Customer Service: Providing Service before, during, and after a Purchase

What is Customer Service? Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. 

 When you run an Etsy shop, every dealing you have with a customer reflects back on your business. Having a bad day? You might be tempted to snap off a reply to a customer, but what will that do? In the short term, you'll lose a return or future customer. In the long run, you can wind up with poor shop reviews, and a loss of future income.

In the field of customer service, your words reflect on you, your business, and your products. The way you respond sets the tone for your shop- both good, and bad. In the long run, you want people to think about the quality of the product you sell when they see your shop. You don't want them to recall the hassle it was to get you to reply, or the problems they had when shipping was delayed, or the rude reply you sent when they asked how long it would take to be made.

Your customers are your life line. They pay the bills to keep your shop up and running, and even when they are may not be polite, they do deserve to be treated respectfully. Below are some examples of good ways to reply to situations you may encounter as an Etsy store owner.

A good salesperson can sell anyone something one time. Your customer service will determine if that customer comes back, and if they bring friends.


Example 1:  The I want a Discount Customer

"Hi, I was just looking through your store, and I was wondering if you had any discount codes available right now? Thanks!"





Bad reply:

"no, I don't, and it's rude to even ask me. If you can't afford it, shop elsewhere."

Good reply:

"Hi- I am glad you like my shop! At this time, I currently do not have a coupon code available for my shop. I do plan to offer one in the next few weeks, though. Would you like me to contact you when it becomes available?"

Alternate Good Reply:

"Hi- I am glad you like my shop! I am currently running a sale, and all of my prices are already discounted XX%. I am not able to offer further discounts at this time. The sale ends on X date, at which time, my prices will return to full price. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask! Thank you!"

There are countless ways to reply, but your replies should always be made while keeping your business in mind. Customers ask for a discount for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, they simply can not afford your prices. Sometimes, they just want to make sure they didn't over look a published coupon code. Sometimes they just want to see if you will go lower.

My thoughts on coupon codes are this. If you have put time and thought into your product pricing, then you should account for: Supplies, Time, and Fees. That means your price should 100% cover the time it took to make (you ARE paying yourself an hourly wage, right???), the amount it cost to purchase the supplies, and the fees that Etsy, Direct Pay, and Paypal take out of the sale. If you are covering all of that, and have the appropriate mark up in place on top of that, then you WILL make a profit even with a 10% discount.

However, if 10% means you won't even break even on the supply costs, then you are not priced appropriately anyway, and should sit down and figure out how to price your items, so that you are making money.


Example 2: The Why Isn't It Done Yet Customer

"I ordered this last week, and it hasn't even shipped yet? I need it this weekend, when is it going to ship?"

Bad Reply:

"My production time was listed in the listing. Didn't you read it? It won't be there by this weekend, I haven't even started it yet."

Good reply:

"Hi- this item is in line for completion, but I still have X orders ahead of your item. I am sorry, but at this time, I am unable to complete and mail it to arrive before this weekend. My current production time is listed in my shipping time, and this particular order is on track to ship out next Tuesday. However, I see that you need it sooner. I can try to work with you on that. I do offer a rush production option on my main page- the link can be found here. In addition, I can do a custom listing to upgrade your shipping to priority over night for $X, or 2 day shipping for X to ensure that the item arrives on time. If neither of these options work for you, I can offer a full refund. Please let me know what you would prefer as quickly as possible, so I can get started on your purchase as needed. Thank you!"


When a customer orders from Etsy, unless they are a crafter, or an Etsy shop owner themselves, they are stuck in the "Amazon" mentality.  They often presume that we have our items already made, set aside, and just waiting to be shipped the moment an order comes in- even on customized items made just for them. 

The way you respond will be the difference in a refund, or keeping the order, and the difference between a bad review, and a good one.


Example 3: The Where is My Purchase customer

"Where is my purchase?!?!? I ordered it, it says it shipped over a week ago, but no item arrived! I ordered this for a special event, and now I don't even need it! I want a refund, this is dumb!!"

Bad reply:

"I shipped it. It's out of my hands. Check your post office." Or, another bad reply; "Sorry, you didn't tell me when it was due. I don't accept returns at all. The post office has it right now, I can't do anything about that." Or worse- escalating the issue. "It's not my fault! I shipped it. You yelling at me is what's "dumb". Stop contacting me, or I'll report you for harassment!" (By the way, I have seen people actually post that they have either SENT or RECEIVED each of those replies. BAD Business move!)

Good reply:

"I apologize that the item has not arrived yet. I did send it out on X day, with X type of mailing. The current tracking shows that your item is out for delivery today, and should arrive by the end of the business day. If it does not, please let me know, and I can contact the post office to see why there is a delay.

For future orders, if you have a deadline, it is helpful to contact me, so I can ensure that the proper postage us purchased for faster delivery. Unfortunately, the post office has been sluggish lately, and it is effecting how quickly items arrive. Here is a 5/10% coupon good on a future purchase. If you have any more concerns, please let me know, and I will try to help to the best of my ability.

If, after it arrives, you are still interested in a refund, please let me know. My policy is to allow refunds within X days of receiving the product. I do request that the item be shipped back to me in the shape it arrives. Once I have it in hand, I am happy to refund the full purchase amount."

Crabby customers are not any fun to deal with. However, your reply can help manage the situation, and even defuse the situation. When someone spends hard earned money on an item, and it doesn't arrive as quickly as they want, they can get upset about it. You never want to escalate an issue by stooping to the level of an angry internet typer, because it reflects on you, your business, and your product.


Example 4: The Refund Demanding customer

"I ordered this in X color, and it looks nothing like it did in the photo! This doesn't match what I need at all. I need a refund!"

Bad Reply:

"I don't accept returns. Sorry!"

Good Reply:

"Hi- thank you for contacting me. Unfortunately, due to screen settings, colors may occasionally differ from what you see on screen. In my listing, I do have it noted, but I will try to make sure it's more prominent in the future.

With the type of item this is, I normally do not allow returns. However, if you can get it mailed back to me quickly, I can offer either an exchange for another color/style, or I can offer store credit. If this won't work, we can work out something on a refund.

Please let me know your choice as quickly as possible.

Thanks you!"

The old adage is "The customer is always right." Except they are not always right in what they think, say, or demand. That said, what this quote means, is the customer is easier to deal with if you give into what they want.

Offering options before the refund gives them an alternative, while allowing you to keep the sale. It won't always work- some people are going to be difficult no matter what you offer. In those instances, there are lines you can draw, while still remaining polite.

Example 5: The never pleased, very angry customer

"I don't care why it hasn't arrived, this is unacceptable! I feel like you've ripped me off! I'm going to talk to Etsy, this is unacceptable!! If I don't get a refund immediately, I will RUIN you!"

Bad Reply:

"I'm done dealing with you! Don't like it? Tough! It's my shop, what I say goes!!"

Good Reply:

"I am sorry you feel that I am unable to help you with this matter. As I have said, your product is en route. I am unable to ensure that it arrives any faster at this point. If you still feel that a refund is in order after the product arrives, I will be happy to discuss it with you at that time. My shop policies are in place to protect my business. I simply am unable to refund the product without it being returned to me first. At this point, I have said all I can to help, and have done what I could to locate the package. I am unable to help any further until the package arrives. If you continue to act abusive towards me, I will have no choice but to let Etsy step in and help.

If you would prefer to begin an Etsy case against me, that is your prerogative, but at this point, I will not be replying to any more abusive messages, and will be forwarding them on to Etsy. I am sorry we were unable to work this problem out.

Thank you for your time"

No one, and I mean NO ONE, likes to deal with the never pleased, very angry customer. However, it happens all the time.  When a customer is angry, they tend to drift into the realm of abusive in their replies. This could be calling you names (I avoided vulgarity, but it happens often with customers like this!), it could be threats, it could be blackmail. Once a customer crosses that line, my best advice is to reply politely (gritting your teeth the entire time if you must!), and let them know your options once more, and follow it up letting them know that you have helped to the best of your ability, and that any future abusive replies will be left for Etsy to sort out.

At that point, if they continue to reply, or send messages, keep them, but don't reply. You can contact Etsy to step in as needed, but it may take them several days to reply to you. However, if an angry customer does open a case against you, the messages are proof towards how that customer acted, and why they are demanding a refund. It will also help to remove a negative review if they leave one.

Please note, the "Never pleased, always angry" customer will not leave a positive review at this point. If they have reached the point of being abusive, the most you can hope for, is that they do not leave any review. If they do leave a bad review, do not reply publicly to it. Just report it to Etsy, and give them as much information as you can about it, and hope that they remove it.


Final Tips on Customer Service.

While the above examples are some of the more popular types of issues you may run into, there are many more. Here's a list of quick tips to keep in mind when replying to a customer.

1. Reply to messages and emails promptly. No one expects to receive a reply within minutes, but you should make sure that you reply at your earliest convenience. No one likes to wait for days for a response, and that delay will lose you that customer.

2. Be honest and upfront. If a customer messages you asking if you can make X product and have it shipped and at their door by X date, be honest. If you can't do it, let them know. It will save you the headache of dealing with an upset customer later one, when you have not delivered on the promise. If you feel you can deliver on it, but at some point fall behind (kids are sick, work called me in for extra shifts, I fell and broke my arm!), make sure to message them immediately, prepared to offer a full refund. If a customer needs an item by X date, they need it by X date, period.

3. Listen to what they need. When customers message you, or add a note to an order, listen to it, and reply. If it's something you can do, let them know your options. If it's something you can't do, let them know. Your customer's needs will dictate the sale. If you are selling a yellow sundress, and they want it in hot pink chevron, but did not ask before purchasing, message them, let them know if you can not provide it, and be prepared to offer a refund. This goes hand in hand with number 2.

4. Reply to complaints. This is the biggest place where shops tend to fail. If someone messages you and has a complaint about the time frame, the shipping time, the cost, or even the product itself, take the time to reply (politely!), and address their concerns. Offer to fix what you can fix. Some things are out of our hands, such as shipping time. But if they have an issue with a button that fell off, offer to fix it. If the size is too small, offer to fix it. If it arrived past the date when they needed it, offer to fix it. Fixing it may mean losing the sale by offering a refund. It may mean exchanging the product for another. If you can fix it, offer to do so every time. Be honest (number 2!) about your ability to change the outcome- if they wanted a different shade of blue, and you don't offer that color, be honest. If they ordered a completely personalized item you will never be able to resell, let them know that you can't offer a refund on custom items. 

5. Offer your help. Not all messages are going to result in a customer, but if the person has an issue you can help with, offer to do so. If they have questions about your products, offer to help by answering those questions. If they are trying to locate something you don't sell, but you know someone who does, offer them the link. If they need something faster than your current wait time allows, offer options, such as expedited shipping, or a rush fee for putting the item ahead of the line.

6. Go the extra mile. If someone comes to you and says "I'm looking for this, can you do something similar?", let them know if you can, and if you can, let them know where to find it, and other similar items in your shop. If someone wants a blue hair bow, and you offer 3 different blue hair bows, give them each option. Additionally, you can let them know the price of the item, and how quickly it can be mailed out. When you send a package, adding a small item for free on high priced items is never a bad idea. If you sell hand beaded necklaces, adding a small wire wrapped ring to the order will cost you little in supplies, but will keep you memorable. You can add a business card sized "Thank you for your purchase! Please enjoy this gift from me to you!" with the purchase. Include your shop information on it, so they can easily reference it in the future.

Etsy: Utilizing Pinterest

Unless you have lived under a rock, you have heard about Pinterest. Basically, it's girl porn. You can design your dream house, plan your dream wardrobe, imagine all the pre-school snacks you can make and be the envy of all the other moms, and you can do it all in your PJ's.

You can also advertise your items on Pinterest. If you have a pin board, and you are not advertising on it, you are losing out on so many potential customers.


So how do you advertise on Pinterest?

The easy way to pin something from your Etsy page is to go straight to the listing. As long as you already have a pin board, and are logged in, it takes about 10 seconds to pin an item from your shop.

Go to your shop page, and choose an item- any item, and open the item. Once it's open, the page will look something like this:

You'll note that under the green ADD TO CART button, you have your social media buttons- favorite, add to, Tweet, Pin, Tumblr+, and Facebook. The button highlighted in green on my image shows the PIN IT button.

Just click, select a board, and hit enter. It's quick, painless, easy, and FREE.

Another popular way to advertise on Pinterest, is to find group boards. These are large boards with large followings (I recommend finding boards with at least 1,000 followers on the specific board), and become a member of the board.

So here's a quick run down on getting onto a group board. First and foremost, you have to click FOLLOW on the board. It will be spammy, so if you hate your Pinterest feed being cluttered with all sorts of stuff, then you may want to create a second account, or not join group boards.

To follow a specific board, click the red button that says FOLLOW.

It will look like the image above, and be off on the right side of the screen. Once you are following the board, someone has to invite you to be able to pin to the board. A good board will be on top of this, and you'll receive an invite within 24 hours. 

The invite will come across through your board notifications, so make sure if you have a lot of notices, that you go through them to accept the invite.

Once you are invited, you are free to post - but please make sure you are aware of the board's rules. Some require that you repin other member's pins. Some request you only pin a few a day. Others limit what type of pins they'll accept.

The rules will be at the top of the page, like this:

This shows the board rules, the number of followers, and number of pins- the pin count is low, because it's a brand new board.

Once you are a member, feel free to pin all sorts of goodies from your shop to these boards! They will help gain exposure from a whole new group of people, which helps your shop with views and (hopefully) sales!

On average, I get about 100-200 views in my shop from Pinterest each month. I know some very active shop owners that get more like 200 a week. Unfortunately, Etsy does not track where sales come from, so whether or not it's profitable? Who knows. But it's free, so in my opinion, it's worth it.

And here's my group board- just started tonight. I have over 1200 people who will see anything posted to it in their Pinterest feed. It's a good place to start!

Click me to go to the board!

Overall, for a free form of advertising, it's a good one. I highly recommend it. And it's easier to do than Instagramming... which we'll cover in my next post.

Need more Etsy tips? Check out the side bar on my blog page- I have lots of posts about Etsy!

Tools for Etsy

 
Etsy is hard. But, there are Etsy tools to help make your job easier. Here are some of my favorites.

1. Etsy Calculator - Do you know how much your items cost to make? Are you factoring in the listing fees, the commission, and payment fees of your sale? If not, you should be!  Check out the calculator- it tells you how much you should be charging in order to cover 100% of your costs, and still make a wage off the sale.
2. Etsy Relevancy - This tool will give you a run down of the most popular listings, tags, sellers, and will tell you whether or not any of your items show up in the first 20 pages of results for the keyword search you used. This is a great way just see how relevant your listings are, and determine the changes you need to make to get listed better.
3. Etsy on Sale - Have you noticed Etsy listings with the price listed in red, crossed out, and a new price listed? This is something that Etsy itself does not offer. To run a bonafide sale with as little grunt work as possible, you need to use this tool. It runs on a credit system- you will start off with 10 credits when using the link above. Each time you run a sale, it costs 4 credits- the page allows you to choose the start/end date of the sale, the discount, and even what categories you want to list on sale (or the full shop). With 10 credits, you can run 2 full sales. After that, you can either provide a referral link to earn more credits, or pay a small amount to purchase more. 

There are more great tools available online for Etsy shop owners, but these 3 are my absolutely favorite, and the ones I refer to most often.

Check out more Etsy tips in these posts:

• Etsy: 10 Tips
• Etsy: Promoting your Etsy Shop Online
• Etsy: Boosting Your Organic Shop Views
• Etsy: How to Promote on Etsy
• Etsy: Setting Goals

 And don't forget to take some time to check out my Etsy shop! I just hit my 5th year anniversary on Etsy!

Etsy: Boosting Shop Views

The one question (in various forms) that I see the most often is a variation of "No one is buying from me, what am I doing wrong?"

Variations include:
"I have a ton of views and favorites, but not a single sale, why not?"
"I get no views, why not?"
"People love my shop, but aren't shopping, are my prices too high?"

There are almost as many answers to those questions, as there are variations of those questions. First up, let me give you a quick description of one answer you will probably hear, "How many of those views are organic?"
Organic Views are views that originate on their own. They are the views you get when someone searches for a product, and finds your shop. They are the views you get when someone opens a non-game link.

But the biggest thing Organic Views are? They are SHOPPERS. Someone who is taking the time to look for a specific product on Etsy is doing it because they want it (or, to a much lesser degree, they could also be competition looking at prices, descriptions, etc).

If organic views come from shoppers, then it stands to reason that organic views are king in our world.

Now that you know what Organic Views are, let's talk briefly about non-organic views.

For those of you who belong to Facebook groups, and Etsy Teams, you have probably at some point in time, participated in a game, or a ladder.

• Favorite 5 items from each shop on the list
• Tweet 2 items from each shop
• Favorite the 3 shops above you in the list
• Follow the shop owners in the list

These are all examples of games, or ladders. A game is designed to bring you views. Say you are in a FB group, and you comment on a post that says "Fav-A-Thon - Favorite every item listed below, and post 3 of your own!"

It sounds like a great idea- you get page views, which means potential customers, and of course, you'll get better search results from all the awesome favorites, right? And what's it take, like 20 minutes of time?

Well, here's the lowdown on games & ladders.

• Do you get views? Yes, but they are not organic. They are views from people doing the same thing you are- trying to boost their numbers.
• Do you get favorites? Yes, but they are not organic, either. The other shop owners are clicking favorites without really caring what the item is, so it skews the numbers. Genuine favorites come from people who actually like the item, and are considering purchasing it from you.
• Does this boost my SEO? Yes, but it's very minimal. The SEO algorithm is constantly changing, and it does recognize the difference between a "drive by" click, and someone who sticks around to actually browse your shop and spend time in it. So, while it may give a minimal boost to your shop numbers, it is not enough to really see a difference.
• Do you get sales? This varies from store to store. My shop is marketed at Etsy shop owners. I have gotten a few sales as a direct result of games. I have also discovered a few shops I really liked, and have either purchased from or plan to. That said, the majority of shop owners who participate in games do not do so with the intention of purchasing from your shop.

Bottom line on games & ladders for views & favorites? If you have time to blow, there are worse ways to blow it, but it really is not doing your shop nearly as much good as many people will tell you.

Now that we've talked both Organic and Non-Organic Views, let's get down to some nitty gritty.

Why does your shop get 400 views a day, and 175 favorites, but no sales? 

My answer? Because you need to work on your SEO, Titles, Descriptions, and Keywords. When I see people saying they get 175 favorites a day, I automatically know that both their views and their favorites are almost entirely from games.

On paper, those numbers look great. But they are doing you a disservice of making you think your shop has people shopping in it, vs people who are glancing at your sales ad, and tossing it in the trash bin.

My best advice to shops who get almost no sales, but that participate in games to boost their numbers? Stop playing the games for 2 weeks. Cold turkey.

2 Week Challenge


This will give you an honest idea of how your shop is actually doing in terms of organic views and shoppers. That doesn't mean you can't promote your shop. Just don't do it with games. Games mask your organic reach. If you don't know how well your shop is doing without games, then you don't know how your shop is doing, period.

So here's the things I want you to take the time to do during those 2 weeks.

• Make sure your Titles, Descriptions, and Tags all match each other for each post, but NOT for every item that is the same. IE: Item 1 and Item 2 should not have identical tags, titles, and descriptions. That will skew your search results, and SEO hates identical posts. Make sure at least 5 tags are unique to each item, and the first paragraph on every item should be unique.
• Go to your shop's STATS page, and set the time frame to "All Time". Scroll down until you reach the words "Top Keywords". Listed there, you will see every single keyword (single, or multiple words) that anyone has ever used that resulted in them finding your shop on Etsy. These are the phrases that carry the most weight in your shop, so use them. Make sure that they are sprinkled through out your descriptions, and if they fit, in the tags and titles of the items they match. This will help boost your search results, and will push your items closer to the front page (if they are not there yet!)
• Ask for a shop critique on both Facebook Etsy pages, and in Etsy team pages. Shop critiques can be hard to hear, but the people who give them are doing it to help you, and they are doing it with fresh eyes. It can be very hard for a shop owner to see the flaws in their shop. From missing words, to descriptions that are not descriptive, to bad photos- our fault as shop owners is that we think what we have done with our shop is exactly right, when it may be way off base. Take the advice, and try to make the changes people recommend. 
• Add a few new items. It does not have to be a lot. It could be 2 new items. But adding new items gives your shop a fresh chance at views, and it livens up the shop. Would you want to walk into Target, and see the exact same 10 items for sale every time, with no new items, no changes? You would stop shopping there. When you add new items, it helps a lot. 
• Keep track of your daily views- use a note pad, or a calender, or whatever, but write down how many total views you have for each of the 2 weeks. See if they are going up (if you have worked on everything above, they should start going up slowly). 

You won't see results the next day. Anytime I change up a listing with a fresh title, description, and keywords, it takes me about 4-5 days to see a difference. But, I do see it. By the end of 2 weeks, you should be seeing an increase in organic views (and hopefully some sales!).

I don't guarantee sales. My articles are all things I have done in the past, or still actively do. I'm not the best shop out there- I know I have a lot of changes that I could be making. But, over the past 4 months, my views, sales, and profits just keep going up each month.

It's worth the time to invest in making your shop the best you can make it. Your shop is what you make of it.

Want more tips for Etsy? Check out these articles I have written:

• Setting Achievable Goals on Etsy
• Top Etsy Shop Tips
• Promoting On Etsy
• Promoting Your Etsy Shop Online

Looking for new Etsy shop graphics? Check out my Etsy shop!

 

Etsy - Setting Achievable Goals

One thing I do every month, is set a goal on Etsy. Goals can be anything- from number of views, to favorites, to number of sales, to amount of money earned, to how many new items you add to your shop.

But the biggest thing about setting a goal, is that it should be obtainable. Enough to push yourself, but not so much that you wind up frustrated and upset over it, and not coming anywhere close to it.

When you decide to set a goal, it gives you something to work towards, and gives you a spot where you can say "Yes, it's time to celebrate!"

Here are some helpful things to consider when setting your goals.

• Where do you want your shop to be in a month? Do you want more sales? Are you actively trying to list more items to your shop? Consider what aspect of your shop is most important.
• Look at the last 3 months in your shop (if it's old enough! If not, look at how long it has been open), and check each month individually. This can be done through STATS, then selecting SPECIFIC DATES, and choosing the start and end date that you want to look at.
• Look at number of sales for each of December, January, and February (or the 3 most recent completed months!)
• Look at the number of views for each of the three months.
• Look at the number of Favorites (both shop and items) for those three months
• Look at your revenue over those last three months.
• Add all 3 of the months together under each category- Views, Sales, Favorites, Revenue. This will give you a 3 month average for each category.
• Once you know how well you have done for the past 3 months, stop and pat yourself on the back. Running an Etsy shop is hard, and whether you had 1 sale for the whole time, or 200, you have done a great job at getting your business up and running. Take time to appreciate how far you have come.
• Look at the category averages, and consider how you want to set your goal. Is your 3 month average less than what you actually had in all 4 categories for the last month? If so, you may want to look at just that single month to determine your goal. If it's more than last month, then you may want to consider the actual average as your goal for this upcoming month. 

Remember, above all else, make your goals achievable. Don't set them so far out of reach that you are going to be upset, angry, and ready to quit if you aren't getting near it. If your income for last month was $230, and you set this month at $850, you are going to wind up disappointed.

Growing a business takes time. It doesn't happen over night, and it doesn't happen by itself. Just like raising a child doesn't happen over night, or by itself. You have to work at it. You wouldn't expect your newborn to walk, talk, and use the toilet, would you? So don't expect your shop to out perform what it has shown it can do.

Goals should be just barely out of reach. If you made $400 this month, setting a goal of $450 is obtainable with some work. And if you surpass it, even better! But it's best to have a goal you are confidant in.

I will warn you- there will be months where you may not reach the goal. You might come close, but not quite, or you may have a weird month, and just nothing at all is moving. It happens to everyone- you are not alone!

Some months are worse. January is a bad month- the holiday's are over, so not only are people done buying gifts, but the reality of what they spent for Christmas has set in, and they are trying to save money. For the first few months of the year, it's a good idea to lower your goals from where they might have been in October, November, and December. Your shop will have a natural drop off in January and February, but it will slowly pick up speed again.

Keep track of your goals, and the end of month results. Start a file on your computer, or get a wall calender to write them down in. It's neat to watch as your goals grow.

Oh- one last thing. If a monthly goal feels too long, and you want to see better results, doing weekly goals also works. Just make sure you consider the last 6-12 weeks first, and keep in mind that with a weekly goal, you are more likely to experience a week where you fail to meet the goal. But it happens!

As long as you are trying your hardest to make sure shop succeed, then you are doing your job.


Need more Etsy help? Check out my helpful articles:

• Etsy Shop Tips 
• Promoting On Etsy: The Lowdown
• Promoting Your Etsy Shop Online

Promoting Your Etsy Shop - Some Advice

As we've established in prior posts, getting a shop up and running on Etsy takes more work than simply making the items you want to sell. It's downright hard work.

Part of what you need to be willing to do, is promoting your shop on your own. There are a lot of ways to do this. Some are easy, and others take perseverance and patience.

First up, the most common way: Social Media.

Social Media is free. That's the easy part. The hard part? Finding where to promote your shop. Obviously, you can share your shop on Facebook, and you'll probably get some hits from your family and friends, but they won't want to be bombarded with posts daily.

Facebook: Find some groups. First and foremost, find some Etsy specific groups. These are good mainly for help when you need it, but they also are a good way to promote your items to each other. Your shop may not see a lot of sales, but the traffic will go up, and that is a big help. You will also find a lot of help by way of Shop Critiques. What's that? It's where perfect strangers come in and tell you what you can/should do to change your shop and make it more appealing to shoppers.

My favorite groups on Facebook:

• Helping Etsiansv - This groups is helpful in giving tips, answering questions, and it does allow you to post links to your shop twice a day. With over 12,000 members, you are sure to find some interest, and get your questions answered.
  
• Amazing Etsians - This group is small, with under 1,000 members. However, I have found that despite it's size, it's been helpful in getting promoting done. The members are encouraged (ie: not required, but strongly encouraged) to go through and favorite, pin, and tweet several listings a day from each other. This helps get your shop out there to new groups of people. If you join, please make sure you can take the time to promote each other.

There are hundreds of other groups for Etsy on Facebook. Some are decent, some are filled to the brim with spam. I've joined and left dozens of groups. I currently belong to 18 self promoting groups on Etsy.

Another type of group to find are the ones with people who will buy your stuff. Sounds ideal, right? But it's the truth.  Say you sell wedding favors. Who would you want to sell to? Brides to be, right? Well, you'd want to look up groups on Facebook that are geared towards women planning their weddings.

Be forewarned- not all groups allow advertising, so make sure you read the rules of the group before you jump in.

Twitter: On Twitter, it's not like there are groups of people who can go directly to a page and see what you posted. They only see what you post if it's relevant to a hashtag they clicked. So for Twitter, you need to find the most relevant hashtags to your items, and learn how to post so that your item link is in it, the item name is in it, and relevant hashtags.

Some examples of popular Etsy Hashtags:
#shopetsy
#shophandmade
#etsy
#etsyshop

There are also Twitter parties. What are these? They are a set day and time where people log into twitter, and share their Etsy items, all using a specific hashtag. During the parties, you should also visit the links others post, and retweet them. This will ensure you are well received. People who log in just to spam their own link and not interact will not see much of a return from Twitter parties.

You can find Twitter parties by doing a web search for "Etsy Twitter Party".  Several Facebook groups promote their own parties.

Bestie.com: Bestie is Twitter & Facebook meshed for products. You can only promote products, abd it's a big mashup of people. Etsy itself promotes on the site, and I've had the fortune to have them post some of my items. You share items, "save" other items from other people, and hope they do the same for you. You can also friend people on there, which allows a further reach.

StumbleUpon!: Stumble is a way to rank a website or page on the internet, share it with the page, and hope it goes viral. This site is good for immediate views, but within about 5 minutes, the views are gone. The site really works best for funny websites, not products, but it is a free way to promote.

Pinterest: Who hasn't heard of Pinterest yet? They call it White Girl Porn. It's really a fun site, but it can be a giant time suck. That said, it's a great way to promote for free, so whose to look that gift horse in the mouth? Pinning your etsy items is EASY.

Simply go to your listing on Etsy, and click the PIN IT button, right under the price tag. As long as you are logged into Pinterest already, it will bring up a window, ask you to choose your board, and allow you to pin it. It takes about 15 seconds to do. It's worth your time. I have, on average, 30 views a day generated from Pinterest.

Now for the slightly harder page that will change your game entirely.

UPDATE: 4/17/2015- As of April 16th, 2015, Facebook no longer allows any outside marketing program to automatically send posts to Facebook Groups. This does not effect FB pages, or personal pages. I'm not sure I will continue the service in May, as the groups were probably the place I market to the most, and get the most response from. I've got some stuff scheduled more heavily to Twitter and my FB page now, but as of today, I'm not sure that Around.io is really worth the monthly fee.

Aroundio - This page is one I have seen people mention, but I figured it was just another social media type site. Not so. In fact, it's probably my best promotion find to date.

To break it down- Aroundio costs $10 a month, which is a subscription that can be cancelled at any time. It's paid out through Paypal. You MUST have an Etsy account for Aroundio. There is a free 7 day trial to see if it works for you, though. I encourage you to use it, since you do not sign up for any payment information until your trial is done.

With Aroundio, you can pre-schedule posts to:

Twitter
Facebook
Facebook Groups
Pinterest
Tumblr

You can schedule as many or as few as you want. I currently have it set up to post twice daily to 14 different Etsy groups on Facebook, 4x daily to my Facebook shop page, 6x daily to Twitter, and 9x daily to Pinterest.

The best part? It will generate all the posts for you. You just have to schedule them. It will set a random time, chose the groups, and the posts. For Twitter, it even does quotes so that you are drawing additional people to your Twitter page from the #quote hashtag.

It's been a huge boost for me. I get more comments on my automated posts in groups, and I see more traffic to Etsy.  I'm not sure if it helps with sales, but today is March 3rd, and I have 13 sales already, and I'm over $100 in revenue. From Feb 1-3rd, I had 2 sales, and $16 revenue. I had 481 shop views Feb 1-3, and 66 Favorites. I had 780 shop views from March 1-3, and 83 Favorites. All around, those are great jumps in numbers.

Even if you decide it's not for you, it's WORTH the trial run.

Don't forget to check out my other articles about how to make Etsy shops work for you!

Promoting On Etsy: The Lowdown
10 Tips For Selling on Etsy
Etsy: Setting Goals

Promoting on Etsy: The Lowdown

Promoting on Etsy: The Lowdown - making your Etsy shop WORK for YOU!

Now that you have an Etsy shop, how do you make sure you are being seen? The Promotion tool is a good one- but only if you know how it works, and how to utilize it properly.

Let's start with some words used in Etsy Promotion, and the meaning behind them.

• Impressions - This word means how many times your ad is seen by Etsy users. Each impression is a chance for a sale.
• Click - This word means how many times people have clicked your ad open to view the actual shop item. Each click is a chance for your shop to be viewed.  
• Cost - This is how much you have paid Etsy to promote your items.
• Revenue - This is how much your shop has made based on people purchasing items you have ad's for. They only count money that comes directly from an ad Click. 
• Daily Budget - This is the amount of money you are willing to pay each day for your ad's to be shown.
• Bid - This is the amount of money you are willing to pay per click on each specific item. This amount can be $0.05 to $0.99. 

Ok, now you know the words, but what do they all mean for your shop?

Over the past 2 months, I have done a lot of tests on my daily budget, how many items I promoted at a time, and how much I bid each item at.  Below is my promoted listings graph for a 7 day period. You can see my daily budget (currently $3), my impressions (over 3500), my clicks (73), my cost ($11.42), and my revenue ($37).

You can also see that my daily graph goes way up, then starts coming down. The last day is small only because it's only 4pm right now, and it is not representing a full day.

The change represents my budget. From Feb 10-20th, I had a daily budget of $1.50. I split it over 5 items in 2 categories. During that time frame, my promoting was not successful. I got clicks, but I ran through my daily budget fast, leaving me with no advertising for the rest of the day.

On the 21st, I bumped my budget up to $2.50, and cut back my items to 3 items, all in the same category, with the same keywords. That's when you see the jump. My 7 day revenue is solely based on purchases made from Feb 21-25th. There was no purchase during the first few days when I was at $1.50/day.

Here are my suggestions, based on what I have seen work with my own shop.

1. The amount you bid, and your keywords, determines  where your items are seen. Etsy shows up to 250 pages of items when you do a basic search. If your keywords are not up to snuff, you'll be on page 5 or 10, or 25. You won't be seen. If you only bid $1.00, but expect that $1 to cover 45 items, you will blow through your budget before 6am, and won't be seen. Bottom line- pay in more than $1, and make sure your keywords are SPOT on. 
2. Your bid amount matters. If you bid your items at $.05 each, but another shop in the same category bids $.15 each, which do you think Etsy will bump forward on the page? You can bid up to $.99 per click, but I do not recommend it. Unless you are paying $20 a day, that $.99 click will shut down your advertising every day before it really starts. There is an automated amount- this amount determines how much other shops are paying, and will try to come in the middle of the line. It won't bump you to the front of the list, but it won't let you linger at the back. For people just starting out, automated is perfectly fine. If you plan to do a custom amount, start out around $.15-.25, and see how it goes.
3. You pay for every click. This is one thing that confuses new users. Quite often, I see the question, "Why is my bill so high?" or "Why am I paying to promote if I'm not getting sales?" The answer is "Because you are promoting your items." When you promote an item, you are paying for people to click the ad open. You are not paying for a sale (if that were the case, we'd all spend a LOT!). Each time someone opens your post when it's an AD, you are paying the amount you bid on it. This add's up fast, so make sure you are prepared for the cost. Start low, and go up as your shop grows.
4. Promote a few items, not a lot. It's counter-intuitive. You want to promote everything in your shop, right? Well, here's the problem. If you promote everything, your budget is spread out over all of it. Without a large budget, that means you are not getting the most bang for your buck. Because your ad's end when you hit your daily budget limit, you are less likely to be seen when it's spread out over 50 items. Instead, concentrate on 3-5 items at most. I found sticking to 3 gets me the best results. I also promote the items that are all in the same category, with the same keywords. This means I'm seen more often under that search result, usually 1 ad each on the first 3 pages. When someone searches that item, they'll see my 3 ad's, plus the 3-6 items I have that show up on the first 3 pages as well. Lastly, keep this in mind- even if all your items are unique, drawing someone in by blasting your ad in 1 category still brings people into the shop. They still see the other items you have.

With all of that in mind, it takes a bit of playing around to see what works best for your shop.

Personally, for me, $2.50 worked great with 3 items promoted. I do switch out the items I promote, but I stick to the same category. That means people who may regularly search those keywords are not seeing the same thing over and over again.

Promoting can work great, but you have to be willing to spend money to make money.

Want to know more about making your Etsy shop work for YOU? Check out my links below!

10 Tips For Selling on Etsy

Promoting Your Etsy Shop Online
Etsy: Setting Goals