#SFEtsy February 16th - In-person sales techniques

This week our topic is very timely for me - improving in-person sales techniques.

We'll chat about experiences we've had with selling - good and bad - and what we've found to work best, sharing tips and tricks large and small.

We'll also discuss ways of responding to tricky questions and ways of staying positive and cheerful whatever the circumstances.

If you like to use tweetchat.com to follow our chats this is the link tweetchat.com/room/sfetsy

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Our Team Captain about joining SFEtsy!

Connecting With Customers - What Marketing is Really About

For many marketing still has the slimy connotation of trickery, of being talked into something. In a way I get this especially given that many see advertising as synonymous with marketing. You might have seen the recent YouTube video where the ball girl makes an amazing catch and the later disclosure that it was produced by an advertising agency for Gatorade. Stunts like that definitely leave us a little jaded.

While the obvious argument is that not all advertising needs to be such a set-up, I would also argue that marketing is very different than advertising on many levels. I define advertising as talking at your customers and marketing as talking with your customers or connecting with them.

There's nothing underhanded in marketing. You're defining a customer base, identifying their needs and communicating how you can satisfy them. You are letting them know that you have something they already wanted and were looking for.

To do this successfully you need to know who your customer base is, where they're searching and you need to communicate the value that you offer. Marketing is explaining why they would want to choose your product over a competitor's. I see the ruffled feathers again, you're thinking sales, talking them into buying your product. Stop!

If you can clearly state the benefits of your product or service and how it's different, not necessarily better, than the competition, not only does the decision become clear, you leave it completely in the hands of the customer. If you've communicated well and they don't choose you, it only means they weren't the right customer in the first place.

Marketing is telling the best possible story to the most interested person. To market well you need to find your unique story, your target market and then connect with them by sharing that story.

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I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!

Increase Traffic in your Etsy Shop by 500% - Using Tools to Renew Listings Wisely

When I first started on Etsy, I didn't understand why I wasn't getting a ton of people in my shop and selling out of everything. Upon reading some articles from The Storque & more from the Seller's Handbook, I realised that relisting my items (aka: renewing) was going to be the key to my success.


I decided I needed to make more of an effort. I entered into The Renewal Experiment.

I never used to relist my items until I discovered a way that didn't feel like I was shooting in the dark. It made sense to me that I would want to relist my items during the times of the day when I was getting the most traffic in my shop to increase my brand's visibility.

How did I find out when those times were? Google Analytics. 

If you have Google Analytics set up for your shop, go click on the following for your Etsy page: 

• - Visitors
• - Visitor Trending
• - Visits 

At this point, there should be a graph on the screen. In the upper right hand corner of the graph, there should be a section that reads "Graph by:" which is followed by 4 buttons. Click on the button that looks like a clock.

This will show the amount of visits you've had for every hour each day for the past month. 

When I first started renewing, I would renew on my top 3 hours everyday and I increased my views quite a bit. But then I started noticing my visiting times were changing. 

In the top right hand corner just above the graph, there is a date range in which you're measuring your visits for the last month. If you want to get VERY specific, you narrow your search down for the last week or so - this allows you to see what your Etsy visitors have been trending lately. 

This graph shows that 3 PM, 5 PM, 6 PM, 7 PM and 8PM are my busiest hours in the last couple of weeks. 

Now knowing what my busiest hours were, I utilized Statsy's Clockbot to AUTOMATICALLY renew my listings throughout the day at my Peak Hours. To find out more on how Statsy's Clockbot works, check out this awesome article on Handmadeology!

When I felt confident that I was seeing increased traffic & sales, I upped the stakes a little by renewing at 20 minute intervals at 6 & 7 PM, two of my highest traffic hours, using this increase in Unique Visitors to optimize my opportunity to increase my brand's visibility!

And let me tell ya - it's fricken done WONDERS! Here's a comparison graph of what my views were from Dec 16, 2009 to June 16, 2010 right along side my views from when I started my experiment on June 17, 2010 to November 24, 2010.

I used to get less than 20 unique viewers a day. When I started doing this experiment (renewing 3 times a day), I could get up to 50 unique viewers, easily, with almost 150 pageviews. 

Then I started adding Connecting Links (ie: links that would say "If you like this, you like that") to all my listings to increase click-through and decrease bounce rate for my Etsy site to see what would happen. Those Connecting Links kicked me up to about 250 page views per day! 

Now I renew 8-10 times a day only during my peak hours (or when I've had a sale) and increased Unique Viewers to a minimum of 100 and maximum average of 250 daily, with anywhere from 300 to 650 page views in that day. I loving seeing these numbers on Craftopolis! It used to a dismal sight, but now I look forward to seeing the numbers!

Sure - it seems like a ton of work (and money), but increasing my shop's visibility and going from almost nothing to feeling like I'm making informed decisions and measuring the pros-cons with quantifiable results is REALLY awesome.

And not too hard to do. 

I would ask you to try it yourselves... just a few renewals every few days and see if it makes a difference when you look at your stats on Craftopolis! 

It sure did for me!

Share some stories about how you have increased traffic for your shop or what you plan to do to get those new customers...


Read the FOLLOW-UP on how the Renewal Experiment's increased traffic translated into SALES tomorrow, Sunday, 28 November, 2010.

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This post was originally posted on my blog, nerd JERK: Inspire Your Inner Geek on Wednesday, 24 November, 2010. It was also featured on Handmadeology.com and has been widely well-received. So much so that we wanted to share it with our SF Etsy members!

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Steph Cortés from nerd JERK is the Roving Reporter, one of the members of the SF Etsy Blog Team. She enjoys going out to new crafting events and supporting the Handmade Movement, along with helping her fellow Etsy Sellers with tips & tricks to assist in making their business awesome. Look forward to more reports on her artsy shenanigans in weeks to come. Feel free to email her comments & tips anytime.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!