How you can Re-Market to existing customers on Etsy | Keep your Etsy Customers Coming Back for More.

Running a shop on Etsy has it's fair chunk of upsides – namely access to a large audience and name recognition for the platform, but unfortunately the trade-off is some significant downsides, such as the inability to truly build your own brand within the platform, including such important aspects for e-commerce as re-marketing to previous customers.

Luckily, with some hard work and careful planning, if selling on Etsy is the best track for your business, there are some ways you can build a customer list and re-market to those who have already shown their interest in you by making a purchase!

The Do Not's:

Let's start with these first, because they are important. Etsy is a community that has a list of rules for its buyers and sellers. Furthermore, Etsy has proven time and again that they are not shy to ban users (particularly sellers) who do not follow their rules. So here's a few things you cannot do:

• Do not send messages of solicitation to users. This would include messaging people who have liked your shop or your items. Although it might seem like a good idea, as they have shown an obvious interest in your site or items, Etsy considers messaging potential buyers spam.
• This also means once a transaction is completed, you cannot go through and message previous customers through Etsy with marketing messages. 
• Do not take customer data from Etsy transactions and import it into customer lists for e-mail blasts or snail mail marketing. Customers need to opt-in to these types of messaging.

These things probably aren't worth your time anyway, but here are a few ideas that will help you build an audience that wants to see your marketing messages and will engage with them to help build your business.

1. Email Marketing

Email marketing continues to prove that it is the most effective avenue for driving e-commerce sales – particularly repeat e-commerce sales. Ignoring the power of email marketing hinders your opportunity for business growth.

While Etsy provides the email address of customers to you, as stated above, you can not just copy those email addresses onto your email list. Instead, you have to encourage people to opt-in to your list through the avenues Etsy provides to you when you make a sale. 

Setting up your list

I've always used MailChimp for email marketing, so I will be using it for this demonstration. However, there are a number of email marketing platforms that are free or low cost, so find the one that works well for you. 

You'll want to sign up for an account through MailChimp and create your list. If you have any email addresses already from craft shows, farmers market, etc., you can use those to start your list. 

After you've created your list, under the "Lists" tab, you'll want to go to "Sign up forms" and "General Forms". From here, you can create an email signup form and gather whatever data you need to do your email marketing – even if it's just name and email. You do not want to have too many fields to deter away potential signups. 

Then, you can see that there is a field above the form that says "Signup form URL". This is how you will get people to your form.

Where to display your email marketing form

Obviously, this email marketing opt-in form does you no good, if no one can find it, so the next question is, where can you put it? There are a few places I recommend:

• In your Etsy shop there is a section where you can customize a thank you message to your buyers (see above). This is a critically important place for your re-marketing and brand building messaging through Etsy. You can find this section under "Settings" > "Info and Appearance". In this section you should include the link to your form with a message similar to the following: "If you would like to be alerted to new and similar items from my shop, as well as the occasional sale or discount, sign up for my email club here: [link]!
• The About Section of your Facebook Page is another section where you should have your email signup link.
• On your Etsy Shop Announcement is the third place I would suggest including your email signup link with a similar call to action as above.

Unfortunately, unlike other e-commerce platforms, you will build your list a little more slowly this way, but it really is better than no list at all. 

What should I email about?

This is really a whole post on it's own, so I'm not going to delve into that here and will save that topic for another day. But you should come up with a consistent plan and calendar for your email marketing that will keep your subscribers interested, but not harassed.

A weekly / monthly newsletter is a good place to start. Show them what you're working on, new items you have and a little behind the scenes of your process. Every once in awhile add in a little discount code to incentivize sales. 

2. Social Media – Do it.

Instagram is HUGE right now for visually appealing content. And if you're selling on Etsy, I imagine that your products fit the bill. Additionally, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter can still serve as huge traffic drivers for e-commerce, and when something is truly great, can really provide the opportunity to go viral. 

As one example, my Dad recently sent me a link to a crochet pattern he saw on Facebook that he thought I would like. Now, make no mistake, my Dad does not specifically follow any crochet accounts, he only saw this because other people he was connected to shared it first. When he sent it to me, the Etsy shop already had over 3,000 sales of her patterns (most of which appeared to come in over the past month due to the viral Facebook post) and buy the time I ended up purchasing the pattern three days later, she was over 5,000 sales. 2,000 sales in 3 days at $5.50 a pop shows you really can't deny the power of Facebook and social media.

• Set up at least one social media account for your customers to follow you on: preferably a Facebook Page or Instagram. 
• Include your social media accounts in the Thank You Message to Buyers (see above in email marketing segment)
• If you set up a Facebook or Twitter account, you can link these directly in the Info and Appearance section of your Etsy account.
• Create a Pinterest account and create a "Pin" for each of your Product Listings.
• Update your Facebook / Twitter / Instagram account on a regular basis – not only with "selling type" messages, but with posts and photos that your audience will appreciate.

3. Add an insert into the orders you send out.

When you are mailing out orders, you have the opportunity to catch the eye of your customer when they are completely focused on you. They're opening up the product you sent them, after all!

Use this opportunity to let them know a little more about you with a well designed and well thought out package insert. Whether it's a postcard, brochure, or some other type of marketing piece, you want the messaging to stick with the customer so they think of you the next time they go to make a similar purchase.

Here are some ideas for what this might include:

• Promotional code for a second order.
• Referral cards to share with their friends.
• "Follow me on social media!" 
• Brochure of other items they might like.

And there you have it... my 3 ways to keep your Etsy customers engaged past their first purchase, to hopefully come back and make additional purchases from your shop. What strategies do you have for keeping previous Etsy customers engaged or for building your brand while selling on Etsy? I'd love to hear about them!