6 Weeks to a Better Blog: Promoting Your Shop

Hello everyone! I’m excited to share a few tips with you for Sarah’s 6 Weeks series, and I’d like to send a big thank you to her for including me! My name is Susannah, and I blog over at SusannahBean.com. I also have an Etsy shop where I sell crocheted accessories that I make in my free time. I’m a huge advocate of using your blog to promote your shop, so here are some awesome things I like about doing that!

One thing that’s awesome about using your blog to promote your shop is that it forges a personal connection between your readers (and potential customers) and you, the blogger (and seller). I personally enjoy knowing something about the person I’m buying from, I don’t like feeling like I’m buying from some faceless internet shop, and I’d rather know the seller’s name and a little bit of who they are. So if people find your blog first, they’ll get to know you on a personal level and will feel connected to you, which usually means you’ll be on the top of their list if they need what you sell. No one ever says “Hey! I need to buy such and such product, I’m gonna shop at internetdrone404′s shop!” No, they say “Hey! That rad blogger sells such and such, I like her and feel like supporting her craft!”

Another great thing about using your blog to promote your shop is that it gives you the opportunity to reach a wider audience than you would solely through Etsy. Say you’re doing a giveaway of one of your items from your shop. Your blog readers can enter, and maybe they blog about it or tweet a link to it, then more people will come check it out. Some of those people may not have heard of you before, or they may not have even known a product like yours existed! But by utilizing the ripple effect of the blogging world, you are giving more people the opportunity to fall in love with your product and become potential customers! You should also utilize the friendships you make with other bloggers. Have you encountered someone who might have a different audience than you? Politely ask them if they’d like to review one of your products! It never hurts to send away something for free if it could mean a new crop of customers who didn’t know about you before.

It can be tricky to not overwhelm your readers with shop announcements and the like. You don’t want your blog to become a billboard for your shop, because your readers will pick up on that in a millisecond and no one likes that. You wouldn’t want to only watch commercials on TV, right? But it’s cool if there’s a few during your fave show. Your blog should be the same way! Don’t flood your followers with shop stuff on your blog (or Twitter, Facebook, etc.). If you’re jazzed about a new design you came up with, or if you’re offering a coupon code, feel free to share it in moderation, but don’t go all “SALE!!! SALE!!! SALE!!!” on every social media site a hundred times a day. It can get annoying, and I personally avoid buying from people who do that!

I hope you can find something useful in my tips! I’ve really found that these things are helpful, and I learn something new about this little world every day! Be patient and personable, and it’ll make all the difference!

Thank you Susannah!

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