The biggest mistake many Etsy sellers make is trying to wing it by adding different digital products into their shop, thinking the more products, the more sales they will get.
They end up wasting a lot of time, money, and energy and usually end up burned out with zero results.
In today’s blog post, I am going to be sharing the top 5 strategies I use to make over $30K from one of my Etsy stores that happens to sell wedding and party digital products.
Even though the pandemic hit my shop super hard due to parties and events being canceled last year, I am making combat this year and in the previous three months, have made $7,709.94.
If you want to learn the five steps, I use to create winning products that help me make an average of $2500 in passive income every month and the #1 secret I have never told on getting tons of sales from repeated customers, make sure to read till the end.
Create a list of different products you are interested in selling.
There are usually two types of people:
- The people that already know what they want to sell on Etsy.
- The people that have many or no ideas.
And that’s okay.
Let me know in the comments below which one you are.
Go ahead and create a list of different products you’re interested in. (It’s okay to have a list of different things and try different niches to see what works better for you at first, then niche down)
Find the demand for these products
Taking this one step and checking the demand validation for your ideas will save you weeks or possibly even months of lost time and money.
I use eRank “keyword explorer” to find the gap in an established market. An area where you can dominate and the demand is higher than the competition.
For instance, let’s say I want to create Instagram highlight covers – I do a quick search on “keyword explorer” and it shows the average search volume is 2,352, average clicks (engagement & clicks) is 2,700 and competition is only 18,520 this is a good indicator of a product that I can create and start making passive income from.
After I have identified my winning products then I need to answer three critical questions:
- What problem does my potential customer have?
- What’s the solution to that problem?
- What would they pay money for my product?
Add a strength that sets you apart from your competitors.
How can you make the product better than everyone else? How does your product outperform the competition?
It would help if you had a unique selling proposition for your products so prospective buyers can easily identify what makes your products outperform your competition and makes it a no-brainer to buy from you regardless of the price and shipping cost.
Your prospective customers have options and for many of them is difficult deciding which store to purchase from. (That’s why many people favorite listings and shop around)
It’s your job to help them decide to buy from you by making your product unique and memorable enough to see what you offer no one else does, therefore making it a no-brainer to buy from you.
Let’s say you want to sell Instagram highlight covers instead of making them just one color; a unique way to make them look different is by selling templates that can be edit and customize. Allowing your prospective buyer to edit, change the colors, and will give you the advantage of standing out instead of blending in.
Consumers are overwhelming with so many options they want to quickly understand what makes your brand stand out from the rest. So, make sure to take your time in the creations of your products.
Create product variations of the same product.
What does it mean to create product variations?
Product variations occur when you take your product idea. In this situation, the Instagram highlight covers and creates different designs by simply changing the colors and fonts.
By creating variations of your products it helps you fill up your shop quicker, (even though there is no magic number, I do recommend having at least 10 items on your shop so it doesn’t look empty), helps you identify your winning products, which listings are people interacting with, engaging, and buying.
If you can run Etsy ads, I recommend running them for 30 days before making any final decisions on your top contenders.
I would spend $1 a day advertising your listing(s), lowered the price a bit, so you can get some traction. The more people engage, favorite, and buy, the higher your listing quality score will be, which affects your search placement, and you can potentially get a best seller badge. This is why it is a great idea to run an ad on new products your listing to speed up the process of seeing what is working or not working since your products now get pushed to more people.
The listings that didn’t do well I deactivate and work on my winning products.
Make a robust line of products.
Now that you have found your winning products, the next step is to create a robust product line.
For example, you can create Instagram templates and Instagram story templates as a robust product line for the original product, which was the Instagram highlight covers.
This is what I did for the main shop. I created a robust line of different products that goes with my wedding and party invitations. I created a line of 60 robust products that go with my original design.
This was easy to create since I am using the same fonts, colors, style, and new products that accompany my original design. I don’t get overwhelmed with trying to come up with different designs, which can be difficult for some or take so much time.
So, I created the wedding invite, then made a robust line of different products like RSVP card, table numbers, seating charts, welcome signs, photo props, table decor signs, digital invites, etc…
Having all of these additional products helps me get upsells because people want to buy the matching items when it comes to decorating a wedding or party event.
I also make sure that my items look very different to other shops even if they shop around; they have to come back to get matching items because they can’t find anything that matches that particular design.
My #1 SECRET to getting repeated sales
The secret to my getting so many sales and repeat customers is something that I have never talked about before is my lookbook.
I created a lookbook for each of my collections using Canva. And everytime someone buys from me, they will receive a copy of the lookbook for that particular collection.
The lookbook has a picture of the robust product line, and I add a hyperlink to each photo. The customer can click, and it will take them to that particular design.
The look book also includes a discount code they can access by joining my email list. So, therefore I can remarket to them at a later time.
This strategy has helped me grow my email list and average 3-6 additional sales from repeated customers because they come back to buy more items.
So, this is how you can set up a shop for success without the need to work harder or not have any strategy in place.
Have questions? Leave them below!
- Follow me on Instagram: @nancybadillo13
- Check out my YouTube HERE for more tips
- Join my FREE Facebook Group Daily Etsy Seller Tips
Rooting for you!
– Nancy
P.S. Have you attended my free masterclass yet to help you scale your Etsy business to the next level with my 4 step framework for a profitable Etsy shop. If not, CLICK HERE to register before seats fill up.
Great tips, Nancy. Thanks for it!
I especially loved the part of “Create product variations of the same product”. I didn’t have the focus on it because I wanted to do everything very quickly and maybe it would have been better to have varied.
Hi Henrique! I am glad you enjoyed the post.