Shannon Mugford
How to Take Your Etsy Store to a Wider Market
- October 3, 2019
- , 5:34 pm
- , Marketing
Etsy is a great way to launch your business into the public eye; sacrificing a small percentage of your pay for a platform that will allow you to sell your products is an effective way to get your business up and running. But, by considering the following advice, you can learn the essentials in creating a brand identity and public awareness to help you take your small Etsy store further into a wider market.
Create a Brand
If you want to take your Etsy store to a broader market then you need to develop an identity for your brand. Etsy is a popular website that gives businesses a platform that they can use to offer the public their own products, so, it is imperative that you make yourself stand out against the many other stores using the website, especially the ones that sell similar products to yours. By creating an identity for your brand, you can stand out against the competition, not only on Etsy but across the internet.
Etsy itself is a famous brand, and it can sometimes diminish the shops on its site as the public may perceive the businesses as merely ‘Etsy shops’. You need to make sure potential customers see Etsy as only your selling platform, and not part of your brand’s image. Creating a successful and effective identity for your brand means your shop will be viewed as unique and professional, allowing you to take your shop to a wider market.
Social Media Presence
To create your brand and promote it, you need to create a social media presence for it. By creating a Facebook page or an Instagram account for your shop, you have a platform to post photos of your products, which, in turn, can increase your public awareness. Gotta do it for the insta, right? Most importantly, it increases your credibility as a business as you will appear more organised and professional.
A popular tactic some businesses use from Etsy is the use of reps or Instagram influencers. Reps/influencers are people who you send some of your products to once or on a regular basis for free with the promise of promotional posts in return (usually on Instagram). They are a great way to increase your brand’s popularity and awareness, with 57% of companies now using influencers as part of their marketing mix.
Influencers are often trusted by their loyal followers, so these potential customers are likely to believe their honest opinions of your products, leading them to buy them. Moreover, you can host influencer competitions that require them to share your products on their social channels through photos so that their followers can enter a competition to win the product they are advertising, meaning greater awareness and popularity of what you are selling. Who doesn’t want a Love Islander showing off their products anyhow?!
As well as focusing on promotion, you need to have excellent customer service to take your Etsy store to the wider market. By having fast responses and efficient service, you allow yourself to gain trust from customers, leading to better reviews and increased popularity in a broader market.
Social Media Advertising
Carrying out a social media advertising campaign is another great way of taking your Etsy store to a wider market. Advertising your products on social media channels which are relevant to your target audiences, such as Facebook and Instagram, can increase your store’s click-through rate and potentially the number of purchases that are being made. More than a whopping 2.1 billion people use at least one of the Facebook family of services every day on average; meaning you are advertising your store to a broad, wide-ranging audience.
You can even choose who sees your ads from this vast audience, based on age, gender and other demographics. With a target audience selected, you need to create effective ads using professional photos of your products accompanied by short, praising reviews for showcasing your growing stores popularity to target these potential customers.
Promoting sales can also increase your store’s success; a sale promotion could be the reason a customer purchases from you for the first time, but it could potentially even lead them to become a loyal customer in future- this is the gold!
Email marketing is also a valid form of promotion; people who have ‘liked’ your store, and have signed up to your emails will always be aware of your sales and new products. Etsy does this, but you can take it a step further by creating your own weekly or monthly newsletter with information about store updates and sales, too. This allows you to establish a brand identity of your own; taking your store to a wider market as you start to separate your brand from Etsy’s. So long, good friend.
Beyond Etsy
If, after creating awareness of your shop through a significant online presence and promotional material for your brand, your business becomes increasingly popular, it may be time to move completely beyond Etsy. Creating your own online website and shop for a cheap yearly or monthly price; this allows you to take your brand development further. By completely separating yourself from Etsy, you remove all affiliation with the company, allowing you to establish yourself as a professional online business. You’ve totally got this!
However, you can do this too soon. Before moving away from Etsy, it is vital to have a significant following as the market-like site provides an initial awareness of your shop. Without this, the website traffic and product purchases on your new shop may be too low to gain profit.
For more advice on how to take your Etsy store to a wider market, increasing your brand’s awareness and credibility, feel free to contact Cheshire Cat Marketing today through our website.
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