How to Sell Greeting Cards (for Creatives and Calligraphers Starting a Business!)

December is fast approaching and Christmas is just right around the corner. As a calligrapher, you’ve probably heard that an easy way to make money with your lettering is to create cards to commemorate the season’s greetings.

You probably already have a stack of cardstock and a set of brush pens on your desk right now. Maybe you are unsure about how you should design your cards, or whether you should print them at home or at your local print shop. Or, maybe your concern lies in not knowing how to price your cards or where to sell them. 

This blog post is a step by step guide that will showcase four hot tips to get you selling your own line of cards this holiday season.

Tip #1: Digital vs Handmade

A common question that most calligraphers have is whether they should digitally design their cards or create them by hand.

With digitally designed cards, you would only need to create the design once before you send them off to your local print shop.

Remember to keep in mind that you don’t want to make your cards year specific.

If you design a card that says “Christmas 2020,” you won’t be able to sell it next year if you order a large quantity of cards and don’t sell out this year.

On the other hand, with handmade cards, you have the freedom to customize each individual card any way you’d like. 

Since you will be spending more time on crafting the handmade cards, you have the ability to price your cards at a higher price. Plus, the cost of your materials such as stacks of watercolour paper or cardstock will leverage the cost of each card to about only a couple of cents.

Another thing to keep in mind is that with digitally designed cards, you will be spending roughly about $0.50 to $2 for printing costs.

Tip #2: Sizing your cards 

The three most common card sizes in North America are: 

• 4.25 in. x 5.5 in. card that fits in an A2 envelope

• 4 in. x 6 in. card that fits in an A6 envelope

• 5 in. x 7 in. card that fits in an A7 envelope

Depending on the occasion or on your clients’ needs, you can decide on the card size.

If your customer wants to order a number of cards, they might want to go for a smaller size.

However, if they are ordering a card for a special occasion such as a graduation or a wedding, they might want to opt for a bigger card size.

Tip #3: Pricing your cards 

Now that you have decided on how you are going to design your cards and the card size, what should you price your cards at?

While pricing can be very complex, handmade cards will be more expensive because they take longer to make and you are customizing the card for your customer.

If you go into any large brand store or a specialty card store in North America, you’ll find that digitally designed cards range from anywhere between $1-10.

The average cost for a nicely digitally designed card would be about $4-6. When I first sold my own greeting cards, I sold them at:

• 1 card for $5

• 5 cards for $20

People will most likely buy the second option of a pack of 5 cards as they save some money and will definitely need more than one card to send out to family and friends.

For handmade cards, the range can fall anywhere in between $5 to $50 – it all depends on the materials you're using, what your client wants, and how complex it is, and how much time you’re taking. 

If the card showcases a fairly simple design, like a simple “Thank you” or “Happy Holidays,” and a customer is ordering in bulk, the price decreases as you are creating the same design over and over again at a large quantity.

Custom cards are more complex, and you have to take in all these different factors into account.

Tip #4: How to get sales 

A great way to start selling cards is to simply post pictures of them on social media.

Let your friends and family know, and a lot of them can end up being your first customers.

Another way to get sales is to pitch your cards to local businesses in your area.

If they are busy over the holidays, they may also ask you to write the inside messages of the card – giving you some additional opportunities to charge even more. 

Lastly, you might be wondering what platform you should use or where you can collect money. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of setting up your own website or an Etsy shop, a simple Google form will do. Send it out to your friends and simply ask them to fill out the form with their contact information and how many cards they want. 

The most important thing is to keep posting.

If you want to successfully run a business, the fastest way to grow is to put yourself out there. You can start small and tell a few friends that you are selling cards and post it on your Facebook or Instagram.

Try things out slowly, and build confidence along the way.

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to start a calligraphy business, check out my 6,000+ word article How To Build a Calligraphy Business from Scratch.

If you found this helpful, you’re going to find a lot more resources in my free Facebook group for calligraphers, where I’ve done more than 15 trainings on topics related to growing a calligraphy business. Join today and get these 15 free in-depth trainings!

I’d love to hear what you thought about this blog post in the comments! Was it helpful? Do you have any questions?