As a professional planner manufacturer, planners hold a special place in my heart. From basic daily planners to intricately designed bullet journals, a well-crafted planner can make time management a breeze.
But an amateur planner with lackluster design? Not so much. That’s why in this post, I’ll give you my best tips for creating a planner that people will actually want to use.
How to Design a Planner to Sell
Choose a Niche
When designing a new planner, one of the first steps is selecting a niche.
For starters, you’ll want to decide whether you want to create a planner for a specific interest group or a more general planner.
Here are some popular planner niches to help spark ideas:
- Teacher planners
- Fitness and health planners
- Wedding planning planners
- Meal prep planners
- Finance planners
- Travel journals
- Gifting/seasonal planners
- Student planners
Narrowing down on a niche helps you laser-focus on creating a planner specially designed for that target user.
Teacher planners, for instance, should include sections for tracking grades, school calendars, lesson plans, etc. Travel journals may focus more on trip itineraries, budget trackers, packing checklists, and memory keepsakes.
See what I mean? When you establish a niche from the start, it makes the entire design process much more straightforward.
Gather Planner Inspiration
Next up in the design process is gathering inspiration from existing planners.
Browse through physical and digital planners to analyze formats you like and elements you want to implement in your own design.
As you’re looking through planners, jot down notes on things like:
Useful Features
Pay attention to any features or sections that you find particularly helpful or clever, such as:
- Habit trackers
- Gratitude journals
- Goal setting worksheets
- Bill trackers
- Health logs
Make a list of the useful features you encounter so you can brainstorm ways to incorporate them into your planner.
Visual Elements
Planner layouts, dividers, fonts, color schemes, icons, and more — examine the visual elements of existing planners closely. What aesthetics do you lean towards? Minimal designs or vibrant colors and graphics?
Be sure to note the visual components that catch your eye so you can use it later as a jumping off point for your own graphic design.
What’s Missing?
Finally, pay attention to any gaps you notice in current planner designs.
As a hopeful planner designer, this presents exciting opportunities! Ask yourself:
- What features do I wish existed in a planner?
- Does this niche have any unique needs I can fulfill?
- What problems could I help planner users in this niche solve?
Identifying missing gaps that your planner can fill will set you apart from competitors.
Start Your Planner Design
Armed with niche knowledge and pages of inspiration, it’s finally time to start designing your very own planner!
Below I’ll overview some of my top tips for creating an eye-catching and user-friendly planner:
Pick Your Planner Format
First things first — what format will your planner take? The format options include:
Digital planners: Interactive PDF templates designed on platforms like Canva or Adobe InDesign. These make great online products you can sell.
Printable planners: Downloadable PDF planners that customers can print out at home. Also a nice option for online selling.
Physical planners: Traditional paper planners you can sell in stores or online. You’ll need to consider printing and binding costs for these.
Consider factors like personal design skills, target audience, and production budget as you pick which format works best for you. Teachers and students, for instance, may prefer PDF or paper formats over digital.
Use Planner Templates
Now for the fun part — time to start designing spreads!
If you don’t consider yourself a graphic design whiz (no judgment, me neither!), I highly recommend starting with premade planner templates you can customize.
Platforms like Canva and Creative Market have thousands of beautifully designed planner templates to choose from. Their drag-and-drop tools make it so easy for beginners to create something magical!
Here are some of my favorite spots to find stellar planner templates:
Canva Print Templates: Canva recently launched printable templates featuring paper sizes, bleeds, and guidelines. Their brand new Planner Templates are gorgeous!
Creative Market: Another fantastic resource for printable planner elements like templates, stickers, divider packs and more. Their quality is top-notch.
Etsy: You can also buy planner templates made by independent creators on Etsy. Lots of great printable options!
With the right templates, you don’t need advanced design expertise to make a planner that looks professional.
Include Useful Sections
Once you’ve selected templates for your planner pages, it’s time to think about useful sections to include.
I always think through who my target user is and what would help simplify their planning needs when brainstorming sections.
For a social media planner, for instance, key sections may include:
- Content calendars
- Editorial calendars
- Performance trackers
- Competitor analysis
- Content idea prompts
Refer back to your niche research and the gaps you noticed earlier for guidance on beneficial sections.
Aim for a good mix of scheduling/planning pages and interactive pages like habit trackers and goal setting worksheets.
Mind the Details
It always comes down to the details when creating a polished planner, my friends.
Be vigilant about elements like fonts, colors, and icons as you design. Maintain consistency across font selections, color schemes, and graphics.
This helps everything flow together visually. Bonus points if you can incorporate relevant icons and illustrations!
Oh, and don’t forget to factor in practical things like bleed and trim lines for print margins. Planner templates often have these guides built-in to make your life easier.
Play Up Your USP
Before you get to the finish line, it’s smart to think about your unique selling proposition (USP).
Your USP explains how your planner stands out from the sea of other options out there. It gives people a compelling reason to purchase yours over alternatives.
Tapping into that niche focus is an easy way to build a USP. Maybe your planner has more specialized goal setting pages than competitors. Or includes niche-specific habit trackers.
Visuals also go a long way when it comes to standing out. Brainstorm stylistic choices like color schemes, fonts, or designs you don’t see a ton in your niche already.
Create something bold and beautiful!
Test with a Sample Group
Before officially launching your planner, it’s wise to have a small group of test users evaluate it. This feedback can uncover valuable improvements to implement.
Recruit ~5 people from your target niche to test your planner over the course of 2 weeks. Then have them answer questions like:
- On a scale of 1-10, how visually appealing did you find the planner design?
- On a scale of 1-10, how user-friendly did you find the planner layout?
- Was it missing any sections or pages that would have been useful?
- Any other suggestions for improvement?
Collect this qualitative data so you can pinpoint any weak spots in terms of design, functionality, or essential pages to add.
Make rounds of revisions until your test group no longer has any feedback to give!
Start Promoting Your New Planner!
Let the fun begin! Now that you’ve designed an amazing planner optimized specifically for a niche audience, it’s go-time.
Here are some of my favorite launch strategies to get those initial sales rolling in:
Leverage email lists: Promote your new planner launch to your current subscriber base if you have a website or existing business.
Run social media ads: Create video or image ads showcasing your planner tailored to your niche demographic. Show it solving problems for real people!
Influencer collaborations: See if there are any influencers in your niche who may be interested in receiving free product samples in exchange for reviews and promotion.
Look into selling on Etsy: The handmade marketplace Etsy draws millions of buyers each month. Worth listing your printable or physical planners there!
In Summary
I hope this post sparked some fresh ideas and gave you the push needed to start your planner design journey! Best of luck and looking forward to seeing your future creations.