We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I’m an artist first and foremost, and selling my artwork is my main business. Before I was working for myself full time, in 2018 I had drawn fanart for a well-known true crime podcast. It was their very first piece of fanart, and they were so excited about it that they reached out to me asking if they could use it to make stickers. I said of course, and if they wanted to kickstart some, I had a little Silhouette cutter I used to make my own stickers. Long story short, I did the math to figure out how much to charge them for a batch of 100 stickers, and when I offered this service again to a group of artists putting together a zine unrelated, they were interested too! Shortly after this, Spooky Stickers was born.

I’m not doing anything groundbreaking by offering to make stickers for other artists, but I am filling a need apparent in the community. So many other manufacturers have steep prices and high minimum order quantities, and offer fair prices (to my customers and to myself) while also giving them the ability to order as little as one custom sticker.

This service is great for anyone just starting out in the world of selling their artwork in merch form, and gives them the option to test how well something might sell without breaking the bank or having tons of leftover product that doesn’t move! Plus, they know they have another artist’s eye for quality control.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Spooky Stickers is a sticker manufacturing service for artists, by an artist! I’ve been operating this small business since 2018, starting out as word of mouth until I’ve been able to grow more intentionally with a proper e-commerce website, sponsorships and social media marketing.

Spooky Stickers is a business that focuses on the little guy— the artists who are just starting out, and want to see their artwork on stickers in any quantity, for an affordable price! And while that may be the focus, we are not strangers to helping bigger and more established artists with their large sticker orders.

We offer a variety of materials, from matte and glossy paper stickers, to dishwasher safe laminated vinyl stickers that can withstand the California heat! And we are always growing and evolving to offer more while keeping our prices fair.

And even though I say “we”, Spooky Stickers is a one-woman show at the moment! But that “we” is in hopes of someday soon being able to expand and hire a team to make awesome stickers.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Spooky Stickers spent the first 5 years in business being a strictly word-of-mouth marketing strategy, which worked because it was all I could handle at the time! The ordering process was much more intimate than it is now— customers had to email me and get a quote to place an order, send their files, and I’d send over a PayPal invoice. I only accepted 10 orders at a time, since I still had my other business to focus on and a full time job.

Occasionally, I would chime into discussions online and drop my business when applicable, or sometimes I would post about it on my main social media page (Le Spirit Designs).

Now, Spooky Stickers has a dedicated e-commerce website where customers can peruse, order a sample pack, check out what events we will be at, what our story is, and of course place a full order. We have a live queue so customers can track the status of their order based on order number, and have a growing newsletter fanbase who we send exclusive monthly coupons to.

You can find Spooky Stickers on Instagram @spooky.stickers, and we only post content of others’ stickers if explicit permission is given (which you can opt in or out of in the checkout process). I’ll still occasionally promote my second business on my main Instagram or even my YouTube channel, but I do continue to ramp up efforts to let Spooky Stickers speak for itself!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

With my main business, Le Spirit Designs, we do a lot of events and conventions that takes us all over California and in some cases other states. I’ve found that networking at these events has been my best source of finding new clientele!

I have a booth design that resembles a small shop (complete with a cute fabric awning), and I have a “community bulletin board” on this booth that advertises everything I do, from social media, YouTube, and of course Spooky Stickers. It even offers a coupon code for people to take 25% off their first order.

This is a great ice breaker to talk to anyone interested in making stickers with me, and I print 90% of my stickers using my own service, so I can let them feel the highest quality I have to offer.

In a lot of cases, I’ve formed quick bonds with the artists around me at these events and even if they don’t become customers themselves, believe enough in my services to recommend me to their own networks. I’m honestly very grateful in this regard, and always strive to live up to expectations!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://spookystickers.site
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/spooky.stickers
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@lespiritdesigns
• Other: Join our newsletter for exclusive monthly coupons! https://spookystickers.site/newsletter/

Image Credits

Sticker designs by @lespiritdesigns, @bloopthesoup and @elibenik