How to sell embroidery on Instagram and over DMs and texts: photos, catalog and a message script

Why do Instagram and messaging work so well for embroidery?

Embroidery is visual and personalized. Visual because the customer decides from the photo: she needs to see the thread texture, the finish and the whole item. Personalized because almost every order has a name, a color or a size to settle, and that takes a conversation. Instagram handles the first part, messaging the second.

Most orders for a small shop come from referrals and from people in the same town or region. That changes the strategy: you do not need to go viral; you need people who already know you to find good photos, a starting price and a button to message you. The rest is customer service.

Which embroidery photos sell?

You do not need a professional camera. A phone, window light and a clean background are enough. What matters is showing the embroidery the way the customer will see it in real life.

• Close-up of the stitching (the hero shot): 8 to 12" away, with side light from a window so the thread relief shows. No flash, which flattens the stitches.
• The whole item: the towel folded, the shirt on a hanger or on someone, the cap from the front. The customer needs to judge the embroidery size against the item.
• In use: towel in the bathroom, bodysuit on the baby, uniforms on the crew. Real-life photos convert better than studio shots.
• Before and after: the customer's logo on screen and the finished embroidery side by side. It shows your digitizing work, which is invisible to people outside the trade.
• Short process video: 10 to 15 seconds of the machine stitching, original sound. It is the content that gets the most saves and shares for embroidery shops.

Tip: Photograph every piece before delivery, in the same corner with the same light. In three months you have a photographed catalog with no extra effort. Ask permission when a piece has a child's name or a company logo.

How do you build an embroidery catalog?

The catalog is what saves you from answering "how much?" fifty times a day. It does not need fixed prices for everything (custom work varies), but it does need starting prices ("from $X") and what is included.

Organize by item type, not by technique: the customer thinks "towel with a name", not "satin stitch at 60 mm". For each item: photo, what is included (blank + embroidery or embroidery only), design size, turnaround and starting price.

To set starting prices, work out your cost per design and your margin as explained in how to price custom embroidery. Prices that are too low in the catalog attract the wrong customer and keep you busy all month without profit.

What is the message script?

Most orders are lost between "hi, how much?" and the deposit, through slow replies or missing information. A script fixes that. Save the messages below as saved replies (Instagram) or quick replies (WhatsApp Business) and adapt the tone.

1. Immediate reply (even if you are at the machine): "Hi [name]! Thanks for reaching out, this is [your name] at [shop]. Tell me: what item do you want embroidered and with what (name, logo, design)?" An auto-reply can send this first message for you.
2. Questions that set the price, in one message so it does not feel like an interrogation: item (or do you supply it?), what gets embroidered, approximate size, quantity, fabric color, date needed.
3. Preview: for a name or monogram, build it in the Meus Bordados editor and send the image (Export → SVG or a screenshot of the 3D view) with the chosen font and color. For a logo, send a before-and-after of a similar job. The preview is what raises your close rate the most.
4. Clear quote: "Bath towel with name at 2.5", font X, thread Y: $00 (towel included) or $00 (you supply the towel). Turnaround: 5 business days after deposit. 50% deposit to get on the schedule."
5. Closing: when the deposit arrives, confirm in writing everything that will be stitched, with the exact spelling. "Confirmed: ANNA-LOUISE, with hyphen, font X, navy, white towel, ready Friday." That text is your insurance against redos.
6. Ready notice with a photo of the finished piece: "It's done! Here's a photo. Pickup or shipping?" The finished photo is also the moment to ask permission to post it.
7. Follow-up, one week later: "Hi [name], how is the towel working out? Want me to send you ideas for [next date]?" That is where repeat orders come from.

Watch out: Never start stitching without the spelling confirmed in writing by the customer and without the deposit paid. The two rules sound strict, but they prevent the two biggest losses in the shop: the misspelled name and the finished piece nobody picks up.

What should you post every week?

Consistency beats volume. Three posts a week in the same visual style do more than ten one week and none the next. A simple plan:

• Monday: last week's finished piece (close-up + whole item in a carousel), with what was ordered and the starting price in the caption.
• Wednesday: behind the scenes or a short process video; or a useful tip ("why towels need a wash-away topping") that shows you know the craft.
• Friday: a call for the next date ("3 weeks to Mother's Day; last orders by the Xth") with a direct link to message you. See the sales calendar for embroidery shops.
• Stories every day: the machine running, the thread you picked, the piece coming off. Stories keep the shop top of mind for people who already follow, and are the place for the poll "which font do you prefer?".

In captions, always write the town and the service ("custom embroidery in Asheville"): that is how Instagram and Google show your profile to people searching nearby. Hashtags help a little; location and plain wording help a lot.

How do you keep track of orders that come in through messages?

Past five orders a week, your inbox turns into chaos: you do not remember who paid a deposit, whether the name had a hyphen and when it was due. The fix is to pull the order out of the conversation and onto a board.

In Meus Bordados every job becomes a card under Orders, moving through Quote, Approved, In production, Ready and Delivered, with deposit and balance recorded, the customer linked (with a WhatsApp button under Clients) and the .bordado file attached. When it is time to stitch, you open the card, open the file and export, without digging through chats. The financial dashboard shows what came in this month and what is still owed.

Even without software, keep at least a spreadsheet with: customer, phone, item, exact text, color, size, price, deposit, due date and status. The point is to get the information out of the chat thread.