Who's Behind NM?

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Nature Manipulated (NM) creates visual, wearable and practical art that reflects upon nature and all of its elements. At NM, we believe that everything is a part of nature, some things are just "nature manipulated."

NM specializes in one-of-a-kind handcrafted jewelry, handmade greeting cards, nature photography and other unique accessories.

To read more about who's behind NM, please click here.
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Saturday, June 21, 2008

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.

16 comments:

Barbra said...

Great list. I bought a decal (on etsy)with my shop name for my car and there are 2 benefits...#1. I can always find my car since it's a common and popular one! #2.Advertising wherever I go. I have been stopped in parking lots several times and then gave out my business card.

Nature Manipulated said...

That's a good one Barb. If I had a car, I'd definitely do that.

Annabelle said...

Wow. This is really a great list. I'll take some of these suggestions for my own shop.

Thank you!

Parallax Photo said...

Thanks for compiling these tips!

woolies said...

what about just plain old spending money to advertise?
pennies per day on project wonderful....

Ravenswick said...

Thanks for putting this into a nice list. I saw the post in the forums but didn't have time to read it all.

Nature Manipulated said...

I use project wonderful too but there are tons of FREE ways to advertise that I believe are more effective.

Unknown said...

well, I blog... and just a couple days ago I found the forums at etsy. I just received my business cards. I also am gonna start making gifts for some ppl I know.

Andrea Q said...

Beautiful blog!

Thank you for compiling these tips...I saw the thread but didn't want to read through all of it ;)

storybeader said...

Thanks for counting those out. I tried Project Wonderful too, but now I'm thinking it was a was of money.

I just found out that people can subscribe to our blogs - someone told me that they always knew when I wrote something new, which was pleasing to hear, even though I didn't sell anything.

I'm not much of a club person, but I think the etsy groups are another great way to get your "brand" out there. And the etsybloggers rock!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE your blog! It looks great!

Anonymous said...

Great Blog and benefits to this posting. It comfirms some of what I thought by having tried and received nothing in return for all of the efforts you speak of.

I have a problem with wearing my pieces??? I have recently started to get it into my mind that I must.

This week I will be pounding the pavement covered in my jewelry, attempting to have some shops pick me up.

Lily

Elena said...

Great ideas! I've recently started carrying business cards around with me :)

Jessica said...

What a great post! It was so informative; thanks for doing all the "dirty" work of compiling that list. I also have a car decal that I bought on etsy that has brought some outside sales in from my hubby's co-workers that have seen it on his car, but it hasn't been the big money maker that I had hoped... I'll have to try out some of the other ideas you listed. Thanks again! :)

Nature Manipulated said...

I went out to dinner last night to this artsy restaurant/bar and asked if I could leave some business cards out front on a table. The hostess said "Absolutely!" I'm hoping this brings in some people.

It never hurts to ask if you can do the same if you come across a place that seems appropriate for your cards.

Bubbles said...

Great tips but like you said some work for some people and others don't its just finding the right balance :)

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