It wasn’t that long ago that social media was the new kid on the block. Today, sites such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook are well-established both to stay connected with friends and family and as marketing tools.
Even if you’re already using social media for marketing, you might wonder what you can do to drive more traffic to your Etsy shop and increase your sales. Here are some pointers to help you make full use of your social media following to sell your products.
Create Professional Profiles
The first step is one that many Etsy shop owners overlook. It’s not ideal to market your Etsy shop from your personal social media accounts – at least not exclusively. You might have a large following, but you’ll be better off, and get better results, if you create professional profiles for your business.
For example, on Facebook and Instagram, you can link your shop account to your personal account. That makes it easy to manage both pages and you’ll get access to an array of tools that are available only to professional accounts.
Build Your Following
Marketing on social media is effectively only if you have a following. While it’s possible to promote your content to people who aren’t already following you, it works best if you have a following of people who are willing to share your content with their social media contacts.
You can start with basic demographics, but my recommendation is to focus on psychographics – the common likes and interests of your target audience. For example, if you sell planners and related supplies aimed at people who are planning weddings, then you might target people who follow wedding publications on Facebook or Instagram, such as The Knot. This targeting method allows you to piggyback on audiences that already exist who might also be in the market for products like yours.
Create Content to Appeal to Your Target Audience
It can be tempting to share funny content that appeals to you on social media – and there’s nothing wrong with doing that on your personal account. Your business account should be reserved for content that’s specifically designed to highlight your expertise and entice people to buy your products.
If you’re selling personalized printables or print on demand products, that may mean encouraging your current followers to share photos of themselves wearing or using your products for you to reshare. It may mean creating how-to videos or tutorials. The idea is that you want to create content that people can find based on their interests – that they can then use to find your products.
Link to Your Shop
Every social media site offers users the option of entering a URL – sometimes on the profile page, as on Instagram, and sometimes in individual posts. Whatever the options are, it’s essential to take full advantage of them.
For example, you can enter the URL of your Etsy shop on every Facebook post if you want to. You can shorten the URL and include it in your Tweets. You should absolutely have the URL of your shop in your Instagram and Pinterest bios. That way, anybody who views your profile will know exactly how to find you on Etsy.
Link Your Etsy Shop to Social Media
Speaking of social media, have you officially linked your Etsy shop to your social media profiles? If the answer is no, then you should. Let’s run down the options.
- Connect your Etsy shop with Facebook. You can do this by going to Etsy, clicking on the Your Shop icon, and going to shop settings. Click Info & Appearances, then click Links. Click the option to “Connect with Facebook” and you’re done. You can use the same method for Instagram and Twitter.
- Connect your Pinterest business account with your Etsy shop. To do this, go to Etsy and click Pinterest > Settings > Claim. This will ensure that if someone pins an image to your shop on Pinterest, your profile picture and shop name will appear with it.
The good thing about doing this is that your Etsy shop will now display social following links at the bottom of the page, making it easy for people who visit your shop to follow you on social and – with any luck – share your shop and products with their friends.
Ask People to Share Your Content
Social media sites are built for sharing content and in a perfect world, you might think that people would share your posts, content, and products without being asked. However, that’s not the way it works! Some people may, but in most cases people need to be asked before they’ll share your content.
When you post on Instagram or Facebook, ask people to share your content with their friends. You can ask them to tag you in the post or use a dedicated hashtag that you create. Whatever option you choose, you’re sure to see an increase in the number of shares you get by simply asking for them. Make sure to include the URL of your shop in the content, so it will be visible to anybody who sees the posts shared by your followers.
Host a Social Media Giveaway
Everybody loves a freebie or giveaway and creating a social media contest is a fantastic way to encourage commenting, sharing, and shop visits! The key is to make traffic-building actions part of the requirement to enter.
For example, you could tell people they’ll get one entry for liking your post and one for commenting. These things both increase visibility and may help new customers learn about your shop. Then, add a third entry for sharing your post and a fourth for making your shop a Favorite on Etsy. You can amplify the traffic even more by adding a hashtag for your shop.
Conclusion
If you want more traffic for your Etsy shop – and more sales – then you can use the ideas I’ve included here to get the word out and entice new and returning customers to click the link to your shop. Tracking your results will help you identify which methods deliver the most traffic!
Are you ready to fast-track profits from your Etsy shop? Click here to check out my full guide, Easy Etsy Profits, today!
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