Card swapping is a low-cost, easy way to get your shop's name out. By swapping cards with members of your Team, you can promote each other's shops by word of mouth and give potential customers something to remember to check it out. Team members personally recommending a shop means the buyer is more likely visit, mark as a favorite, recommend to a friend, or even buy something for themselves. Most Etsy Team members who are sellers have business cards with their Etsy shop addresses on them. There are countless ways to make these cards to promote your shop, including inexpensive ways to make cards yourself, using stamps or having them printed in bulk.

1. To begin the swap, post publicly however your Team communicates (through email, a Flickr or Google group, etc.) announcing a call for participants in the swap. Card swaps are most effective when the swapping occurs between shops with complementary styles. Consider your target demographic and the demographic of the other shops you are swapping with.
2. One person should be in charge of collecting all the mailing addresses via email from participants. Set a deadline for sending in addresses (there should be an end date to the swap).
3. Once the emails are collected, compile a list or spreadsheet with all of the addresses. If there are fewer than 12-15 participants, send the whole spreadsheet to everyone on the list. If there are more than 15-20 participants, break the list into smaller, more manageable lists, and send each list to the members of that list.
4. Each participant sends a small stack of their business cards to each address on the list.
5. Once the cards are received, each participant includes cards from other members in packages they mail out from sales in their shop, or distributes the cards in person to potential buyers or at craft shows or markets.

Your Team can organize card swaps as often as you see fit, and organizers can take turns putting the swaps together. Enjoy! And get creative about what types of promo items and cards you swap, and how you distribute the cards you receive from the swap!

For more Team Tips, please check the Teams Resource page.  Also, we discuss the Team Tips, news and ideas in the Etsy Teams email list! Keep up the great work, Etsy Teams!