Are you finding it difficult to make sales in your Etsy shop? Marketing your Etsy shop products should not be as hard as you think it is. There are effective marketing strategies that can help your business generate leads and make more money. For example, you can create a unique contest on Instagram to popularize your Etsy shop. Contests and giveaways are some of the most powerful ways to gain more followers and customers in a short time on Instagram.
Have you ever considered working with social media influencers to promote your products? There are many bloggers and social media influencers who can grow your Etsy shop by showcasing your products on their accounts and websites for a small fee. Know which influencers may be suitable to market your brand and pitch them to promote your product.
Still hungry for more? Here are the tested marketing strategies that you can use to increase sales for your Etsy shop.
1. Run Retargeting Campaigns for your bounced traffic
Did you know that your customers come into contact with your products on average 7 times before they decide to buy your product? I guess you’ve ever seen a beautiful product in an Etsy shop and left due to its high price. Later you see it pop up in Google Adsense on every website you visit. Then on your email and social media channels. Suddenly you’re now obsessed with the product, and you end up buying it.
This marketing technique is known as retargeting. It is a form of online advertising that keeps your brand and products in front of bounced traffic once they leave your site. Bounced traffic refers to the site visitors who landed on your website, and instead of browsing other pages, they exited. Only 2% of web traffic usually converts on the first visit. Retargeting will help you get the 98% of users to purchase products at your Etsy shop.
2. Consistently post about your product because 75% will not see it the first time
Most people are not always on social media to see each of your posts. Therefore, just showcasing your product once on social media in a day is not enough. You need to post it several times during the day and week without sounding repetitive to those who have already viewed your product.
3. Use Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors are an effective way to build your brand and market your products, especially when starting. You send your products for free to certain people, and then they showcase them on social media platforms and also do word of mouth referrals.
You can also work with brand enthusiasts. These are people who you sell your products to at a massive discount like 50% off and then give them a minimum purchase requirement per quarter. These brand enthusiasts usually market your products in the same way that brand ambassadors do.
Brand ambassadors tend to be better because they feel obligated to market your product since they received it for free. They will frequently post it on their social media channels, giving you exposure to a broad audience. Brand ambassadors and brand enthusiasts are essential mainly if you run jewelry or a clothing shop.
Wondering how to find brand ambassadors? The best place to look for them is on your social media channels. Most of your followers are diehard fans of your products and would be excited to promote your product in exchange for getting it for free. Consider doing shout-outs on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
4. Hang out where your target clients spend their time
If you’re running a women jewelry shop on Etsy, then you need to think of places where most of your clients would hang out when online. For example, they would visit blogs about styling or read fashion magazines. Avoid jewelry making sites because the only audiences on such websites are fellow jewelry makers.
You can comment on the articles of these styling blogs by offering excellent advice and resources about jewelry. You can then include a link to your shop for more insights about your niche. The secret is to give, give, give, and finally ask. Get into discussions about jewelry on various fashion platforms and contribute all you can. Present yourself as an expert in the interests of your prospects.
5. Create an email list using freebies
Email lists are one of the most effective ways to build your business. Most people who join your email list have the potential to buy your products someday. They are your prospects. Creating an email list isn’t complicated. You need to sign up with an email service provider such as Mailchimp or Convertkit, then start collecting emails of your site visitors.
The easiest way to get your email list is to provide resourceful freebies. Everyone loves getting something that solves their problems for free, even if it means exchanging it for their emails. A freebie can be a PDF checklist, a DIY tutorial, or yet a printable resource. Create freebies that would arouse the interest of the subscriber in purchasing your products.
For example, if you’re selling baby booties, you can create freebies such as:
- Nursery Essentials Checklist which outlines everything a parent will have to buy
- A list of clothes that parents need to buy for their babies before the first 12 months
- A DIY tutorial for designing a nursery.
You can also use these freebies to promote your shop on Pinterest. For example, you can link a pin that promises to solve your target client’s problem directly to your shop. In the case of baby products, you can link a pin about how to design a nursery to your Etsy shop.
6. List a new product
Whenever someone favorites your shop or product, at least one of your items will be on their Etsy home page from then on. Moreover, every time you list a new product, it will be present on their homepage. This technique is a free way to advertise new products to your prospects. It is time to make use of those little hearts you get from Etsy users. List new products consistently to give your customers a reason to come back to your Etsy shop at least once a month.
7. Create Pinterest-Ready images and use them as photos in your Etsy listings and blog
Pinterest is one of the essential social media sites to promote your products. Since images in the vertical orientation are the most popular ones in Pinterest, there comes a problem because Etsy prefers horizontal product photos.
Place the featured photo in the horizontal orientation, then the rest of the images in the vertical format. Make them Pinterest ready so that they get repinned again and again. These vertical images have the potential of bringing in more customers.
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8. Ask for feedback from your followers, not friends
Are finding it difficult coming up with a new product or improving sales, then you should ask the opinions of your followers. Followers are the people who will consistently buy your products, and learning their preferences and needs can 10X your sales.
The best way to learn about their needs is to conduct simple surveys dedicated to the types of materials they love, the designs they’d wish to see, and their favorite colors. You can also post specific questions on your social media platforms and entice them with giveaways such as coupons.
In as much as your friends may give you good advice about how to improve your business, they may never buy a product from you. So it’s better to focus on the opinions of your real customers: the followers.
9. Check your traffic sources from Google Analytics and focus on the best performers
Google Analytics is one of the basic tools that every business owner must have to achieve their business goals in 2020. It analyzes the patterns of your traffic and provides insights on the best ways to improve your conversion goals.
You can learn the platforms where you receive most of your traffic using the metrics provided by Google Analytics. Intensify your campaigns on the platforms with the highest ROI for your marketing efforts and reconsider strategies used in the low traffic sources.
Moreover, if you find a strategy working well in one platform, you can try it out on other platforms too. Get rid of underperforming techniques that limit the growth of your business. Don’t get worried when one strategy doesn’t work for you; every business has unique challenges and opportunities. Keep on trying new strategies and measure their success.
10. Use every space on your Etsy shop to market your brand and gain followers
Getting more followers increases your chances of improving sales. The essential way to do this is to deliberately place links in at least 5 places within your shop. You may be thinking that this action will annoy your visitors, but trust me, they won’t. They will understand that it’s your duty to keep your followers updated on the best ways to solve their problems.
If you’re wondering where to place your social media profile links, then here are some ideas:
- The bottom of every product listing
- Etsy shop announcement
- The Etsy Shop Cover photo
- In your “thank you for purchase” message to buyers
- As a follow-up to purchase during a direct conversation
By placing your social media contacts in many places, you inform your customers that you’re a serious shop. And if they don’t follow, then they will be missing a lot of things. Don’t keep yourself from getting fans – hunt for them!
11. Collaborate with related brands for cross-promotion
Cross-promotion is a marketing technique in which brands agree to showcase each other’s products, primarily because they are complimentary. Most Etsy shop owners are scared of reaching out for cross-promotion because they fear getting rejected. But most of the time, this marketing technique brings insanely massive results.
I’m sure that there is a shop that you love its products because they go hand in hand with your products. Send a message for collaboration and see your sales shooting up the proverbial ceiling when you drop a product.
Cross-promotion works even better when you combine your resources to create a unique product so that both of your shops will be selling the same product. The results will be tremendous because both of your followers already love your designs. A good example is Freshly Picked. It collaborates with viral bloggers to come up with new designs for its product lines. The sales of their products usually shoot up after launching.
12. Create a unique content or giveaway
Challenges on Tik Tok have become the latest trend, and Instagram is still popular for its contests. These competitions are the fastest and easiest way to build your brand and showcase your products in front of potential customers. Here are some tips to get the most out of every contest or challenge that you run on social media.
Make it ridiculously easy to enter the competition. Avoid putting so many requirements since most users are lazy or impatient. They will just move on to the next challenge. Instead, create conditions such as tagging a friend, giving their emails, or sharing a picture of your product.
Increase the stakes to intensify the competition. When you notice that the contest is doing relatively fine but not as you expected, you can make the prize bigger and juicier to stiffen the competition. You can also loosen the entry requirements to add more people to the contest.
Promote the contest multiple times. Don’t just post about your contest once and rest. Chances are that 75% of your followers will not see the message and enter the competition. You need to post the message at least 5 times per day for the next few days to get most of your followers into the contest. You may also get new subscribers from this competition.
Offer a consolation prize. Since there can only be one winner in any contest, you should provide the remaining participants with a consolation prize. This is because the participants are likely to purchase your products after showing interest in the competition. You can give the participants a discount code after announcing the winner to show that you appreciate them.
13. Product Roundup
Product roundup involves selecting products from both your shop and another person’s shop and placing them in a Photoshop or Illustrator document. Then you share them on social media together with the other person whose products are in that image. Product roundup is handy in increasing sales because your products get to a massive audience online. Here is how to do a product roundup.
- Decide on 1-3 items you would like to advertise
- Use that item to create a theme you will focus on in the roundup.
- Search other ecommerce stores or Etsy sites to find products that match your theme and have products that are complementary to your items. Avoid Etsy shops with competitive products.
- Collate 10-12 images of 10-12 products in a Photoshop or Illustrator document and number each one of them. Make each of these items optimized for both Pinterest and Instagram.
- List all the numbers of the products in a blog post and link each product to the store it is from.
- Send the images, and the product links to shops whose items you included in the product roundup. Encourage them to also promote the product roundup on their site. Here is a way to request other shop owners to do this:
Hi ( insert shop owner’s name)
I wanted to inform you that we did a product roundup of this theme ( insert the link of the roundup theme) on our blog post and included this item. We will be pinning the image of the item on Pinterest and sharing it on Instagram with direct links to your shop.
If you think this is something your blog audience would love, then share it with them. The pins and views this product roundup gets, then the more page views and sales you’re likely to have at your site. So it’s a win-win.
Here is the link to the blogpost ( place the link to your blog post here)
Thank you for creating such awesome products. I wish you success!
Best Regards
(Your name)
Name of your shop
Most of the time, half of the people you include their products in the roundup share the images on their blog posts and social media posts. They will also promote your blog post, thereby increasing direct traffic to your blog and shop. Try out this method!
14. Find an affordable press for your shop
Hiring a professional PR firm for your Etsy shop may be way out of budget. They may demand an average of $4000 per month and 6 months retainer, which is expensive for a typical Etsy shop.
You can settle for Launch Grow Joy Media Leads. This is a fantastic tool to use, especially when starting out. It resembles an email subscription so you will be receiving emails about the types of products media outlets are looking for and get you in direct contact with their editors. By the time you’re pitching your product to those editors, they will also be looking for you. Therefore, your chances of getting featured in their magazines is 10X, and even if you don’t get featured, you already have a personal relationship with their editors.
Even though the cost of the subscription to this service seems high, the results will be splendid in the long-term. Compare $99 per month to the $4000 a month that the typical small PR firm will demand to get you out there. Better the $99/ month at Launch Grow Joy Media Leads when your Etsy shop is fledgling.
15. Newsletter
Even though social media is a great place to market your products and get new clients, you don’t have complete control over it. Social media algorithms frequently change and may not tip to your side most of the time. However, an email list gives you carte blanche. You have the freedom to write whatever you want to your subscribers without worrying about some algorithms.
Creating an email list is not hard ( Check # 5). After signing up with an email service provider such as Mailchimp or Convertkit, you can begin building your email list using freebies. To keep your subscribers warm and active, you should send newsletters at least once every week, informing them of your latest products as well as upcoming events. Don’t send promotional emails because people expect to be given something helpful. Provide information that helps them make the right decision when purchasing products like yours.
16. Use hashtags to find your target clients on Instagram and show them some love
You should be using hashtags to find your prospects and turn them into buyers. Avoid hashtags such as #etsyshop or #etsysellers. These hashtags only attract people like you: fellow Etsy sellers who will not give you a dime. Instead, create hashtags that are directly related to what your customers will be looking for. For example, you sell baby blankets. Your hashtag list when Instagramming should be things like, #nurseryessentials, #nurseryart, #babyclothes, #newmomma
Leave the hashtags in the comments instead of in the caption. The hashtag list will look cleaner and more presentable when on the comments. Be quick to add the hashtag list to the photos because you only have a few moments to get your photo to the top of the Instagram grid. Copy + pasting your already prepared hashtags allows your photo to get more views.
Harness the power of marketing strategies to grow your Etsy shop
Now that you have learned the marketing strategies to grow your Etsy shop, what are you going to do next? We are digital marketing experts ourselves. We will help you market your products to potential clients on social media using our tested social media marketing strategies.
At Uniclix, our experts will conduct a strategy audit and come up with effective strategies that will help you grow your Etsy shop. Whether it is developing strong relationships with your followers on social media, building a social media brand, or increasing sales, we will help you achieve your business goals. Get in touch with us!
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