Growing your Etsy shop isn’t an easy path to bare. Let’s be real, it takes a lot of time, consistency, and serious buckle down commitment. Now although you should be driving traffic to your shop with the help of Etsy SEO, you still want to ensure that you aren’t relying on Etsy itself to make your sales.
You should be diversifying your efforts so that you’re making income from multiple sources as opposed to leaving your faith all in the hands of just once source.
The number one question I hear all the time is, “
Where should I start?”. You already have so much to worry about from day-to-day, you may be at a loss as to which direction you should go from there.
I get it! Which is why I am going to walk you through some strategies you can use to grow your Etsy biz. The key, however, to this is not trying to be all over the place at one time. It is not the best strategy to follow and trying to do #allthethings is no strategy at all.
It’s about putting the focus on one marketing strategy at a time, create a schedule, get good at it and then implement another. If you’re doing multiple things at once, it makes it difficult to see what’s working and what isn’t and let’s not mention it’s a time suck.
The goal here is that all of your marketing efforts should work together as a solid unit for your success. They should all lead back to the common ground, which is your Etsy shop to make MORE money.
So today, I am going to share with you 10 marketing strategies you can use to grow your Etsy business
1 | Apply Etsy SEO
I feel like this goes without saying, but um… I have to just put it out there.
No, SEO is not dead. Yes, it is still necessary. And yes, you should still use it. Etsy SEO drives traffic to your shop. Period! It is probably the simplest and quickest way to get noticed on Etsy simply by using the right keywords to attract buyers to your products.
Check out these posts for more information on Etsy SEO:
What is SEO and How Does it Appy to Your Etsy Shop
How to Find Long-Tail Keywords that Drive Traffic to Your Etsy Shop
Google SEO for Etsy
Optimizing Your Etsy Shop Like a Boss
2 | Start an Email List
One of my favorite topics to talk about, I wrote an
entire series about getting started with email marketing here. But it is also one of the most vital marketing strategies that your business should have.
Having an email list is beneficial in so many ways. To start with, it belongs to you. If Etsy decides to close their doors suddenly, you still have a way to reach out to your customers. Which leads to you having ALL the control. Additionally, you get to share with your audience your products in a more private and personal setting. And lastly, it converts sales far better than social media.
You can sign up with
AWeber for a free 30-day trial and get your list started. If you haven’t started your Etsy shop, it’s cool. You can still start a list even before you launch your shop, that way you already have customers who are waiting to snag your products.
3 | Start a Business Pinterest Account
Etsy sellers tend to shy away from Pinterest because it seems like a complicated process that they aren’t willing to put in the time to learn. But believe me, it’s one of the best ways to drive traffic to your Etsy shop. A study shows that
72% of people say that Pinterest inspires them to shop when they aren’t even looking for anything in particular. Those numbers are pretty sweet and promising, that’s enough to convince me.
Oh and the thing I love the most about Pinterest is that you can totally automate this process. You can use a scheduler like
Tailwind and schedule your pins virtually while you sleep. If you already have a Pinterest account, you can easily convert it into a business account or start a brand new one.
I created a free email course that will help guide you on getting started with Pinterest.
4 | Start a Blog
I know, I know…(rolls eye)! I hear you, my friend. This is not about lifestyle blogging though. You aren’t going to share your daily adventures with the interwebs. But instead, you are going to hone in on teaching your audience, while providing loads of value.
Having a blog is a major game-changer for traffic. Your blog serves as a hub of resources that will lead shoppers back to your Etsy shop to snag your products and learn more about your brand. Content is a big thing and helps tremendously with driving traffic and improving your SEO. Translation: More sales = More Money.
5 | Use Customer Reviews
It has been found that displaying your customer reviews impacts purchasing decisions. The likelihood of a shopper purchasing from a shop with five-star reviews is much greater compared to a product with no reviews at all. Your shop should be able to do the selling for you and your past customers can do a great job at helping you with this.
Here are a few ways to go about getting reviews:
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Follow-Ups. You can send a follow-up message to your customers asking how they are enjoying their purchase. Then you can move forward by asking them to leave a review.
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Ask for them. Reach out to customers during the right time to encourage leaving reviews: When they are making a repurchase as a repeat buyer. When someone tags your shop on social media. Or even when they refer a customer to you.
So how can you go about using your reviews?
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Start with sharing on social media. Reshare your Facebook reviews in a post. Collect your reviews and make a post or share as an Instagram.
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Use your blog. If you have a blog, you can dedicate an entire page for your reviews.
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Use them in emails. Because using emails has such a positive return in sales, what better place to highlight your feedback within your emails.
6 | Collaborate
You can work with other handmade shops, social influencers and even bloggers to expand your reach and put you in front of a brand-new set of eyes. Working with others is a unique way of advertising your products and building relationships within your community.
What I love most about collaborations is that you get to put your products in front of a loyal audience that trusts and values the opinions of the brand. The key is to work with someone that complements your brand, not compete against.
7 | Create a Round-Up Post
Round up posts are when you create a post that connects products centered around a specific theme. This post will contact products from your shop and products from other brands. Doing a round-up post creates somewhat of a similar connection as collaborating as you are creating content that showcases other brands. And for the most part, most brands are honored to be included and have no problem with helping you promote your post.
You don’t have to have a blog to achieve this, although ideal, you can simply create a social media graphic in
Canva for free (
check out my behind-the-scenes on using Canva to design graphics) and tag all of the brands within your post.
Did you know that
Etsy has an affiliate program? This program allows you to support other Etsy shops and their products and share them with your audience. When your audience clicks on those links and makes a purchase, you get a piece of the pie. Simply by sharing shops, you love to others. If you have a blog you can create a post, link back to those shops, create a graphic on social media, and viola. You are making money passively. You can sign up for the
Etsy affiliates program and create a passive income that works for you.
8 | Run a Giveaway
Giveaways are so much fun, on the receiving and giving end. It is a cool way to drive traffic to your shop using an element of entertainment. You can decide your own rules as far as how long to run, what the offer will be, and what an entrant needs to do to have a chance at winning.
You don’t need a swanky software to achieve this, however, you can use something like
King Sumo or
Gleam to help you better track your entries and create more of a viral effect through social sharing. You should only offer products that relate to your brand. Such as giving away a $50 shop credit vs a $50 Starbucks gift card. Your goal is to attract potential customers, not those that are simply wanting something for free.
9 | Bundle Your Products
This is one of my favorite ways to increase sales. When you bundle products that work well with each other, it encourages shoppers to spend more. The idea behind it is to bundle products together to give your customers value, help them save and increase the number of items being sold within your shop. For example, I usually sell
The Instagram Planner in my shop for $6, but I also offer an option where a shopper can purchase
The Instagram Planner + The Facebook Planner for $10, whereas normally they would be paying $6 separately for each.
10 | Create an Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is often overlooked by sellers. It’s such an effective way though, to help your customers and advocates do some of the heavy lifting for you. Basically, you are creating a reward system that encourages people to promote your products in exchange for a commission.
You can create an affiliate program by choosing a platform such as
Omnistar. Once you are all set up, you will have to recruit affiliates to join. You can announce your program on social media to encourage your followers to learn more about it and apply. You can even send an email to tell people on your email list that are already fans of your brand.
Now that we’ve taken a look at strategies to grow your Etsy shop, it’s your turn to get started! Let me know in the comments of any marketing efforts you use and how it has helped your Etsy shop grow.
