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Blog header image for Surface Pattern Designers titled "The Secret to Getting Found by the Right Buyers" featuring a bright living room with yellow wallpaper in a repeating pattern and a white armchair.

Are the Right Buyers Finding Your Patterns? Here's What You're Missing

art business success how to marketing Mar 27, 2026

You know that feeling when you upload a new design, it looks great, your tags feel solid, and then… nothing?

No sales. A couple of views. Maybe one favorite from a fellow surface pattern designer. You refresh the dashboard like that’s going to help. (It’s not. But here we are. I’ve done it approximately a thousand times while stress-eating peanut butter straight from the jar.)

Here’s the thing — it’s not your art if your colors are on trend, your repeat is tight, your technique is solid. The problem is your language.

Specifically: the language you’re using to describe your work doesn’t match the language your buyers are using to find it. And if those two things are out of sync, the right buyer could scroll right past your listing without ever knowing you existed.

That’s what we’re getting into today — how different types of buyers actually search for surface patterns, why that matters more than you probably realize, and what you can do about it starting this week.

Different Buyers Use Different Languages

I wish someone had sat me down earlier in my career and said this out loud:

You need to know your buyer. Not just what color and styles are trending for them. You need to know why they search and what they search for. Because different types of buyers search completely differently. Different goals. Different starting points. Different words in the search bar.

And here’s where it gets interesting: the same pattern can appeal to all three buyer types. But how you're writing tags, descriptions, captions, any of your written content - makes the difference between whether you're reaching your buyers or hidden from them.

Let me walk you through the three buyer types you need to know about.

Buyer #1: The Maker — Crafters, Sewists, and Quilters

Search intent: project-based.

This is the woman who’s been saving Pinterest ideas for three weeks, finally cleared her weekend, and now needs fabric to make eight reversible bucket hats before the holidays. She’s not thinking about your color palette or your design process. She has a project and she needs fabric that works for it.

She’s typing things like:

“quilt backing fabric”

“organic cotton fabric for nursery”

“swimwear fabric with stretch”

“unique fabric for stuffed animal”

Her search starts with what she’s making, not what the print looks like.

This is the buyer your Spoonflower tags need to speak to directly. If your tags describe your design — “watercolor florals,” “pink and cream,” “vintage-inspired botanical” — but say nothing about what someone could do with it, she’s going to scroll right past. She wanted that fabric. She just didn’t know you had it.

Buyer #2: The Home Decorator — DIYers and Interior Designers

Search intent: aesthetic-based.

This buyer is creating a feeling. Maybe she’s renovating a reading nook. Maybe she’s an independent interior decorator sourcing custom fabric for a residential client. Maybe she’s tired of what she can find at the fabric store and wants something that actually matches her vision.

She’s not searching by project. She’s searching by mood:

“moody dark floral Victorian wallpaper peel and stick”

“Scandinavian geometric monochrome”

“watercolor eucalyptus leaves soft sage green”

“grandmillennial chinoiserie bird and vine trellis”

She’s thinking about rooms, longevity, and real people who will live with this fabric for years. She wants something that sits on a sofa for five years and still looks intentional.

If your portfolio is aimed at home décor, her vocabulary needs to be in your tags, your shop bio, and how you talk about your work on social. She’s not going to find you through project language — she’s going to find you through vibe language.

Same design, completely different description. See the difference?

Buyer #3: The Licensing Company

Search intent: solution-based.

This is the art director at a home goods brand, a stationery company, a children’s apparel label, or a gift manufacturer. She has a product line to fill, a trend report open in another tab, and a deadline. She is not browsing. She is sourcing.

Her language is industry language:

“digital watercolor botanical illustrator for licensing”

“whimsical nursery and kids textile illustrator”

“trend-forward kitchen and tabletop pattern designer”

“artist for exclusive pattern design commission”

She wants to know your work is professionally executed, trend-relevant, and ready to drop into a product line. She’s not buying a pretty pattern — she’s buying a solution.

If licensing is your goal, your portfolio, your pitch emails, and your professional social presence need to speak this language. Not crafter language. Not decorator language. Industry language.

Are you thinking, but can’t I just use all the tags and cover all my bases?

For Spoonflower? Yes — and I’ll show you exactly how in a minute.

But here’s the bigger picture: search intent isn’t just a tagging strategy. It should shape all of your content — social captions, portfolio intro, shop bio, pitch emails. Every time you write something about your work, you’re either speaking to one of these buyers or you’re not.

The designers seeing traction across multiple revenue streams aren’t making more art. They’re code-switching — adjusting their language based on who they’re talking to and where.

A caption about “this print would make the most adorable quilting blender” is speaking to the maker. A portfolio intro that mentions “spring collections available for licensing” is speaking to the art director. A caption about “the perfect fabric for a boho-inspired bedroom refresh” is speaking to the decorator.

Same pattern. Three different messages. Three different buyers who feel like you’re talking directly to them.

That’s the shift.

You don’t need different patterns for different buyers. You need to understand their intent — and meet them there.

The Use-Case Tag System: A Framework That Actually Works

Okay, so now you understand the three search intents. Let’s get into the practical piece — specifically for Spoonflower, where a lot of designers are quietly leaving sales on the table.

The problem isn’t that you don’t know use-case tags exist. It’s that thinking through every possible use case on every upload is exhausting — and then you just… stop doing it. Sound familiar?

The fix is a consistent, repeatable system. I call it the Use-Case Tag System, and it’s less complicated than it sounds.

Build Your Tag Bank

Create a running document — Notes app, Google Doc, a Notion page, whatever you’ll actually open — and organize it by design type. Here’s a starting framework:

Florals / Botanicals: Children’s dress, girls’ apparel, quilting fabric, baby quilt, nursery décor, tote bag, apron fabric, table runner, gift wrap

Geometrics / Abstracts: Quilting blender, filler print, backing fabric, low-volume print, minimalist home décor, pillow cover, bedding

Animals / Novelty: Children’s apparel, kids’ room décor, Halloween costume fabric, tote bag, gift wrap, craft fabric

Bold / Tropical / Bright: Swimwear fabric, beach bag, outdoor cushion, cover-up fabric

Seasonal / Holiday: Gift wrap, holiday décor, table runner, stocking fabric, Christmas apparel, quilting

Adjust it to match your actual style and niche. The goal is that when you go to upload, you’re not reinventing the wheel. You look at your tag bank, grab the applicable use-case tags for that design type, and add them alongside your descriptive tags.

Done.

The Double-Tag Rule

Every pattern should have at least two types of tags working for it at the same time.

Descriptive tags tell the algorithm what your pattern is. Use-case tags tell the algorithm where your pattern belongs.

You need both.

The patterns sitting unsold on Spoonflower for months? Often, they have one kind but not the other. Get both working together and you’re speaking the full language of the search engine — and the shopper.

Get More Specific

“Children’s dresses” will outperform “children’s.” “Quilting blenders” is more targeted than “quilting fabric.” “Kitchen décor” pulls more focused buyers than “home décor.”

Think about how the actual buyer would phrase her search. She’s not browsing broadly — she has a project. The more specifically you match what she’s typing, the better your chances of showing up right in front of her.

If you need help figuring out who your buyers actually are before you can speak their language, my free five-day email course is a great place to start. Master the ABCs of Your Art Biz walks you through defining your ideal client in a way that directly informs how you tag, describe, and talk about your work. Those details make a difference — I promise.

Let the Data Tell You What Buyers Actually Search

Here’s the part most designers skip entirely.

You now have a framework for use-case tags — great. But “children’s dress fabric” might not be the phrase your buyers are actually using. It might be “girls’ dress yardage.” Or “dress fabric floral.” Or something else entirely. Assumptions about buyer language are a starting point, not a strategy.

Here’s how to find the real terms, using two tools you already have access to.

Tool 1: Spoonflower’s Tag Analytics

Spoonflower gives you visibility into how your existing designs are performing in search — including which tags are actually driving traffic to your shop.

How to access it:

Log into your Spoonflower seller account

Go to My Dashboard

Click on Analytics

Click on Tags to see which tags are generating views and clicks

What you’re looking for: which tags are consistently driving traffic? If “quilting blender” is outperforming “geometric pattern” on your small-scale designs, that tells you something. The tags showing up repeatedly in your high-traffic designs are the ones worth prioritizing on new uploads.

Do this across several of your designs and start to see the patterns. Pun very much intended.

Tool 2: Etsy Autocomplete — Even If You Don’t Sell on Etsy

This one surprises people every time, but Etsy’s search bar is one of the most useful free research tools you have — even if you’re primarily focused on Spoonflower.

Here’s why it works: Etsy autocomplete is powered by actual buyer search behavior. When you start typing a phrase and watch what the dropdown suggests, those suggestions are based on what real people are typing right now.

How to use it:

Open Etsy (no account needed)

Start typing: “fabric for…” or “children’s fabric…” or “quilting fabric…”

Write down every autocomplete suggestion that comes up

You’ll quickly start seeing buyer phrasing you’d never have guessed. “Fabric for baby shower gift.” “Summer dress fabric floral.” “Fabric for quilts with cats.” These are real searches from real buyers.

Take those exact phrases back to your Spoonflower tagging and incorporate them. You’re not guessing anymore — you’re working with real data.

Your Assignment

Spend 20 minutes on both of these:

Pull up three of your Spoonflower designs and check the tag stats. Write down which use-case tags are getting traction.

Open Etsy and type three phrases related to your niche. Write down the autocomplete suggestions.

You’ll come away with a much smarter tag bank — and a clearer picture of how your buyers are actually searching.

That’s your Tuesday research date. Put it on the calendar.

Getting Found Is Work But I Can Help

One more thing before I let you go.

This buyer language strategy isn’t limited to Spoonflower tags. It applies anywhere people are searching for you.

Your Instagram grid, for example, is searchable — by buyers, by art directors, by potential licensing clients. If your captions all sound the same, or they’re vague about what your work is for, you’re missing an opportunity every single time you post.

I built Get Discovered on Instagram specifically to help surface pattern designers turn their grid into a searchable portfolio that actually reaches the right people — the makers, the decorators, and yes, the art directors. If your Instagram is more of a passion project right now and less of a business tool, that’s the place to start.

You know that feeling when you upload a new design, it looks great, your tags feel solid, and then… nothing?

No sales. A couple of views. Maybe one favorite from a fellow surface pattern designer. You refresh the dashboard like that’s going to help. (It’s not. But here we are. I’ve done it approximately a thousand times while stress-eating peanut butter straight from the jar.)

Here’s the thing — it’s not your art if your colors are on trend, your repeat is tight, your technique is solid. The problem is your language.

Specifically: the language you’re using to describe your work doesn’t match the language your buyers are using to find it. And if those two things are out of sync, the right buyer could scroll right past your listing without ever knowing you existed.

That’s what we’re getting into today — how different types of buyers actually search for surface patterns, why that matters more than you probably realize, and what you can do about it starting this week.

Different Buyers Use Different Languages

I wish someone had sat me down earlier in my career and said this out loud:

You need to know your buyer. Not just what color and styles are trending for them. You need to know why they search and what they search for. Because different types of buyers search completely differently. Different goals. Different starting points. Different words in the search bar.

And here’s where it gets interesting: the same pattern can appeal to all three buyer types. But how you're writing tags, descriptions, captions, any of your written content - makes the difference between whether you're reaching your buyers or hidden from them.

Let me walk you through the three buyer types you need to know about.

Buyer #1: The Maker — Crafters, Sewists, and Quilters

Search intent: project-based.

This is the woman who’s been saving Pinterest ideas for three weeks, finally cleared her weekend, and now needs fabric to make eight reversible bucket hats before the holidays. She’s not thinking about your color palette or your design process. She has a project and she needs fabric that works for it.

She’s typing things like:

“quilt backing fabric”

“organic cotton fabric for nursery”

“swimwear fabric with stretch”

“unique fabric for stuffed animal”

Her search starts with what she’s making, not what the print looks like.

This is the buyer your Spoonflower tags need to speak to directly. If your tags describe your design — “watercolor florals,” “pink and cream,” “vintage-inspired botanical” — but say nothing about what someone could do with it, she’s going to scroll right past. She wanted that fabric. She just didn’t know you had it.

Buyer #2: The Home Decorator — DIYers and Interior Designers

Search intent: aesthetic-based.

This buyer is creating a feeling. Maybe she’s renovating a reading nook. Maybe she’s an independent interior decorator sourcing custom fabric for a residential client. Maybe she’s tired of what she can find at the fabric store and wants something that actually matches her vision.

She’s not searching by project. She’s searching by mood:

“moody dark floral Victorian wallpaper peel and stick”

“Scandinavian geometric monochrome”

“watercolor eucalyptus leaves soft sage green”

“grandmillennial chinoiserie bird and vine trellis”

She’s thinking about rooms, longevity, and real people who will live with this fabric for years. She wants something that sits on a sofa for five years and still looks intentional.

If your portfolio is aimed at home décor, her vocabulary needs to be in your tags, your shop bio, and how you talk about your work on social. She’s not going to find you through project language — she’s going to find you through vibe language.

Same design, completely different description. See the difference?

Buyer #3: The Licensing Company

Search intent: solution-based.

This is the art director at a home goods brand, a stationery company, a children’s apparel label, or a gift manufacturer. She has a product line to fill, a trend report open in another tab, and a deadline. She is not browsing. She is sourcing.

Her language is industry language:

“digital watercolor botanical illustrator for licensing”

“whimsical nursery and kids textile illustrator”

“trend-forward kitchen and tabletop pattern designer”

“artist for exclusive pattern design commission”

She wants to know your work is professionally executed, trend-relevant, and ready to drop into a product line. She’s not buying a pretty pattern — she’s buying a solution.

If licensing is your goal, your portfolio, your pitch emails, and your professional social presence need to speak this language. Not crafter language. Not decorator language. Industry language.

Are you thinking, but can’t I just use all the tags and cover all my bases?

For Spoonflower? Yes — and I’ll show you exactly how in a minute.

But here’s the bigger picture: search intent isn’t just a tagging strategy. It should shape all of your content — social captions, portfolio intro, shop bio, pitch emails. Every time you write something about your work, you’re either speaking to one of these buyers or you’re not.

The designers seeing traction across multiple revenue streams aren’t making more art. They’re code-switching — adjusting their language based on who they’re talking to and where.

A caption about “this print would make the most adorable quilting blender” is speaking to the maker. A portfolio intro that mentions “spring collections available for licensing” is speaking to the art director. A caption about “the perfect fabric for a boho-inspired bedroom refresh” is speaking to the decorator.

Same pattern. Three different messages. Three different buyers who feel like you’re talking directly to them.

That’s the shift.

You don’t need different patterns for different buyers. You need to understand their intent — and meet them there.

The Use-Case Tag System: A Framework That Actually Works

Okay, so now you understand the three search intents. Let’s get into the practical piece — specifically for Spoonflower, where a lot of designers are quietly leaving sales on the table.

The problem isn’t that you don’t know use-case tags exist. It’s that thinking through every possible use case on every upload is exhausting — and then you just… stop doing it. Sound familiar?

The fix is a consistent, repeatable system. I call it the Use-Case Tag System, and it’s less complicated than it sounds.

Build Your Tag Bank

Create a running document — Notes app, Google Doc, a Notion page, whatever you’ll actually open — and organize it by design type. Here’s a starting framework:

Florals / Botanicals: Children’s dress, girls’ apparel, quilting fabric, baby quilt, nursery décor, tote bag, apron fabric, table runner, gift wrap

Geometrics / Abstracts: Quilting blender, filler print, backing fabric, low-volume print, minimalist home décor, pillow cover, bedding

Animals / Novelty: Children’s apparel, kids’ room décor, Halloween costume fabric, tote bag, gift wrap, craft fabric

Bold / Tropical / Bright: Swimwear fabric, beach bag, outdoor cushion, cover-up fabric

Seasonal / Holiday: Gift wrap, holiday décor, table runner, stocking fabric, Christmas apparel, quilting

Adjust it to match your actual style and niche. The goal is that when you go to upload, you’re not reinventing the wheel. You look at your tag bank, grab the applicable use-case tags for that design type, and add them alongside your descriptive tags.

Done.

The Double-Tag Rule

Every pattern should have at least two types of tags working for it at the same time.

Descriptive tags tell the algorithm what your pattern is. Use-case tags tell the algorithm where your pattern belongs.

You need both.

The patterns sitting unsold on Spoonflower for months? Often, they have one kind but not the other. Get both working together and you’re speaking the full language of the search engine — and the shopper.

Get More Specific

“Children’s dresses” will outperform “children’s.” “Quilting blenders” is more targeted than “quilting fabric.” “Kitchen décor” pulls more focused buyers than “home décor.”

Think about how the actual buyer would phrase her search. She’s not browsing broadly — she has a project. The more specifically you match what she’s typing, the better your chances of showing up right in front of her.

If you need help figuring out who your buyers actually are before you can speak their language, my free five-day email course is a great place to start. Master the ABCs of Your Art Biz walks you through defining your ideal client in a way that directly informs how you tag, describe, and talk about your work. Those details make a difference — I promise.

Let the Data Tell You What Buyers Actually Search

Here’s the part most designers skip entirely.

You now have a framework for use-case tags — great. But “children’s dress fabric” might not be the phrase your buyers are actually using. It might be “girls’ dress yardage.” Or “dress fabric floral.” Or something else entirely. Assumptions about buyer language are a starting point, not a strategy.

Here’s how to find the real terms, using two tools you already have access to.

Tool 1: Spoonflower’s Tag Analytics

Spoonflower gives you visibility into how your existing designs are performing in search — including which tags are actually driving traffic to your shop.

How to access it:

Log into your Spoonflower seller account

Go to My Dashboard

Click on Analytics

Click on Tags to see which tags are generating views and clicks

What you’re looking for: which tags are consistently driving traffic? If “quilting blender” is outperforming “geometric pattern” on your small-scale designs, that tells you something. The tags showing up repeatedly in your high-traffic designs are the ones worth prioritizing on new uploads.

Do this across several of your designs and start to see the patterns. Pun very much intended.

Tool 2: Etsy Autocomplete — Even If You Don’t Sell on Etsy

This one surprises people every time, but Etsy’s search bar is one of the most useful free research tools you have — even if you’re primarily focused on Spoonflower.

Here’s why it works: Etsy autocomplete is powered by actual buyer search behavior. When you start typing a phrase and watch what the dropdown suggests, those suggestions are based on what real people are typing right now.

How to use it:

Open Etsy (no account needed)

Start typing: “fabric for…” or “children’s fabric…” or “quilting fabric…”

Write down every autocomplete suggestion that comes up

You’ll quickly start seeing buyer phrasing you’d never have guessed. “Fabric for baby shower gift.” “Summer dress fabric floral.” “Fabric for quilts with cats.” These are real searches from real buyers.

Take those exact phrases back to your Spoonflower tagging and incorporate them. You’re not guessing anymore — you’re working with real data.

Your Assignment

Spend 20 minutes on both of these:

Pull up three of your Spoonflower designs and check the tag stats. Write down which use-case tags are getting traction.

Open Etsy and type three phrases related to your niche. Write down the autocomplete suggestions.

You’ll come away with a much smarter tag bank — and a clearer picture of how your buyers are actually searching.

That’s your Tuesday research date. Put it on the calendar.

Getting Found Is Work But I Can Help

One more thing before I let you go.

This buyer language strategy isn’t limited to Spoonflower tags. It applies anywhere people are searching for you.

Your Instagram grid, for example, is searchable — by buyers, by art directors, by potential licensing clients. If your captions all sound the same, or they’re vague about what your work is for, you’re missing an opportunity every single time you post.

I built Get Discovered on Instagram specifically to help surface pattern designers turn their grid into a searchable portfolio that actually reaches the right people — the makers, the decorators, and yes, the art directors. If your Instagram is more of a passion project right now and less of a business tool, that’s the place to start.

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