The holidays are a great opportunity to appeal to seasonal shoppers. Help your shop shine throughout the coming months with these marketing tools and techniques.
1. Use Explore videos to help increase your visibility
Want to help increase visibility of your items (and maybe even get more sales)? Etsy's Explore feature can help do just that. Explore surfaces engaging video content in a feed in its own tab in the Etsy shopping app as a fun way to help buyers discover new items. Read Tips for Creating Engaging Explore Videos Shoppers Will Love for content ideas to help get your creative juices flowing, along with practical insights on formatting your videos to encourage shopper engagement.
2. Shine on social media
The holidays are a great time to revisit some of your social media strategies. Keep these quick tips in mind for the holiday season:
- Consider sharing photos of your items in holiday scenes or with wintery elements. This can help prepare your shoppers to see your items in the context of holiday.
- Look to add relevant hashtags to get discovered by more people outside of your followers. Hashtags like #holiday2022 and #holidaygiftguide are a good place to start.
- Go live! Facebook and Instagram both have great live video features. Consider showcasing some of your items in a Facebook or Instagram Live session to give buyers an opportunity to see your products. And as an added bonus, you can repost your Live sessions to your profile after they’re over, helping attract potential buyers who may not have been able to tune in during the live recording.
- Use Instagram Reels and TikTok to share unique content and behind-the-scenes moments as a way to connect with your followers and build your brand. Learn more.
For more tips, check out our Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing.
3. Tap into relevant trends
Set your shop up to shine this festive season with the help of our annual holiday trend report based on industry forecasting and Etsy search data.
4. Run an Etsy Ads campaign
Etsy Ads can help make your listings more prominent for millions of buyers searching for products on the site. You set a daily budget, let your campaign run, and we’ll continually optimize how your budget is spent over time to help boost your exposure in Etsy search results. Start your campaign.
Pro tip: Check out our Ultimate Guide to Advertising for tips on getting started, understanding your campaign’s performance, and refining your strategy.
5. Clearly communicate customer services
Before you get into the thick of November and December, take time to assess your production and fulfillment processes. Then, ensure that your shipping, returns, and “final order before the holidays” info are clearly communicated in your shop policies, shop announcement and message to buyers.
Etsy helps message major carrier delays to buyers, and adjusts transit times for top carriers for sellers when we detect carrier delays. You may also choose to let your buyers know about delays and when you plan to ship their orders through Messages or by using your shop announcement.
6. Entice shoppers with a timely coupon
Let shoppers know you appreciate their business and give them an incentive to come back to your shop with a “Thank You” coupon. We’ll automatically send the coupon to your customers 24 hours after you mark their order as complete to encourage a repeat visit. Create your coupon using the sales and coupons tool and check the box next to “Send as thank you.”
You can also send a coupon by email to shoppers who Favorite one of your listings or have an item from your shop in their cart using Etsy’s targeted offers tool. Create a coupon.
7. Use the Etsy Updates feed
Whether you’ve just made your first sale, or you’re an established seller who’s been around for years, Etsy Updates can help you grow your buyer base and bring buyers back to your shop regularly. Designed to share notifications about your shop with buyers who have liked your shop or favorited your items, the Updates feed is based on many of the actions you’re already taking in managing and marketing your shop, so it’s easy to benefit from this feature!
8. Participate in sales events
Everyone loves a discount, especially when the calendar’s packed with special shopping occasions. Labor Day, Black Friday, Cyber Week, and Boxing Day (UK, CA) are popular moments for putting inventory on sale. Participating in sales events on Etsy throughout the coming months can help you attract and appeal to the influx of motivated holiday shoppers visiting the site. To reach as many potential customers as possible, be sure to share your shop’s sale details on social media and other marketing channels, like your blog or newsletter. Schedule a sale.
Pro tip: Learn more about getting the most out of sales events in this Etsy Insight post.
Return to the Ultimate Guide to Holiday
Words by Etsy Staff
