Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
On Etsy, you can sell a variety of products to thousands of buyers who are looking for idiosyncratic and handmade products like yours. There’s another platform that enables you to reach a similar audience, and that’s Instagram. Naturally, you can promote your Etsy store on Instagram to achieve maximum growth.
Venturing beyond Etsy’s storefront to create your brand and online identity is key to longevity. As a small business owner and creator, you’ve most likely been told that the best (and cheapest) way to promote your business is social media, particularly Instagram.
That’s true, but, for many small business owners, there’s no value in posting to Instagram. As a small business owner yourself, you may attribute this lack of Instagram growth to market saturation, but honestly, it has more to do with YOUR content and the fact that people don’t want to interact with it. Let me explain…
TLDR; Ditch the brand persona and take on more human identity. Create a unique identity for your Instagram account, so people feel connected to your brand through your content.
The #1 Way To Promote Your Etsy Store on Instagram
To grow your business on Instagram you need to stop being a business for a second, and… forget about promotion entirely!
The real reason engagement on business accounts is low, is that people don’t want to follow businesses, as the content looks staged. The brand has no character, and the posts look more like ads.
Think about ads for a moment. How many ads do you watch voluntarily? You select skip on the ads you see on YouTube and install ad blockers so you don’t get pesky pop-ups on websites. Most people don’t like being bombarded with ads. So why would they want to engage an account that feels like it’s constantly advertising to them?
Coca Cola is an excellent example of this. Coca Cola is one of the most recognized brands in the world, yet it has 89.6k followers on Instagram; that’s dismal, even when compared to mid-sized YouTubers and influencers.
When you scroll through Coca Cola’s feed, it seems like it’s curated by someone in marketing, and doesn’t give you any insight into the brand. Granted, Coca Cola doesn’t need a strong social media presence to sell their products, but – as a small business owner or creator – you do!
Therefore, the trick to getting more followers on Instagram is to be more human.
People want to connect with people on social media. Influencer’s images are more engaging because people enjoy looking into the eyes of someone else and getting an idea of what their life is like. Most people are curious, and Instagram enables them to be a fly on the wall in someone else’s life, without it being creepy.
Therefore, if you want to get more followers you need to treat your business account as a person.
Post Frequently
You can start by posting frequently to your page. Many businesses follow the rule to post twice or thrice a week, while many popular creators post once a day.
If you want to get more followers and more engagement, post frequently. The more frequently you post the more likely your content will be recommended to your new and existing audience.
Give People Behind The Scenes Footage
Behind the scenes footage is the best way to show that your Etsy store is a passion, that you’re able to turn into a business because of the support of others. This ensures people feel emotional about your products and your brand identity. And in case you didn’t know, emotions sell more products than anything else.
Create An Aesthetic
Part of creating an emotional response or reaction to your posts is to create an aesthetic. When people first see an image they’re drawn to it because of what it makes them feel. You have less than a second to get someone to feel something about your picture. So, instead of spending every day obsessing about your pictures before publishing them, create an aesthetic. You build an aesthetic through your photography and editing style, as well as your use of colors and fonts.
Think about what you want a potential customer to FEEL when they look at your posts before creating your aesthetic. And remember, the images you post on Instagram of your Etsy store products should never be verbatim product photos.
Giving your business or brand a personality is certainly the best way to promote your Etsy store on Instagram. However, there are other tips and tricks on how to sell Etsy products on Instagram.