The holiday shopping season is well underway and will continue to ramp up over the next few weeks as we head towards Black Friday. If you haven’t yet thought about sharing your work, driving traffic to your shop and encouraging sales, we’ve put together some inspiration and ideas to help kick start your promotion plans.

Black Friday 2018 teaser post by DinoMike 

Check Redbubble for Promos

Be the first to find out about discounts and offers by signing up for Redbubble emails. It’s easy: Click this link, check the box for Artist Newsletter, and then scroll down to save changes. Current offers will also appear on a banner across the top of the site on days when we have deals. Unfortunately, we can’t share these in advance but we’ll have promotions running throughout the Thanksgiving weekend.

Dimensions for Social Posts

In previous years, we’ve seen some amazingly creative social posts. If you’re thinking about creating your own, here are the image dimensions for each of the major platforms. It’s a great idea to create some templates with layers for artwork and some placeholder text, then you can add the promo details once they’re live.

• Instagram
  • Square post: 1080 x 1080 pixels
  • Vertical post: 1080 x 1350 pixels
  • Horizontal post: 1080 x 566 pixels
  • Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels
• Facebook
  • Square image: 1080 x 1080 pixels
  • Vertical image: 1080 x 1350 pixel
  • Horizontal image: 1200 x 630 pixels
  • Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels
• Pinterest
  • Standard Pin / Carousel: 1000 x 1500 pixels (2:3 aspect ratio)
  • Square Pin / Carousel: 1000 x 1000 pixels (1:1 aspect ratio)
  • Tall or Long Pin: 1000 x 2100 pixels (1:2.6 aspect ratio)
  • Story Pin: 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16 aspect ratio)
• Snapchat
  • Snap Ads: 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16 aspect ratio)
  • Story Image: 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16 aspect ratio)
• TikTok
  • Feed Posts / Shared Images: 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16 aspect ratio)
  • Video Thumbnail: 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16 aspect ratio)
• Tumblr
  • Standard Image: 540 pixels wide (recommended)
  • Maximum Width: 2048 pixels
• X/Twitter
  • Single horizontal: 1200 x 675 pixels
  • Single vertical: 675 x 1200 pixels
  • Multiple images: 1200 x 675 pixels
• LinkedIn
  • Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels
  • Vertical: 1080 x 1350 pixels
  • Horizontal: 1080 x 566 pixels

Designs by rfad, sundrystudio, and HuiSkipp

Writing Great Captions

Before you start planning what to write, it’s helpful to think about the specific actions you’d like someone to take, to help work out the basic information you need to cover in your post. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Which hashtags can I use to reach new followers?
• What ‘call to action’ should I include?
  • Do you want people to click on a link in your bio?
  • Check out your Redbubble shop?
  • Visit a specific work?
• Is the sale information clear?
• Is there a coupon code they should use?

Good captions take a little extra effort to craft. Reading back over and fine tuning your words can make a difference to how someone engages with your post. Black Friday is a busy day with lots of people posting on social. You can help your post stand out by injecting some humor and personality. Don’t be afraid to have some fun with your posts!

Twitter post from Black Friday 2018 by TinyNeeja

Hashtags

You can use hashtags on most social platforms including Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter, and Pinterest. As hashtags are searchable, they’re a great way to reach new audiences and engage more followers. Over the Black Friday weekend it’s a good idea to include some specific hashtags for people who are actively searching for deals.

For example: #blackfriday #blackfriday2024 #blackfridaysale #cybermonday #cybermondaysale #holidaysale

Download Promotional Images

ICYMI, we’ve made it easy for you grab product images for your social media posts. You can access images for each product via Manage portfolio. Simply scroll to your chosen work, click on the cog, and click on Promote to navigate to the page. Then you can download them all straight from there.

And Finally, Some Inspiration

So far we’ve covered the technical side of building a good social post but what about the content? Sometimes all inspiration vanishes when it comes to talking about your own work or pointing people to your shop, so we’ve put together a few ideas:

1. Post a teaser and let your fans know that Black Friday deals are coming
2. Share promo codes and discount details
3. Thank your followers for their support. It’s Thanksgiving after all!
4. Let them know about any new products you’ve recently added to your shop
5. Share the story behind a design or a WIP image showing how you made it
6. Make a Black Friday themed image or gif – like DinoMike’s example above
7. Remind fans when an offer is ending: ‘Only 3 hours left to grab something from my shop’

If you’re looking for more tips to help you prepare your Redbubble shop, you might like our posts on How to Sell More Products This Holiday Season or Making Art With Products in Mind. 

Blog Header Image: Eyes Wide Open by Daisy-Beatrice