Before you can even begin to start thinking about the complexities of how to get your shop noticed amongst thousands of others, you have to have a shop worth noticing.
Don't get me wrong, if you go to my shop, and this will apply to pretty much all my blog posts as I get going, you will see mine is still a work in progress. However, there are definitely fundamentals to get to ticked off before you think about marketing it.
For one thing you don't want to market your shop before you're ready and attract views that then think they have seen what your about and it's not for them, when actually, if you attracted them further along the line when your shop is more complete they might be more inclined to come back.
So, what are the fundamentals I have learnt so far?:
1. Stock Up
Would you go regularly go back to Asos (or insert shop of preference) if it only had 5, 10, 20 items? Probably not. Would you be likely to find what you were after if a shop only had that many items? Again, probably not. If you think like a customer you know that you need to have a good amount of items in a shop to make them think its worth their while to come back. Aside from that the more items you have, the more likely you are to appear when people search on Etsy by the simple logic that you have more variety. I started with 20 items and got virtually no traffic. I was then sitting at about 100 items with slightly more traffic but still not a massive amount coming through search (although as I sell jewelry I'm in one of the most competitive categories). I now have 140 items which seems to have made a LOT of difference (although I have been optimising in other ways too) and I now get a minimum of 10 views day through Etsy search (vs. 10 a month previously).
2. Tagging & Titles
I'm going to do a separate blog post on this in particular and their is a lot to think about but what I will say here is that your titles and the tags on your items are probably the most important thing to get right. Make your title as accurate as possible and write it thinking about what you would search for if you were going to buy the item you are selling. Same applies for tags. Look at other sellers selling similar items and see what they use for their titles and tags. ALWAYS use all the tags available. And of increasing importance now is also make use of the materials tags (this is one for my own to do list). This is for two reasons: the obvious is that is extra things to appear for when people are searching. The second is Etsy are changing their listings view this month and the material tags will be much more clear and visible for the buyer so you don't want a blank space.
3. Photography
When you are starting out being on a site like Etsy is great as although you yourself aren't well known and trusted, Etsy is. This gives buyers confidence that should there be any problems they can't resolve with you themselves there is someone to escalate it with. However, no one wants a problem in the fist place and silly as it sounds the more proffessional looking your photographs are, the more professional your shop will appear and the more confidence your buyer will have. Something which is also a factor here is the better your photos look, and in particular the quality, the most likely other etsians are to feature your work in treasurys, something which can increase traffic to your site. If you want to appear on the front page of Etsy I have read everywhere that they have a strong preference for white backgrounds. This is also true if you ever wish to try and get featured in editorial etc. Apart from this the obvious is the better your photos are the nicer your items look. A very good example I saw on Etsy today:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/122762420/studs-tribal-studs-round-earrings-tribal?ref=tre-2724821094-10
This last one is the part my store really needs work on. I am currently taking pictures on my iPhone on a bit of wood! I think I will give a bit of white paper ago but the thought of re-photographing everything, whilst needed, it exhausting just to think of!
Right, I'm off to sleep! But there will be more to follow...
Frederica
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FredericaDixon
Good advice! I've heard that having 50 items is where a shop really starts to take off (maybe its more for jewellery because that's so popular). Anyhow, reaching 50 is my main goal at the moment
ReplyDeleteYou've got a lovely shop by the way!
Thanks! I'm so glad you found it helpful! Let me know when you reach that big five O and whether you see increased searches as a result!
DeleteI agree that having new and varied items is required to keep customers returning - I had a bricks and mortar shop and definitely noticed this. But, how many, might depend on what you are selling. For instance, jewellery; it takes a lot longer to make a soldered silver necklace with lots of parts, or a chain maille bracelet, than an equivalent in beads. I've started selling teddies, and yes, I should be more driven to make at every opportunity, but still, I can make a pair of earrings in a tiny fraction of the time I can make a bear. So, should I wait until I have 20 bears before I even start? Perhaps. I have decided that if the current ones don't sell by the time their time runs out, I will not renew them but try to sell them another way and put newer, (and as I've learned more in the mean time, better, hence, dearer) bears up instead. But I'm not sure I'll ever have 50 up at a time, and if you search for ooak bears, you won't see many sellers who have. So, horses for courses, a bit, I think.
ReplyDelete