Day 3: You Inside your Brand
In my role as an Etsy Seller Development Specialist, one of the most challenging things for me to impart upon sellers is the importance of incorporating a bit of YOUR FINE SELF in your shop.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s email, consumers are purposefully choosing to shop on Etsy BECAUSE of the handmade, hand-curated nature of the products.
People (especially now) want to know they’re supporting human artisans and entrepreneurs, so it’s important that we don’t discount how much of ourselves we put into our shops.
So how can we do that?
Here are some of my best tips for utilising things the Etsy algorithm is looking for to get you found in search AND making connections with buyers so that you increase your sales.
CRAFTING YOUR ABOUT PAGE
Your About Page may live at the bottom of your shop page, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an important tool for optimising your visibility.
From an algorithm standpoint, an optimised shop should have an About Page that includes a slider of images.
That's all it cares about.
From a customer perspective, your About Page gives you a chance to create a connection with customers by telling the story of how you got started and offering a glimpse into your creative process.
Here’s a great example of an About Page that appeals to both the algorithm and customers from my friend Elodie of La Marcotterie.
I happen to know that some of Elo’s recent success on Etsy is a direct result of the work she has put into her shop photography and about page.
Because of the effort she’s put into making her shop feel personal and on brand, through her images and voice, she was recently featured by Etsy’s social media teams and has grown her side business into a full time career as a skin care brand.
Sharing key backstory details like the initial creative inspiration, how your business has evolved or notable milestones, can help shoppers connect with your brand on a personal level.
A great tip if you find yourself stumped by where to begin is to imagine you’re explaining your origin story to a customer at a craft market or to a new acquaintance.
Just be yourself and put those words to paper!
An About Page or bio may be painful to write, but you will be so glad you did. You can use it in future craft market applications, in your social media profiles, when the media start knocking...it’s worth the effort to give people more reasons to want to support you.
As you can see with the example above, your About Page also allows you to add images.
When include photos and information about you and your shop members on your About section, you put a friendly, approachable face on your business.
Here's Elodie's:
WRITE LISTING DESCRIPTIONS THAT SELL
Each item in your shop contains a story.
Make the most of your listings by including not only the physical description of each item, but also unique details that make it special. (We're going to get into keywords and tags tomorrow, so don't worry about that yet!)
Are those quartz earrings made from stones you mined at your family cottage and tumbled at home?
Did you create that leather belt using your grandfather's vintage leather works tools?
Your customers want to know these things.
You can also include a bit of your About story in your descriptions to help build customer confidence in your product.
Don't worry if this feels repetitive. We want to make sure shoppers learn about you at every opportunity and Etsy buyers, in particular, want to own part of your story so they can feel attached to both the products you create and YOU.
TELL YOUR STORY THROUGH PHOTOS
Photography is a VERY hot topic, and truly not one I can cover in this week's lessons. But even if you don't have your photography skills locked down, you can still have them working harder for you to make connections.
This is something we have done more extensive trainings on in the Etsy Collective Community I'll be inviting you to join at the end of the week. So for now, I'll just show an example of how La Marcotterie showcases her products to demonstrate the "vibe" of her brand story as well as the use, scale, etc. Click here to view one of her items to see how she takes a photo of the EXACT same item in 8 different ways!
(Totally unsolicited advice: I would actually encourage Elodie to get up to 10 images by including a graphic that shares her social media links, and another that shows her behind the scenes making! But, I mean, she's doing ok without my advice too 😉 )
CONNECT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA
A great way to connect with your customers is through social media pages like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, which allow you to have a greater ongoing conversation.
Social media is ideal for gaining feedback, sharing new products, showing a bit behind the scenes and growing your fan base by being easy to share.
Be sure to include links to your social media accounts in your Etsy shops.
Not sure how? Check out this help article for instructions.
Alright pals. That's it for today!
Tomorrow's topic is "WTF is SEO?" where we dive in to tags, keyword, categories, attributes and description writing to be found in search.
You won't want to miss it!