Driving Traffic
Improving traffic to your shop can be achieved using several tools:
1. Promoting on social channels
2. Creating an Etsy store on Facebook and converting customers from there, directly to your Etsy store
3. Creating videos from Etsy photos and posting them on social channels
4. Adding stickers/banners to the main images
5. Build your eMail Marketing List and use it for re-targeting and direct mailing
6. Automatic renewal of items in Etsy
1. Promoting on social channels
Posting on Pinterest
With SellerMarketingTool, you can set auto-pinning rules to pin on the Pinterest boards you already have access to (whether they are private or public boards). The definition of the rules is done using the following tool:
With this tool, you can set up automation of pinning to boards and even specific board sections on Pinterest. In the Pin settings, you can define from which Etsy store section the pictures should be taken for pinning, to which board the pictures should be pinned, and how often the system should do this. You can set whether to post only the main image or also additional images that are in Etsy for each item. You can also add a list of hashtags that will be added to the post on Pinterest. Adding tags will help users find your posts more easily.
The pins created by SellerMarketingTool are directly linked to the specific items on Etsy.
The tool for automatic posting on Pinterest allows you to see the posts that the system has made, the publication times of each pin, and to delete them if needed.
Posting on Twitter
With SellerMarketingTool you can set up auto-tweeting rules for your Twitter account. The definition of the rules is done using the following tool:
With this tool, you can set the frequency of your tweets. The posted tweets are directly linked to the appropriate items in your Etsy store. You can also set the automatic tweeting of a collage. The system will collect four random images and create a collage that is then posted to your Twitter account, with a link to your shop.
Posting on Facebook
With SellerMarketingTool you can pre-schedule the posts on your Facebook account or any of the business pages connected to your Facebook. You can also immediately post any of your items (i.e., do not schedule the post for a future date/time).
Scheduling future post on Facebook is done by using the following tool:
It is recommended to schedule all posts for Facebook in advance (for example, once a week to set the posts for the rest of the week) and thus ensures the continuity of presence on this important platform.
2. Set-up a Facebook Shop with SellerMarketingTool Feed
You can set-up a Facebook shop for most tangible products (selling digital products is prohibited). Loading products to your Facebook shop can be done manually or automatically. Automatically populating your Facebook shop is done by loading a feed file that contains all your tangible items. This Facebook file is called the Facebook Product Catalog.
With SellerMarketingTool you can set a daily automatic creation of this feed using the following tool:
Once the tool is activated, SellerMarketingTool will create your feed with all the information needed by Facebook. Each record in the feed will contain the item price, title, description, main image, and other additional data necessary. Your feed will have a unique URL that you can use to signal Facebook the location of the feed. This URL (representing the feed location) is the address you need to provide to Facebook, from which Facebook reads all of your items’ data.
To use this feed you will need to set-up your Facebook shop. First, set up a business account on Facebook (see https://business.facebook.com). Then, use Facebook’s business manager pages to set your shop and connect it to the feed created daily by SellerMarketingTool. This is done by providing Facebook with the feed URL as indicated in your SellerMarketingTool account.
Sounds a little complicated? Yes, initially there is a small learning curve that needs to be addressed - however, it is a process worthwhile going through, as it will help you drive more traffic from Facebook.
Need some help? Well, on SellerMarketingTool for this tool, we offer some links to Facebook pages that explain how to open a shop on Facebook and how to link the feed to that shop. Once this link is established, Facebook will be updated daily with your store listings as they appear on Etsy.
You may also consult other sellers that have already set their Facebook shop, or check few YouTube videos to understand how to set-up your shop.
Once the Facebook shop has been set up, and the items catalog
(feed) is loaded for the first time, you can also set up a Facebook advertising
campaign to promote your Facebook shop. Setting a Facebook campaign is optional
but can help you with promoting your items across Facebook.
3. Creating & promoting videos
In today’s online marketing video creation and distribution is a must. Etsy themselves added the option to upload short videos to each listing (up to 15 seconds long).
At SellerMarketingTool, we have built a tool for video rendering.
Using this tool, you can create videos one-by-one, or automate the process and let our system create videos in bulk. You can choose which images to include in the video(s), from one or more listings. You can also select background music from a collection of about 30 different soundtracks, as well as the format of the video (square or vertical).
The created videos can be uploaded to Facebook/Twitter directly from your SellerMarketingTool account. Videos can also be downloaded and uploaded to other platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or your personal sites.
Currently, the system offers few different templates for creating videos, and more templates are coming soon.
4. Adding stickers to the main images
One way to make your listings stand out from the crowd is by grabbing the users’ attention. This can be achieved by visual means.
At SellerMarketingTool we offer a collection of about 50 different stickers (mostly colourful) that can be added to multiple items in bulk. You can also upload your own stickers or banners, and use this tool to add them to many listings in bulk.
The most effective way to use the tool is to set up a sale on Etsy (say, 10% off) and then add a matching sticker to the items on sale. Here are examples of some of the stickers and banners that you can use:
The stickers can be placed in various places on your main image (top-left
corner, top-right corner, etc.). You can also determine the size of the sticker
across the main image, and the duration of its appearance on the image (either
in days or according to a start and end date). The system will add and remove
the sticker based on the dates you set.
Banners are available for many holidays and special days of the year. Banners can also be positioned on different places (top, middle, bottom) of your images and are stretched over the entire width of your images, without affecting the resolution of the original images you uploaded to Etsy.
5. Build your eMail Marketing List(s)
EtsyMakertingTool collects information (names and emails) about your past and current buyers. This information is useful for re-targeting your buyers and for eMail marketing activities.
We do not make any use of this information, but it is available for you to download in a CSV format, so you can use it with Facebook, mail management services, and other platforms where mailing lists can be helpful to drive traffic.
DISCLAIMER: Prior to using these mailing lists, you must comply with Spam-prevention laws. By using the list(s), you understand that SellerMarketingTool is not liable to the way you are using the list(s). It is your legal responsibility to adhere to all of Etsy’s privacy policies, as well as the CAN-SPAM regulations.
To read Etsy’s privacy policy to go https://www.etsy.com/ca/legal/privacy.
To read the business compliance requirements of CAN-SPAM, go to https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
There are three main use-cases for the mailing lists you can download from SellerMarketingTool:
1. Use the lists to re-target your past and present buyers. You can upload the list(s) onto Facebook platform, for matching it with Facebook profiles and presenting them with your Facebook ads.
2. Create a Facebook Ad campaign that is based on Facebook profiles that are a Look-Alike audience. This can help you target new potential buyers that Facebook finds similar to your own buyers, as provided in the list.
3. Use the mailing list(s) for direct marketing – after first asking your buyers to opt-in to your newsletters and marketing material, as required by CAN-SPAM laws and Etsy’s privacy policy.
To access this feature, use the following tool on your dashboard:
6. Automatic renewal of items in Etsy
Soon after Etsy was launched, sellers could renew their listings and gain better exposure for their renewed items. This was because the act of renewing a listing helped push the item to the first few pages in their search results. Today, sellers can still renew their listings, but this action will have just a small impact on the item positioning, if any. This reason for this is that Etsy has changed their search algorithm several times during the years. Etsy, on the other hand, considers many other parameters when deciding which items to display to potential customers. Etsy has more than 30 articles on their Seller Central that describe best practices to organically promote your items. For more information, refer to https://www.etsy.com/ca/seller-handbook/category/getting-found.
Although the renewal of items has little, if any, effect on item positioning, there are still quite a few sellers that use the tool. Mainly, they use the tool to renew their hot items, or to renew items that have high marginal profit.
To set automatic renewal rules for your listings, use the following tool:
The tool allows you to define which specific or random items to renew, on what days, at what hours of the day, and between what dates. The tool calculates the estimated cost that will appear on your monthly Etsy bill (there is a $0.20 charge for each renewal).
Improving Conversion
Improving traffic to your shop is the first step in the sales funnel. Next comes improving conversions.
There are many tips on the web and no shortage of articles that discuss and advise on improving conversion. Offering free shipping, improving keywords, offering discounts and coupons and showing great photos are just few of the practices to follow.
At SellerMarketingTool we have chosen to focus on developing two tools to help with conversion:
1. Smart inventory management for exploiting the "Scarcity Strategy"
2. Adding images in bulk to improve your branding
1. Using the “Scarcity Strategy”
Some introduction first...
What is the “Scarcity Strategy”? The idea behind this strategy is that products that are not plentiful are of higher value and attractiveness. Take gold for example. Since it is not abundantly available in nature, people attach a higher value to it. In general, the rarer a product, the greater its importance. Chain stores and private store owners often use this strategy when announcing promotions for a limited time, or offering certain items in a limited edition. A pair of special-edition sneakers or a one-of-a-kind beautiful ring are more attractive commodities than a pair of shoes from last year's mass edition or a beautiful ring that is just one-of-many.
Etsy understands the meaning of ‘scarcity’ and has implemented several elements into their platform to utilize this strategy and improve overall sales. In practice, this is reflected in two major changes they have made to the site:
1. When Etsy recognizes that the quantity of the product offering is small (only one or two in stock), they display ‘low in quantity’ text, and sometimes also “only 1 remaining” on the product page.
2. If the item has already been placed in other users’ shopping cart, they may display a small pop-up window indicating that this item is already in other users’ shopping cart.
In both cases, there is a greater sense of urgency to make the purchase. This is because the number of options available to the buyer is getting smaller. Consumer psychology states that we tend to act against restricting our freedom, in an attempt to avoid the restriction. We do that by preferring this one-of-a-kind item, or by purchasing the single item that other users already put their hands on. You can ask yourself, ‘has the quality of the product increased after it has been defined as limited?’. The answer is, of course not. Yet the “Scarcity Strategy” is tricking us to desire it more.
How can SellerMarketingTool be used to make proper use of this strategy? Well, we offer you two tools, that when used together can yield the desired results:
1. A tool for changing the inventory quantity of your items. Using this tool you can change the number of multiple items to 1. This tool for managing your inventory can be found under this option:
2. Another tool for renewing sold items. Using this tool, you relieve yourself of the urgency to renew a sold-out item, as SellerMarketingTool will do it for you. You will find this tool under this option:
So in essence, you use the inventory tool to set the quantity of some (or all) of your items to 1. Then you use the second tool to ensure that even when your items are sold-out, the system will ensure that are being relisted (so you don’t lose additional potential sales).
You can use the tool to renew sold items, even without changing your inventory levels. You can set individual items to renew when sold, or set it up so that any item in your shop will renew when sold.
2. Improving Your Brand
Much has been said about the importance of uploading quality, sharp, large, clear, and representative images to properly showcase your items. This is no different with building your Etsy shop.
Regardless of how good your item title or description is, all customers love seeing clear and colourful images of the product they are about to buy. They also like seeing size charts (when shopping for clothes, jewelry, necklaces and rings), color swatches (when buying t-shirts, wrist bands, etc.), and packaging images (to have a higher level of confidence that they receive a quality product).
For this purpose, we have built the tool for bulk uploading images - a tool that can save you countless hours of monotonous work.
Using the tool, you can upload a
picture of the colours you offer, size charts for jewelry items, size charts
for t-shirts and other apparel, a picture to showcase your unique packaging or
any other picture that can promote your brand. Doing so can improve the level
of trust between the customer and your brand, and eventually lead to a sale.
Additional Tools
There are several other tools available to you at SellerMarketingTool:
1. Backup of all photos of your active items
2. Receipt of text messages when an item sells
3. Adding or removing listing tags in bulk
4. Creating a PDF catalog with your shop items
5. Advertising your shop on you-nik.com
1. Backing up photos
Your item photos are perhaps the most valuable assets in your online Etsy shop. As part of the service, we offer daily backup of all active photos in your shop. The ability to save and restore images is an integral part of our suite of services.
The tool can be activated in this option:
The images we back-up are the same images you originally uploaded (i.e., we keep them in their original size). Every night we identify new images (if any) and add them to the backups we save. The tool allows the restoration of individual images or a complete download of all the backups made for your shop, in one or more zipped files.
2. Receiving text messages when an items sell
You can receive SMS messages directly to your mobile phone when items sell.
The messages are sent 2-15 minutes after
a sale is made on Etsy. The text we send shows the item title and its basic
price.
3. Adding/Removing Tags in Bulk
If you want to add a tag to multiple items (for example, ‘Xmas Sale’) you can do so using this tool:
You can use the tool to remove tags as well. This is useful when specific tags are no longer needed.
4. Creating a PDF file
Preparing a PDF file with a picture and description of your items can be useful for many reasons. You can have this PDF printed, share it on the web, hand it to friends or potential customers, or upload it to your own personal website.
The tool can be found in this option:
5. Advertising your products on You-Nik.com
A sister-site we created to help promote your items is http://you-nik.com. As a member of SellerMarketingTool, your items will automatically appear there.
You can enable this option using this tool:
