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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.
- 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?
- 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.
- 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, marketing, Seller Handbook, selling, Shop Makeover Series, tinaseamonster |
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51 comments Login to add your own!
Vanessa
thepinkpeony
Great tips, thanks! I'll be looking forward to the next installment!
vitavoom
Thank you so much for the tips. I printed this out and made it my new bible.. can't wait for the next.
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...
tinaseamonster
cheekyandchoccy, your avatar is perfect! monkeys like hats. :)
poofysheep
Thanks for the avatar tips! I just took some new pictures that have my face in it.
evilrobots
BoodlersBeads
What a great article... But it's time to change my avatar! LOL
tinaseamonster
BoodlersBeads, hehe! Sorry! Your doggy is cute, though! :)
girlsavage
sally1
ive really enjoyed reading this and have picked up some great tips thankyou
sunshinecitylassie
You are apt to mention Kate Black's avatars. They are too cool!
kzoriginals
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!
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....
PamperingBeki
Nice article. You're right that branding is so important to success!
fadingflowers
eclecticmoi
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
artladymanor
Great tips! I'm keeping my avatar of my child though because it is also a sample of my custom portraits. :-)
tinaseamonster
artladymanor... now that makes sense!!! and the photo is really great. :)
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!
HeyMichelle
AJKArtistry
koosi
I think I'm keeping my cute face in the avatar, looking confident to the customers.
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!
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....
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.
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.
simplydoodles
patricewright
gallerySABINA
yourscruelly
This article was extremely helpful. Thanks for sharing your tips!
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.
FatallyFeminine
I <3 all of your articles from this series. They are really going to be helpful. Thanks so much!
yellowwalls
Thanks! Can't wait to read the next one. It's so helpful to get advice from someone more experienced than me.
jewelrybyreshell
wow! your article rocked. I had so many questions, and your words what I needed. Mahalo Plenty.
artsyfartsyfooladi
DMcGettigan
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.
mpaperarts
CHenry
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.).
DBNJewelry
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. :)
SparklePrincess
Great article. Perfect refresher and great start for beginners. I wish I had read this back when I began!
campfirejam
RealRaspberries
DaisyLeedesigns
Previous Page
great article, looking forward to reading more about marketing for etsy :)