Selling digital products like planners on Etsy can be an extremely lucrative side hustle. In fact, digital planners are one of the hottest items on Etsy right now.
But with so much competition, how can you make sure your Etsy digital planner shop stands out and drives sales?
In this comprehensive guide, as a professional custom planner printing manufacturer, I’ll show you exactly how to create and sell digital planners on Etsy, step-by-step.
Why Sell Digital Planners on Etsy?
Etsy is the perfect marketplace for selling digital planners. Here’s why:
Built-In Audience of Buyers
Over 60 million people purchased goods on Etsy in 2023 alone. And a large chunk of Etsy’s audience buys planners.
That means you already have a huge, targeted group of buyers ready to purchase your digital planners.
Lower Barriers to Entry
You don’t need a lot of capital or inventory to sell digital files on Etsy.
As soon as you upload your planner file, it’s ready to sell. This makes digital products like planners one of the easiest products to sell online.
High Profit Margins
With digital products, your profit margins are excellent.
Once your planner is designed, your only ongoing costs are Etsy fees. You pocket the rest of the revenue from each sale.
Bottom line: Digital planners check all the boxes of an ideal “side hustle” to sell on Etsy.
Next, let’s look at how to actually create killer planners.
How to Sell a Digital Planner on Etsy
Step 1: Use the Right Tools to Design Your Planners
While you can create planners from scratch in programs like Illustrator or InDesign, it’s usually faster to start with planner templates.
Here are my top recommended tools for easy planner design:
Canva
Canva makes it simple for non-designers to create beautiful graphics and templates.
While Canva doesn’t have a ton of planner-specific templates, they do have lots of elements like calendars, images, and icons that you can use to assemble planner pages.
The free version works fine, but Canva Pro is worth the investment. It removes Canva’s branding and gives you access to even more templates and graphics.
Planify
If you want a tool specifically for planners, check out Planify.
Planify lets you easily create planners with features like:
- Hundreds of premade planner templates
- Easy custom branding
- Automated resizing
- Linking between planner pages
They also have a handy template code system. So once you customize a template you like, you can reuse it for other planner designs.
While Planify isn’t free, their low cost basic and paid plans are 100% worth it for serious planner designers.
Creative Market Templates
Another option is downloading premade planner templates from sites like Creative Market.
Creative Market has a huge library of templates for all types of projects. And many shop owners sell templates tailored specifically for planners.
The benefit of purchasing templates is you skip straight to customizing the designs. Without spending hours actually piecing together the planners yourself.
Step 2: Choose the Right Planner Niche
One mistake new Etsy sellers make is designing generic planners for no one in particular.
But to actually drive sales, your planners should meet the needs of a specific audience.
Here are some of the most popular and profitable planner niches:
Fitness and Health Planners
Fitness buffs, dieters, and health nuts love planners to track habits and progress. Make planners tailored to their goals like weight loss, bodybuilding, running, sobriety, pregnancy, and more.
Business and Career Planners
Professionals need planners to stay uber organized. Create planners for busy careers like teachers, lawyers, designers, programmers. Doctor and nursing planners also sell very well.
Wedding Planners
Engaged couples fork out bucketloads of cash when planning their dream wedding. Simplify their lives with checklists, schedules, budgets, and vision boards for all things wedding-related.
Student Planners
Students of all ages organize their messy school lives with planners for tracking schedules, assignments, projects, and studying.
Niching down is crucial for standing out on Etsy.
You need to intimately understand the needs of your audience. Then design the perfect planner to fulfill those needs.
Step 3: Include Interactive Features in Your Planner
What separates digital planners from static printables is interactivity.
By adding interactive elements, your Etsy planner feels more like specialized software rather than filler paper.
Here are some interactive features shoppers love:
Hyperlinked Navigation
Add clickable links that let users easily navigate between months or planner sections.
Expandable Areas
Let shoppers tap to expand areas like daily schedules and project sections.
Fillable Fields
Use form fields for areas where users enter data like budgets, attendee lists, milestones.
Editable Text
Allow shoppers to edit preset text like dates, goals, habits.
Resizable Elements
Buyers can manually resize text boxes, images, calendars, and shapes.
Locking Elements
Lock sections in place so items don’t get moved accidentally.
Adding interactivity seems complicated. But apps like Adobe Acrobat make it surprisingly easy.
And interactive features make your planners extra useful for buyers. Resulting in great Etsy reviews and repeat business.
Step 4: Optimize Your Listings for Maximum Visibility
Populating your shop with items matters little if people can’t find your listings.
That’s why you need to optimize your planner listings for search and discovery on Etsy.
Here’s how:
Laser Target Keywords
Brainstorm the exact terminology your audience uses when searching for planners in your niche. Then work those words naturally into your listing title, tags, description, and item specifics.
Write Engaging Listing Descriptions
Your description needs to capture attention and convince browsers to buy. Focus on who the planner is for, details like number of pages, and the outcomes it will produce for the buyer.
Add Photos that Stop Scroll
Etsy shoppers want to see what they are buying. Upload crisp mockup images highlighting the interior pages, templates, custom branding, interactivity and more.
Tag Thoughtfully
Etsy gives you 13 tags per listing. Use them wisely by mixing broader terms like “teacher planner” along with precise words like the planner’s page count, themes like “floral”, brand name and more.
Offer Planner Bundles
One way to increase perceived value is selling packs of complementary planners. For instance, bundle together your weekly menu planners with grocery lists and pantry inventory templates.
Time spent optimizing will directly impact how many shoppers can find you. Study successful Etsy planner shops and model what they do.
Final Tips for Etsy Planner Selling Success
Selling digital planners on Etsy takes some effort up front. But once your shop is rolling, it practically runs itself.
Here are some final tips:
- Outsource planner creation: If designing planners doesn’t excite you, hire someone on Fiverr or Upwork to create them for $5 to $50 per template. Worth it to save hours of work.
- Cross-sell planners: Capture more sales by bundling your planners as upsells when buyers purchase other listings from your shop.
- Go big with social proof: Flaunt large order quantities and stunning reviews. Shoppers purchase more confidently from Etsy shops with ample social proof.
- Retry dead listings: Revisit planner designs that didn’t initially sell by giving them new SEO-optimized titles and descriptions. Then sit back and watch them take off.
Selling digital planners requires some trial and error to see which niches sell best. But once you nail the formula, an Etsy digital planner shop can produce excellent residual income each month.
Start Selling Your Digital Planners on Etsy Today
As you can see, launching a money-making Etsy planner shop isn’t nearly as complicated or competitive as you might think.
Now that you know exactly how to create niche planners tailored to your audience and optimize them for search visibility, you have everything you need to start selling today.
The time you invest upfront in research, planning and listing your items will directly impact your future sales and profits. So dig in by brainstorming niche ideas and crafting attention-grabbing planner designs.
Then enjoy kicking back as the Etsy orders start pouring into your new digital planner empire!