How To Promote Your Etsy Shop For Free
You’ve started your Etsy shop and now you want to stand out on Etsy and get customers to buy. As a new Etsy shop it can take a little time to start gaining traction and getting sales.
I want to share with you the 4 best ways to promote your Etsy shop for free that will help you start getting sales.
There are other ways to promote your Etsy shop for free other than these 4 that I’ll be sharing, but I like to focus on things that will help my craft business grow over the long term.
Using most social media platforms is great for connecting with your audience, but after a day or a few days your posts die and no one really sees them again. So I haven’t included those here.
These are free Etsy marketing strategies that will get you lasting results.
This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure here.
How To Promote Your Etsy Shop For Free
1. Blogging
Blogging is a great way to promote your Etsy shop for free while adding value for your customers as well. When you give value to people they want to return the favor.
It might seem like a huge undertaking to start a blog for your Etsy shop, but it can be as simple as you want it to be. It’s true that blogging can get super complicated, but you can also keep it really simple.
You can set up a blog for your Etsy shop for free on sites like Wix or Blogger. These are good options if you don’t have any money to start a blog, but there is a better option if you have a little money to start your blog for your Etsy shop.
I recommend starting a blog on WordPress through the best and least expensive hosting company, Bluehost. Their plans only cost a few dollars a month and you get a free domain (which is your web address).
If you go with Wix or Blogger your web address will look like www.wix.yourwebaddress.com. On a WordPress site your web address will be www.yourwebaddress.com.
The free sites look a little less professional, but if you really don’t have a budget for a blog, getting started on a free site is much better than nothing at all.
One other thing to be aware of with free blog sites is that you can’t connect a store to them. So if you ever want to open your own store on your website you’ll have to move to a paid platform like WordPress. Just something to think about before you commit.
How To Promote Your Etsy Shop With A Blog
Now that you know the good and bad of blogging platforms, here’s how to use a blog to promote your Etsy shop.
To attract the right customers and make more sales for your Etsy shop you’ll want to write about things your target audience is interested in that relate to your products.
For instance, if you have a shop that sells nursery decor, you could write about pregnancy, having a newborn or home decor. As you can see there will be multiple topics to blog about for each Etsy seller. So you can choose the one that interests you the most.
If you love blogging to promote your Etsy shop you can post more frequently, but if you just want some pieces of content to start attracting customers without it getting overwhelming you could just write one blog post a month.
Here’s a post where I go into more detail about blogging to promote your Etsy shop.
2. YouTube
Many people have turned to YouTube for information and entertainment over the recent years.
That’s why starting a YouTube channel to promote your Etsy shop is ideal. You have the opportunity to get your craft business in front of millions of people for free.
Starting a YouTube channel is actually easy too. You don’t need to go out and buy a fancy camera or other equipment. If you have a smartphone or a computer with a camera, you can start recording videos right away.
How to promote your Etsy shop on YouTube
When I say start a YouTube channel to market you business I don’t mean a channel that’s showcasing and advertising your products. You’ll want to treat this just like we talked about for blogging.
Figure out who your target audience is and make a channel that informs or entertains them. Then mention your products in your videos where it’s relevant and helpful.
YouTube is an awesome way for your customers and future customers to get to know you. When you see someone on video you can see their personality and mannerisms and really feel like you know who they are.
People will trust you if you give good information on your YouTube channel and feel comfortable and motivated to buy from you.
Another great thing about promoting your Etsy shop on YouTube is that after you reach 1,000 subscribers you can place ads on your videos which gives you another stream of income that’s passive (meaning you don’t have to work harder to make the money).
If you want to learn more in depth about starting a YouTube channel for your Etsy shop, I wrote a post all about it here.
3. Pinterest
Pinterest is amazing to promote your Etsy shop for free. It’s a visual platform which makes it perfect for pinning your beautiful products.
There’s a little bit of a learning curve for how to use Pinterest for marketing your Etsy shop, but once you get it, it’s magical how much traffic you can get to your store.
How to promote your Etsy shop on Pinterest
You’ll need to set up a business account and claim your Etsy shop. Then create some boards with keywords that match your products.
You can pin your products directly from Etsy and make additional pin photos for your products to add to Pinterest manually. I explain more about the process in this post.
If you’ve set up a blog and YouTube channel to promote your Etsy shop, you can also pin your blog posts and videos which can triple your traffic and sales.
Your pin title and descriptions need to contain keywords that people would use to search for your products on Pinterest. Try using different keywords for each pin so you can show up for multiple search results.
I have a more detailed post about how to market your Etsy shop on Pinterest here.
4. Email
Growing an email list is one of the best ways you can promote your Etsy shop for free.
With email you have access to speak to your customers any time you want.
Email is a great way to build a relationship with your customers and future customers.
You can set up your email list to market your Etsy shop for free with AWeber. Aweber is an email service provider that allows you to collect emails, send email marketing, and create opt-in forms and landing pages.
I want to mention that you cannot automatically add customers to your email list from Etsy. This is against Etsy’s terms of service. They have to opt in to your email list.
BUT…AWeber integrates with Etsy. What does this mean? When your customers checkout they will be asked if they want to join your email list when you integrate AWeber with your Etsy shop.
When I first started my Etsy shop, I thought the only thing I could email my list was discounts and sales. I personally don’t like giving discounts on a product I have to work hard on to make. So I never started an email list.
Later I realized that I could email my list with valuable information instead 💡
How to use email marketing for your Etsy shop
Grow your email list by offering a freebie that helps your customer get a quick win with a problem they have.
You can offer a checklist, ebook, spreadsheet, etc. that helps them solve a problem that’s related to what you sell. You’ll have to know who your target audience is.
Once they’re on your email list, you can send them helpful tips about all the issues that they might have surrounding the problem your products solve.
Then in some of your emails you can sprinkle in links to your Etsy shop or products. You can give discounts if you want to, but you don’t need to.
The better you know your audience and their problems, the easier it will be to have endless content ideas for your emails. Keep in contact with them weekly or bi-weekly to stay on their mind and build a solid relationship.
When you spend the time to build a relationship with your audience so they trust you, selling your Etsy items becomes so much easier.
All of these free marketing ideas for your Etsy shop are centered around providing valuable information to your customers and building a relationship with them.
By doing this you won’t have to formally sell. People will just want to buy because of the value you’ve given them, because they like you and because they trust you.
Get more details on how to use email marketing for your Etsy shop here.
