- There are lots of different ways
to get traffic to your Etsy shop.
And it can get a little bit dizzying trying to decide
which ones will have the best results for you.
Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Etsy SEO, paid ads.
All of that is well and good.
But at the end of the day,
I'm assuming you're a normal human being
with 24 hours a day to play with.
And probably not a huge budget to spend on marketing
if you're still a fairly young business.
So today we're going to talk about the different options
that you have to get more views to your Etsy shop
and, perhaps, most importantly, how you can decide
for yourself what makes the most sense for you right now
because you can't do it all,
or you're going to spread yourself super thin
and that never brings results.
I'll also share with you my top three tips
based on what I see working best for the shop owners
I work with.
Ready? Let's do it.
(upbeat music)
(speaking foreign language) My name is Deb
and I'm the founder Tizzit.Co,
a membership community for makers and handmade shop owners,
just like your fabulous self.
And you can learn more about our community
if you wish to do so.
It's called Tizzit HQ.
The link is below this video but for now,
let's jump straight into today's conversation,
how to get more traffic to your Etsy shop.
The first thing that's important to understand
is that there's really two different types of traffic
you can send to your shop: free traffic and paid traffic.
So let's look at each in more detail
starting with the free traffic.
Inside of the free traffic sources family,
there are two different categories of free traffic.
One is free traffic that comes from search engines
and the other is free traffic coming from social media.
There are some key differences between the two.
Search engine traffic is going to come from Etsy,
Google, and Pinterest because those three platforms
are actual search engines.
And social media traffic is going to come
from platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
or whatever new social media app is gonna hit the market
before I finish recording this video.
The main differences between search engine
and social media, when it comes to traffic,
is that people use them differently.
And so your strategy is going to be different
on search engine versus on social media.
On search engines, you don't need to be social.
Great. (chuckles) You need to optimise for keywords.
So it's going to involve keyword research,
keyword tweaking, keyword optimization,
and really making sure that you are spending some time
doing that keyword research
so that your products can be found in search results
for that platform.
On social media, it's very different
because there aren't really keywords being used.
Hashtags can work a little bit like keyword
but they're really not the biggest aspect
of a successful social media strategy.
Instead, on social media, it's really a matter
of engaging with people so that when they like your content,
when they comment on your content,
when they save your content,
the algorithm picks up on that activity and thinks,
hey, this person likes what you're putting out
and is responding to it.
And so, therefore, it's going to start showing
more and more of your posts to that person.
So the main difference between SEO,
search engine optimization and social media
is that one of them is going to need keyword research
and creating content that matches those search terms
so people click on your content when it shows up in Search
and the other one is going to be more
about creating engaging captions.
So what does that mean for you in terms of your workload?
Well, with SEO, you're going to do a big batch session
to review your strategies, review your keywords
and what worked, what didn't work over the last few months.
You will tweak each area and then you wait
and you reassess a couple months later
to see what worked and what didn't.
With social media, it's a little different
because you actually have to engage every day
on those platforms.
You have to genuinely connect with people.
You have to comment, you have to reply to comments,
you have to create captions that are engaging.
So it's a little bit more work on the daily/weekly basis
than SEO platforms can be.
The other difference between the two
is that SEO will often have people who are already looking
for something to buy because they're using keywords.
So they're going to Etsy with the intent
of buying a product, they're going to Google
and typing something with the intent of buying a product.
And they're going to Pinterest and looking at Pins
with the intent of buying a product.
So you get my point.
On social media, that's not what's happening.
Instead, people go to social media to be entertained,
to have fun, they go there to be inspired
or maybe they're there because, just like you and me,
sometimes, they're a little bored
and they're just want to scroll mindlessly
for a couple of minutes.
And so your role is to provide what they want,
which is to be entertained and inspired, not to be sold to.
So, of course, from time to time
you're going to be announcing a new product
and you're going to be encouraging people to visit your shop
from social media, but you don't want every single one
of your social media posts to be go to my shop,
buy my products.
It's really about engaging with them
and meeting them where they're at on this platform.
So as you can see, although SEO, search engine optimization
and social media, both are free sources of traffic,
they are going to be used differently.
And, practically, that reflects
in how you're going to work with them.
When you do SEO, you will sit down for a full day,
every couple of months to really deeply analyse,
optimise and batch that entire process
for the next two months.
Social media is a bit more spread out.
You can batch the creation of your graphics
and your captions in one big sitting if you want,
but you will still need to go in there
a little bit every day to comment and react
and engage with people on the platform.
Each one can be really effective just in different ways.
Now let's talk about paid traffic sources.
Some of you might be thinking if it's paid,
you're investing money, not time,
but that's not always true.
You still need to spend some time figuring out
how to make paid ads work and choosing
which paid traffic sources are the best fit
for your handmade shop.
So let's look at your options here. We have three.
Paid partnership is option one.
It's using influencer marketing or brand ambassadors.
This might mean payments in the form of free products
that you send them to showcase on their social media
or commission on sales.
One way or another, you're paying them
to help you promote your products.
The second one is paid SEO ads.
These are ads that you're going to use
on search engine platforms.
So these are ads on platforms like Etsy,
Google and Pinterest.
These ads can be really effective
because you can target keywords
that are exactly what your product is
that people are typing when they are looking
for what your product is. (laughs)
Remember what we were saying before
about search engine platforms being great
at driving people who already intend
to purchase to your shop.
Well, if it was true using organic and free strategies
on those search engine platforms,
it certainly is true for ads on those platforms too.
So it's really about putting your products
in front of people who are highly qualified to purchase
what you're selling.
And it can work pretty well whether the person searching
has seen your products before or not.
Finally, you can also pay for social media ads,
meaning ads that you would pay to show on, for example,
Instagram or Facebook.
These are different from search engine
as in that they work best if you target people
who already know you exist.
If you're trying to show your ads on these platforms
to people who have never really seen your page,
your profile or never heard of your shop
or your brand before, it's going to cost a lot of money
and be far less effective.
It's possible but, typically, those demographics
or interest-targeting option for those paid campaigns
are not something I recommend to smaller businesses
with smaller budgets.
So for paid social media, what I often recommend, instead,
is to actually do what's called retargeting
which is only showing your ads to people
who have already engaged with you,
maybe they've liked your page,
they've liked one of your posts, one of your videos,
anything like that and so they already know you exist
and you're just nicely putting an ad back in front of them
to remind them of your shop, which costs less money
and is a lot more effective than just trying
to show your ads based on demographics or an interest group.
Okay, so we talked about the main differences
between paid and free and how within each
you always have search platforms
and social platforms to choose from.
So what would I recommend?
Three main tips here: first,
if you're new to the online marketing game,
wait to pay money for paid ads or for paid partnerships.
This is simply because, often,
you need to know what is working organically,
meaning for free, to figure out
what's the best way to spend your money.
If you want to start with paid ads
as your main traffic source,
then just be willing to spend a little more
and have a budget allocated to experiment with those ads
because they're not going to work perfectly straight away.
Even the pros have a budget to experiment with their ads
before they find the winning one.
When you advertise straight away,
you have to be willing to really spend some money
to get it going and figure out what works and what doesn't,
which is why I often recommend this
as more of an advanced strategy
when you have a bit more experience under your belt
and know what's been working for you for free, organically,
on those platforms, then you can boost with paid ads
what's already been proven to work organically for you.
Next, I recommend starting
with just one social media platform
otherwise, you'll overload yourself.
If you try and do two right off the bat,
then you won't have time to be consistent
on both or actually engage and do these things
that will get you results.
I know it's hard to let go, but just pick one
and don't worry that you're missing out on the other one.
Just focus on the one you pick and do it well.
It's absolutely possible to have a very successful shop
just with Instagram or just with Facebook.
You don't need to be everywhere.
And, in fact, being everywhere is just going to be more work
for you and less results in the end.
So just pick one, don't worry about missing out
on the other one.
And finally, third tip, on top of that social media platform
you just picked, always, always have an SEO platform
in your marketing strategy, a search engine platform.
Pinterest is my go-to recommendation outside of Etsy,
but of course, if you're selling on Etsy,
you must start there.
Etsy SEO is one of the best things about Etsy.
They have millions of people looking for products.
You want to be sure that your products show up
in the Etsy search results.
If you feel you're not making the most out of Etsy SEO
and you need help with it,
I have two great resources for you.
The first one is a completely free
and super comprehensive guide to Etsy SEO
which includes a free at Etsy SEO checklist.
And the second one is a full step-by-step Etsy SEO course
that will show you exactly how to get more views
for your products using Etsy Search
and turn them into cha-chings. (cash register chimes)
I will link both of these below.
So make sure to go check them out right now.
Thanks for watching.
And until next time (speaking foreign language)