Shop of the Week: Purplelemondesigns

Kelly Rinehart is the creative mind and designer behind PurpleLemonDesigns, this week's Etsy Twitter Team's Shop of the Week. Kelly's Etsy Shop designs and produces custom rubber stamps and stationery, both printable and professionally printed. Her custom products are designed to complement her customer's personality. Kelly says, "When using my products, I like for my customers to feel as if they are sending a stamp imprint or piece of stationery that reflects them." Customer satisfaction in what drives her: "When I create a stationery or stamp design that my client loves and feels is perfect for their everyday needs, wedding day or other special event, that makes all the hard work worth it."

Her main goal for 2010 is "to get my business in order. I was able to take a fabulous business crash course that helped me write a business plan, marketing plan, advertising plan, and other pieces of my business puzzle. This has really helped me think through my business, and really see what I need to do to move it to the next level." She has a relaxed attitude toward Twitter: "I just like to make connections and converse about a little bit of everything...I just like to make new friends that I normally wouldn't run into everyday." With 548 sales in less than two years on Etsy, her business approach and products are obviously successful!

To celebrate her spotlight as Etsy Twitter team shop of the week, Kelly is offering 10% off your entire order {excluding shipping} if you enter ETSYTWITTER in the "Notes to the Seller" section during checkout. The discount will be refunded through Paypal. This offer is good April 5 - 11th.

Etsy Store: http://purplelemondesigns.etsy.com
Blog: http://purplelemondesigns.com/blog
Twitter: http://twitter.com/purplelemon
Facebook: http://facebook.com/purplelemondesigns

Written by Judy

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!

Shop Talk Friday: Marketing with Purple Lemon Designs

Guest Blogger: Kelly Rinehart of PurpleLemonDesigns.etsy.com

In the last "Etsy Journey" post on my personal blog, I touched on the social media aspect of marketing my Etsy shop. Today, I am going to touch on other ways I market my shop.

Business Cards

I actually have two business cards that I had printed. One is a part of my packaging that also doubles as a business card. The good thing about this one is that it has a bounce back coupon on it. I also have a standard business card that is just a biz card with my info on it. I actually carry both in my purse. When I get a great dental cleaning or I get a great cashier when I go to the store, I say thanks and hand them the business card with a coupon on it. I give them a quick spiel about what I sell and then I am on my way. Does it work? Who knows…it certainly can’t hurt. Other things I use my business cards for are shop mail outs, (I will talk more about that in a minute), I put them up on bulletin boards, and I sometimes even leave them on the table when I go to dinner.

I also give my regular business cards to EVERYONE I talk to about my business. If you meet people and make that personal connection, they are much more likely to purchase from you. They feel like they are buying from someone they know and can trust. This leads me into my next segment, Talkin’ It Up.

Talkin’ It Up

Some of you are really lucky and talking to people is easy for you. But there are others of you out there saying to yourself, "I am soooo shy! I can’t talk to people about my business! That just isn’t my thing!"

Well, sister (or brother), you have got to get over that. I did. I am the world’s biggest introvert. I am much more comfortable in front of my computer, but I know I can’t sell things to my computer (trust me I have tried – he is just not that into rubber stamps). I have forced myself to talk to people. Let me let you in on a little secret, it is not as hard as you think. It also gets easier the more you do it. People really don’t bite (as much as I thought that they might.)

A little tip when starting up a conversation with someone you don’t know: people love to talk about themselves. Start a conversation with them asking what they do, where they grew up, about their kids, or anything else that relates to them. Make sure that you listen and genuinely care about what they are saying – don’t just wait until they stop talking to run through what you do. Ask questions about what they are saying. Then, once you have gotten a good conversation going with them, I bet that they will ask about you and what you do. Then, don’t dominate the conversation, but quickly tell them about your business using a great elevator speech.

I could go through the ins and outs of developing an elevator speech, but it is much better said by Barbara Lopez for the Design*Sponge biz ladies series. This is an excellent post about developing a speech for those conversations when you get asked, "So what do you do?" You can read the full article here.

My Packaging

I take full advantage of my packaging to advertise my shop to my customers. Your best customers are going to be return customers, so you MUST market to then when they are a captive audience - like when they are opening their purchase from you and they are all giddy from excitement!

Once again, I am going to state this is how I market my shop; I am not an expert; this is what works for me. That being said, I will tell you about my Etsy packaging. This seems to be a very taboo subject around Etsy, but I'm not shy and secretive with my packaging. I use my business stamps to their full advantage:

Remember that dual business card I referred to above? Here it is in action:

I also include a handwritten note on customized stationery for my business.

Then I put all those elements together and voila! - a beautiful Purple Lemon-rific package for a customer to open and enjoy. Hopefully, it will be memorable for them so when they need another stamp or some stationery they will come back to visit.

Hope you enjoyed a little more info about how I market my shop!

Kelly Rinehart
PurpleLemonDesigns.etsy.com