Looking for more traffic to your Etsy shop? Are you working seasonal merchandising trends?

Following seasonal trends and adjusting my products’ titles and tags has made a huge impact on my Etsy traffic and sales.

My seasonal merchandising “aha” moment came last September. I logged on the Etsy and saw a front page filled with Halloween items. Many of my photographs are mostly blue with birds and telephone lines. How on earth was I supposed to get any attention to my shop with the Halloween craze in full force?

The answer: fresh eyes. I needed to look at my photographs with fresh eyes and seasonal merchandising trends in mind.

Start with color.

Pantone’s color forecast for Fall 2011 includes: bamboo yellow, emberglow coral, honeysuckle pink, phlox and orchid purples, cedar green, deep teal, coffee and nougat browns, and quarry.

Etsy’s September merchandising desk report also mentions: turquoise, rustic fall colors, jade greens and mustards.

Are any of your products teal? Nougat brown? Mustard yellow? Update their tags. Treasury makers will be searching for these colors. Getting your teal items into treasuries gets eyes on your shop and starts the traffic snowball.

The awesome Megan Auman at Crafting an MBA is double dog daring us to create videos to promote our businesses!

Are you in? I’m going to try it!

You know the things that aren’t rocking in your business — the things that aren’t going as well as they could — the things you could learn, spend more time on, improve…

Let’s forget all that nagging stuff, just for now.

What if instead of stewing on the things that aren’t going well, you focus on success instead? What if you focus on the things you’ve done that have worked for you in the past?

Think of a recent success. How did it happen? How can you repeat it?

After the thrill of a success, we look for new successes with new methods and forget our old tricks.

Well, it’s time to ride that pony again.

For example, Somerset Digital Studio published a three page artist’s spotlight on me and my art in the Fall of 2009. How did that happen? It happened because I submitted my work. Have I submitted my art to magazines since? No. Why? I’ve been looking for new ways to get the word out about my art and I’ve neglected many of the things that have already worked for me. This is a success that I could repeat.

How can you repeat your success?

What do you say when someone asks about your creative business?

Is your response quick and memorable? Or do you grapple for words and stumble about?

Create a short description of who you are and what you do that you can say naturally and quickly.

You know they will ask; be ready.

For example, “I’m Tricia McKellar. I photograph southern landscapes and birds in flight.” Be specific and memorable. Use words that evoke images. Practice saying it in the mirror until it is natural. The next time someone asks, you will be prepared.

How do you find your die-hard fans? How do you find the people that are desperately seeking your magnificent sock monkeys (or whatever your fabulous product is)?

We’ve talked about contacting bloggers and asking them to write about you. But how can you reach media peeps that are looking for you? And do it for free?

Try HARO -Help a Reporter Out.

HARO is a service that helps reporters find sources for their stories. You can register as a source. You’ll get 3 emails a day with requests from reporters for information. If you read through and find a request for information from someone who has started a sock monkey business, you’re in luck. You contact the reporter and pitch yourself as a source.

It’s best to be a bit picky and only respond to the queries that are a good fit for you and your business. Don’t be spammy and pitch your sock monkeys to the call for the article on home foreclosures. But I know you’re not like that.

Within just a few days of subscribing, I found a request for home decor products! A perfect fit for my photography prints! I replied. Will I get a feature in a popular decorator’s spring collection? Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m certain that each little push of my work into the media is a good move. I think of these marketing activities as ripples in the pond. You never know when a small action will influence larger events.

I’m a believer in HARO. Free publicity. Will you try it?

If you enjoyed this post, would you share it on twitter or facebook? Follow me on twitter.

The new year is still very fresh but it’s not too early to think about Valentine’s Day promotions!

It’s the season of love, cupcakes, and flowers. Romantic dates and sexy underwear. Love notes. Hearts and jellybeans. Valentine’s cards with wide eyed puppies. All things pink and red.

My etsy photography shop traffic and sales increased when I started listing and tagging my photographs with the season in mind. I’m looking through my digital negatives for images that tie into the Valentine theme so I can list these photographs in my shop.

What will you do for your business for Valentine’s?

Image: Fill My Eye. Original Photograph by Tricia McKellar. ©2009 All rights reserved.

In the first article in The Secret to Etsy Sales series, we looked at 6 core areas of your business. Small gains in each area can lead to a significant increase in sales.

In the second article, we dove a little deeper into getting more eyes on your shop.

The third article is all about conversion, turning browsers into buyers.

So now we’re digging into the fourth article, about biggifying your game and getting more dollars per sale. Good stuff.

How can you increase your dollars per sale?

Encourage people to buy additional items. Tell your buyers about your goodies that go well with the goodies they are already buying. If you sell necklaces, you might mention the matching earrings in the necklace description. And the cake plate buyer may be very interested in your set of dessert plates. Offer free shipping on second (third, fourth, …) items.

Spark interest in your more expensive items. Are you telling people about your top-end products? Or are you assuming they are not interested in your highest priced goods? Even if people may not buy many of your most expensive items, adding the highest priced items to your shop can increase the sales of your more moderately priced items. (See this article for more information: Show the Bling or Why You Should Include Expensive Items in Your Online Shop.)

I increased my dollars per sale in my photography shop in two specific ways. 1) I offer sets of prints at a special price (for example, four 8×10 photographs at a lower price than four 8×10 photographs priced separately). This has worked well for me and I need to freshen up my shop with some new sets. 2) I targeted my larger prints (higher price point items) for marketing efforts. Both tactics are paying off for me.

What are you doing to increase your dollars per sale?

Image: Money Roll by Zack McCarthy. Used under Creative Commons License. Thanks Zack!

In the first article in The Secret to Etsy Sales series, we looked at 6 core areas of your business. Small gains in each area can lead to a significant increase in sales.

In the second article, we dove a little deeper into getting more eyes on your shop.

This third article is all about conversion, turning browsers into buyers.

How can you turn browsers into buyers?

Etsy usability testing shows that the number one reason people don’t make a purchase online is that they don’t feel that they have enough information about the product. (Data gathered from Etsy’s online workshop Turning Browsers into Buyers.)

[Update! Danielle of Etsy.com was gracious to point out that previous statement is not quite correct. The Turning Browsers into Buyers workshop featured information from a Deloitte report on Customer Conversion. On turning browsers into buyers that report reads:

Surprisingly, “price too high” is often among the least mentioned factors in determining conversion success. The most frequently mentioned reason typically is “unable to decide.” This suggests that retailers can help shoppers the most by organizing their merchandise and informing and assisting their customers.

Are you using all five photo opportunities in your etsy listings? Are your descriptions answering your buyers’ questions? When you are writing your descriptions, pretend that there isn’t a photograph in the listing and describe your item.

I can tell you I find listing descriptions particularly challenging. I’m constantly changing things up. My listing descriptions have, at times, been too long. Long descriptions may not hold a reader’s interest.

What are the questions your browsers are asking? See this great thread in the etsy forums: 20 Questions Your Buyers are Asking

What is holding your potential buyers back? What are their fears? I offer a money back guarantee. Buyers can return my photographs within 30 days for full refund for any reason. I’ve had one photograph returned. Any losses from returns are far outweighed by the sales that are persuaded by the guarantee.

How do you turn browsers into buyers? Tell us in the comments.

In the first part of the Secret to Etsy Sales series, we looked at 6 core areas of your business. Small gains in each area can lead to a significant increase in sales.

Let’s dive a little deeper in the first of the 6 areas: Lead generation. Getting more eyes on your stuff. More visitors to your website. More views in your online shop.

Lead generation is all about getting more folks to know who you are and what you do. The good news is there are hundreds of ways to get the word out. The not as good news is that it may take you some time and trial and error to figure out what works best for you.

The thing to keep in mind with lead generation is that you aren’t only trying to reach buyers– you are also trying to reach people that may spread the word about you, or may tell you about an opportunity. You’re looking for leads. Leads to opportunities.

Some ways to get the word out:

1. Add your website or shop link to your email signature. Maybe your cousin knows you make those lovely handbags, but she hasn’t yet seen your etsy shop.

2. Blog about your items and creative process. Blogging is really critical for building relationships and a solid fan base, but blogs are also great for getting the attention of search engines. Search engines, like google, love blogs. People who google for items like yours may find your blog.

3. Add photos to flickr. Be careful here– flickr does not allow blatant promotion or sales language. But flickr is an excellent way to reach bloggers and people interested in your craft/art. Set your flickr preferences to allow people to use your photos in their blogs (the photos in their blogs will link to your flickr photo stream).

4. Get a free trunkt portfolio or upgrade to a paid portfolio.

5. Submit to craftgawker.

6. Create a facebook fanpage for your creative business. Facebook isn’t my personal favorite thing, but some people love it and swear facebook brings them sales.

7. Use twitter. Again, you may like twitter as promotional tool. Or not.

8. Share the love. Create a gift gallery at Scoutie Girl Gifts and include one of your pieces that complements the other items.

9. Submit your work to Cloth, Paper, Scissors and the Somerset Studio magazines.

10. Contact bloggers and ask them to write about you.

11. Buy advertising on blogs.

12. Include freebies (that include your shop name and website address) with your items that buyers may share with their friends. I send a few postcards of my photography with purchases of my prints. And give a big stack of those postcards to your mom.

13. Get hits from google. Optimize your etsy shop titles and descriptions for search engines. Be sure your item titles include words that describe what the item is. If it’s a necklace, put the work “necklace” in the title. If it’s a photograph of a red truck, put the words “red truck” in the title. The first couple of lines of the item description is most important to google; put information on shipping or policies further down in the description.

I recommend you pick a few venues that you think won’t drive you crazy and work them regularly.

Some of these venues could be updated with each new item you create. For example, at one time I was disciplined and would post new photographs on etsy, trunkt, flickr, 1000 markets and my blog. New work always got posted to five places. I’ve fallen out of that habit and I think it would be a good habit for me to get back into.

Other methods for lead generation are better suited to occasional review. Blog ads. Keyword strategies for your etsy shop. Creating postcards or other promotional items.

What other sites do you recommend for getting the word out about your shop? Where do you post your new items?

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My very best tip for marketing your online shop is not sexy. It’s not a magic bullet. It’s not going to make headlines. My best advice to set your etsy sales on fire is to work your business in 6 core areas. Small gains in each area will add up. This is my secret to etsy sales success and I know it will work for you too.

The 6 core areas of your business to develop (from my hands down favorite marketing guru Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz) are:

1. Lead generation. (More people seeing your stuff.)

2. Conversion. (More people buying once they see it.)

3. Dollars per sale. (More money per purchase.)

4. Personal relationships. (More people who really like you.)

5. Personal effectiveness. (More good work done in less time.)

6. Repeats and referrals. (More stuff down the line.)

What improvements can you make in each area? Make a list. Write it down. You need to come up actionable steps for each area. These do not have to be huge, take-over-the-world tasks. What are the small, almost painless things you can do in each area?

I started making significant gains in my etsy photography shop after I wrote down this list and came up with specific, achievable actions in each area. It’s an ongoing process; I should revisit this list regularly (and schedule that in my business calendar).

1. How can you get more folks to your online shop? Twitter. Facebook. Paid ads on blogs. Your mailing list (see How to Market Your Etsy Shop with Mailchimp).

Don’t stop there! A mistake I see many etsy sellers making is thinking that marketing is all about getting people to the shop. That’s just part of the equation.

2. How can you turn browsers into buyers? Etsy usability testing shows that the number one reason people don’t make a purchase online is that they don’t feel that they have enough information about the product. (Data gathered from Etsy’s online workshop Turning Browsers into Buyers.) Are you using all five photo opportunities in your etsy listings? Are your descriptions answering your buyers’ questions? When you are writing your descriptions, pretend that there isn’t a photograph in the listing and describe your item.

[Update! Danielle of Etsy.com was gracious to point out that previous statement is not quite correct. The Turning Browsers into Buyers workshop featured information from a Deloitte report on Customer Conversion. On turning browsers into buyers that report reads:

Surprisingly, “price too high” is often among the least mentioned factors in determining conversion success. The most frequently mentioned reason typically is “unable to decide.” This suggests that retailers can help shoppers the most by organizing their merchandise and informing and assisting their customers.

3. How can you increase your dollars per sale? I increased my dollars per sale in two specific ways. 1) I offer sets of prints at a special price (for example, four 8×10 photographs at a lower price than four 8×10 photographs priced separately). 2) I targeted my larger prints (higher price point items) for marketing efforts. Both tactics are paying off for me.

4. How can you connect with more friends and fans? Use social media. Work to build relationships, not just bigger numbers of followers and fans. Blog. Facebook. Twitter. (Haha, I used “facebook” as a verb.)

5. How can you streamline your studio? What can you do to get more good work done in less time? For me, one task was to organize my photography prints in my flat files. Simple. But somehow I hadn’t done it before. Maybe I hadn’t really considered how the small task of organizing my flat file would contribute to my online sales success.

6. How can you encourage repeats and referrals? Offer discounts to repeat buyers. Ask people to tell their friends about you.

The key is to make a list of easy, actionable steps. Do it now.

I got this fabulous list of 6 core areas of your business from Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz in an email explaining the the marketing magic she and Sonia Simone would be covering in their course Marketing for Nice People. If you are ready to get serious about marketing your business, I recommend IttyBiz’s Marketing School.

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