I hear over and over Etsy sellers are noticing their sales slumping every time Etsy shifts an algorithm here and there, which they unfortunately do A LOT! So how do you keep your traffic flowing? You need to find new way of promoting your Etsy shop.
For me I like to diversify my promotional efforts so that if one or more of those promotional avenues. This way if one changes their promotional terms like when Facebook changed everything and businesses who relied heavily on Facebook’s ads suddenly found themselves in a bind. It’s the “don’t put your eggs in one basket” type of thinking. I admit I use this methodology in all aspects of my business so why should this be different?
As you probably guessed there are both online and offline promotional methods that I use. Some are free and some cost a little bit of cash. I try to do everything on a budget so none of them will be too costly.
First, you want to make sure you’ve branded all your advertisement. What does that mean? It simply means that your promotions all have a cohesive look that tells people it’s from your business. To do this I recommend a software called Canva. There is a free and fee based version of Canva. I use the pro version but you certainly don’t have to use the paid service. I started with the free but switched when I wanted to level up. Canva has amazing templates that help you quickly create professional designs for all the suggestions below.
Promoting Your Etsy Shop Online:
Pinterest – This is probably not a huge shock to anyone. Pinterest is an amazing visual search engine so if you’re selling anything you have to be here. However you NEED to brand your content and create a Pinterest friendly pin. Use Canva to create a beautiful, landscape pin like the image to the left that says Pin This! (as long as you’re looking at it go ahead and pin this article to help others!). Doing this will help your pin stand out from just a plain photo. Make sure you use hashtags in the description to make them search friendly.
Facebook – share your listings on Facebook and ask your community to share it as well. This is the free way to gain traction for your Etsy shop. If you want you can run a promoted listing for as little as $4. Depending on what you sell it might or might not be worth it. I don’t pay to promote my listings anymore. I found that paying to promote my page is a better use of my promotional budget. That way you have a built in audience that is already interested in what you’re doing.
Etsy Promoted Listings – I’m on the fence with this one. I’ve run a few promotions and while they have given me more eyes on my shop it didn’t translate into more sales. If you run a promotion deselect all but a few choice listings so you get the most eyes on one or two products instead of spreading your ad dollars across 200 listings. Then keep an eye on it. Don’t allow the ad to run indefinitely. I would cap it off after a few days.
Post on Etsy Daily – this work WAY better than promoting a listing. I did an experiment on my YouTube channel where I posted daily for an entire month. Each listing is 60 cents so for a 30 day period it cost me $18 but my results were well worth those dollars. Check out the video here.
Promoting Your Etsy Shop Offline:
Business Cards – Yes, I still hand out business cards but these have my Etsy shop address on them and my logo. When I’m out in the world and people ask me what I do I give them a card. It’s better than hoping they’ll remember my Etsy Shop address. Try rattling this off to people https://www.etsy.com/shop/PLaneDesigns so much easier handing over the card. I created my card in Canva and then uploaded the final image to the printer. I print mine with Vistaprint because they are very reasonable. There is a special offer for you if you use my link to save $20 on a $40 order to get you started.
Postcards – Again, I use Vistaprint to print my postcards. I created a wonderful design using Canva that has my logo on one corner and 4 photos of some of my items I’ve sold in the past. My website is prominently featured on the front so I only have to pay for 1 side printing. I put the postcards in every bag when I sell in person and I include them in shipments.
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Issue a coupon – This actually works on and offline. I have a re-order coupon I send with every shipment as a thank you to encourage previous buyers to go back to my shop when they’re looking for their next vintage treasure. You can also issue coupons for holiday’s or any other occasion and share them online.
These are the main ways I promote my Etsy shop. How do you promote your Etsy shop? Share in the comments below so we can help each other! If you haven’t yet checked out my post about if setting your Etsy shop to vacation mode negatively impacts your sales read it HERE!
