Etsy Mistakes You Need to Avoid in Your Shop -

What’s one of the biggest Etsy mistakes you can make in your Etsy shop? It is important that you don’t make this one mistake on Etsy.

In this post, I talk about one of the biggest Etsy mistakes sellers make with their shop. I also share 7 ways to drive traffic to your Etsy shop from different sources. So get your paper and pens out and get ready to take a lot of notes. Yay!

The Biggest Etsy Mistakes Shop Owners Make

Last week we talked about the pros and cons of opening an Etsy shop. It is super easy to open a shop on Etsy. However, this can lead to one of the biggest Etsy mistakes I see shop owners make.

So what is this mistake?

You open an Etsy shop, publish new listings in it and then forget about it. You never market your listing or your Etsy shop again.

So often, we never do the marketing needed to run a business.

This is the reason why some people may say that they opened an Etsy shop but it didn’t work and they got disillusioned. That could be you.

But if you look closely and think about it, you may realize that you opened an Etsy shop and left it there thinking “if I build it, they will come.”

That is a crucial Etsy mistake.

All Good Things Take Time

This reminds us of this verse from Proverbs 13:11, “Wealth from get rich quick schemes quickly disappears. Wealth from hard work grows over time.”

Whether you’re starting an Etsy shop or opening a brick and mortar business, IT.TAKES.TIME. Anything good in life takes time, effort and a little blood, sweat, and tears. That’s the reality.

And so, if you tried Etsy and got disappointed, I want you to have an open mind. I want you to think about this.

Did you really do the marketing required to sell the items in your Etsy shop? Did you try to use the built-in tools that Etsy has for you to drive traffic to your shop?

The beauty of Etsy is you get access to 37 million buyers.

But there are also a lot of sellers on Etsy too. So simply opening a shop and expecting to have sales flooding in is not realistic.

How Do You Sell Your Art on Etsy?

I want you to think about selling your art and being an artist as being more of a marathon than a sprint. A marathon requires endurance. You have to pace yourself. If you go out too hard at the start, you’re going to pay for it on the final miles or might not even finish.

You want to finish strong so it requires attention to pacing and being wise.

What can you do to help people find your Etsy shop and press the buy button?

There are two options when it comes to driving traffic to your Etsy Shop.

First is the option of optimizing your shop within the Etsy website. I covered this topic in depth with video tutorials and step-by-step instructions in my course Etsy Shop Makeover.

In this option, the two I have had the greatest results with is Etsy search engine optimization and using promoted listings in a certain way.

Both of these options are outlined in detail in my Etsy Shop Makeover course. You can check it out here: https://yourcreativeadventure.com/etsy-shop-makeover/

So I’m not going to focus on that option in this blog post since I already covered it in my course. What we’ll discuss is be the 7 things you can do to drive traffic to your Etsy shop outside of the Etsy platform.

7 Ways to Drive Traffic to your Etsy Shop

1. Social Media Channels

There are many social media platforms you can use. But which ones are the best for artists?

Definitely Instagram!

If you don’t have an Instagram account yet, it’s time to open one.

I have a blog post where I shared about 7 Ways to Grow Your Instagram Followers. Check it out here if you missed that post.

Facebook is a great option too because there are a lot of people on Facebook. Most of your friends and family are in there and are connected with you and so, they may be interested in what you’re doing with your art.

But what’s really interesting is that I’ve seen a lot of people on Instagram who are successful in their business but they only use Instagram and Etsy. They drive all their traffic from Instagram to Etsy. So it’s definitely a great tool to use and can be very effective.

One thing you should remember when you’re using social media is to use it to build relationships. I always say this, “people will buy from those they know, like and trust.” And so you can use social media to build that trust.

Even if you only have 10 followers right now, serve them well. Reply to them, pray for them, do audio messages but make sure that your link in your bio is promoting your Etsy Shop.

2. Email Subscriber List

Your email list is one of the most powerful and valuable assets in your business. You don’t own social media. Instagram or Facebook can shut down your account if you break their terms of service or for some other reasons.

But you own your email list. That’s something you have control of.

I’m not talking about sending an email through Gmail or Yahoo, that’s spam. It’s illegal to send marketing emails that way. I’m talking about using an email subscriber service like MailChimp. It’s free to get started and you can easily set up an email subscriber list there.

As your email list start to grow, you can communicate with your followers and customers on a regular basis.

What you can do to promote your Etsy Shop is to occasionally send coupons for special promotions. You can also share about pre-orders if you have art that hasn’t been released yet.

Or you can offer freebies. Most people love printables, something they can download and print off themselves.

So an email list is a great tool. And obviously the larger the list, the more people you can reach to share your new products and promotions with.

Tip: Regarding your email subscriber list, “what is your open rate?”

I’m thinking of doing a series on email marketing in the future as it has been the number one way we’ve grown our business over the past years.

But definitely use your email subscriber list to promote your Etsy shop.

One example of an email subscriber list sign up is our Etsy PDF for this month.

You can get a free PDF of all the different things to consider on whether or not to have an Etsy shop or a shop on your website. We’re offering that to you at yourcreativeadventure.com/etsyorwebsite.

3. Your Website

You may or may not have a blog on your website and that’s fine. You may have what I call a “business card website” where you have a landing page for how people can contact you or to get to your shop.

But if you have a blog, you can do something like a product round-up post on your blog.

Let’s say you sell baby headbands. You can do a product round-up post of different baby items. For example, “Top 20 must-have baby products on Etsy.”

You then create your blog post and include non-competing baby products on the list. Make sure to also include your headbands as well. Include descriptions and pictures if you want.

A word of caution: you need to make sure to choose items you truly want to recommend as it is your brand’s reputation on the line with this post.

Then, let the Etsy shop owners know that you’ve included them in your list and they may end up promoting that list to their followers because their product made the list.

This is powerful because you have the potential of other people promoting the post.

To choose products or sellers to include, look for active shops that have higher sales and reviews on Etsy. You can also look for those people who have a large following on social media so you have a potential of more people seeing your post if they promote it.

4. In-person Events

There’s nothing that can truly substitute face to face contact with your potential customers. This is one of the most effective ways to promote your Etsy shop.

What I always do is I have a clipboard and I print off an email sign up list. Then, I offer different deals to sign up on my email list. Sometimes I offer them free products, coupons or discounts with expiration dates.

Then at the bottom of the form, I add that they are signing up on my email list and that they can unsubscribe anytime. I get sign-ups from those events as well. So that’s one way.

5. Consider Brand Ambassadors

Consider having brand ambassadors who will get your product for free in exchange for sharing about it on social media or their email subscriber list. They can tag you and share your link.

This kind of promotion is, however, dependent on the type of product that you sell. You can choose a bestselling product and have a brand ambassador promote it on their social media accounts. You can then repost what they shared in your Instagram stories and it’s an easy way for you to share about your product again to your audience without feeling spammy.

6. Collaborate with brands for cross-promotions or giveaways

This can be a powerful way to get your products in front of new people.

If you’ve never done an Instagram giveaway, I have a free PDF that gives you the step-by-step instructions on how I’ve done it. You can download it here: yourcreativeadventure.com/instagramgiveaway.

It’s been one of the ways that I’ve grown my Instagram account, so definitely an option for you to consider.

7. Analyze your traffic sources on Etsy

Look at your statistics. Where are your Etsy shop visitors and buyers are coming from?

As you look into your statistics, note the top places that are sending traffic to your Etsy shop and focus on optimizing those sources.

Sometimes, you may not realize where your traffic is coming from. If it’s coming from Pinterest and that’s the number one referral source, then focus your energy and time on marketing specifically on Pinterest.

It always pays to work smarter. One way to get more out of your time and energy is to focus them on that one thing that’s already working.

Conclusion

But in all of these options, you have to test, track and tweak. It’s a long term game. Avoid the Etsy mistakes most shop owners make. Make sure to not open an Etsy shop without doing any marketing. It takes time and effort.

I’m not talking about get rich quick schemes or sprinting to the finish line tomorrow. I’m talking about doing things that are going to build your brand and establish your business to have success in the long run.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been on Etsy shop for a while. I want you to do something. I want you to pick just one thing.

Your one thing can be Instagram.
Or it can be keyword optimization on your Etsy shop listings.
Or it could be any of the seven ways I shared to optimize your shop.

But start with ONE thing. Otherwise, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and paralyzed. For accountability, share your one thing in the comments below.

If you don’t know how to start with keyword optimization on Etsy or would want to get more options on how to start, you can get a thorough training on it and the free online tool I use in my Etsy Shop Makeover course.

Regardless of where you’re headed to, it always starts with that one step. Take that one step now, avoid the Etsy mistakes most shop owners make and you’ll never know where you’ll end up a few months or years from now.

I hope that you get a lot from this post. Comment with your thoughts below, I’d love to hear from you.

More Ways to Get Paid for Your Passion

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