Quickly wanted to drop by to tell you about how amazing 'Hello Etsy' was yesterday!
I did take my camera but found it hard to take images and hold baby Julie at the same time so I have no images on my card at all! That's a first but please go look at Janine's blog from Uppercase Magazine (and see baby Julie in her blog). Not only does she make a truly magnificent magazine, she's a supersweet and kind person too. She started out the event with her story and her presentation was truly inspiring.
You can find all the presentations in de on line labs of Etsy as the entire event was livestreamed. Don't forget to watch Satish Kumar's presentation. Together with Janine's, it was one of the highligths of the day!
At the end of the day, I took part in a panel about selling on Etsy. This was lead by Simone Weimans, a news anchor and Etsy shop owner. Together with Kim, Nelliana & Kenneth we answered some questions that Simone had. Previous to this presentation, we Skyped to prepare things a bit. After that Skype conversation, I put some lines on paper as I knew I would be nervous to speak in public and I didn't want to have a black out. Haha!
Of course I forgot to say a few things here and there but I thought that it would be nice to put my notes in my blog for you all to see. Nothing spectacular but perhaps there are a few tips and tricks in there that can help you...
I did take my camera but found it hard to take images and hold baby Julie at the same time so I have no images on my card at all! That's a first but please go look at Janine's blog from Uppercase Magazine (and see baby Julie in her blog). Not only does she make a truly magnificent magazine, she's a supersweet and kind person too. She started out the event with her story and her presentation was truly inspiring.
You can find all the presentations in de on line labs of Etsy as the entire event was livestreamed. Don't forget to watch Satish Kumar's presentation. Together with Janine's, it was one of the highligths of the day!
At the end of the day, I took part in a panel about selling on Etsy. This was lead by Simone Weimans, a news anchor and Etsy shop owner. Together with Kim, Nelliana & Kenneth we answered some questions that Simone had. Previous to this presentation, we Skyped to prepare things a bit. After that Skype conversation, I put some lines on paper as I knew I would be nervous to speak in public and I didn't want to have a black out. Haha!
Of course I forgot to say a few things here and there but I thought that it would be nice to put my notes in my blog for you all to see. Nothing spectacular but perhaps there are a few tips and tricks in there that can help you...
What did you learn since opening your shop?
- Make better images
- Realistic
price setting: first low priced items, lots of sales, lots of stress to produce.
Then I increased my prices so that I would have to make less but earn the same. - Branding is important!
Have your name on your products if possible with a label, a stamp or a sticker.
Be consistent in use of avatar, banner, photo’s - Be passionate about what you do and
let that reflect in your communication to your customer.
- Give people something to talk about: packaging, product, name…
- Word of mouth is the best advertisement!
- Stand out from the crowd: pictures, products, descriptions
Tips
for other sellers
- Be part of the community by joining a team
- Treat your customers the way you want to be treated and have great customer service. Ex. Quick reply to convo’s, respond to special requests, add a handwritten thank you note,… It generates repeat sales…
- Connect & Collaborate with other
- Make new products & do some one of a kind stuff or limited editions.
- Make people curious about your work: show work in progress in your blog, sneak previews on Flickr or Facebook, let ‘em know when a new line will be launched
- Dare to find media exposure: write to appropriate blogs to let ‘em know there will be a new product launched and that they are the first to know. Blogs love to feature new products that haven’t been seen before.
- Share knowledge – don’t frantically keep everything you do secret because you are afraid of copycats, people who want to copy you will find a way. Instead, share your knowledge, make tutorials and show people how clever you are. It will bring them joy and creativity too and they’ll be grateful for good advise and will talk about you and your site/blog/shop.
- Be positive - don’t get discouraged & negative when things don’t take off right away. It takes time to built a solid base.
- Use social media: Flickr, Twitter, Pinterest, Blog, Facebook,…
- Have dialogues with future customers on social media – ask advice, feedback,…
- Write a newsletter to connect with your community
