Before we get started, building a 6 figure business didn’t happen overnight. Not for me, not for anyone…FACT. If you are searching for a single magical solution that is going to take you from sporadic sales to Etsy mastermind then this blog just isn’t for you. 

HOWEVER, as a handmade business coach I am constantly striving to create new and refreshing ways to demystify the path to your first £1,000 day and beyond! With that being said, this blog is just one cog in my business machine that is going to guide you through the 7 most asked questions that I receive DAILY. 

Now it isn’t my style to be the gatekeeper, so I am answering these questions as though you paid me…

My sales have dropped and I have no idea why

First of all, it’s important to consider what time of year it is. If it is in the final quarter of the year and you don’t sell very “giftable products”, they may not be on people’s minds because a lot of people are in full blown Christmas prep mode. Therefore, I would be considering if you can adapt your product to be “giftable”. I understand this is going to be easily applicable to everyone but a good way to get around this is offering vouchers that contain a limited time discount code -  get creative with it!

The next thing I would be considering might get under your skin a little bit… 

A huuuge mistake that I see time and time again with Etsy shops is not keeping your audience warm by posting consistently (sidenote: consistently is NOT constantly!). 

On the flip side, it is also not a good idea to go from ghosting your audience to suddenly bombarding them with content multiple times a day. This is just going to nudge people to mentally bail out and is more likely to put them off completely. 

I totally understand that posting consistently seems like more effort but how STRESSFUL is it trying to bust out oodles of content that “needs” to be posted in about 20 minutes because that’s “the best time to post”? Not to mention the fact that every last scrap of creative juice seems to just dry up in the moments where you need it the most!!

The final thing that I would prompt you to consider is whether your listings are handling objections for you? People will always have questions but they won’t always make the effort to ask you directly, especially if they are a last minute shopper.

For example: a handmade jewellery business would probably get questions like:

• Will it rust?
• Can I have it engraved?
• Does it come in gold/ silver/ rose gold? 

To increase sales, you should be answering questions like this in:

• Your product photos 
• Descriptions 
• FAQ section
• Everywhere that you can 

Phew! That was long winded but bloody packed with value…

How to prepare your shop for the holidays (such as Mothers day, Christmas)?

Thankfully, this one is quite simple! My 3 best tips of advice that I can give you is:

• Over order on things like packaging/ printer paper / tape because you will absolutely use it at some point so there’s no chance of waste
• Schedule days off because it is probably one of the busiest times of years for many reasons and you deserve a bloody break - even if it’s just for 60-90 minute to recharge and make you feel good
• Have someone around to ask for help whether that's a partner / neighbour's kid. Essentially someone that can step in at a moments notice and is at least somewhat trained to do simple jobs to free up some time for you

What stats should you be keeping an eye on to measure the success of your shop?

The main thing that I would track if I was just starting out/ working towards my first £1,000 day is the visits (amount of people coming into your shop) vs the number of viewed listings. 

For example, if your shop has 16 visits and 32 listing views, people are viewing an average of 2 listings per visit. This essentially means that Etsy is not only doing a good job at bringing browsers into your shop, but also guiding them towards your other listings - i.e. helping you to get even more sales…

How to find the best tags to use that match up with customer searches?

This is a question that I get asked a hell of a lot. Most coaches will tell you to use tools such as Insight Factory and use the tags that have “hot” sales signals etc… Whilst this is NOT bad advice, I would advocate for not avoiding red tags IF the number is high. 

At the end of the day that tag is still getting some traffic and your product might be the perfect thing that they are desperate to purchase. 

BOSS! Do you want to make more sales on Etsy? Then you need to increase your conversion rate! DON'T PANIC! I'm going to explain exactly how to do that in my FREE 90 minute masterclass - The 3 Step System To Skyrocket Your Etsy Conversion Rate 🙌🏻

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 Would you recommend A / B testing listings to see what works?

Short answer: absolutely! I think that sometimes doing an A/B test is the only way to know what works, it’s something that I recommend to HBSA and 1:1 clients a lot!

If you are raising an eyebrow because you don’t know what I mean by A / B testing, essentially you create very similar listings with only slight differences (e.g. different shipping prices) and testing which one performs better to help you with future shop decisions. 

 Would you recommend having a physical copy of digital products?

YES! As someone who had an absolute horror of an experience 3 years ago when her 2 terabyte hard drive unexpectedly died, YES, I recommend having a physical copy of everything you can.

I also recommend storing all of your important files on a Google Drive account because it backs up so often and you don’t have to worry about doing it yourself.

Last but by no means least, the final question. 

If I only have a few items in my shop, would you recommend waiting until you have more before promoting?

Essentially yes, but we need to understand what “more” actually is because that could be different for everyone. I personally would recommend having at least 15-20 listings before promoting your shop on social media. 

Not only does it give you more chances of having something there that is perfect for someone, but it gives off a professional, nicely stocked impression to every single one of your customers. 

Imagine walking into a clothing store and they only had 5 jumpers in the whole store and you could just feel the burning stare of the shop assistant eagerly waiting to see which one you selected… AWKWARD, right?!

Steph xx

If you'd prefer me to visually teach you this blog post, then you can watch it HERE.

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