Etsy Tips To Grow And Improve Your Business

So you’ve got an Etsy store, and it’s doing ok - maybe even well, but you’re keen to grow?

Great, you’re in the right place.

There are plenty of ways to make your store bigger and better, and not all of them cost you money.

That’s what this blog is about: our top Etsy tips, both free and paid, for improving your business and taking it to the next level.

From SEO to advertising, the proper way to use social media, and more, it’s all here.

In this guide on growing and improving your Etsy business:

Are you ready to take the guesswork out of your Etsy accounting?

Etsy is a great place to sell unique products, and it’s perfect for creative entrepreneurs who aren’t necessarily excited about accounting. Discover the easy way of looking after your Etsy finances so that you can spend more time doing what matters most to you.

Download our free guide

Ready to thrive? We’ve got you.

3 Free Ways to Grow

Before you part with any hard-earned cash, let’s make sure you’ve milked all the free options first.

For example, is your store optimized for the Etsy search engine? Is your visibility as good as it could be before paying for a boost?

Are you using social media to its full potential? And serving your customers well?

Here’s a checklist.

1. Etsy SEO

“Sellers control the most important factors in Etsy search placement.”

• Etsy.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t just reserved for websites wanted to show up first in Google searches. Etsy also uses algorithms to rank its listings for customers.

And you need to know what Etsy is looking for in order to rank highly in those search results.

In our guide to Etsy SEO, we break down everything you should be applying to your store to help it rank, according to Etsy’s guidelines.

Here’s a sneak peek of our Etsy SEO tips

Etsy ranks based on the following areas:

• Listing titles: Include your primary keyword at the beginning of the title, keep it short for mobile users, succinct and accurate.
• Listing tags: Use all your available 13 tags and use a variety. Use your store analytics to see how they’re performing, and refresh those that aren’t getting you visitors.
• Listing attributes: Etsy adds new ones all the time, so use a variety and keep checking back for more relevant attributes to add to your listings.
• Listing quality: Make sure everything is filled in properly, accurately and honestly.
• Customer experience: This is an ongoing task, and one that hugely impacts your store performance.
• Postage: Etsy ranks stores more highly that offer a range of delivery options, particularly free delivery.

More recent listings get a temporary boost, as do those listed in similar locations to buyers for quicker delivery, in some cases.

For more SEO tips and how to leverage every tool Etsy gives you, check out our guide.

1. Social media for Etsy

64% of consumers want brands to interact with them, and 70% feel more connected to a brand when its CEO is on social media.

When consumers feel connected to brands, they spend around 57% more and choose them over competitors 76% of the time.

Consumers rank social media as the top way for brands to connect with them.

So, how can you connect?

Customer expectations on social media:

Source: Sprout Social.

“While consumers usually want information about products and services, they also want to learn what makes a brand unique. Forty-six percent of consumers are interested in content detailing a brand’s social good initiatives and more than one third (39%) want features on company employees.”

• Sprout Social.

Topics customers want brands to discuss on their channels:

Source: Sprout Social.

Here are some quick stats to help inspire ideas for your business social media:

• 46% of consumers like interactive content. Quizzes work particularly well on Facebook, for example.
• 37% of users think brands should share user-generated content.
• 43% think brands should highlight commonalities shared by their own audience. What brings them together as a community?
• 67% believe brands should use their platforms to raise awareness around causes that align with their values.
• 72% expect brands to be positive contributors to society today, and express that on social media.

Consumers have different expectations for brands on social media today and want connection.

Alongside sharing content about your products, dig deeper. Who is your brand and what does it stand for?

Unique content you could share on your social media channels:

• Behind the scenes: You make your products, and that’s why customers come to you. Why not share some of that process, and the love that goes into your products?
• Interviews or collaborations with others: Consumers want to see discussions, action and contribution, so why not link up with others in your community and make a space for those things.
• Videos: Video content is the preferred type online, so why not explore this medium more if you don’t already. Facebook Live gets 10x more engagement than traditional videos, and Tweets also get 10x more engagement with videos. Optimal length on Facebook is 2-5 minutes.
• Demonstrations of your products: Pins that show your products in action are 67% better at driving sales.

Curated feeds alone won’t cut it in today’s saturated market.

If you pair the above tips with your basic best practice for each channel (like using hashtags on Facebook and Instagram), you should grow your audience organically in no time.

1. Great customer service on Etsy

Sure you want to reply to all your customers, and quickly, but are there other ways you could be surprising and delighting your customers for the best possible experience?

Disclaimer: Not all of these will be free, per se, but they needn’t cost a bomb to implement.

Leveling-up your Etsy customer service to boost your store performance:

• Handwritten notes of thanks: What it says on the tin. Customers come to Etsy for handmade, so help them feel connected to you with a handwritten thank you.
• Gift with purchase or voucher: Keeping surprise and delight between you and your customer helps them feel more valued, singled out and connected.
• Birthday gifts or treats: If you have your customer’s information and get to know them better, celebrate milestones in their lives, for example, have them experience special birthday gifts.
• Personalized communications: If a customer takes the time to write you a detailed review or email, show them the same courtesy back.
• Exclusive content or giveaways: Reward your repeat customers with special offers just for them.
• Community pages or groups: Build your own community.
• Meet-ups or interactions: Make yourself more available and tangible to your customers.

As we saw under the social media section above, connection is the name of the game today.

And all these things will help you connect with your audience and build a community.

3 Paid Ways to Grow

Now that we’ve covered some ways that you can expand your store through your existing, free tools, let’s delve into the paid options.

1. Etsy advertising

In our Etsy advertising guide, we break down your options for on- and off-site ads.

Etsy automatically opts its sellers into off-site ads for a fee, but those making less than $10k revenue can opt out.

Here are some ways to improve your Etsy ad performance and marketing efforts:

• Use keywords: You want your ads to show up for the right people. Keywords help you do this, so make sure any advertisements that you invest in are targeting the right searchers.
• Explore and implement negative keywords: Negative keywords help keep your ads focused on the right terms and away from those that won’t generate much interest. Your ad spend is only going to potential customers.
• Keep tweaking: You can measure the performance of your ads, so pay attention! What’s working, what isn’t, and what could you do differently? Change your keywords, adjust your copy and respond to shifts in consumer behavior.
• Get into inboxes: Email marketing works. It’s still the most effective marketing channel, so use it.
• Issue coupons and targeted sales: Etsy allows you to create and share coupons and sales with specific customers, so experiment with these for those that have bought before or visited you and not converted.
• Up-sell, cross-sell and down-sell: You can trigger offers for visitors to your store that show them related products, package deals and also cheaper options for those at risk of abandoning their carts.

For more ideas, check out the podcast Inside Etsy Ads here, and our full guide dedicated to Etsy advertising here.

1. Etsy automation and integrations

Let’s get practical for a moment.

In order to grow your store, you may need more time. And the best way to get that is to automate parts of your business.

In our guide to Etsy integrations, we explore what you can automate, when, and how.

Here’s a sneak peek of our top tips and apps for Etsy automation:

• Accounting automation: Managing your money should be your top priority. Having an excellent accounting software along with A2X will give you the most accurate books the fastest, with numbers you can rely on. We recommend using QuickBooks Online, Xero or Sage for Etsy sellers.
• Fulfilment: Could you outsource this aspect of your business? Many Etsy sellers use ShipStation, ShipRush and Shippo for automated deliveries, for example.
• Social media posting: You could plan your content ahead of time and automate posting it at busy times. Apps that do this include Around.io and Spreesy.
• CRM: Communicating with customers can be time-consuming, and there may be some comms that you can automate. Check out apps like Mad Mimi for email automation, WiseStamp for adding listings to email signatures, and ReferralCandy for prompting reviews.

For help making a plan for which apps and integrations to use, check out our full guide here.

1. Growing beyond Etsy

Many sellers are expanding beyond one sales channel today.

Diversification of your ecommerce business helps make it more resilient as well as reach new audiences.

Ways to integrate your Etsy business with other sales channels:

• Etsy Pattern is an integrated option: Pattern by Etsy is the platform’s answer to Shopify, in a sense. It gives sellers their own separate storefront with more freedom to design, and ways to grow and evolve. Check it out here.
• There is an Etsy widget for Shopify: Shopify provides sellers with a chance to stretch their creative wings and really design their brand’s online presence from the ground up. If that’s something you’re ready for, you can connect your stores with the Etsy widget.
• You can transfer product information from Etsy to Amazon Handmade: If you want to sell some of your products on Amazon Handmade, there are instructions to help make this easier here.

Hint: If you’re going to expand into other ecommerce channels, make sure your accounts can keep up. A2X for Etsy allows you to add stores to your app for centralized, accurate bookkeeping, no matter how many places you sell.

Let’s check out how that works next.

Get Your Accounts Ready for Growth

No matter which of our Etsy tips you decide to implement, you need to make sure your books can keep up.

What worked? Is your margin still being swallowed up somewhere?

The right software can give you those answers, and this is where A2X comes in.

Figuring out what income and expenses went into the bank deposits that you receive from Etsy is fundamental to understanding your business’ health and performance.

But Etsy statements don’t give you all of that information, and figuring it out manually is time-consuming and prone to easy mistakes.

A2X solves this problem.

For every bank deposit you get a corresponding journal summary, listing every line that went into that final amount. From the fees you paid to the taxes you collected, advertising costs incurred and more, everything is automatic and accurate.

A2X splits statements that span months and organizes your books via the industry-approved accrual method of accounting, for reliable data you can report on and forecast with.

Plus, you can try it today for your Etsy business, absolutely free!

Also on the blog

• The A2X Ecommerce Accounting Hub
• What Makes Ecommerce Accounting Different?
• Etsy Business Plan Template
• Etsy Integration Guide: Simplify Your Business