Way back in June, I had an email from Etsy offering me a coaching call for my shop. I’d heard about these from the Etsy Facebook groups that I’m in, and the general consensus seemed to be that while you might not get anything beneficial out of the call, it’s worth taking them when offered as you’ll be provided with tips directly related to your store, and some free listing credits as well.
Scheduling the call was very simple. Etsy sent me a link to a kind of diary page, and I was able to choose a time and date when I was free. Their full email is below:
Hello!
It’s more important than ever to set yourself up for success, attract new customers, and bridge the gap between retail and online.
We’re Etsy’s Onboarding and Optimisation team reaching because we think your Etsy shop has great potential! We know that buyers are looking for items in your category on Etsy as we’re seeing lots of searches for those products from shoppers around the world.
We’d love to invite you to take part in our personalised coaching programme which may help you improve your shop performance and grow your business on Etsy. This programme is completely free and includes a 30 minute phone call where one of our shop optimisation experts will give you personalised feedback and share Etsy best practices.
You can schedule your call using the following link: [removed]
Feel free to reach out to us at [removed] for any questions.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Etsy UK team
I was reminded of the call a couple of times via email, and was phoned on time by a nice man called Mayank.
The phone call itself was very scripted. First of all, Mayank let me know that Etsy was going to provide me with some free listing credits – I think it was 30 but could be wrong, it’s been a while. He walked me through how to redeem these and we got that all set up before we went through anything else.
Next he took a look at the newest listing on my store, which was this rainbow raglan top that I’d hastily added the night before the call purely because it was for my daughter and I’d made the wrong size up so thought I might as well sell it. It would have been helpful I think for him to take a look at one of my regular items, but I guess the process would have been the same no matter what.
Anyway, Mayank went through every part of my listing and gave me feedback on everything from my photos and listing description to the categories I’d placed the jumper in and my shipping fees. He told me that my SEO was pretty much exactly what Etsy is looking for in a listing (which is good as SEO is my day job!) but that my photos needed some work. I 100% agreed with everything he told me, but also, I don’t think Mr Mayank has children otherwise he’d know it’s a big ask to take modelled photos of a toddler who won’t sit still.
After going through one of my listings, he gave me a run down of all of the things Etsy deems important when determining where to rank an item. I’ve compiled these into a list below:
- No of listings – A minimum of 20 at all times is important, more is better.
- Good reviews are vital – Mayank suggested asking customers for these by way of a personal note inserted into every parcel you send.
- Being gradually consistent – By this he meant it’s important to look like you’re working on, and updating, your shop on a regular basis. Etsy prioritise shops that have recently added items – and he said that renewals count as part of this. For shops like mine that can’t add a new item every day or so, he suggested adding one new item at the same time and day every week. Still a massive ask Mayank, but I hear you.
- Photos – You need to include at least 5 photos that include a lifestyle shot, a scale picture, a group picture and a packaging photo. Additional photos of the item from different angles are good too. Mayank HATED my photos on white backgrounds so don’t do that.
- Product description – The description for each product needs to be at least 250 words long and include your searched for keywords. He suggested including bullet points to split the text up, and also linking to other relevant products within your description. You can also link to your main store if you don’t have any similar products here.
- Listing quality – In addition to photos and the product description, Etsy also prioritises items that have admirers and free shipping. He advised me to make local shipping free which I’m not too sure about as it would end up increasing the price for overseas customers. That said, it could be worth a try.
- Titles – Mayank suggested filling out the full allowable title for each listing, using a lot of synonyms to attract different searchers, and separating everything by commas. So instead of ‘Rainbow Raglan Jumper’, I updated my listing to ‘Rainbow Raglan Jumper, Handmade Baby Sweater, Multicoloured Toddler Sweatshirt, Ready to Ship’
- Tags – You need to fill out all 13 of these and use longtail keywords for each tag. Mayank suggested checking out what my competition were using and also updating them seasonally based on holidays (Summer, Christmas etc.)
- Categories and attributes – Finally, I was told to ensure I added at least 3 attributes to each of my listings in order to increase visibility, and to ensure my item is in the correct category. The email Mayank sent me following the call said I could place each item into two categories (which would be useful as I tend to have to choose between baby and kids when determining mine) but I haven’t worked out how to do this yet.
At the end of the call, there wasn’t any time for me to ask questions (again, it was very scripted), but I was told I’d receive an email which would re-iterate everything we’d talked about on the call. I was also told that if I could add 20 new listings that adhered to the guidance he’d given me on the call, Etsy would provide me with $50 in free ad credit. This seems like a great deal, but I don’t think it’s something I’m going to take up. For one, 20 new listings for me is more like 140 items that I need to make due to the size range I cover, and for two, I have no wish right now to try and force my toddler to pose for photographs. I’m also taking maternity leave in November and I very much doubt I’ll manage to do all of this by then.
So was the call worth it? I’d say so. The free listing credits and advice were worth the chat, but if you’ve spent any amount of time researching how to create a good Etsy listing anyway, you probably won’t learn a lot that is new.
Have you had one of the Etsy coaching calls? I’d love to know what you thought in the comments.
