How to build your Etsy shop brand 

Wouldn’t it be great if every one of your Etsy customers sent others to your shop?

As a small business owner, you want people to enjoy your creations and tell others. You don’t just want them to come back and buy again. You also want them to recommend your shop to their friends and help you grow. But if you’re a small Etsy shop owner, you might recognize this conversation:

“I found this super cute Etsy shop the other day.” “What’s it called?” “...I can’t remember.”

Now, that’s tragic. The good news is that a combination of good branding on Etsy along with some simple Etsy SEO will make it easier for your customers to not only find you the first time but remember your name and share it with all their friends.

## How to get noticed on Etsy in 2020

A major issue with selling on Etsy is being found in the first place. There are thousands of sellers who create similar products, so when a potential customer is simply referred to finding you “on Etsy,” it’s almost impossible to relocate an exact item.

It’s not easy for buyers to just “find you on Etsy”.

Here’s a simple search on Etsy for a purse. As you can see, there are thousands of results and it would be hard to get your purse to stand out in search. To bring your shop to the top, you need to start with a little Etsy SEO.

![etsy purse search](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/55ccb07e52ddca834203f5acfbba83229ee86b34)

### What you need to know about SEO for Etsy

Did you know that Etsy runs its own SEO game? And playing by Etsy’s rules is what all those big, successful shops are doing to succeed?

Thankfully, Etsy doesn’t keep its SEO program a secret. The Etsy staff keep an up-to-date guide on the site called “[How Etsy Search Works](https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/how-etsy-search-works/375461474487)”.

Shops get found on Etsy in two phases:

- Query matching
- Ranking

Query matching happens when your new customer does a search on Etsy for a product. Then, Etsy looks through all the listings that match the query.

Ranking is similar to Google. The Etsy team wants to provide buyers with the most accurate search results. So, they look through the listings and pull out the ones that best match the search term. Usually, these products then make up the top selling Etsy items thanks to sheer visibility alone.

You want the product Etsy chooses for page one to be yours. So, how do you make it happen? The answer is finding the best keywords for Etsy.

### How to find the best Etsy SEO keywords

To get started with SEO on Etsy, you need to find the right keywords, which is a funny way of saying “a couple of words that accurately describe your product.” 

Keywords are the foundation of setting up an Etsy store: choose the right ones, and getting found is easier. Using keywords that don’t match your product or the buyer’s intent will make it harder for you to use more advanced tools to get ahead.

1. __Start with Etsy’s own search tool.__ You can learn a lot about what people search for on Etsy simply by doing lots of searches yourself. You can see what other keyword suggestions Etsy makes and figure out what kind of products come up when you hit the ‘search’ button. Write your findings down, but don’t rely on this method alone!
2. __Confirm your hunch with an Etsy keyword tool.__ You don’t need to play a guessing game with keywords. You can confirm your suspicion and use data to find the most popular keywords by turning to tools like the Etsy Keyword Tool Dominator. If you’re new to Etsy and don’t have cash to spare for keyword research, you can also use the Google Keyword Planner, which is available at the unbeatable cost of absolutely free.
3. __Optimize your title, tags, attributes, and categories__. With your list of sweet keywords ready to go, it’s time to sprinkle them around your store like magic dust. Add them to every aspect of your listing, including in your content. If you’re brand new to Etsy, you can find a short guide to the different parts of your listing, like titles, tags, and categories, [over on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/ie/seller-handbook/article/keywords-101-everything-you-need-to-know/382774281517).

By building a foundation of accurate and highly-searchable keywords, you’re preparing yourself to be found by [Etsy’s 41.03 million active buyers](https://www.marketplacepulse.com/stats/etsy/etsy-number-of-active-buyers-3).

## What are examples of successful Etsy brands?

Now that you’re on your way to taking over the top spot in the Etsy rankings, what you need is branding. Branding is more than coming up with names for an Etsy shop: true branding helps people remember your store so they can come back again — and bring their friends.
Branding is a highly individual exercise. Your brand is a reflection of your shop. But if you’re new to buying and selling online, you may find you need some inspiration to kick-start your branding brainstorm. 
To get started, let’s take a look at three Etsy shops who are already successful.

### Lovelane branded by quality & photography

![lovelane etsy page](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/367448538328af4596f0b12734c596d90fdb1427)

[Lovelane](https://www.etsy.com/shop/lovelane) is a custom children’s costume shop with gorgeous photography and glowing reviews. They have a logo, several places for you to follow them on social media, and a website. 

The company is especially active on Instagram where you can see dozens of pictures of their products in use. 

What really stands out for this brand is the unique quality of their children’s costumes and photography that goes beyond the effort of what a normal shop would. 

They have images of children in their costumes playing. There is a nice touch of a child being held in the air in their costume to fly like a superhero. And, you’ll find a few pets and babies in costumes as well.

__Takeaway Tip:__ Be creative with what you offer, and show it being used in your photography. Skip ‘stock’ images, and ask customers to come back and leave a review. Social proof is a great way to show others how great your product is.

### Creepy St. Shop is a fun nightmare

![etsy creepy st ](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/e92b9fd21bb79ab1ee05c2174bd2c9fa3b645622)

When it comes to horror films you either love them or hate them. Lisa from [Creepy St.](https://etsy.com/shop/CreepySt) loves them so much she’s set up her own Etsy shop selling goods celebrating horror film culture. 

Lisa has a fun logo with a skull to indicate the dark nature of her shop. Most items in the shop are related to the horror world, and she stays consistent with her scary brand. 

What’s really fun is how Creepy St. shares horror flicks links, history and facts on social media. She’s active in getting recognition for her brand, while also providing a newsfeed that is interesting to her followers on Twitter.

__Takeaway Tip:__ Entertain your buyers. From the design of her logo to the fun newsfeed, Lisa is able to keep people interested in her shop by staying active with industry news.

### Shine Invitations for beautiful wedding stationery

![shine invitations etsy page](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/9dad33d8f5e371fad3a0187c829435dcf7aed7e2)

The wedding category is massive on Etsy. To stand out, a store has to optimize every setting and option. [Shine Wedding](https://etsy.com/shop/ShineInvitations) Invitations does this very well. From their photos, to their titles and descriptions they use every opportunity to show the elegance of their invitations. 

For branding they make sure to use their company name in emails and they refer people to their actual website and social media accounts (where they are highly active). 

__Takeaway Tip:__ Use fonts in your products and photos to stay consistent with your branding. In these pictures they use elegant fonts consistent with wedding invitations.  

## What you can learn from successful Etsy brands

Setting up your shop with a fluid theme is one way to help people remember your brand, but successful shops also do a lot behind the scenes. Here are more ways to work on your branding.

### Use your Etsy shop name in emails

When you send emails about your shop, use your shop name in your signature and at the top of the email. Say “thank you for shopping at My Etsy Shop.”

### Set up social media accounts for your Etsy shop

 If you don’t already have social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, set them up and start using them. The more active you are, the more likely you are to bring visitors to your shop. You don’t have to be on all social media networks.

### Work with others

[Etsy has communities](http://etsy.com/teams), and there are several other places that Etsy sellers congregate to support each other. You can find these places by searching on Google for the Etsy sellers group.

Surprise and delight customers with little branding touches: Even though you’re an online business, most customers will still experience your product offline. Thoughtful packaging, with branded touches like custom stickers and labels, will help you bring your online brand into the real world from the very first moment your product reaches your customers hands!

Check out our [packaging and branding](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/brand-package-etsy-products) post for more tips on what to include in Etsy packaging.

## Get ready to make money on Etsy

Popular shops on Etsy have a lot to teach those who are willing to pay attention. Be sure to check out other shops to see what they are doing to increase sales, and gain exposure to their products.

As you learn more you can implement similar changes both when you start your Etsy store and as you continue growing your brand on Etsy.

There are countless ways to grow your brand using stickers and other custom printed products. Why not get started with branding and packaging, and watch your business grow from there?

<ButtonCta text="Create custom packaging for $29" size="large" variant="secondary" align="center" href="https://www.stickermule.com/custom-packaging" />

Want to stand out from the crowd? Branding your Etsy shop is the first step to making more money. Find a step-by-step branding guide with examples here.

How to engage your online community with swag 

Building an online community is fun, but it can also be daunting. Even with a lot of members there may be very little activity. As a community manager it’s your job to activate your community and engage them with a variety of activities. 

One way to do this is by using swag, or free gifts. Done correctly and at the right times, swag campaigns can improve overall engagement, increase excitement about your community, get members to use word-of-mouth marketing, and grow your community to astounding numbers.  

## Why swag works for engaging your community

Swag can be a cost-effective way to reward community members. It works because it gives members the opportunity to show off their excitement for the community in real life. 

This often encourages others to investigate the site or brand name to see why this person is so enamored. Assuming everything else in the community is optimized this should lead to more activity, sign ups and engagement. 

But rewards like this must be used correctly, or the campaign could backfire turning into a massive waste of money with few new users gained.

## Successfully giving swag to your community

### Start by identifying a specific goal for your campaign. 
Do you want more members (hopefully active members), more traffic, more engagement from current members, or more referrals from current members? 

All of these things might sound nice, but choose 1 or 2 goals that would impact the community most and focus on making these things happen.

### Choose a specific action you want members to take. 
What do you want members to do? Put stickers up around San Francisco, Boston or NYC? Wear your t-shirts to big events? Share an image on social media with an explanation of why they love being active in the community? 

Be creative here, since that will get more members active in the campaign. Think big, you’ll want maximum exposure. 

### Decide who gets the items. 
You can thank new members for joining, reward the most active members by sending them an unexpected gift, give to members who used to be active but have recently slowed down, or you could choose to entice influencers who could share about your community. 

### Run the campaign.
If you are going to incorporate social media, giveaways or sweepstakes, now is the time to run it. If you are not using these things or you want to give away the items first, skip this step. 

### Ship items to recipients. 
Packaging is important here, you can go the extra mile to engage your recipients without spending a lot. Include a handwritten note, give them instructions or ask them to share on social media (“We’d love it if you could take a pic and share it on Twitter”) but don’t demand anything. 

## Common swag & stories of success

It’s a lot easier to imagine your campaign once you’ve heard about others who have been successful. We’ve put together a list of items and some stories of success to help jumpstart your creativity.

**T-shirts**- Not especially low cost when you are scaling, but an exciting prize for the most dedicated members of your community. Be sure to pick a quality, soft t-shirt to get people wearing it for you.

**Examples**: [Inbound.org](http://inbound.org) used t-shirts to reward their most loyal evangelist members. For a short time, anyone who referred 5 members to the site got a free t-shirt, anywhere in the world. 

Sujan Patel wrote about giving away t-shirts in his popular ebook on growth. By giving away t-shirts (that people wore) the company received a lot of word of mouth and were able to growth hack their way to more users. 

**Stickers**- One of the most economical ways to give physical products to your members, because they can be quite inexpensive and cheap to ship. A lot of companies will include [die cut stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/die-cut-stickers) as additional gifts in shipping because they are fun and low cost. 

Be smart and give your users a list of ideas of where to use your stickers , too. 

Some ideas: 

* Laptop covers
* Back of their tablets
* On street posts
* Posted to bulletin boards
* On skateboards or helmets
* Vehicles
* Moleskine notebooks

**Example**: Reddit is one of the most popular communities sites online and they’ve [used stickers quite extensively to help their brand grow]( https://www.fastcompany.com/1841389/how-reddit-built-its-empire-500-bucks-stickers-and-giving-people-what-they-want).

A quick search on Google will display several subreddits that have used stickers to connect with their communities as well. Here are a few from that search:

![sticker subreddits](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/88a1c0ce2a7c3e35572963b777799f38d19c58ba)

These stickers have been used all around towns to get people exposed to new brands, on packages for the same reason, in sticker exchanges, on game consoles, bikes, briefcases, laptop bags and more. 

**Notebooks** - Business people are constantly taking notes and writing things down, and a moleskine notebook is the perfect place to do it. That’s why we love branded notebooks. 

**Examples**: 
Here is a moleskine notebook Elevator Agency got from HubSpot. As an added bonus for HubSpot, the agency posted it on Twitter (exposure). 

![Moleskine notebook from HubSpot](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/aaceb1c626f577d0a466782dd6bec2366c6b239f)

When I first joined [Coschedule](http://coschedule.com) in 2014 as a paid member I received a notebook and a couple of stickers in the mail. 

A month later when I unexpectedly stopped blogging I continued as a paying member for a few more months because I loved the notebook so much and wanted to support them.

Another option for getting your swag out to members when you don’t have a budget for it, is to set up a store they can shop. There are several companies that act as fulfillment centers and you can put your brand on a lot of items without having to worry about ordering, stocking and shipping. 

## Swag can get expensive & here’s how to fix it

One of the main drawbacks of using swag is the cost. Sending 1000 t-shirts can cost $15,000 or more with shipping. Stickers can cost $500-$1000 to send to the same number of members with shipping and often get more exposure. 

A few ways you can lower swag expenses:

**Only send swag to the most active members**- many people will want free gifts so you’ll need to be selective. Sending gifts to members who are never active can be a huge waste of resources.

**Choose items within your budget**- T-shirts and gift cards are for communities with big budgets. Notebooks and stickers are great for communities of all budgets. What really matters is the presentation of the gifts.

**Avoid low quality gifts**- Totes seem like a great gift, but are often low quality, unless you are willing to foot a higher cost. Skip items that are low quality, like stiff t-shirts, because you’ll end up replacing them, or the member won’t use them as you’d hoped.

**Don’t offer items your audience won’t want**- If you’ve recently wrote a book, you might be inclined to offer the book as a gift (this helps increase your sales and promotes the book to your members), but you still end up footing the bill. If they want your book, they will buy it, swag should be a gift just for them.

### Conclusion
Offering your community gifts or swag is a great way to encourage more engagement, word-of-mouth and new members. 

By following the tips we’ve included here, you should be able to stay within your campaign budgets, while getting the most return on investment. 

If you have a community you'd like to reward with swag, why not start with stickers? [Get $10 off your first order](https://www.stickermule.com/unlock?ref_id=7980330701&ref=blog) when you sign up by clicking the button below.

<ButtonCta text="Get $10 credit" href="https://www.stickermule.com/unlock?ref_id=7980330701&ref=blog" />

Learn how swag helps improve engagement, increases word-of-mouth marketing, and grows your community. 

Posts by Mary Green

How to build your Etsy shop brand

How to engage your online community with swag