Etsy Email Marketing Tips For Beginners

I had always heard that I should build an email list for my Etsy shop, but I had no idea where to start.  I thought I had to offer a discount because I was selling a physical product.  This is not the case and I want to share with you my Etsy email marketing tips for beginners so you can make sales without discounting your products.

A good email marketing plan for your Etsy shop will include ideas for how to get subscribers on your email list using a discount code or free resource, where to promote your email list opt-in, and what to email your list once they subscribe.

If you’ve been avoiding starting an email list for your Etsy shop because you don’t know how to get subscribers or what to email them once they’re on your email list, this is the post for you.  No more Etsy email overwhelm.  I’ll help you put together an email marketing plan for your Etsy shop that gets you loyal customers and more sales.

This post contains affiliate links.  See my disclosure here.

Etsy Email Marketing Tips For Beginners

How To Get Etsy Customers On Your Email List

The very first and most important thing you need to know is that you CANNOT add previous customers to your email list without their consent.  They must opt-in to your email list.  It is against Etsy’s terms and illegal in many places to add someone to your email list without them knowing.

However, the email service Aweber integrates with Etsy to collect emails of your customers.  Here’s how it works…

When a customer makes a purchase they will be asked to join your email list at checkout when you have your Aweber account integrated with your Etsy shop.

You can try Aweber for free here.

Once you’ve set up your Aweber account, you’ll go into your account on Aweber and add Etsy to your “My Apps” list.

Aweber is a great place for beginners to email marketing for their Etsy shop to get started because it’s simple to use and understand.

How To Get More Email Subscribers For Etsy

You’ll also want to get people on your email list that haven’t bought from you before.

In order to get people on your email list, you’ll want to create some sort of free resource if you don’t want to offer a discount.  I personally don’t like giving discounts on my physical products because I feel like it devalues my time.

If you do want to give a discount to get people on your list, you’ll need to set up a discount code in your Etsy shop.  Once the person signs up to your email list, you would set up your first email to send them the discount code.

How To Create A Freebie To Grow Your Etsy Email List

To create a freebie as an opt-in for your email list, you’ll need to know who your target audience is and as much about them as possible.  You want to know what problems they have that you and your product can help them solve.

Identify one of their problems that your products are related to and that you’d like to make a freebie for.

You can make an ebook, cheatsheet, worksheet, workbook, guide, checklist, spreadsheet, video training, challenge, audio recording, quiz, or free Facebook group.

You can make this as simple or complicated as you want.  You can make something up in Google docs and save it as a PDF, design something beautiful in a program like Canva or if you’re a design expert you can create something in Photoshop.

Where To Share Your Opt-In On Etsy And Other Places Online

Once you have your freebie made, you need to create an opt-in form in your email service provider.  This is a form that will show what your freebie is and have boxes where the person can put in their name and email address to receive your free resource.

After your form is created, you’ll be able to copy the link for your form so you can put it anywhere you want to promote your email list.

I recommend adding your email list sign up form link on your Etsy shop banner, in your Etsy shop about section, in your product descriptions, in your Etsy bio, on your social media accounts and on your thank you cards.

You can also add a photo in your product photos on Etsy with your opt-in form link and a photo of what the free resource is.

If you have a blog or website you can embed the form on your website home page and any blog posts that it is relevant to.  You can also link to your opt-in form in your menu on your blog or website.

You can also make pins on Pinterest linking to your email list opt-in.

If you have a YouTube channel, put the link for your email list opt-in in the description box that shows up below your video.

What Should I Write In Email Marketing For Etsy?

Next, you’ll need to set up an automated email sequence (your Welcome Series).

The first email will welcome them and give the link for them to download their freebie.  Introduce yourself and tell a bit about your shop and your mission.

Then set up a few more emails to go out over the next week so they can get to know you better.

Be sure to give some helpful tips that help with whatever problem they have in your emails, tell them a little about yourself (but don’t make the emails too much about you), tell them stories that they can relate to and that make you relatable to them and make them aware of the products you have that can help them with their problem.

After they’ve gone through the welcome series, you can send them a regular email once a week or once every two weeks with some helpful tips or advice.

Sprinkle in some mentions of your products in your emails when it feels right.

Try to get them to engage with you by asking them to reply to your emails with an answer to a question.  When people start to engage with you it’s much easier to build a relationship with them.

Let them know when you launch a new product line or add new items to your shop.

Create an email content calendar so you know what you want to email about ahead of time and don’t have to scramble at the last minute to come up with an idea for what you want to talk about in your weekly email.

Remember to consistently email your subscribers or they’ll turn cold, start unsubscribing, and not be likely to buy your products.  Maintaining the relationship is key.

It’s just like a friend who never calls you.  You’ll eventually grow apart and not be friends anymore.  The same is true for your email subscribers.