I’ve been asked by quite a few Etsy shop owners for tips and critiques of their shops so they can at least get more traffic if not more sales. Happy to oblige!
Here are my quick Top Ten Tips for exactly this purpose below. For some points of reference I have used my own e-commerce store and my own Etsy shop as examples. It’s one thing to talk about something and quite another to actually SHOW you what I mean.
Here we go!
1 – Establish your BRAND IDENTITY.
What do I mean by that? Brand Identity is something that sets you apart from everyone else, enables you to be found quickly over a variety of venues, regardless of actual website addresses, or shop URL’s.
For example. I thought long and hard about my own Brand Identity before I established it. I eventually came up with mmdesignsnj – perfectly good with a hashtag – #mmdesignsnj – or @mmdesignsnj. If you simply Google my Brand Identity – mmdesignsnj – you can find my website, my Facebook business page, my Instagram business account, my Pinterest business account, my Twitter posts, and since I’ve just started including it in my Etsy product tags, right at this moment not so much on Etsy. A few things are popping up though.
Everything is always evolving and is a work in progress to improve and market better across platforms. A never ending task.
It’s highly advisable to make your Brand Identity a “handle” you can use across the board – even put it on your business cards. Easy for people to find you without remembering longer website URL’s.
2 – Make your PRODUCT TITLES relevant, descriptive and keyword rich.
Etsy product titles are no different than your website product titles. They will be indexed by Google. If they are not relevant, descriptive and keyword rich, you may find yourself somewhere on page 268 of Google search instead of on page 1 or 2.
So, no matter what it is you sell on Etsy, you need to pay attention to that product title. Target your audience – baby, jewelry, home decor, – with a title that does the product justice and is what people are searching for.
Baby Shower Gift Basket, Handmade Wooden Home Decor, Bridal Wedding Pearl Bracelet. The more descriptive you get, the more you are targeting your audience.
Owl Theme Girl Baby Shower Gift Basket, Rustic Country Cow Handmade Wooden Home Decor, Blush Pink Bridal Wedding Pearl Bracelet.
3 – Make your PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS relevant, descriptive and keyword rich.
Keeping in the same spirit as the TITLES above, you need to be as detailed as possible with your product descriptions. For example, the following example below is taken directly from our Etsy listing for our Golden Topaz Crystal Bangle Style Bracelet – you can see the actual listing HERE.
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Our Golden Topaz Crystal Bangle Style Bracelet is an elegant sparkling bangle style bracelet where less is more. Created from golden topaz Preciosa crystals with AB finish, sterling silver filigree beads, antique silver bumpy spacer beads, and sterling silver curved tube beads. Sterling silver swivel lobster claw clasp and one inch hand linked chain extender.
Fits ladies wrist sizes from 6 1/2 inches to 7 1/2 inches. This bracelet is custom made at the time of order.
Handmade for you in our jewelry studio. Custom orders are always welcome.
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As you can see, we mention the NAME of our product in the opening sentence. This reinforces the product, albeit subconsciously, with the potential customer.
Then we describe what the product is made of, colors, clasp, the fact that is is adjustable because it has an extender chain. Remember, people cannot play touchy feely with your product like they could in a brick and mortar retail store. So you need to create a well worded description that is accurate, and detailed enough.
Next we talk size, that is is custom made, we reinforce that it is HANDMADE, and that we LOVE custom orders.
This sort of Product Description makes you approachable and gives a personal feel to the product. It also gives the search engines, such as Google, plenty of solid meat and potato keywords to feed upon and index.
4 – Product Tags – Do Your Due Diligence.
Jewelry, Bracelets, Bangles – again, these tags are taken directly from our listing as noted above. These first three represent the category (categories) we listed the item in on Etsy.
These next tags are relevant to the actual product, and are how people will find it. I did a great deal of research as to what tags were working well for other jewelry designers on Instagram, believe it or not. Instagram is SO visual that I always research my tags based upon that venue.
antique silver, bangle bracelet, beaded bracelet, crystals, custom made bracelet, golden topaz, handmade, sparkling, sterling silver, silver filigree, gift for her, fashion jewelry, arm candy
This item was listed on Etsy before I decided to incorporate my Brand Identity into the tags – mmdesignsnj – which is fine – however, moving forward I am including mmdesignsnj on my product tags. I may even go back and tweak the older listings. When I have spare time. Whenever that may be.
But I highly recommend that you start out including YOUR Brand Identity as one of your product tags.
5 – Blogging
Most e-commerce websites come with a built in blog, if yours does, USE IT! If you have an e-commerce website AND an Etsy Shop, and sell the same products on both, make sure you blog consistently and highlight your new products, new creations, seasonal products, etc. in your blog posts. Always include a link back to the product on your website as well as to the listing on Etsy.
You can say something like:
“You can find this gorgeous home decor accent on our website HERE! (HERE will be the link back to the listing on your website.) If you prefer to shop on Etsy, click HERE to see it in our Etsy Shop! Thanks for visiting!” (Again, HERE will be the link to the listing in your Etsy Shop.)
6 – We Love Pinterest
Assuming you have the e-commerce website and an Etsy Shop, you can promote both through your Pinterest Business Page. Simply create a board on Pinterest called Our Etsy Shop Favorites, or something similar, and pin your products directly to that board. You can even create several boards like this on Pinterest. We are assuming that your main e-commerce website will be the focus of your Pinterest Business Page.
Draw attention and traffic to your Etsy Shop by creating boards as noted above. Use the word Etsy in the board name, of course. You are not allowed to use hashtags on Pinterest, so write a good title and a good description for your Etsy boards.
This showcases your Etsy products on Pinterest. Give it time. People who favor shopping on Etsy will find you.
7 – Back to Etsy – List your products in the most relevant categories possible
This one can be tough. What we did was what we always do…………. our due diligence by researching our competition. We singled out similar products that we really liked, that were classy, well made and might even be something we ourselves would purchase. We took note of what categories these items were listed in.
One of our steno pads really took a beating because we made copious notes but this served us well in the end.
Our products are listed in the most absolutely relevant categories humanly possible. No fishing expedition as to Oh Gosh where should I put this? No Way! Do your research first. Relevancy means so much.
8 – Etsy Shop Sections – Fill them out, tell your story, show your passion for what you do
So many Etsy sellers have really crappy shop sections, simply because they don’t want to put the time into getting creative and spinning a good story about themselves and their craft.
Store description – that one liner underneath your store name – that’s what Google indexes as your store title.
mmdesignsnj – (click HERE to visit our Etsy Shop)
Handmade Must Have Beaded Fashion Jewelry Trendy Style
We changed our store description several times until we were pleased with it. You only have so many characters to play with, choose your words wisely. Make them on point, keyword rich and of course they have to read well and make sense.
Our ANNOUNCEMENT Section tells our story to the point, briefly, but hits all the important points.
Our ABOUT Section is our combination Bio plus tells a good bit about the artistic end of things. Do people read these sections?
Who knows? But you cannot afford to skimp on these two sections, if for nothing else than to attract the sort of customer who reads, appreciates, and moves on to buy something.
Next as you scroll down the home page you will see AROUND THE WEB – which has a list of links –
This is mission critical to fill out – add your links to your website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
9 – Your Website and Your Etsy Shop – Cross Marketing
As noted above, you can add your website link to your Etsy Shop. And, on your website, you should make a note, preferably on your home page, that “For those of you who love shopping on Etsy, we have a shop there too! Come visit us HERE!” (HERE being a link to your Etsy shop that preferably opens up in a new tab, so the shopper is never disconnected from your website.)
The link opening up in a new tab is very, very important.
10 – Consistent Constant Posting on Instagram and Facebook
We personally prefer to do our posting on our Instagram Business Page, which is connected to our Facebook Business Page. We do our posting, complete with all relevant hashtags, then we “SHARE” that post on our Facebook page. If you don’t have it set up correctly, things can go a bit south.
Then once we share on our Facebook Business Page, we share again on our personal page. Not every time. But at least once or twice a week, just to keep the friends up to date on new offerings without being sales pushy.
We personally don’t use Twitter too much for business. And we pin to Pinterest every so often. Ideally it should be once a week. Sometimes life gets in the way. But we find when we are more or less consistent with Pinterest, we get sales on our website. This may also work with Etsy if you make the boards we suggested in Step 6.
Maureen McCullough LLC is your Bergen County New Jersey website design, SEO and marketing agency. We care about your business and want you to succeed. Give us a call today at 201.753.1677 for a free 20 minute consultation.