An Etsy Thread Gives Great Marketing Tips

Every once in awhile I stop by the Business Topics section of the Etsy Forums. I'm always looking for new business and marketing ideas, info about new sites and any other useful information. Yesterday, I came across a thread called "Single best marketing idea." At that time there were approximately 80 posts in the thread. I decided to diligently read through the posts and see what the single best idea was. After reading through all the posts, I realized there wasn't a single best. There were many good ones.

I decided for today's post I would go through the thread again and pick out some of the marketing ideas and tip sellers offered. The number of people who mentioned the idea are posted next to the tip. They are listed in order of most votes to least.

Word of mouth x14
Renewing/relisting items frequently x12
Flickr x10
Blogging x10
Handing out business cards everywhere and with everything x7
Etsy forums x5
Wearing your own work x3
Business card trades x3
Articles written about you/features x2
Contests/freebies x2
Sign-up box or email list x2
Putting logo and contact information on all correspondence x2
Submitting items to be reviewed/featured
Search engine submission
Front page treasuries
Posting on other peoples blogs
Myspace
Craft shows
Eye catching photos
Etsy Street Teams
Catchy shop name
Useful tags
Giving your items as gifts

I don't think there can be a single best marketing idea. At least for Etsy, there is no one thing that works alone. In order to get your shop noticed you need to promote - not only to other Etsy members but also to people who have never heard of Etsy. There are many ways to do this.

The ideas above are all great. I have tried many of them. Some of them work better for me than others. For instance, using social networking/photo sharing sites like Myspace and Flickr are time consuming. I used to use Myspace to promote my website but it became too crazy and I ended spending more time promoting than was worth, also a lot of viruses associated with Myspace pages.

I find that word of mouth, business cards, promos and wearing your items (if they are wearable) are among the best ideas. I always carry business cards with me and leave them wherever I go, e.g. along with a tip and on a boutique counter. I also use the magnet on the left as my promo along with business cards from other Etsy shops. Friends and family can be great promotion. Give them gifts that they will love and show off to other people. Along with the gift, give them some business cards to have on hand when they come across people interested in the gift they received. This works escpecially well with jewelry, bags, clothing and accessories.

If you have any other marketing ideas, please post them in the comments and share them with us.