Etsy's Handmade Blog
Shop Makeover Series: I Heart Marketing My Etsy Shop and You Will, Too! Part 1
Story by tinaseamonster
Published on January 25, 2008 in How-To 		Photo by tinaseamonster

We at The Storque think that tinaseamonster's series on marketing your Etsy shop (originally published in September of 2007) is an invaluable resource for sellers. Therefore, we're reposting it as part of the Shop Makeover Series. Have you thought about your marketing recently? If not, have a gander at this helpful article!

I have recently fallen in love with a new craft (of sorts). I think of it when I am not doing it, I do it when I am not thinking about it. It is loads of fun and super rad and makes me think in new ways every day. What is it?

Marketing my Etsy shop.

Yep, it has become my new passion. Talking to my fellow shop owners and reading the forums, I know that not everyone has embraced this part of the indie craft experience like I have. So, I am going to share what I have learned.

What follows here is the first piece of a series. Let’s go!

Is your shop ready?

Before you even think about marketing your shop, make sure it is ready! This is all about branding. The best thing about Etsy is that it's a tool for everyone to have their own little brand. I truly believe that we should treat our shop as our personal brand. Rather than making it an informal dumping ground for the four things that we made in art class once, we need to put some thought into it.

Now, you may be wondering: what is a brand?

From Wikipedia: “A brand often includes a logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, and sound, which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.”

Your brand can be you, you on too much caffeine, components of you, or something completely new. Creating your brand can be the most fun and challenging part of this. For your Etsy shop, the main components of your brand will be your User Name, the Avatar and your Shop Banner. Create your own little world. Don’t just toss up a bunch of stuff that doesn’t explain who you and your brand are. Have a vision for your brand and follow through with it.

Odds are you already have picked your user name, but if you haven’t, make sure you remember that it will be your shop name. Name recognition is super important when creating not only your Etsy shop, but also your brand. No one is going to remember “lisa523designs” or something like that. Pick something original and interesting that people will want to talk about!

Avatars! Create a memorable avatar. The avatar is your face on Etsy and is often the first thing a customer will see from you. I find that the best avatars are one of three types.

  1. Faces. I love to see your face in your avatar. If you are your brand, then this is totally the right way to go. I love to see the person behind the craft.  A rad example of this is ashleyg. I love her avatar because she is this real person looking straight at me. She seems nice and genuine and maybe even a little shy?
  2. Item avatar. Make sure your avatar is an item that you actually have for sale in your shop and it is a good photo with a light background. An example of this is blockpartypress.
  3. Brand identity. I feel strongly about not changing your avatar too much, except for when you are switching between a series of avatars that are on a theme or that reinforce your brand identity. Kateblack’s series of avatars are cool, because I can always tell they are hers. They just kinda scream “bad-ass.”

 

Try to stay away from avatars of your pets or your children. There are far too many of these on Etsy and they tend to all blend together. No one loves your dog or child as much as you do and that is the way it should be!

Shop banner, announcement and featured items are the parts of your shop that you should experiment with most. Create a new banner when you launch a new product line and rotate your featured items: most importantly, remember your brand identity during this and try to present a simple shop homepage.

There are a million other things that you can do get your shop ready for customers. Taking good action photos of your items, writing amazingly interesting descriptions, and providing international shipping options are all important. Two important notes on this: First, if you sell clothing, put the size as the first word in your product title. Makes sense, huh? Second, think globally. And if you tell people you will ship to the world, you will sell to the world.

When your shop is ready, the real fun begins! In the next installment, I write about marketing on the Etsy site.

 

Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at www.ilikeseamonsters.com. She is a guest blogger at The Crafty Bastards Blog, where portions of this article originally appeared.

Tags avatars, branding, How-To, HOW-TO, marketing, Seller Handbook, selling, Shop Makeover Series, tinaseamonster
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111 comments     Login to add your own!

Sept. 5, 2007 at 12:47 p.m. CreativeIntuition

great article, looking forward to reading more about marketing for etsy :)

Sept. 5, 2007 at 1:08 p.m. tinaseamonster

thanks CreativeIntuition! I hope it helps!

Sept. 5, 2007 at 1:19 p.m. Vanessa

yes, this is a series so check back soon!

Sept. 5, 2007 at 1:31 p.m. thepinkpeony

Great tips, thanks! I'll be looking forward to the next installment!

Sept. 5, 2007 at 2:46 p.m. vitavoom

Thank you so much for the tips. I printed this out and made it my new bible.. can't wait for the next.

Sept. 5, 2007 at 2:48 p.m. cheekyandchoccy

thanks for the tips. at least i have my own hat in my avatar and the monkey comes from the names Cheeky and Choccy who are two little monkeys...

Sept. 5, 2007 at 3:22 p.m. tinaseamonster

cheekyandchoccy, your avatar is perfect! monkeys like hats. :)

Sept. 5, 2007 at 8:42 p.m. poofysheep

Thanks for the avatar tips! I just took some new pictures that have my face in it.

Sept. 5, 2007 at 8:50 p.m. evilrobots

Wonderful article. Great tips!

Sept. 5, 2007 at 10:49 p.m. BoodlersBeads

What a great article... But it's time to change my avatar! LOL

Sept. 5, 2007 at 11:51 p.m. tinaseamonster

BoodlersBeads, hehe! Sorry! Your doggy is cute, though! :)

Sept. 6, 2007 at 4:12 a.m. girlsavage

Thanks, great tips! I can't wait to see what's next!

Sept. 6, 2007 at 4:21 a.m. sally1

ive really enjoyed reading this and have picked up some great tips thankyou

Sept. 6, 2007 at 7:25 p.m. sunshinecitylassie

You are apt to mention Kate Black's avatars. They are too cool!

Sept. 6, 2007 at 8:49 p.m. kzoriginals

great tips! I think i am going to love this new site!

Sept. 7, 2007 at 4:28 a.m. nenesboutique

Thank you for the tips! I am trying to prepare to open my shop in Nov and as I am no good at logos I have paid for someone to do it for me!

Sept. 8, 2007 at 11:02 a.m. elisasherejewelry

This is a great article, I can't wait to read more installments. Now, to think about changing my avatar to one of the items in my shop....

Sept. 8, 2007 at 2:28 p.m. PamperingBeki

Nice article. You're right that branding is so important to success!

Sept. 10, 2007 at 2:31 p.m. fadingflowers

thanks for the article

Sept. 10, 2007 at 7:47 p.m. eclecticmoi

Excellent Article! Thanks heaps :O)

Sept. 11, 2007 at 10:20 a.m. sherryshanklin

thanks for a very informative and entertaing article. I am new to ETSY and I am still trying to figure out the best angles/ideas to get my shop promoted. Thanks Again
Sherry

Sept. 13, 2007 at 12:12 a.m. artladymanor

Great tips! I'm keeping my avatar of my child though because it is also a sample of my custom portraits. :-)

Sept. 13, 2007 at 7:56 a.m. tinaseamonster

artladymanor... now that makes sense!!! and the photo is really great. :)

Sept. 13, 2007 at 11:08 a.m. BeadedBijoux

I'm just beginning the process of getting my shop set up, so this article comes at the perfect time for me. Thank you for sharing such great advice!

Sept. 16, 2007 at 2:41 a.m. HeyMichelle

Wonderful article! I'm off to read part 2!

Sept. 17, 2007 at 7:30 a.m. AJKArtistry

This is great, thanks for the advice!

Sept. 18, 2007 at 4:26 a.m. koosi

I think I'm keeping my cute face in the avatar, looking confident to the customers.

Nov. 14, 2007 at 1:15 a.m. essiewb

This is great! I can see I need to pull together my name, avatar and banner. Only one of them really represents the products.

Thanks!

Jan. 25, 2008 at 9:34 p.m. broadwayartsalvage

so do you think that faces are better than having a piece of your art as the avatar?
i have been thinking about changing....

Jan. 26, 2008 at 7:04 a.m. tinaseamonster

hi! i think that it depends on what kind of shop you have. if you make fine art that you want someone to see, use your art. for me, my shop is this weird extension of my personality. somehow I have become my brand, if you will. someday, they will teach a class in avatar creation in college. there are so many theories.

Feb. 15, 2008 at 7:50 p.m. iworkartwork

Very informative article. I wish I read it before I start my store...
I'm very shy and for me was very difficult to put my face as avatar, at that moment I didn'y have another idea, but after see it a lot, I liked.
I see I need to learn more.

June 26, 2008 at 10:02 p.m. simplydoodles

Great article!

June 29, 2008 at 11:42 a.m. patricewright

so great and a fun read

July 6, 2008 at 9:56 p.m. gallerySABINA

Too short! I loved it & want more, more, more! Thnx

July 7, 2008 at 11 p.m. yourscruelly

This article was extremely helpful. Thanks for sharing your tips!

July 14, 2008 at 2:04 p.m. barkingdogblankets

This is exactly the help I need. thank you - look forward to the next in the series. Going to get my banner redone to go with my brand.

July 17, 2008 at 8:57 p.m. FatallyFeminine

I <3 all of your articles from this series. They are really going to be helpful. Thanks so much!

July 23, 2008 at 5:03 p.m. yellowwalls

Thanks! Can't wait to read the next one. It's so helpful to get advice from someone more experienced than me.

Aug. 8, 2008 at 6:40 p.m. jewelrybyreshell

wow! your article rocked. I had so many questions, and your words what I needed. Mahalo Plenty.

Aug. 19, 2008 at 9:02 p.m. artsyfartsyfooladi

thanks darlin for the great article and tips

Aug. 21, 2008 at 8:39 a.m. DMcGettigan

Thank you so much! This really helps me out.

Aug. 21, 2008 at 4:07 p.m. SugarPopKreations

I really enjoyed reading this! It made you look at things a bit differently and think a little more lol. I need to redo my banner and avvy...been meaning to.

Sept. 1, 2008 at 1:39 p.m. mpaperarts

Wish I'd read this before I picked the wrong username -oops!

Sept. 8, 2008 at 12:16 a.m. CHenry

I loved your article.
Thank you so much,

A beginner!!!!!

Sept. 14, 2008 at 8:55 p.m. MeadowbelleMarket

I absolutely agree. I am very well intentioned, and have thought long and hard on this concept (I think that is why I am drawn to allencompanyinc.etsy.com --there is a nice solidification to the store that I think of without drawing to mind any particular inventory--Oh, and actually, now whenver I see a fly, I remember her shop. Funny. I hate flies, but they are everyhwere, so it's kind of like her little advertisers are everywhere, too.).

Sept. 20, 2008 at 4:05 a.m. DBNJewelry

Great article! I have so much to learn!

Sept. 20, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. modernchemistry

this is really helpful! i'm wondering how everyone created their avatars and banners? do i need photoshop, or is there a more generic program to use?

i downloaded a trial of photoshop elements to create my banner and avatar, but they need to be updated and my trial expired. :)

Oct. 5, 2008 at 12:25 a.m. SparklePrincess

Great article. Perfect refresher and great start for beginners. I wish I had read this back when I began!

Oct. 19, 2008 at 5:58 a.m. campfirejam

Good to know..

Oct. 24, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. RealRaspberries

On to read the rest! Thanks for the help!!

Dec. 1, 2008 at 10:32 a.m. DaisyLeedesigns

good article...worth the reading

Dec. 6, 2008 at 12:28 a.m. cherbie

:-) thanks for the article!

Dec. 19, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. LJNixonartist

An excellent article. I will use those ideas for my shop!

Dec. 19, 2008 at 10:28 a.m. scrapnscribe

Excellent! Thanks for the great tips.

Jan. 2, 2009 at 11:31 p.m. prettygirlsboutique

Welcome to my corner.Here we have the best items for your princess.

Jan. 4, 2009 at 11:28 a.m. JTurn

Great advise. I will be changing my avatar today!

Jan. 5, 2009 at 9:34 a.m. TCGlassArt

Is Part 2 available to read somewhere??

Oops...gotta change my avatar, that pendant sold and I think maybe the shop profile is just a wee tad toooooo LONG!!!!!!!!!! Thanks bunches!

Jan. 6, 2009 at 6:50 p.m. HModine

LOVE this series and love your tips!!

Jan. 7, 2009 at 3:18 p.m. enrouge

Well-done! Fabulous tips!

Jan. 8, 2009 at 7:31 p.m. katsklosetboutique

Thank you for the tips on branding!

Jan. 10, 2009 at 6:55 p.m. yourfabricplace

Thank you! Keep the tips coming!

Jan. 11, 2009 at 1:18 a.m. AlleycatStudio

Thanks for taking the time to provide these tips! I feel encouraged and rejuvinated by your ideas...Yaaay!

Jan. 13, 2009 at 12:17 a.m. GratefulGeezerArts

Good stuff for an old geezer who stumbles a lot getting out of the gate. Thanks

Jan. 14, 2009 at 7:36 p.m. KentStreetDesigns

thanks for the tips

Jan. 16, 2009 at 4:53 p.m. etincelledesign

great tips, thanks !

Jan. 16, 2009 at 8:07 p.m. OMDdesign

thanks! instead of my face on the avatar I decided to use my body :)

Jan. 18, 2009 at 6:43 p.m. VirtuousCreations

Great info.
I'll be looking forward to the next phase.
I'm new to this and am in need all the help that I can get.
Thanks!

Jan. 19, 2009 at 10:25 p.m. EnchantedQuilling

Thanks for you tips, every little bit helps when an absolute newbie appears!

Jan. 29, 2009 at 11:52 a.m. glasslight

Excellent information.

Feb. 5, 2009 at 2:16 p.m. floresdelsol

thank you I am trying to get my shop noticed. great advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feb. 6, 2009 at 3:18 a.m. KillerJewels

Thanks so much for all this information. I'm glad I did'nt use my dog Max now for my avatar!

Feb. 17, 2009 at 4:26 p.m. MariaLuna

Thanks for the advice. It's very helpful for newbies like me :)

March 4, 2009 at 6:33 a.m. TheDancersSpirit

thank you tinaseamonster! this is a big help :)

March 5, 2009 at 9:29 a.m. sugarhillsoaps

Thank You for all the helpful information. It keeps me in the right direction! Sell...Sell...Sell lol

March 9, 2009 at 9:49 p.m. LittleFluffStuff

very nice info! thank you!

March 17, 2009 at 11:32 a.m. MeredithHiltDesigns

I love helpful articles like this!

March 24, 2009 at 4:53 p.m. tadpolecreations

great article!

March 24, 2009 at 5:15 p.m. Inbaliya

What about info in the avatar? (I have tried it)
Great article!

March 24, 2009 at 9:31 p.m. exquisiteaccessories

Thanks so much for the tips
I look forward to reading your next
article!

March 24, 2009 at 10:38 p.m. AnnaArtiste

Very helpful- Thank you!

March 25, 2009 at 12:21 p.m. AurorasTreasure

TinaSeaMonster, love that name, and just realized my avator piece of jewelery is not in my shop, trust me will be now, but as I am new perhaps I will put my face on there, Yikes,run for cover!
Thank you, part 2,cant wait.

March 30, 2009 at 12:10 p.m. catsongstitchery

Great advice- thank you!

April 5, 2009 at 1:40 p.m. CrystalClear221

Thank you for your insights! It will be very helpful as I start my own etsy business! Thank you!

April 12, 2009 at 11:15 a.m. Easy123

I think I need to change my avi now! Maybe me wearing a hat or scarf! Thanks, who knew?

April 20, 2009 at 9:20 p.m. jewels50

I took everything in and will work with it, thank-you

April 24, 2009 at 10:24 p.m. TIPS4TOTS

Thank you, for the Great Article. I am looking forward for your next! Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting Everyone!

God Bless,
Cathy/Tips4tots

May 1, 2009 at 11:16 a.m. lovablekreations

Great tips, can't wait to read your next article

May 1, 2009 at 10:43 p.m. OneVintageLady

Thank you for the tips.Will watch for your next article, Cheryl

May 3, 2009 at 11:36 p.m. SleepingporchStudio

Thanks, this is something I need to work harder on.

May 26, 2009 at 11:49 a.m. CreativeArtCenter

Great tips. Thank you.

May 28, 2009 at 10:42 p.m. monkeyandsquirrel

thanks for the super advice!

June 2, 2009 at 2:43 a.m. PoshToshBaby

Thank You so much for this info! I really loved reading it

June 3, 2009 at 11:15 a.m. jujubeedesigns

Thank you for this super helpful info! :-)

June 24, 2009 at 9:32 p.m. auti

Informative, am going for part 2

June 28, 2009 at 5:21 a.m. RachelShockey

I've been working on marketing and needed some more insight. Thanks so much! I'll be looking for part II!

July 20, 2009 at 4:09 p.m. jewelrybyfonda

Great information! Thanks!

Aug. 17, 2009 at 2:02 p.m. SuellensCreations

Good information. Thanks and keep it coming.

Aug. 30, 2009 at 2:29 p.m. RandomSacksOfKindnes

thanks so much for putting together all this great information!

Sept. 3, 2009 at 11:38 a.m. coocoos

Great info..will do my best to apply...;)

Sept. 6, 2009 at 5:35 a.m. OpusMuse

This article has got good tips that I haven't read on others. Thank you for sharing! I'm working on it as we speak... :)

Sept. 16, 2009 at 11:39 a.m. chocolatecreative

I agree with you on all this comments, very good advice, I am off to revise my shop look and make sure it looks spotless!!

Sept. 17, 2009 at 3:35 a.m. butterflykisscrochet

Great artical, really puts things into perspective!

Sept. 23, 2009 at 2:51 a.m. cms36451

I wish I had known user name/ shop names were not changeable when I joined Etsy.

Oct. 4, 2009 at 8:54 a.m. StoneKittyGarden

Thanks...good info!

Oct. 20, 2009 at 4:10 p.m. roroism

oh great.
going to pimp up my avatar just now...

Oct. 20, 2009 at 4:45 p.m. raissabump

good advice to a newbie on etsy.
thanks!

Oct. 20, 2009 at 11:33 p.m. MetroGypsy

Thanks!

Oct. 20, 2009 at 11:33 p.m. MetroGypsy

ps: how Cute are those two little ones btw!

Oct. 21, 2009 at 11:12 a.m. BlueOpalJewelry

Lovely advice tinaseamonster. I wish I had started reading the blogs from the get go. Etsy it still very new to me. What amazes me is the number of great ideas and the level of professionlism I see on etsy. I need to work big time on learning to bring my personality across. All advice in this area would be greatly appreciated. I love making jewelry, but I'm afraid I don't know enough about the marketing side. Thanks!!

Oct. 23, 2009 at 10:45 p.m. Lotusgill

Thanks for this information. I need to get to work on my site.

Nov. 5, 2009 at 7:15 a.m. michsouth

Thanks for the great advice! After reading the tips it makes common sense but I never thought of those things before when initially setting up shop. I need to get to work on polishing my shop front and ensuring, that my avatar doesn't feature my pet cat and that my shop banner is consistent with my username.

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