Regardless if you’re a budding Etsy seller or a seasoned veteran, there’s always room for improvement when it comes to promoting the business.
These 8 quick tips will help you drive more traffic to your store and, if you play your cards right, will increase your product sales. What are you waiting for? Go!
How To Promote Your Etsy Shop:
1. Join The Conversation
Promoting your Etsy shop shouldn’t be all about shameless self plugs. Reach out to other sellers, bloggers or creatives in your field and create or drive conversations with your audience (as small as it may be for now). It’ll work wonders in creating awareness and sparking interest in your products.
2. Invest Time In Social Media
Make sure all your channels are up-to-date, polished and offering a clear image of your brand and its aesthetic. The most popular social media platforms for Etsy sellers are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, but if you’re just setting out, it may be daunting to start (and keep up!) all four of them. If this is the case for you, you’re better off starting small (with just Facebook + Instagram or Twitter, depending on the nature of your business). Then add the other ones as your business and your content expand. However, make sure that, on the platforms that you do settle on, your accounts are lively and engaging.
Pro Tip: For every self-promotional post or update, create other three ones that are helpful, informative or inspiring. Focus on providing value and the fans will flock.
3. Promote Without Promoting
The easiest way to do it? By opening a blog. Before you wonder whether that’s not too time consuming, here’s the naked truth: it is. But the long term rewards are well worth it! A blog (especially if self-hosted) means that you have your own digital home. Make it relatable to your shop and do your best to update it at least once a week. Give your readers and customers a behind-the-scenes look at your life or business process, share tips, offer insight on relevant topics or even host giveaways.
4. Reach Out To Your Customer And Fans
Interact, ask for feedback and offer solutions. Be more than just a business. Aim to be helpful and respond in a timely fashion to questions or worries, and people will be more likely to recommend you by word-of-mouth.
5. Resort To Ads – But Don’t Depend On Them
Especially if you’re just starting out, you’ll need an extra boost to get the ball rolling. Well, ads are a great way to do it. Start with one Facebook or Instagram ad, then tweak, adjust and refine to improve the results. Remember to make sure that your profile on that particular platform is active and up-to-date, so as to further engage fans and keep them along for the ride.
6. Get Featured
If resorting to online ads seems too complicated or unpredictably expensive, promote your shop via online influencers like @etsyhunter. Or, why not, pitch some blogs for a feature – this Etsy article shows you exactly how to do it.
Pro Tip: Getting featured on as many different platforms as possible ensures you land in front of very distinct audiences. This will help build your own fanbase from the bottom up.
7. Go Offline
If possible, take part in local art fairs or, why not, pitch your products to local shops IRL. Whichever the case may be, make sure you always have some business cards on hand with the name of your shop AND your social media addresses. Hand them out and encourage people to go online and follow you. There’s nothing like a personalized, spoken invitation to compel people to click like.
8. Keep It Fresh
Beautiful imagery, consistent products, new listings and friendly write-ups have the power to grab the attention of anyone who lands on your shop’s home page. If you keep your shop’s image up to date and build its specific look and feel, people will be more inclined to become admirers and follow your adventures.
Feeling overwhelmed? Here’s a final word of advice: if it were easy, everybody would do it. :)
To your success!
Images via Pixabay