Shop Talk Friday with Purple Lemon Designs

Guest Blogger:
Kelly Rinehart of PurpleLemonDesigns.etsy.com

Originally posted to her blog in July 2009

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Well, I am glad you decided to join me for my 3rd installment of “Marketing My Etsy Shop”. We have already covered using Twitter and Facebook as marketing tools in Part 1, and using business cards, an elevator speech and your shop’s packaging in Part 2. Today, we are going to talk about my experiences with Etsy Teams, an email newsletter, as well as blogging. Let’s chat, shall we?

Etsy Teams

I am on three Etsy teams, Team Etsy Mississippi, The Etsy Twitter Team, and The Etsy Wedding Team. I have “met” so many wonderful people through these teams. I have also learned a ton from many of the members.

So, how did I start with Etsy Teams?

Well I first started with my home state’s team. I had no idea what teams were, but I wanted to find out. There had been lots of talk on the forums about teams, so I needed to know more.

A state team is a natural fit for any seller in the USA (I think). I know my state’s membership is open to any one living in MS with a shop on Etsy. I really enjoyed the team camaraderie, and once people got to know me through our Yahoo group, I made sales to many of the members.

While having a great Mississippi team experience, I joined Twitter. Soon after, I stumbled upon the Etsy Twitter Team. I joined up and it is a great team to be a part of. It is probably the most active team I am on because we are all on Twitter so much. We promote one shop each week, we have a very active Google group, and my teammates are experts at getting Etsy Treasuries (which we also tweet about)! I had never been in a Treasury before joining a team (thanks Michelle!), and I am still not sure how all that works, but being a part of great Treasuries has been such an honor since joining a team.

A few months ago, I started selling some of my wedding items. Since I had such good experiences with teams, I applied to be accepted as a member of The Etsy Wedding Team. This team has been a great experience just like the other two. I really like the focused nature of the team. We all design wedding items, so we have lots in common. This team has become very active in the last few weeks, so I am excited to see where it takes us!

A few tips about joining teams:

• Just as anything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it.
• Don’t be shy!
• Just do it.

E-Newsletters

I have put together e-newsletters for my places of employment, but it never dawned on me to put one together for Purple Lemon Designs… until a few months ago. I have only put a few out, but I know that people are clicking through (thanks to Google Analytics). I use Mail Chimp to put my email blasts together. It is really easy to use, and it is free if you send to 100 or less people at a time (up to 6 times a month). You can also customize your blast to look like your blog or your Etsy shop. I know that there are other great services available such as Constant Contact and iContact. I can’t speak about these services, because I haven’t had the pleasure of using them.

This is just another way to contact your customers. Be careful who you send your blast to… you don’t want to violate spam legislation. I only send to people who opt in to my newsletter through a link on my blog, my website’s contact form and my Etsy Shop Announcement. Some people send to people that have purchased from them, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that unless they opt in. The great thing about Mail Chimp or other services like it, they will manage your email list for you. I have a page that is generated by Mail Chimp that subscribers use to sign up. It links directly to my blog. Cool, right?

Blog

Obviously since you are reading this, you know that I blog. Many of you probably blog, too. A few tips that I can give about blogging are:

• Create an editorial schedule – Readers like to know what you are going to be posting on a regular basis. I have a few different series that I feature on my blog (such as Terrific Tuesdays and Lemony Fresh Etsy Sellers), so my readers know what is coming up.

• Post on a regular basis – I know that I get tired of keeping a blog that never updates in my daily reads. I don’t necessary mean that you have to post everyday; that is up to you. I am saying that your readers will be more likely to come back to see you if you maybe post once a week or more. Maybe even post on the same day each week. I know that Word Press blogs have this nifty feature where you can schedule your posts. This has really helped me post on a regular basis. I usually write blog posts in spurts, mostly on the weekend. So if I can space out when my posts are published, that is really helpful with my schedule.

• Read other people’s blogs and comment – This will help make connections with other people across the internet. Always link your blog to your comments. Lots of people like to follow the trails of comment links… You may even gain more readers this way.

• All posts are better with pictures, especially if you are writing a tutorial.

• Make sure to add your Etsy Mini to your sidebar.

• Make it fun!

I hope you have enjoyed my posts about Marketing my Etsy shop. Let me know if you have questions by posting in the comments below.

Toodles!