that you should know. The demo content is really important and you're not going to have an issue attracting those sorts of people if you include that sort of demo content, which is great.
So if I want to serve restaurants with my templates, I should always make sure all the photos include people sitting at a restaurant and food and wine and that sort of thing.
And even like if there's any demo text in there if you are trying to target a specific really specific industry like that, then you could put “restaurant” at the top and just like all those little things are going to trigger in the people looking at those templates.
And they're going to know this is the one I need to buy.
Whereas if your template shop is not industry-specific. You're not just trying to target restaurants. You actually consciously don't include specific, yeah, indicative content like that. So for our shop, we have a lot more general templates. There are some that are more industry-specific. And for those ones, we have included demo content that will attract the customer that we want to buy the templates, for example, the sales pages are more structured for course creators. And that's fairly obvious.
But there are a lot that are quite generic and they can be used in a ton of different industries. Even if the customer knows that they can change the colors, they can change the images and in doing that, it completely changes the vibe of the template.
They still will choose the one they like the look of. So it can be a little bit tricky to navigate that because potentially they might choose the one they like the colors on over the one that actually probably has the better structure for them.
So making sure that they know that they can change the images and the colors and the fonts and the wording in the template, making sure that's really clear to them and trying to guide them in a direction to actually choose a template that is best suited more for like the page structure and the content rather than the colors, because those are the things that are really easy to change. And those are the things that completely change the vibe of the template.
So if you do have a more generic shop like we do, where you have a lot of templates that could serve one person and they've got to choose between which one would be best, make sure you're being really clear about the fact that actually it's the images and the colors and the fonts that really set the vibe and they can change that.
But at the end of the day, you're going to get people who just purchase because they like the look of it and that's OK, that's what they want to do.
Also when you're putting that demo content in for those more generic templates, just making sure to not use anything too specific to any industry if you are trying to target a broader audience.
Oftentimes with templates, they include tutorials. So that means it includes how to change up this template or how to do this thing on Squarespace or WordPress or wherever you're making your templates.
Do you include the same tutorials for every single template or do you make tutorials specific to each template and kind of time investment on that? And how do you decide what to do?
OK, so I think there are a lot of different things that you can do and not one way is the right way to do it.
There is definitely, I think, a bare minimum of what you should include with your template. And that's really just like it could be as simple as a message with information on how the customer is going to receive the template, like how like what happens after they purchase, how they can access the template and just the really the bare minimum basics like that.
From there, it's pretty common for a lot of Squarespace template designers to include tutorials and guides on how to use the template or how to use Squarespace. But you don't necessarily have to include these.
What I would recommend if you do want to include some guides is not creating individual tutorials for every single template, because not only does that take a bunch of time upfront, but then if Squarespace updates anything or if you need to change something, you've got to update all videos for all of your templates and it's super painful. I also don't think it's necessary.
There's a point where cramming too much information into your resources is just not helpful. It's overwhelming. And your customer often really only needs enough to get them going, but they don't need a whole course.
So it's really up to you. But I think the main, really important thing about how is just being very clear upfront before they purchase about what they're actually getting.
Because in the industry, especially in Squarespace templates, everyone does something different, which is great and which is fine. But if one person buys a template from one shop and they get a bunch of resources and they then buy a template from another shop and get no resources, might be surprised if they weren’t expecting that.
So just being very, very clear about what your template includes. And I think if you do that, you can really do whatever you want for the resources.
The only instance where you might create separate videos for every template is if your templates are super complicated, custom-coded or have something that isn't either covered in your regular guides or even within the Squarespace regular guides.
If it's something that you really need to teach the customer about that specific template, then maybe include a little extra. But it definitely doesn't need a whole extra video.
I think that people get really hung up on these, like on creating the guides as web designers. It's quite natural for the template, like creating the template process to be quite easy and then getting to the point where you need to create resources and getting really stuck. So just know that it's not necessary to create an entire course. It's not necessary to create these really long tutorial videos. You can really do whatever you want.
You could even, like I say to my students, you can even create a simple workbook - it doesn't need to be videos.
You could link away to relevant Squarespace tutorial videos because they've already got all the tutorial videos on their website.
You know, there are ways you can do it without having to sit down and record an entire course. So don't get hung up on that stuff and get overwhelmed by that. You're better to just, you know, do that bare minimum, maybe link to some resources and get that template out there.
The other thing that we were discussing at dinner the other day (yup - we’ve been vacaying together in Mallorca this last week!) was how people often think that it's all these bonuses and extras that they add onto the template that's going to sell it.
And I think both of us came to the conclusion that people buy a template because they love the design.
So folks, you know, really good designs are going to be so much more worthwhile than spending all your time basically creating an entire course, which will take so much time to create and so much time to update. And really, if it already exists online and you could just link to the Squarespace tutorials and they keep them up to date, that's going to make your life way easier.
Final thing I was very curious to know is how much time will it actually take me to create a template? I'm sure it takes you less time now than it did at the beginning but can you talk about on average now? How long does it take you to create a template?
I would say generally, if you have any experience working with clients one-on-one, it's very similar to that.
You don't have the back and forth with the client, which is great.
But you still do have like a bit of extra admin and you still need to kind of be looking at your template through the eyes of your clients. So it's a very similar process.
And I would say it takes about the same amount of time as working one-on-one with a client.
The difference is obviously you cut out the time that it takes to communicate and onboard and all the things with the client. But you're basically bringing the content as opposed to the client bringing the content.
So I find that creating the content probably in the end takes up a similar amount of time.
So if it took you two weeks to do a Web design project, then it'll probably take you two weeks to make a template.
And then that's also helpful if you're someone who is working with clients already. You probably know roughly how long it takes you to create a five-page website. Creating a five-page template is probably very similar, especially if you're doing that sort of audience research, which I recommend you do at the very beginning and finding the content that's going to work for that person. There's a lot of like little steps in there that are very similar to doing a custom project. So fairly similar.
OK, so clearly you know the template game backward and forwards. You've been doing this for years. You've sold thousands of them. If someone wants to do what you've done, how do they how do they do it?
Well, watching this video is a good start, but I also have created a really concise, actionable training that’s completely free that you can sign up to.
So if you are interested in getting started with a template shop, definitely check that out because you're going to learn a lot in a short amount of time that you can actually take and basically apply straight away to start creating your template shop.
So check it out. Get started. You can literally get started making templates like today if you've got a bit of time!
Now if you're hoping to sell digital products like templates, you probs want to decide which website platform to use.
Check out this video where I review 4 of the biggest in 2023 to help you make the right choice for you!
