10 Tips For Branding Your Etsy Shop

One of the best ways to get more business on Etsy is to stand out int the crowd. Chances are, what you make is not exclusively made by you. There are thousands of crocheters, jewelry designers and people selling vintage goods. Each day that number grows. I have talked a little this week on branding your shop. Today I want to give some tips for you. Some you may think common sense but they might just be the key that puts you in front of the right customer.

1. Put your name somewhere in your description. Google will pick it up. That way if someone can remember your name but not your web address they can find you.

2. Put a signature on your email. Put your business name and a link to all your sites including Etsy, website, Facebook, Twitter and blog.

3. Sing your Etsy convos with "your name from your business." I sign all of my convos with "Eric from Market My Shop" because this builds name recognition and name association. It may seem redundant but that is the point!

4. Once you have a logo, don't change it. It is okay to modify it for the times but make sure it is always recognized as your logo. Over time this will build your customer recognition.

5. Use your shop name as your login id on all social networks. This means Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums, pinterest, everything! You want people to see your business name at every turn!

6. If you are a member of a newsgroup or forum where you can have a signature USE IT! Put your shop name and a link to your shop.

7. Put your business name on your Etsy banner. You have no idea how many Etsy banners I see with no text on it at all.

8. Be active! That means be active on Etsy, Etsy forums, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Pinterest and anywhere that you can put your name.

9. Comment on blogs and Facebook posts. Make sure you are logged into your business name when you want to post on a blog. It is simple advertising and brand building.

10. Don't be afraid to try something new. If a new social media site opens up, join it. You never know what the next Facebook or Twitter will be. Getting your name in early on can be huge.

That is it for today. I hope you all have a great weekend! Let me know if you have any questions by emailing MarketMyShop@gmail.com or leave a comment.

Twitter Revisited: Part Four Tips and Tricks

This week we have been talking about Twitter. By now you should have an account set up, your profile pic and brief profile up. Hopefully you put in a link to your website or shop in the website section of your profile. Now it is just a matter of gaining more followers and converting them to buyers.

There are a couple of things that you can do to help increase your followers. Be an expert and be personable. If you are a jewelry designer, talk about your techniques. If you sell vintage items, talk about the thrift store or yard sale tactics you employ. When someone asks a question and you know the answer feel free to answer. Got nothing to say? Post an inspirational quote.

Be sure to follow the 10 to 1 rule, sometimes 15 to 1 rule. For every business tweet, post 10 to 15 non-business tweets. Don't overwhelm your followers. Tweeting is like blogging, if you are inconsistent people will just get bored and ignore you. Tweet at least once a day, no, seriously, it will help. It is best to tweet when people are around. You may be awake at 3am but the majority of your audience is probably still sleeping. Tweet to them when they are awake.

Following these tactics you will start to gain a following of people who respect and like you. People will ask you questions and answer questions when you ask them. Try to treat Twitter as more of a social networking platform than as a business advertisement and you will find people will enjoy reading what you have to say. They will be compelled to click your link in your profile and visit your shop. And if you weren't the pushy salesperson they will be more inclined to support you.

Here are a few tips that will help you with your Twitter account:
1. Ask questions and opinions.
2. Answer people when they ask questions even if they did not ask you specifically.
3. Talk about what you do.
4. Don't bombard your followers with links to your shop.
5. Tweet consistently.
6. Tweet when your audience is awake and at their computers.
7. Always be friendly.
8. Never get into a public argument.
9. Retweet people when they have something of value to say.
10. Suggest followers for people.

10 Customer Service Tips

Good customer service is the key to making sales. People tend to ask questions before they buy and your answers and attitude can mean the difference between a sale or never hearing from them again. Here are 10 things you can do to help make your customer's experience a positive one.

1. Offer shipping options in your Shipping Policy.  Priority, Express, FedEx and UPS cost more but the customer may be willing to pay to get it faster, especially around the Holidays.

2. If you make jewelry give the customer the option to modify the size. Allowing someone to make a 7" bracelet 6 1/2" could mean the difference in a sale or not.

3. Offer a different color option in your listing. As long as you can make something in different colors offer it.

4. Send a freebie with your order. A small gift can create a repeat customer.

5. Put links to shop sections in your listings. Make it easy for your customer to browse.

6. Theme your "Thank You" notes. If a Holiday is near wish them a happy whatever. If no Holiday is near tell you customer "Hope you're having a great Summer!"

7. When someone asks if you can do something, modification, change color or something else and you can do it, be sure to make a call to action. "Yes, I would be happy to. When you order please put that in your comment so I will remember who you are."

8. Follow up if you do not understand. Sometime you'll get a note attached to an order that you just do not understand. When in doubt, ask. Get on the same page.

9. If you can't do something suggest someone who can. A customer will remember when you helped them out with something. Plus, it helps your fellow sellers out.

10. Be sure to address the entire email someone sends you. Nothing is more frustrating than to have all but one question answered. It could turn a potential customer off.

Top 10 Tips For Your Shop to Succeed

It is time for another installment of the Top 10!

1. A Picture is Worth 1000 Words- Always strive to have the best photo that you can take. It might mean retaking your photos if you get a new camera. It might mean retaking your photos for seasonal or holiday settings. If some of your items are not making it into treasuries and you think they should be, inspect your photos. What is causing people to overlook them. Try and change the angle or the lighting.

2. Title Relevancy- Titles may need to be changed to stay on top of the game. Remember your first three words are the most important. Be sure that the first three words are what you want to optimize. Make sure that the first three words are the most popular search phrase for your item.

3. Check Your Tags- Do you still have some one word tags lingering after your relevancy makeover? There is no time like right now to go and check. Remember that tags are keyword phrases that people type to find your items. Using the keyword "red" probably won't help anyone to find your product. "Red Glass Beads" may be exactly what needs to be there for someone to find you. 20 characters may not be a lot, but it is better than just using three characters.

4. Use What is Given to You- Use all five photo slots. Use your shop sections. Use all 13 tags. Use the Recipient, Occasion and Style sections in your listing. Use your materials. The more complete your listing the less likely that there will be questions.

5. Ask For Help- Everyone starts out like a newbie. There, I said it, experts are not born they are taught. Try to learn from the mistakes of others so you can make new fresh mistakes of your very own. Teams are a great way to find help. Just be polite and ask for help. Remember, the only stupid question is the one that is never asked.

6. Read Everything- There is so much information on how to do anything that you'd want to do that is might be impossible to read it all. Tutorials on how to use your exact camera. How to start a Twitter account. How to market through Facebook. If you have a question there are tons of answers. Google can help you find the answers.

7. Change Your Plan of Attack- Is something you are doing not working? Switch gears. Reassess what you are doing and why it isn't working and try something different. It is as simple as that. With all the info out there, you'll find more than a few ways to do just about anything from photos to coming up with good tags.

8. Take a Break- Getting frustrated? Take a break from what is frustrating you and do something different. If your photos are giving you a hard time move to tags. If the computer is making you want to pull your hair out, go to the studio. If nothing is going right, go for a walk. Do not let anything cause you too much stress, it isn't worth it.

9. Try New Things- It is just fine to try new things but do not completely redesign your shop on a whim. Try working on a section at a time. Do 10 listings and see how it goes. If it works, try 10 more. If it doesn't work try something different with the first 10. If you change your entire shop and it does not work, now you have to change your entire shop again.

10. Be Yourself- Whether you are on a team forum, Facebook, Twitter or at a show, be yourself. When you are writing your descriptions be yourself. You are your Brand. Make sure you are selling yourself in every item. One great thing about making handmade items is people love to hear the stories behind why you are doing what you are doing. Selling yourself helps to sell your items.

I hope these tips will help to make you even more successful. Do not get discouraged, the fact that you opened your shop puts you above all those people who never will have a shop. If you have questions feel free to ask. I am always looking for great tips so please be sure to let me know if you have a tip or suggestion.

10 Tips For Etsy Success

How do you measure success with your Etsy shop or ArtFire Studio or where ever you sell your items? Do you measure it through how many sales, how many views, how many favorites? No matter how you measure your success there is always room for improvement. Today I offer 10 tips that can help you become successful with your online shop.

1. Keep A High Inventory - Some say that there is a "magic number" of items to have in your shop before you start to really make sales. Most agree that it is somewhere between 50 and 150. This comes from the old saying "You can't sell what you don't have." Keeping your inventory up will help with sales. Giving the customer many choices seems to really help.

2. Organize Your Shop - Have you ever been in a store where nothing really seemed to go together? It was just a mess. You can't find what you are looking for in a messy shop. There are two ways to organize your shop and I suggest using both. First use your shop sections. On Etsy you have 10 sections and on ArtFire you have considerably more. Group like items together in the shop sections. A note about sections is that they have some SEO power with them. So try to use good keywords in your sections such as "Beaded Bracelets" or "Silver Earrings" so that the search engines will pick the sections up. Using just "Bracelets" or Earrings" works okay just for your shop but it does not help outside of that.

3. Never Undersell Yourself - People expect to pay more for handmade items. Having items that are very inexpensive in your shop will make your customer wonder if you are importing the items for resell. Now, some people go over the top and price things very very high. Unless you have made a name for yourself pricing a small painting at $5000 is probably going to cause someone to chuckle and move on. Try to stay within the competitive market with your prices but never try to undercut prices just to make a sale.

4. Add To Your Circle - Circles are a great way to gain more attention. Adding people who make things you like can help a lot. Many of the people that you add to your circle will add you back. When you create a new item it shows on the "New items from your favorite shops" of everyone who has added you to their circle. When you make a treasury or favorite a shop or item it gets published to your circle feed. When someone favorites you it gets posted to their feed. It is a way to become viral on Etsy.

5. Participate In Teams - Join teams that are within your type of shop medium. There are tons of teams. Joining a team isn't enough. You need to be active on the teams. Participate in discussions. Ask questions. Answer questions. Participate in team challenges. It is fun and will draw attention to you.

6. Spread The Word - Tell the world about your shop. Use social media to spread the word about your new items, shows or whatever you are trying to promote. Write a press release for your local newspaper. If you are going to be in a show ask the show to feature you in their advertising, provide them with a good write up and nice photos. Make it easy for them and they can hardly refuse.

7. Pay Attention To Your Stats - Check what keywords people are finding you with. See what time of day you get the most visits. That is a good way to know when yo release a new item. Don't just check your Etsy stats, check Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Google Blogger Stats and any others that give you hard facts about how you are doing.

8. If It Isn't Working Change It - If over a period of say 2 weeks or more no one has clicked on your items using the keywords you have optimized your item for it may be time to change your tactics. You might need to reevaluate your title and tags and try to figure out why you are not getting the traffic you want. You may need to optimize for a smaller niche.

9. Help Someone New - If you know a little, you know a lot. Helping someone to not make the same mistakes you made is not only a nice thing to do, it will make a friend. Helping someone out will show that you are a person who isn't just in it for the money. You never know when you might need a friend to give you an honest critique.

10. Ask Questions - Don't assume that you know it all. I have been working with the web pages since the internet was just a wee baby. I do NOT know it all. Things change in the blink of the eye. What worked great yesterday won't work today. If you find yourself in a position where you don't know what is wrong, ask a question. If you think you know the answer but are not sure, ask a question. The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked. Asking a question does not make you look bad, it makes you look intelligent!

I hope these tips will help you out. I am always looking for more great tips to add to my weekly top 10 so please feel free to share, I will give you credit. This blog is 100% free to you and I am always happy to answer questions so feel free to ask.

10 Ways To Get More Sales

We've all seen the this graphic on or stats page. Some even obsess over it. There are things that you can do to help increase the potential of more sales. Today I will give you my top 10 ways.

1.   SEO - Make sure your items have relevant Titles, Descriptions and Tags. You can see my earlier articles for information on all of these. Remember to try and think like a buyer when coming up with the keywords you want to optimize for. Ask your friends and family how they would search for your items,

2.   Photos - A fuzzy photo is worse than not having a photo at all. See my article on light boxes and save up for a good camera. For less than $500 you can get a professional quality camera that will make your photos pop. The camera used to take all of my photos is a Cannon Rebel Digital SLR.

3.   Teams - Join active teams on Etsy. Find ones that can help you with your SEO, treasuries and critiques. It is sometimes difficult to keep up with all your teams but I scan mine over morning coffee and try to answer as many questions as I can in the time I allot myself for teams.

4.   Forums - No matter how small your niche there is more than likely multiple online forums that you can join. If allowed, put your shop link in your signature. Be part of the forum and don't spam your shop. Just engage the members of the forum and let them come to you.

5.   Blogging - If you don't have a blog you are missing out on great opportunities. If you can't blog five times a week, blog on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Try to post your blog around the same time every day. If you find some spare time write several blog posts and schedule them to post at a later date.

6.   Facebook - Fan pages are great. If you do no have one get one as soon as you can and start telling people about it. I will be doing a tutorial on Facebook fan pages next week so stay tuned.

7.   Twitter - Twitter can suck you in. You can also fall into the trap of just promoting yourself. Be yourself. Answer people's tweets. Tweet funny stuff. Tweet quotes. Retweet others. Again, I will be writing up a full tutorial very soon on this.

8.   Email Signature - Put your shop link in the signature of your email. If you have multiple emails put it in all of them. You never know who will click on a link.

9.   Business Cards - Business cards are an amazing way to spread the word about your shop. You have no idea how many times someone has asked me what I do for a living. I hand them a card and tell them a little about it then tell them to visit the website for more information. Many sales have come my way over the years because of that.

10. Local Shows - Unless you live under a rock or somewhere way out in the country there are probably small local arts and crafts shows. Or at the very least a Farmer's Market. Find out how to set up a table. You may not think your items would do well at the shows but you never know until you try. I have been set up several times at shows that were country arts and crafts and sold a lot of chainmail jewelry.

There is my top 10. If you have any advice please leave a comment. Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them. If this is your first time to my blog, be sure to check out the archived articles.