How I'd grow Cardsy

Cardsy is an eCommerce website that sells greeting cards.

But not the ones that you’d find in a store: these are designed by a rotating set of independent artists from all over the world.

And these same artists receive part of the profit made from the sales of their creations.

However, I can barely see them when I land on their website.

When you have a visual product, the hero image is the perfect opportunity to capture attention with a stunning visual and make a great first impression.

Maybe they could make a composition with the best creations.

The typical customer proceeds to the product pages with beautiful cards.

For a premium product, the fact that they’re designed by indie artists is the real differentiator, but it doesn’t really come across.

It’d be great to display a short video of the artist making the card.

I’d also enhance the 2nd differentiator: giving back to the artists. The idea of supporting artists through their purchases will appeal to many customers.

I’d do this with copy, making it loud and clear that the designer will receive % of the transaction after the purchase.

The biggest challenge is finding ways to increase AOV. It’s tough to profit from selling products at $6,50.

I’d add a default up-sell option; when I try to buy a single card, I get an offer for a 5-pack, reminding me that I have other special occasions like birthdays.

Email should be a priority to increase LTV.

The goal is not selling a card here and there, but making sure that once a customer buys a card, they’ll buy from Cardsy for future occasions.

But they need to be reminded, so I’d consider using pop-ups to get more contacts.

An email system that lets you insert all your special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, etc. would be a nice idea!

The customer wouldn’t forget an occasion again, and the automated email reminder could suggest the perfect Cardsy card for the event.

The ultimate goal should probably be a subscription model. Acquiring a customer is much harder than retaining an existing one.

A value proposition like “Subscribe to Cardsy and we’ll take care of all your special events at a good price with no shipping fees” would make sense.

I’d leverage social media to drive traffic to Cardsy. But some SM are better than others for this niche. In this case, I’d bet on Pinterest over Twitter.

Pinterest would be the perfect fit. Its traffic converts well, and the demographic fits Cardsy’s target audience perfectly.

Pro tip: don’t spread yourself too thin. The worst thing you could do is show up on all social networks, automating all of your activity.

Choose the 2 social networks that fit your niche best, and focus. Be present every day, engage with your community, and don't broadcast.

They’re also using IG & Stories, but the key to organic IG growth is appearing in the Explore tab. To do that, you need a solid Feed strategy.

Post more pics of customers who got a card, and leverage storytelling with catching copy to spark curiosity.

Paid ads will be a challenge until they increase customer LTV. But I’d start testing to understand the average CPA.

Where? On Pinterest, but IG Stories too. When used with paid ads, they add a “swipe up” link (organically unavailable until you hit 10k followers).

There are also people who are actively looking for greeting cards online, and Cardsy at the moment isn’t optimized to intercept them.

The first thing they should do is perform keyword research, and create ad-hoc landing pages with content to target commercial intent KWs.

Then, they need links. They can’t just ask other websites; they need a good angle that answers: “What’s in it for them?”

In this case, there’ll be 1000s of websites writing about Mother’s Day gift ideas, etc. Pitching them a couple months in advance could result in great links.

In the future, they could also think about implementing an amazing feature I saw their competitor has.

They allow the customer to write a message for their card recipient with a software that mimics a handwritten note. Then they print it and send it.

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