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Day 2: The Importance of a Cohesive Brand

When it comes to optimising your Etsy shop, we are primarily talking about all of the things that the algorithm is looking for, but it's also important to consider the buyer's experience with your brand.

And, although I do want you to tick all of the boxes in yesterdays checklist, top Etsy sellers also maximize every one of those points to make potential shoppers take notice.

So, while it's important that the "robots" are finding what makes them satisfied that we're a quality shop, we ALSO want to appeal to the actual humans that are looking to make a purchase.

If that makes sense.

Perhaps already these emails aren't what you imagined they would. 

(I don't feel particularly bad about that since this is some golden free advice and I know what I'm talking about 😉.)

What I really want to instill in you this week is that having an Etsy shop (or ANY handmade business for that matter) isn't just about tossing your items online, assigning them a handful of tags, giving them a price, and watching the sales roll in.

If only!
No. We're going to touch on what it actually takes to be a successful brand online.

 

First, let me say this.

Even if your business is still young, even if you hate your current logo, even if you don't know the first thing about visual branding, we’re still going to go through these steps for your shop and you can make changes when you have the time and inspiration to do so.

What IS a brand in terms we can all understand?

A brand is not a logo.

Or a business name.

A brand is how the world thinks of you when you’re not around.

It’s the lasting impression.

Something uniquely identifiable as you.

YOUR brand can be anything you want it to be so long as it is consistent and cohesive.

In speaking about your Etsy shop, your brand is:

This is my friend Night Move Atelier's Etsy Shop.

I'm going to use her as an example of a seller who is doing a BANG UP job representing her brand on Etsy.

 

From the algorithm's standpoint, Night Moves Atelier is ticking all the optimisation boxes.

✔️ Banner  

✔️ Logo 

✔️ Profile Image 

✔️ Announcement

✔️ 20+ listings broken into easy to shop categories

 

From a buyers standpoint she's ticking all the boxes AND appealing to their very human sensibilities.

✔️ Banner that includes her brand colours and offers a "window" into what you will find in her shop

✔️ Logo that matches the logo on her social media so buyers know they're in the right place

✔️ Profile image of Amanda herself modeling her earrings

✔️ A CURRENT announcement that is written in her brand voice

✔️ 160 listings broken into categories (so many reasons to stay in her shop and browse! Longer shopping time = greater chance for conversion to a sale!) 

 

Amanda didn't just do all the things she needed to do to get eyes on her shop.

She did them AND all the things her brand needs to do to get her audience to click through to her shop.

 

Your homework today is to take a closer look at how you are presenting your brand within your Etsy shop.

 

YOUR NAME

With Etsy your name is somewhat less important because the way people first search is by looking for particular items as opposed to name brands.

This is important to know because even if you can’t get your exact business name as your Etsy shop name, it’s nothing to sweat over. Just add something like “shop” or even “CA” and get over it.

 

YOUR BANNER

Think of your banner as you would your shop window if you were a brick and mortar store. Use it to give buyers a taste of what you sell and what your brand is about.

Note that you have 2 size options for a banner. A wide banner is visible on both desktop AND smartphone or tablet.

A skinny banner is only visible on desktop to shoppers. 

Personally, I prefer the wide, but as far as the algorithm is concerned, as long as you have one your shop is optimised in that regard.

 

YOUR LOGO

To the left of your name is where you should place a logo. It’s a small space so don’t use a tiny product image some. This logo should match the logo you use on your social media platforms so shoppers who come from outside of Etsy know they’re in the right place and shoppers who stumble upon you and find you later on social media know THEY’RE in the right place.

 

YOUR PROFILE IMAGE

People who shop on Etsy are making a conscious decision to purchase from a human. Hopefully you!

I don't care how uncomfortable you are in front of a camera, your profile picture should be of your beautiful maker face.

 

YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT

In fine print beside every announcement is a little line that mentions when it was last updated. It may feel inconsequential, but an announcement that tells shoppers you last updated in 2013 makes your shop look stale. Keep this area fresh by changing it up once in a while. Use it to announce new items, upcoming events you might be participating in, shipping times during high traffic seasons (or, you know, pandemics), all that.

And pleeeeease don't include a link to your other online shop here! By doing so you could be sending customers off site which could signal to the algorithm that shoppers aren't finding what they are looking for here and you'll get the boot down in search!

Ok.

That's it for today!

See you tomorrow when we dive into how to put more of YOU into your shop in a way that both showcases your brand AND maximizes your opportunity to to be found in search.

xo Em