If you’re looking to promote your products on Etsy, there are several effective Etsy marketing strategies you can employ. The great thing is, you don’t need a large budget or extensive marketing experience to succeed on Etsy. The key is to know your target audience and create engaging content that resonates with them. By understanding your brand and reaching out to potential customers with relevant and exciting content, you can drive traffic to your Etsy store and increase your chances of success.
Even if you create the most brilliant product ever invented, no one will buy it without effective marketing to tell people about what you’re selling. Marketing also helps with increasing brand awareness. Establishing your reputation, in turn, helps people to discover your products, builds buyer trust and confidence, and leads to more significant sales.
If you sell handmade goods, vintage items, or one-of-a-kind crafts, you should be on Etsy. A platform like Etsy is an excellent place to sell online without the need for your own eCommerce store. With over 80 million buyers on the platform, Etsy can open up a whole new world of sales for your one-of-a-kind products.
If you want to increase your sales on Etsy, you’ll need a well-thought-out marketing strategy. There is also a lot of competition on the platform, so make sure your products stand out and identify your target audience.
This article will examine the effective marketing strategies that you can use to boost your sales on the Etsy platform. But first, let us look at the various types of marketing methods that you can borrow from.
Types of marketing methods on Etsy
1) Etsy ad campaigns
You can use Etsy Ads to increase your reach and promote your products in Etsy search results. Set your budget and select which listings to promote, and the platform will handle the rest. Using Etsy’s data insights and expertise, the platform will help you to identify the best places and times to show your ads on Etsy so that you can get the most engagement for your budget.
To set up Etsy Ads, you just need to click on the Shop Manager icon, then proceed to click on the marketing tab and continue to Etsy Ads, and then start advertising. It is important to remember to set up a daily budget. This should be the most you’re willing to spend per day advertising your items. The daily minimum budget is set to $1.00 by default. Remember that you have the option to change your budget at any time.
Additionally, when you advertise your listings on Etsy Ads, the platform may display your items throughout the platform. This includes Etsy.com and Etsy’s Etsy Search, Category Pages, and Market Pages.
When you use Etsy Ads, your listings stand out in the Etsy search results. This makes it easier to reach buyers who are more likely to buy from you. We optimize your advertising and expand the reach of your Etsy ads using Etsy’s data insights and expertise.
2) Offsite ads
Etsy promotes its listings all over the internet, including search engine results and social media apps like Facebook. Etsy provides this service at no cost to you: you only pay an advertising fee when you sell something.
These advertisements may include your listings. At Etsy’s discretion, the platform may automatically advertise your listings with our partners.
Offsite ads may be optional for your Etsy shop, depending on the amount of money you’ve made on Etsy in the last year. This service is also optional if you are a new seller.
You are not required to do anything to be eligible for Etsy’s Offsite Ads. Etsy collaborates with other websites and networks to promote your listings on their pages. Etsy sends them all Etsy listing inventory information, including descriptions, photos, titles, and more. The site’s advertising algorithm then uses these details to match a user’s search or profile information to your listing ad. This ensures that the most relevant items are displayed for each user profile and search query.
3) Social media
Using social media to market your shop is an effective way to reach more customers. From your computer or the Sell on Etsy app, you can quickly share important updates, milestones, or promotions happening in your shop to sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Share any of the following updates from your shop:
- Most recent listings you’ve added (up to 25 of your most recent listings)
- Recent special occasions successes, such as a shop birthday
- Sales and coupons that are currently active or will be available shortly
- 5-star ratings
- Items you’ve saved as favorites
- Updates to the shop (this is currently only available on the Sell on Etsy app)
4) Coupons and sales
Offering discounts in your store is a brilliant marketing strategy that can help bring in new customers while retaining existing ones. Strategic promotions may encourage new customers to purchase, entice shoppers to spend more than they typically would, and even clear out old inventory.
Special sales and offers are another perfect way to spread the word about your brand and products. They’re also an excellent way to encourage shoppers to spend more than they usually would. Running a special offer can encourage new customers to try your product. Ultimately, offering strategic discounts in your store can be a clever marketing tactic that can help bring in new potential customers, retain existing customers, and increase revenue, thus helping you meet your business objectives.
Effective marketing strategies for Etsy marketing success
Now that we have looked at a variety of marketing models on Etsy, let us examine some marketing strategies that can help double your sales.
1) Make use of Pinterest to promote your store
As an Etsy shop owner, you must prioritize social media marketing. Pinterest is a compelling visual marketing channel for Etsy products, and you can easily link your Pinterest account to your Etsy shop. While there are numerous channels to use, Pinterest can provide some of the best results for your business.
Etsy provides a Pin It button that allows you to pin directly from your Etsy shop. When you use this button, Pinterest will automatically pull the description from your shop and include it in your pin. To do so, you must first claim your Etsy shop. You can do this by going to Pinterest, selecting Settings, and clicking Claim. You can now connect your Pinterest boards to your Etsy store.
Remember that people shop on Etsy to find something unique. People also use Pinterest to find inspiration or discover new product ideas, looks, and decor trends. As a result, Etsy and Pinterest complement each other.
You could attract many more customers if you pin consistently and ensure that all of your brand’s pins are directly linked to your Etsy shop.
2) Build a clear brand
Before delving too deeply into your marketing efforts, you must first establish a distinct brand. You may have fantastic products in your Etsy store, but if you want your company to stand out and be remembered, you must create a recognizable brand. A distinct brand is also required for a comprehensive marketing strategy that spans multiple channels and platforms.
Watermarking product photos in your Etsy shop is an excellent way to raise brand awareness. With watermarked photos, your brand will be visible on your Etsy store, website, and social media channels. To display your brand on Etsy, you must use the banner and square image spaces. This should be consistent with your social media pages. You could also add visible tags to make your brand more visible when photographing your products.
Given that Etsy focuses on authentic, handmade products, many sellers overlook the significance of developing a brand. Make sure your Etsy shop clearly displays your unique logo and brand name.
3) Create an effective social media marketing plan
As previously stated, one of the most effective ways to market your Etsy shop is through social media. Once you’ve established a clear and concise brand, you’ll need to develop a social media presence. Social media provides numerous excellent opportunities for online product sales. You can connect with your niche audience and engage with your customers through various channels. Visual platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest are ideal for showcasing your products.
You should determine the social media platforms on which you will focus. We recommend concentrating your efforts on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Instagram and Pinterest are excellent platforms for emphasizing the visual appeal of your products, whereas Facebook is ideal for finding and connecting with your target audience. Of course, you can use other social media channels, such as TikTok, but it’s best to start small and stick to what you’re familiar with. You can gradually advance from there.
Here are a few tactics you can use to get started with your Etsy shop marketing strategy on social media:
- Create a Facebook business page. You must include a link from your Facebook page to your Etsy store.
- Create a social media content strategy and post on all platforms frequently and consistently. Your customers will most likely see your product several times before making a purchase, so make sure you post often.
- Join Facebook groups relevant to your brand niche and use them to connect with potential customers.
- Make short video content for social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Use these videos to introduce your products, show them in action, and show how they can benefit customers.
- Run a social media contest. Since this is a crucial Etsy marketing strategy, we’ll go over it in greater depth later.
- Engage customers by initiating and joining conversations. Respond to their comments, accept feedback, and initiate product discussions. You should also encourage satisfied customers to post reviews on your Facebook page.
4) Categorize your merchandise
You must ensure that your products are in relevant categories when users search your Etsy shop. This makes it easier to find your product, which leads to more sales. Categorizing your products may seem like an obvious step in your marketing strategy, but many Etsy sellers get it wrong. Sellers frequently describe how their product can be used or what it is made of, rather than using the appropriate keywords and categories to explain what their product is.
Use a single word to describe your product best and use this word to categorize the product. Let’s assume you sell handcrafted scented soy candles. You could classify this simply as “candles.” Once you do this, then when consumers search for candles, your product will be more likely to appear. Otherwise, users may need to search for “handcrafted scented soy candles” to find your product, which they are unlikely to do.
After you’ve adequately classified your products, you can use the Shop Sections to organize the categories on your Etsy store neatly. This will make it easier for customers to browse through your store and find the right products.
5) Host a product giveaway
Hosting a product giveaway is one of the most effective sales-boosting strategies for any Etsy business. Hosting a giveaway can help you raise brand awareness, gain more social media followers, increase engagement, promote a product, generate new leads, and increase sales.
All you have to do is give the contest winner one of your Etsy products. By hosting a giveaway, you will reach a much larger audience of people who are interested in your offerings. You can then send special promotional offers to the contacts who sign up for your giveaway via email marketing in the hopes that they will convert into customers.
6) Create useful content to attract new customers
Content marketing is critical for e-commerce, and it can help you significantly improve your Etsy marketing efforts. As the owner of an Etsy store, you should be creating content that is valuable to your potential customers. This content should entice and motivate customers to buy your products.
While creating content for your blog is essential, you should consider using other channels as well, such as video marketing. Some effective content strategies include providing helpful guides to your products, explaining the type of value your products offer, and providing tips to your potential customers about your products.
Let’s assume you sell homemade jams on Etsy. You could write blog posts about the benefits of specific ingredients in your jam or recipes that customers can use with your jams. Then, to increase sales, use your helpful content to link back to your Etsy store.
Do you need help creating content that’ll help your brand stand out? The PR experts at Pressfarm can help you do that! The PR specialists, expert writers, and certified designers at Pressfarm can develop professional press releases, compelling guest posts, and creative media kits that will help your brand to make a splash in its industry.
In addition to creating quality content for your brand, Pressfarm also has what it takes to distribute this content widely. By submitting your content to the right media outlets and startup directories, the team at Pressfarm can boost your online visibility and ensure that you feature in relevant search results across different search engines.
With a media database populated by over 1 million media contacts across industries, the Pressfarm team also ensures that you can continue doing media outreach for your brand long after they’ve wrapped up your campaign. With Pressfarm, you can not only get quality content but also win more clients over.
7) Make use of email marketing to boost the popularity
Email marketing is a good way to reach out to new customers and keep existing customers happy. Using the right email marketing tools, you can send out regular newsletters, updates, promotions, and personalized content to your newsletter subscribers.
Capturing your customers’ email addresses and adding them to your mailing list is a good way to start. To do so, you must first build an email list. You can schedule regular email communications once you have a mailing list. Ideally, you should segment your contacts and send personalized content to each list. The lists can be filtered based on factors such as location or whether the person is an existing customer.
When developing your email marketing strategy, you can send communications to your customers on various topics. This can include sending special offers, thank you messages after purchase, sending out your blog or video content, or any other business-related news. Your emails should always include a link to a piece of content you’ve published or to your Etsy shop.
8) Optimize your store for SEO
It makes no difference how good your service or product is if customers cannot find it. Your sales will skyrocket if your product ranks first in the search results. To accomplish this, Etsy sellers must concentrate on creating SEO-optimized listings.
To optimize your listings for SEO, you must first understand what the right keywords are in your niche. These keywords that your customers will look for. Using these keywords to make your products visible to them will help you win more sales. Once you’ve identified the right keywords, you can concentrate on the following:
- Include your keyword in the title of your product (and try to use it at the beginning of the title)
- Optimize your product tags by incorporating relevant keywords.
- Improve your product description by including your keywords.
- Make sure your shop title contains your keyword and enough relevant info about your product.
- Each Etsy shop section has its own landing page, which helps your SEO rankings. Describe the various items in each of your shop sections briefly. Use category listings to include keywords relevant to each of these shop sections.
Your keywords should be related to your product. For example, your primary keywords could be “jam” or “vintage jacket.” You can enter these keywords into a free keyword tool, such as Ubersuggest, Wordstream, or the Google Ads Keyword Planner, to discover any additional keywords your users may be looking for.
Long-tail keywords are also popular with Etsy SEO. These are longer, more specific search phrases that will help your products appear in more targeted search results. These keywords may include phrases such as “blueberry jam” rather than just “jam” or “vintage denim jacket” rather than just “vintage jacket.” The goal is to think like a customer and imagine what they’re looking for and what search terms they’d use to find your product.
Obtaining links pointing to your store is another crucial aspect of Etsy SEO. The more people who talk about and link to your store, the more authority you will gain. This will aid in the improvement of your SEO rankings. Publishing consistent, relevant content will assist in the acquisition of more backlinks.
9) Run paid social media ads
Consider running paid ads to ensure that you are visible to a sufficient number of users on these platforms. Your Etsy shop can run paid ads that target a specific audience on Facebook platforms. This is especially useful if your Etsy store only serves a small geographic area.
Facebook hyperlocal ads allow you to specify the exact radius of people who can see your ads. This will enable you to target specific zip codes your store can deliver, ensuring that only the right people see your ads.
Social media ads also enable you to target a particular audience. You can target people based on their interests, age, online time, and location. This will help you to get your Etsy products in front of the right customers, resulting in a higher ROI.
10) Encourage customers to write reviews
Positive feedback can help you increase your sales significantly. Customers will be more likely to trust your products if your Etsy shop has positive feedback. Furthermore, positive reviews will result in a higher Etsy quality score. Simply put, the more positive interactions a customer has with your store (such as purchases, favorites, and reviews), the higher your quality score will be. This will increase the visibility of your Etsy store to new customers.
Simply asking your customers to leave a review is always a good strategy. You could include thank you notes with your orders, politely requesting that customers leave a review if they enjoyed the product. You can also accomplish this through email marketing.
Offering incentives for reviews is another effective strategy. You could provide a coupon code, a discount, or an entry into your giveaway in return for each review. This leads to more reviews, which in turn leads to more sales.
11) Add attributes to your shop
Attributes are the details you can add to your product listing on Etsy. The more relevant attributes you include, the easier it will be to find your Etsy shop.
Let’s assume you sell clothing and categorize your product under the jackets category. You should include characteristics such as material, style, and color. When you add a product to a category, that category will have its own set of attribute options for you to choose from.
The more attributes you include, the more likely your product will be to appear in different search results based on these attributes. Just make sure that the attributes you have apply to your products.
12) Enhance your about section
The About section of your Etsy shop is crucial for attracting customers. Remember, people go to Etsy to find something unique, and they enjoy getting to know the people behind the products.
Your About section is an excellent place to tell your brand story and give your company some personality. Images and videos can be used to captivate your audience and pique their interest in your store.
Go into detail about your personal story and the story of your brand. Be genuine and provide a clear representation of who you are. This will encourage customers to support you and pique their interest in who you are and what you do.
Remember to include your social media handles, website, and blog address in your about section.
13) Consider collaborating with an influencer
Influencer marketing is a tangible way to reach a larger audience. If you can find the right influencer who matches your niche and the interests of your target customers, they can make a significant difference in your sales.
You must compensate the influencer in some way, whether in monetary form or in the form of free products. Sending a free product to an influencer with a handwritten note explaining who you are, why you like them, and asking them to tag your brand on Instagram is a good way to initiate this partnership. Partnering with an influencer will help you promote your products to a new audience while also providing valuable social proof.
Just make sure you pick the right influencer. You don’t necessarily want someone with a large number of followers. You’re looking for someone who has the right kind of followers, and a high rate of engagement from those followers. These should be people who are genuinely interested in your products and would purchase them from you. If your Etsy sales are restricted to specific areas, make sure to work with a local influencer in those areas. Using micro-influencers can often help you get the most authentic promotions for your brand, which is easier to do if you’re a small business with a limited marketing budget.
14) Create connections with other Etsy shops
Etsy is primarily used for selling, but it is also a great place to meet other store owners and businesses. You can use Etsy to connect with other companies and build relationships, just like you would in a traditional market. This can further boost your marketing efforts.
Two Etsy businesses that complement each other can cross-promote each other’s products. Finding a company that complements yours but isn’t direct competition is a good strategy. You simply want to ensure that your customers have similar general interests and would therefore be interested in the same products.
Building positive relationships with other businesses in your industry is always a good idea because you never know who might end up recommending or promoting your brand. Then you can promote their products on social media, and they can do the same for yours. This allows you to tap into each other’s audiences and reach new people with your products.
15) Concentrate on customer interactions
Your Etsy shop is perceived as more personal than other major eCommerce sites. For this reason, you must take the time to connect with your customers and provide a more personalized shopping experience. Customers expect this from the types of small craft businesses found on Etsy.
Make it a habit to check your Etsy store at least once per day for new customer interactions. Respond to any comments or questions, and solicit feedback from customers on your products. Always make sure that your audience is being heard.
Simple actions such as responding to comments or including a personalized handwritten note with your orders will go a long way toward helping you build positive relationships with your customers. This will result in more positive feedback, referrals, and repeat customers.
16) Create a product roundup
Developing a product roundup is a great way to reach a larger audience while providing helpful content to your followers. The idea is to compile a list of the best products related to a specific theme, making sure that your products are included. You can send this roundup to the other companies whose products you’ve included, and hopefully, they’ll share it with their customers. This can increase the number of people who see your products.
To make a product roundup, select one to three of your products to promote and decide on a theme that they fit into. This could include “Winter Kitchen Essentials,” “Mother’s Day Gift Ideas” or a “Holiday Gift Guide.” Then select a variety of complementary products from various brands. These should not be too similar to your product, but they should appeal to the same customer demographic.
Combine all of these products into a single article, and then number each one (your products should be first). You can then pin this roundup to Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook. Tag the various brands you mentioned, include links to their stores, and send each brand a friendly email displaying your roundup. Every listed product will receive free exposure with each share, so it’s a win-win situation.
17) Know where your traffic comes from
Etsy has a fantastic feature that shows you where all of your shop traffic is coming from. Marketing your store can consume a lot of time and effort, and you don’t want to waste it on ineffective marketing channels.
For this reason, you should take a look at your brand’s analytics and keep an eye on your traffic sources. Concentrate on expanding your most effective marketing channels. If you’re putting a lot of time and effort into marketing channels that aren’t helping your store, you should slow down and focus your efforts on what works. If you want to keep your revenue growth, you must focus on techniques that work for you.
Conclusion
Etsy marketing does not have to be complicated. You will make a significant difference in your business if you understand your customers and use the appropriate strategies to reach them. Any successful Etsy business relies on effective marketing to stand out. Without effective marketing, your products may get lost in the crowd.