No-Excuses!

(This article was originally published on the Jewelry on Etsy Team Blog. Follow-up articles will be posted on both blog sites.)

A multi-part series on marketing, promoting for your online shop.

As a jewelry designer, I always wish I had more time to play around with my shiny beads and findings, creating new little pretties. But as a business woman, I get very frustrated when those same little pretties sit in my on-line shop too long. I would love the day when I can say that I am a full time jewelry designer. But if my pieces don’t sell, that will never be a reality.

I just started selling on-line in March of 2007 on Etsy. And now, at my one year anniversary of opening my Etsy shop, I am taking a look at some much needed changes for my business. Last year, my biggest goal was to get off my butt and get my on-line shop open. I had wasted so much time in previous years wishing and dreaming, and trying to build my own web site with absolutely no clue what I was doing. When I came upon Etsy, it was like a godsend! A ready-made shop to which I only needed to add my jewelry. It was such a no-brainer for someone like me in order to get up and running as quickly as possible. Mission accomplished for 2007! I was so proud of myself.

By the end of July, I was beating my head against the wall with very little sales and no clue how to increase them. I had been reading the Etsy forums religiously and trying to gather all the information I could on how to promote my shop. Here’s what I learned:

*Post in the Forums often to get your shop noticed
*Join the chat rooms to get your shop noticed
*List often to get your shop noticed
*Add a funny comment to the treasuries to get your shop noticed

Guess what I noticed…none of these things worked. I was spending lots of time doing nothing but watching my little avatar on the screen and checking my shop for hearts and views and no sales. Why didn’t I have any sales? I even read those forum threads entitled “Why Don’t I Have Any Sales?” hoping to get some answers. The more I read, the more depressed I got. Everyone sounded like me. At least I wasn’t alone in my misery. I felt like one of those blind mice, walking into walls and never getting anywhere. I marveled at sellers who seemed to have the magic touch. One such seller has been on Etsy only 3 months longer than I have, yet her sales in her jewelry shop alone are pushing 1000. I still would like to know all her secrets but I am starting to realize, they aren’t secrets at all, just good business sense.

But try teaching business to an artist! Having just basic business classes in school, from which I learned nearly nothing, I am left to either wing it or learn from the masters. I started looking at what the top sellers were doing. Not so much what they were selling as HOW they were selling. And I began to make a list that answered the most often asked question, “WHY DON’T I HAVE ANY SALES?!” This time, instead of retreating to the old forum threads, I took a look at my own shop. Here’s what learned this time around:

*Your pictures suck!
*Your one sucky picture in each listing is the only picture in the listing
*Your descriptions suck!
*You don’t have sizes listed
*You don’t ship internationally
*Your domestic shipping charges are outrageous
*You don’t have any tags or have only a few tags in each of your listings
*Oh yah, and your tags suck too!
*You believe that the tips you learned from that famous forum thread actually work
*You believe that it just takes time
*You believe that if serious buyers want your items they will come and find you
*You think it’s cute or a signature trademark to have a family photo or weird picture as your avatar
*Your location is a web address, or worse, not even listed

Well, it’s time to wake up from La La Land, sweetheart, and realize that you are running a business! In the following posts I will attempt to explain away some of the mystery of why sales just aren’t happening.

Here are the things we will be focusing on to help us hit our target.

1. Setting goals (Define a specific target to aim for)
2. Your product (Step up your game)
3. Your pricing (Get what you are worth)
4. Descriptions (Really? Are you kidding?)
5. Photos (What the heck is that? Vs. Ooh! What’s that?!)
6. Merchandising (Dressing your best)
7. Marketing (Are you where you need to be?)
8. Promoting (Passive vs. aggressive)

Stay tuned for the first step in our 8-step rehab program…Setting Goals.

**************************************

Mary Ryan is not an expert in Marketing and Promoting, just a keen observer in the retail business of which she has been cursed to work in for most of her adult life. She is an Interior Design Consultant and Jewelry Designer and sells her jewelry online in several venues (some still under construction) including

Etsy http://littlebrownbird.etsy.com/
Silkfair http://littlebrownbird.silkfair.com/
iCraft http://icraft.ca/littlebrownbird

Her blog can be read at http://thelittlebrownbird.blogspot.com/

WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!! Front Page!

Wow! For the second time in my (Etsy)life one of my items made it to the front page! I had a feeling when I saw the awesome treasury this morning put together by bittystar that included my Lemon Poppy Carved Shell Necklace. Here it is!

HA! Well, you get the idea. Unfortunately I can't seem to get the screen shot to show it right. But if you squint real hard at the upper left corner of the group of "pictures", you will see the Lemon Poppy necklace that I blogged about below in today's earlier post. It is available now in my shop on Etsy. (See the link below)

Expanding My Reach

Lemon Poppy Carved Shell Necklace

Ok, so I've been wanting to post a new series of articles about promoting and marketing my shop. The first of the articles is posted, but not here. It's on the Jewelry on Etsy Team blog. I thought my fellow team members could benefit from my advice and even give me additional advice in my quest for total world domination!

Early Morning Earrings

And I just want to post a few new items of mine here because I think the page needs a little spring color! Enjoy

Citurs Splash Carved Shell Necklace

These can all be found in my shop on Etsy. If they aren't listed yet, they will be very soon!

Honey Dew Sweet Petites

SALE!

Now until April 6,2008 LittleBrown Bird will be offering

**20% off**

any item in the shop!

The sale is good on already reduced items in the sale section, as well as all fine silver pieces, all decoupage pendants (even the Chiyogami pendants), and personalized items already listed.

This is the first time I've done a discount like this and the only sale that is not a one-day sale.

After the sale, some items may no longer be available!

I will be revamping the shop took have much different look. Unfortunately, this means that some items just will not fit in with the new style. See the shop announcement for important details!!

Here's What I Found In The Hunt

The Jewelry on Etsy Team Treasure Hunt is over and I have been going over some stats. I kept track of my sales, hearts, views, and other little tid-bits of info from when the hunt began through to the end. Sorry for the all the boring stats. These are all personal stats pertaining to just my shop, because I wasn't about to try to keep track of everyone! The conclusions and personal observations toward the end of this post are what I think are really interesting. Although there is still some time left for the winners to go back and purchase more items for the shopping spree, here is what I found so far:



Results from 3-14-08 Treasure Hunt

(12:00pm 3-14-08 through 5:00pm 3-15-08)
73 items in shop
Hunt item is 5th item in shop, Page 1
Total # treasuries during the hunt 7

**2 hour down time during hunt when there was a dropped link



Total New Views 97 (Fri.)/207 (Sat.)=304
Pg. 1- 88 views(Fri.)/116 views(Sat.)=204 views on page 1
*Fri.-3 items in 5 treasuries, hunt item
*Sat.-2 items in 2 treasuries

Pg. 2- 4 views(Fri)/ 50 views(Sat.)=54 views on page 2
*Fri.-1 item in treasury, 0 views on treasury item
*Sat. 1 item in treasury, 0 views on treasury item

Pg. 3- 1 view(Fri)/21 views (Sat)=22 views on page 3
Pg. 4- 4 views(Fri)/20 views(Sat)= 24 views on page 4



Total New Views Past Hunt Item 24 (Fri)/ 143(Sat)= 167 views



Item With Most Views
Cherry Bombs Earrings (Hunt item)44(Fri)/30(Sat)=74 views

Item With 2nd Most Views
Hand Prints Earrings (in 2 treasuries)14(Fri)/15(Sat)=29 views

Item with 3rd Most Views
Mod-Flower Decoupage Pendant (1st item in shop)7(Fri)/9(Sat)=16 views



Total # of Items with 2 or 0 views 54
Items listed are to illustrate where the views dropped off
Item #5 (Hunt item)
Item #6 (in 2 treasuries)
Item #7 (1 view prior to down time*)
Item #8 (1 view prior to down time*)

Zero views prior to down time* begin at Item # 9, out of 73 items in shop!



*2 hour down time when there was a dropped link in the hunt beginning at my shop. I believe the only reason these items were viewed at all is because someone was trying to track down the missing link. Prior to the down time these same items had 0 views.


Total New Item Hearts 3 hearts(of these, 2 items in 2 treasuries, all items on pg. 1)
1 Heart Hand Prints Fine Silver Earrings (in 2 treasuries, shop pg. 1)
1 Heart Cherry Blossom Fine Silver Ring (in 2 treasuries, shop pg. 1)
1 Heart Lullaby Dolly Decoupage Pendant Necklace (shop pg. 1)


Total New Shop Hearts 2(Fri)/2(Sat)=4 hearts

Total New Sales during hunt 0
Total New Sales from hunt winners 1



Other Shop Totals Overall
Item With Most Hearts 12 Cherry Blossom Fine Silver Ring (in 2 treasuries, shop pg. 1)

Item With 2nd Most Hearts
6 Hand Prints Fine Silver Earrings (in 2 treasuries, shop pg. 1)
6 Leila Sterling Silver Bracelet* (relisted once, shop pg. 2)
6 Ariel Dichroic Glass Bracelet* (relisted once, shop pg. 3)
(*No hearts on these items since 2-19-08, Ariel in treasury at that time)



Total Items With No Hearts At All 27
Pg. 1- 10 items
Pg. 2- 8 items(of these 1 item in treasury)
Pg. 3- 6 items
Pg. 4- 3 items
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Conclusion 1: Treasure Hunt did not appear to be as effective as it could have been at getting people to look through the shops (at least my shop).


Possible Reasons For Conclusion 1: Hunt item was item #5 in the shop. Of the 73 items in the shop, more than 1/2 the total new views were for only items 1-5*, indicating that people stopped looking through the shop as soon as they found the link to the next shop.

*See Above (Total # of Items With 2 or 0 Views)


Conclusion 2: Disproportionate number of views for hunt item compared to others, (More than 2x the number of the second most viewed item. Also, 2nd most viewed item was in 2 treasuries.) indicating that people jumped directly to the hunt item from the clue.


Possible Reasons For Conclusion 2: Hunt clue was too easily solved?

Possible solutions or improvements to be made for next time:
~More exposure to additional items may have been gained if the hunt item had not sold and needed to be relisted prior to the hunt.

~Should have had the sold hunt item changed to another item further into the shop instead of relisting, putting it at the front of the shop.

~The clues were cute, clever, and well done and made the hunt alot of fun for the players. But, it might have been better if the clue did not pertain to the item’s name or physical appearance of item. This way, players would have to actually view and read the descriptions of several items in the shop before finding the clue and continuing on. Possibly future clues should include trivia questions about the item's written description, size, or secondary pictures so that players cannot jump directly to that item, skipping past all others in the shop. I did not have time to go through the entire hunt from start to finish, so I don't really know about all the clues other than that in my own shop.

~I did like the clues for the instant prizes. I thought they were just tricky enough to be challenging but not frustrating. And I liked how it got people to look at shop profiles as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personal Observations

All in all, I think the hunt did gain some exposure for the shops involved. It actually gained the most exposure for the hunters that joined in the thread, as many JETs went to check out their shops as well. (Note to self: Jump in on other teams contests and post to their contest threads!) I cannot say that others who did not complete the hunt did not look at some of the shops involved. But one thing is for sure, aside from looking for the missing link, VERY little attention was given to items further into the shop than the hunt item itself, and almost no attention at all given to items on the 3rd and 4th pages of the shop. Overall, these pages get very little action anyway. It may be wiser to trim back the number of items in the shop and list only 2 pages worth. I will have to go back and look now at individual items and if their views are significantly lower, maybe put them in edit mode until some other items sell, or let them expire and do not renew unless the shop is under 2 pages.

The Jewelry on Etsy Street Team (JET) is getting ready for their next fabulous Treasure Hunt.
...you just follow the clues leading through 17 of our member's shops until you find our...

POT 'O GOLD
The contest begins Friday, March 14th at noon. (EST)So, mark the date and get ready for a fun-filled hunt.
What's in the pot you ask????

How about we let our friend the leprechaun
tell you...
"Hey there etsy lovers...how about I make a big POT of corned beef and cabbage???? Heh Heh...don't think many of you would search for that in our contest. The truth is...maybe I will brew a batch of green beer in the POT. No...you won't search for that either.
For now I can tell you this......all the "Lucky" etsians who correctly complete the hunt will be winners of a One Day Shopping Spree at select members' shops. And, you don't even have to be Irish!
In addition, the first 20 correct entries, submitted by residents in the United States, will receive a handmade pair of pierced earrings created by a member of the team. Due to the complex legal systems in many different countries, the earring giveaway cannot be extended to etsy members outside of the United States.
I'll tell you a little secret, (don't tell anyone), the team is also going to have "Instant Winners" throughout the hunt. But, you have to keep checking the hunt promo thread to win!! So...I'll see you at the hunt."
Take a look in the JET TEAM Shop and you will see examples of the beautiful artisan treasures created by our members.
Keep your eyes open for our contest thread in the Etsy Forums on March 14th at noon. It will be in the Promotions section. All the hunt rules will be posted there.
Don't forget.....Contest begins at noon on March 14, 2008. (etsy time)
Links:
Jet Team Shop: http://jetteam.etsy.com/
Etsy Forums: http://www.etsy.com/forums_main.php
Promotion Section: http://www.etsy.com/forums_board.php?forum_id=6

An Interesting Etsy Experiment

For all of those artists that live through the mystery of selling on-line, particularly on Etsy, here is an experiment to keep an eye on.



My fellow JET (Jewelry on Etsy Team) team member, Tara from CombustionGlassworks, has begun a two week experiment in which she is listing 15 items per day and analyzing her results. The categories to be analyzed are sales, store hearts, and ratio to past sale frequency. I think her results may be very interesting. You can follow her progress and see her results here.