A Little Effort, a Little Time, a Lot of Repeat Business
Etsy shops are incredible easy to set up. You can go from knitting scarves for family to selling them online in a few hours.
Marketing your shop, though, can seem like tackling a huge, unknown beast – and a time sink.
But it’s actually easy. Especially if you follow up with Etsy customers through email auto-responders.
Why Following Up With Email Is So Effective
First of all, there’s a good reason to focus on marketing to customers who’ve already bought from you: they tend to spend 33% more than new customers.
Email’s the perfect medium for this, because:
- Emails land in the inbox (not a scrolling news feed) where they’re sure to be seen.
- Emails let you send as long a message as you want, written at your convenience, read at your customers’ convenience.
- By periodically emailing your customers, you keep your shop on their minds.
The stats back up these statements. Email marketing brings in more business than social media or search links.
Plus, every $1 spent on email marketing averages a $40 return, according to the Direct Marketing Association.
Finally, as if that weren’t enough, following up with email is easy – take a look.
Creating Auto-Responders You Can “Set And Forget”
You can actually use an email service to create a series of messages once and let them be.
They’ll go out, in the order you specify, over the time frame you specify, to each Etsy customer who opts to receive your emails. (Here’s how to invite them get your emails.)
As for what to write in the emails, you have plenty of options: the story of your brand, suggestions for using your products, craft tutorials, even exclusive discount codes.
If you write six auto-responders and set them each a month apart, you’ll be following up with each customer (no matter when they subscribe) for six months without lifting a finger.
Designing Your Newsletter: Use A Pre-Made Template
Now, while your Etsy shop proves you’ve got a creative streak, you may not want to spend hours designing a gorgeous HTML template.
Good thing you don’t have to.
Email services like Aweber provide pre-designed email templates. All you have to do is type in your text and upload your pictures, and – voila! – you have a professionally designed email ready to go.
Even better, some tools will let you drop your Etsy listings directly into your email.
Getting Subscribers To Your Newsletter
As mentioned before, to send customers your auto-responders, you do have to invite them to subscribe.
Fortunately, there’s a dead-simple way to do this. There’s a free app that invites each customer to your emails.
It works like this:
1. The customer makes a purchase.
2. The customer gets an email thanking them for the purchase and asking if they’d like your emails.
3. The customer clicks a link to subscribe.
4. Your email service stores their information so when you send out an email, the customer gets it.
Watching The Orders Come In
It really is that simple. It’s not a “something for nothing” solution – you do have to take the time to create your series of auto-responders.
But if you fill them with fun content and helpful ideas, your customers will look forward to your emails, and you’ll see them back at your shop again and again.
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