Hot tips to start selling on Etsy in 2023 with Abbey & Courtney of Duo Collective

I had the chance to be a guest on the Duo on Air Marketing podcast hosted by Court & Abbey from the Duo Collective - and I'm sharing the entire episode with you here today! In this episode, we talk through the three biggest drivers to get people to find your products on Etsy. And better yet, why YOU need to be there.

Abbey & Courtney are both co-founders and business besties of Duo Collective, a boutique organic marketing agency specializing in social media strategy, branding, SEO, and coaching for small business owners and multi-passionate entrepreneurs. They are obsessed with finding ways to help you grow organically without needing to spend a DIME on paid ads.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL​ LEARN:

• Who is Etsy for?
• Can Etsy be successful for both physical and digital products?
• Do you recommend people sell products on their own website and Etsy? What's the benefit?
• What are your best tips for getting started and successfully making sales?
• Are there any resources or tools to make the setup process easy, especially if you have dozens of products?

LINKS MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

Follow Court & Abbey on Instagram @duo.collective

Listen to the Duo on Air Marketing Podcast hosted by Court & Abbey

LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE

Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com

Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching

Watch the FREE Etsy training to get started today: How to Get Your Products Seen on Etsy!

Transcript

Monica Little: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the product, this podcast. My name is Monica Little, and I'm your host, and I am so excited to share with you this exclusive interview that happened on the Duo OnAir Marketing podcast, hosted by Courtney and Abby from the Duo Collective, where they interviewed me about my favorite topic.

Getting started on Etsy. This episode, again, received so much amazing feedback that I wanna share it with you. So number one, you can hear this conversation and number two, so you get exposure to Abby and Courtney who are absolutely phenomenal experts on product businesses, s e o, so many different topics, and you'll hear our conversation and learn more about them through this episode.

In this specific conversation. In this interview, we talk through the three biggest drivers to get people to find your products on Etsy so you can actually make sales on Etsy and why you need to have your products up on Etsy. Couple specific things that we talk through is who is Etsy for? Can you be successful on Etsy with digital products or [00:01:00] physical products, or what's the best avenue to take?

Do you recommend people to sell on their own website and on et. And what's the difference? So what's the benefit of each one? What are the best tips for getting started and successfully making sales on Etsy? Two? And are there any resources just to help get successfully set up and make it as easy as possible?

So if you're maybe on the fence on Etsy or just wondering, I sell physical products or digital products, I have my own website. Should I be on Etsy? All of these questions, this is what we're gonna dive into today. A little bit about Abby and Courtney. So they are the co-founders and business besties behind Duo Collective, a boutique organic and marketing agency specializing in social media strategy.

Branding, S E O, and also they coach small business owners and multi-passionate entrepreneurs. They are obsessed with finding ways to help you grow organically without needing to spend a dime on paid ads, and that is their expertise. If you enjoy this interview, which I know you will, and if you [00:02:00] enjoy listening to Abbey and Courtney, then I encourage you to follow them on Instagram at dubo dot collective and also to listen to their podcast.

The Duo on Air Marketing Podcast, which you can find on Spotify, on Apple, or wherever you are listening to this podcast right now, you will be able to find their podcast as well. I hope you absolutely love this episode. And without further ado, let's roll the tapes through. Our own efforts will be pretty hard, right?

To get 80 million people, anything like that. Crazy, but Etsy helps to bring all those people to you. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: Welcome back to Duo On Air. I'm Abby. And I'm Courtney. And we're the X Agency turned entrepreneurial team 

Monica Little: that puts the Duo and Duo Collective. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: Our boutique organic marketing agency specializes in seo, social media strategy and brand.

Monica Little: We're an everyday pair of business besties slash marketing experts obsessed with helping our community 

Courtney of Duo Collective: learn more about what it takes to run a business. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: Which is why on Duo On Air, we're not holding [00:03:00] anything back. We're giving you all the info we know about how to grow your business organically so you can be the confident CEO you are made to be, and how to 

Monica Little: navigate life as a small business owner, 

Abbey of Duo Collective: whether it's on your own or with your best friend by your side.

So grab your coffee. Or 

Monica Little: your mimosa. We don't judge. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: And settle in for a quick value-packed episode of Marketing Tips. Welcome back to the Duo on Air Podcast. This is episode number 53 and today we're chatting with Monica. She is the owner of Plant-Based Beauty and grew her Etsy shop to over five.

Thousand orders and almost a hundred thousand dollars in sales in one of the most saturated categories. By leveraging her eight years of corporate e-commerce marketing experience, she is now teaching and coaching product business owners, all of her growth secrets. We've recently appeared on her podcast, the Product Biz Academy, to chat about one of our favorite topics.

Obviously SEO and Etsy is one space we don't specialize in when it comes to seo, so we knew we had to bring Monica on to share her knowledge of the Etsy algorithm [00:04:00] and why it. To must for any type of product, including digital downloads even. We took some nuggets from here for our own shop, so we can't wait for you to hear this episode.

Let's jump into it. Hello Monica. Thanks for coming on the Duo on Air Podcast. 

Monica Little: Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I'm so excited to chat with you both today. Us too. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: We were just on your podcast a few weeks ago and now we're flipping it around and you are coming on ours cuz I feel like we have just so much information to share amongst the two of us.

That compliment our audiences, so that's awesome. 

Monica Little: Yeah, our last conversation was so good and it's just nice when you get people who like speak the same language, you know? And it's just an awesome way to keep sharing the same message with other people. So I'm super excited to see where this conversation takes us today too.

Abbey of Duo Collective: I love it. Yeah. Yay. Yeah. So why don't you just start by introducing yourself. Tell us about what you do in the business, or I should say businesses that you run. 

Monica Little: Of [00:05:00] course. So, like we mentioned, my name is Monica Little and I own a couple different businesses. The first one that I started is plant-based beauty.

So this is an organic skincare small business that I started about th. Three to four years ago, really just out of a passion. So I've been in like health and wellness and have really valued that. And a big part of health and wellness is also the products that you use in your household, on your face, everything and anything really counts in that too.

So I started to experiment with all natural skincare and that kind of just took off and I ran with it over the last three to four years and. In the last year have added onto that with helping other small business owners to grow and scale their business. So I love the business side of things. I know a lot of other small business owners really like the creative side and I'm like, get me in the back end.

I love the business side of things. So it's been really fun to now transition a little bit and help people on the business side so they can grow and scale their business and get into [00:06:00] more stores, sell on Etsy, sell on social, all of those fun places to be with a small business. Yeah. That's 

Abbey of Duo Collective: awesome. And I think like just from a coaching standpoint, I feel like you've been there, like you've been in the weeds.

You understand, and you can kind of take that to the next level for others and take the learnings that you have so it's so natural. 

Courtney of Duo Collective: Is that kind of how you got into coaching then, is that you found this passion to kind of like take a business, create it, build it, and then you wanted to teach everybody else how to do that with the probably, you know, learnings that you had along the way.

You know, mistakes, wins, 

Monica Little: all of those things. Yeah, a hundred percent. And one really interesting thing that I found, because I do like the business side of things, I thought everyone else likes the business side of things, you know? But then you start to talk with other small business owners and you hear things that they struggle with, and I noticed.

A lot of what people struggled with in terms of how to really optimize different platforms like the strategy, the business, [00:07:00] all the backend stuff. People really struggle with that, and I'm like, oh, this is something that I love and something that I can teach and something that I can share with others. So it really was a natural fit just because I noticed people were struggling with it.

For me, it comes super easy. I love to like teach people and coach and to help people. So it was this. Kind of crazy path that got me here, but I feel like I'm truly now doing what I'm meant to do. So it's, it's been a really fun transition and crazy four years, but everything that I've learned, it's been good just to be able to now flip it and help people through those exact challenges, problems, issues, the good stuff, the bad stuff, and everything in between too.

Yeah. That's awesome. That is great. So today we 

Abbey of Duo Collective: kind of wanted to chat a little bit about Etsy because we haven't talked about that platform at all. And although, like I do a lot of SEO optimizations, I don't focus on Etsy. And Etsy is a whole new world of optimizations too. Um, because it's a search engine in and of itself, essentially [00:08:00] for product-based businesses.

So we wanted to just get to your brain and also we've been. Like even thinking for our own shop. Mm-hmm. We run the shop on our website, but we also don't push it out anywhere else. And so it's an area of growth for us too. And if it's an area for growth for us, we know there's a lot of product businesses out there that listen.

There's a lot of service businesses out there that sell digital products that also listen. So we just wanted to have you on to kind of talk about Etsy, who it's for. Why and how you can kind of incorporate it in your business. So let's just start at the very beginning. Who do you think Etsy is for? Do you think it is for both physical and digital products, or is it better for one or the other?

Monica Little: Ooh, that's such a good question. So it's definitely both. So I know so many small business owners who sell a physical product, and I think that's what a lot of people think of Etsy originally is for someone who's selling a candle or jewelry or skincare, the physical product made by a small business.

Because essentially to sell on [00:09:00] Etsy, you have to be a small business owner. You can't be selling vintage item unless it's like 50 plus years old. They won't even let you sell that. You can't sell anything that you're buying and then just flipping to sell it physically has to be something that you created.

So the physical product's a hundred percent, but there's so many businesses that are on there that are digital products. So I know for me personally, in my home, I have picture frames where I. Purchased the actual photo on Etsy, went to Walgreens, got it printed, and then put it in my picture frame in my living room.

So these digital downloads, things like that are amazing for Etsy to have it be photos, have it be a service provider selling an ebook or anything like that. Etsy's an awesome place because people are on there. Looking for things made by small businesses, and that's exactly who we are and everyone listening.

So it's, it's the perfect place to have your products to get in front of more people. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: Love [00:10:00] that. Definitely need to need to do that for ourselves too. So with that, do you recommend that when people have shops, whether that be physical or um, digital items, do you think it's beneficial for them to be putting, like should you prioritize one or the other?

Is it like, start with Etsy first, see if it gets traction there, then put it on your website or website, vice versa. Like do you have any advice for someone who might already have items, like kind of where's the best place to put. It when you're first getting 

Monica Little: started. So when you're first getting started.

Um, I think it's an interesting place to be because essentially the work that you put into Etsy will be the same work that you put in on your website at the end of the day in terms of the photos that you use, the description, the marketing copy, all of that stuff is interchangeable between Etsy and your website.

So if you already have a website, then Etsy is super simple, right? Take your photos for your product or service or whatever you're selling. Put 'em on Etsy, take your marketing copy, put it on the [00:11:00] Etsy listing. Super, super straightforward. Obviously there are some titles and tags which have some nuances, which with Etsy, but otherwise, so simple.

So this is one reason, no matter if you're established and have a website. Etsy is perfect for you. Etsy is easy to get set up. Or if you're just starting off, you can do Etsy first because it's a little bit less expensive. It's only 20 cents per listen to get set up versus your own website, but truly, any permutation of that is totally fine.

How I look at Etsy and why I think Etsy is so important, even if you have your own website, is because all of the people that Etsy brings to its platform. So I know Etsy gets a little bit of a bad rep because people are like, well, I have my own website. I want my people to go to my website. And I always tell them, you're right, like a hundred percent right.

Your people should go to your website. So on social media, on your email list, on your marketing postcards, anything like that, People [00:12:00] should go to your direct website. But the whole point of Etsy and how I like to position Etsy is now you have 80 million shoppers on Etsy who probably aren't on your Instagram, who probably aren't on your email list that you can now get in front of.

It's totally this passive income that runs behind the scenes and will continue to get more people to know about your products, buy your products, love your products, then follow you on Instagram, and it just builds this ecosystem. So no matter if you have a website or you don't have a website, The sequence of how you do it.

I mean, totally up to you. Right? But having that frame of mind of I wanna have both my own website and Etsy to cater to two different audiences is how I really teach Etsy, because it just gets so much exposure for your business, so many more eyeballs on your products, and so many more people that.

Through our own efforts would would be pretty hard, right? Mm-hmm. To get 80 million people, 80 million followers, anything like that is crazy. But Etsy helps to bring all those people to you, [00:13:00] which is why yeah, I'm always such a fan of it and always pushing towards it. I think that's 

Courtney of Duo Collective: super smart as far as like a strategy goes for your business.

I think, you know, I was just gonna ask you too, like how do you work with your clients to like market Etsy or like say, you know, if a client were to say like, well why 

Monica Little: wouldn't 

Courtney of Duo Collective: I just have 'em go to my website? You explained that so I. Great. It's like, obviously yes you want them to go to your website, but if you're on Etsy where you're getting 

Abbey of Duo Collective: 80 million plus people, like 

Courtney of Duo Collective: why not be seen there too?

Abbey of Duo Collective: You might not have to put a lot of, you know, effort or marketing 

Courtney of Duo Collective: or strategy towards it. Once it's up and running, it kind of does its own thing, but just let it do its own thing and capture that wider audience because. Why 

Monica Little: not? Yeah. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: Yeah. We've done a lot of SEO audits and optimizations for product business owners whose businesses were made on Etsy.

Um, that's where their brand awareness, where their main source of revenue, that's like where their business has been made and now they're thinking about taking that shift to driving more traffic so that obviously they pay a less [00:14:00] percentage and get to reap more of the benefits, but, They wouldn't be able to probably spend that money to do the SEO audit in the optimization without having made that revenue on Etsy first.

So I see that all the time. Um, because like you said, like people are going to Etsy because they're looking for small businesses and they're looking for businesses to buy from. They're not expecting the Amazon two day turnaround, same day delivery kind of deal. They're just expecting that actual experience with someone who built and 

Monica Little: made the product.

Yeah, a hundred percent. And I love how you both pretty much said both examples, right? Because I have one of my clients who has her own website, super established, has her own branding, like a very elevated premium skincare brand. And we worked to get her on Etsy, and now she has almost 400 orders on Etsy, while she still has her own website and her own followers going to her website.

But man, those 400 additional sales like. That's awesome. Mm-hmm. Just to have that coming in to get more exposure and [00:15:00] more eyeballs. But also how you were just saying too, that sometimes it's inverse. People get started on Etsy. It's simple, it's easy. You don't need to know website design, you don't need to spend hours building a website.

It's pretty quick and you can get some awesome traction and then migrate to your own website when you're ready for it. Mm-hmm. So there's, there's really both sides. Most people start with Etsy first and then grow. But I like to work with people on both spectrums that if, if your business has grown a ton and you're not on Etsy, let's tap into that, right?

Let's get in front of more people. Let's get into that revenue stream and let's keep your own website. How it is to keep bringing people in that front too. Absolutely. It's starting to light a fire underneath. Yeah. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: I knowI going. I know, right? Or at least have someone help us get a etsi going For sure. Is there, so like for us, we have a handful of products, like maybe between digital and physical.

It's like 10. Yes. So it's pretty simple. What are there tools and resources out there for someone who might have like a hundred plus products? Like the idea of just copying and [00:16:00] pasting even that many products. Is going to take some time, like it's gonna take them forever to do that. Is there any sort of like tool or resource to like easily migrate the products that you have on your website to Etsy?

Does 

Monica Little: something like that exist? Yeah, that's a really good question. So I'm sure there are probably. Are tools. I'm not super well-versed in that. Um, I'm sure there probably is some sort of connection between Shopify and Etsy. I know at least on like the inventory front there is, I'm pretty sure I've heard that Shopify and Etsy for your listings.

There's a way to do that too. But I think if someone does have a hundred SKUs, what I would recommend for them is to truly start with your best sellers, right? You know that they sell good, you know, people are receptive to them. So the 20% of your products that bring in 80% of your sales. Put those on Etsy right away.

Let's get them on there and start getting some traction. And then as you have more time, or if you can hire a VA or whatever it may be to get the rest of your products on there, but. One thing I'm a [00:17:00] big fan of is just like reducing SKUs in general. That's one of the main things that I kind of talk with my clients on.

Really make sure that when you're coming out with a new product that you know it's going to be a big hit, right? And that you know it fits in your brand and you know, people want this. Product. So if someone does have a hundred SKUs, then that opens up another conversation, right, of how do we make sure that you're optimizing your business in general for the products that are selling what your people actually want, and go all in with those across all of your platforms, just to make it easier on you.

Not only migrating to Etsy, but I'm sure like across the board, right? Yeah. So going with bestsellers is probably the best advice that I would give there just to. Put what you know is gonna do good on Etsy and let it run for you while you're working on your business in other aspects. Mm-hmm. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: Absolutely.

Yeah. That's what we say too. Especially even just like auditing your own website, like doing your own SEO audits. Like we can't physically, like we have a cap on the number of product pages we can optimize because. [00:18:00] To the same point, it will take you forever to optimize, you know, a hundred to 200. Like I've been in websites where there's 500 products and it's like I can't optimize all that.

So yeah, you absolutely like prioritize and we always say prioritize bestsellers or I. Those that you want to be best sellers? Mm-hmm. Like let's prioritize the ones that maybe aren't working for you so that they can work better. And the ones that are working really well, let's continue growing those and then templating and like having a growth plan for the future.

Yeah. So we say the same thing, and I think from an EO optimization standpoint, like it makes a ton of sense to prioritize on the things that are already working. But same thing with like when you are pushing your products, Out to other channels, prioritize what's working because you're spending, you're taking time and time is precious.

So you need to be making sure that you're prioritizing your time in the way that's going to reap the most benefits. 

Monica Little: So that's smart. Hundred percent agree with you. What all of that. Yeah. Right. I 

Abbey of Duo Collective: know. Stamp of approval. Awesome. Okay. So, um, [00:19:00] tell us like, being successful on Etsy is, Gotta be more than just listing your products, right?

You don't just, it's like the, you'll build it and people will come. Like, same thing with a website, like this is why we do SEO group coaching for website designers because it's like you build a website and people are like, but no one sees it. And it's like, yeah, it's beautiful. But same thing with products.

I'm sure if you list a product on Etsy and you want people to find it, what are kind of the three biggest drivers to finding that success in traffic? 

Monica Little: Yeah. And I love that you said that cuz it's so true, right? I hear that all across the board where it's like, Getting into a platform, and then everyone expects all of a sudden, you know, money to fall from the sky, and it's like, you still gotta do a little bit of work, right?

Mm-hmm. You still gotta optimize it, you still gotta make sure it's, it's working for you before that actually happens. A couple things that I like to talk about on Etsy. I have a very different approach, I think, because as small business owners, product-based business owners, even selling digital service, digital downloads, things like [00:20:00] that, I think a lot of people, we have like blinders on, right?

We know our business, we know our products. So when we wanna set up on Etsy, we kind of use our own terminology. In our titles and tags and our own words, but you wanna make sure, and how I teach Etsy is to have the customer focus and to truly think of the customer experience and every single thing from their lens instead of our lens of being the business owner.

So from one perspective on how I like to teach, this is for Etsy. On your SEO front, the two main important things are your title of your product listening, and the tags very similar to SEO in general. Right. Obviously then your product description is super important too, but with titles and tags, very similar to what we talked when you were uh, on my podcast too.

It's doing searches on Etsy to see. What are the actual terms that customers are searching? Because when you go on Etsy and you type in serum, it's gonna come down on the dropdown, anti-aging [00:21:00] serum acne serum, anti wrinkle serum, and you're like, oh, what one of these can I use specifically for my product?

So it's using basically the keyword words that they're telling you when you go and do an Etsy search result. Super simple, but making sure that we're doing that for every single term in our titles and tags. And a lot of people skip this because they think they know, right? Like, oh, I know what my customers are searching.

But when you truly go and do this very simple exercise, you're gonna see what actually. Auto populates and what leads to a dead end, and you may be using some titles or tags that lead to a dead end. So super simple way to start to get seen. The other component that I like to say is when you're appearing in the search results, right?

So those titles and tags will help to appear. You also need to attract the customer's attention. So you're basically competing against everyone else on the search results page. So what can you do to truly stand out? And I love to make sure that whoever is [00:22:00] selling on Etsy is using all the different marketing lovers that Etsy has to offer.

So Etsy has seven unique different marketing lovers. For example, running a promotion. Offering free shipping. Um, you can also have star seller status, which is another like badge that you can have on your products. So there is these different marketing levers that Etsy has for small businesses to use, and a lot of people don't use them.

And I know from my previous corporate experience that when a marketing lover is there, It's because Etsy has tested and seen that it actually leads to more sales, right? They wouldn't have this marketing lever there for people to use for no reason. They know that when customers see free shipping and they get to the final checkout page and the price is consistent, that the customer's more likely to buy.

Versus if there's no free shipping, they get on the checkout page, it's an additional $6. And some people may leave because they've already anchored their price to the initial price that they saw. Right. [00:23:00] So really making sure that you're using the different levers that Etsy has to offer because those are there for a reason.

Those attract the customer's attention. They help you to stand out against everyone who is on the same search results page. So those are two pretty simple, but um, impactful. Tips. Third thing that I would say that I like to teach people is after you appear in the search results and you've attracted the customer's attention, now you need to confirm their expectations.

So they've clicked on your product listing, and now you truly have to have all the information that they potentially need right then and there because you can think about if you're booking a hotel. And there's one piece of information that's missing. You're not gonna call the hotel or message the hotel, or email the hotel.

You're gonna go back to the search results and find a different hotel that actually has the information that you need, right? So very similar on Etsy. You have to know [00:24:00] what your customers need to have in the description. And in the photos for them to have their expectations confirmed so they know, yeah, like, no-brainer, I'm gonna buy this.

All of my questions are answered. I trust this business. I see their reviews. I know this is the product that I want. So when we confirm the customer's expectations, that can be your description, having all the information necessary about your product, your shipping policy, your return policy, every single potential detail that customers may need to know.

Putting that in your description, you're listing so people have it, but also through your photos, so making sure you're educating through your photos. I like to have screenshots of reviews in the photos I like to have about the business in photos through like graphics. Not only. Photos of your products, but also that information too, because people shop in different manners, especially on Etsy.

Some people want to read all the [00:25:00] details. Some people only look at the photos. Some people only look at the reviews. So the key information that your customers need have to be in those three spaces, in the description, in the photos, and in the reviews. So no matter what type of shopper you have, how they're purchasing, what they're reading, what they're looking for, You're giving them exactly what they need.

So that's like the rule of three that I like to tell people to make sure your information is in those three places, but truly that's how you start to get in front of customers and confirm their expectations. So then they put in their car and then they buy and then they come back for more. I love 

Courtney of Duo Collective: that, that third one confirming the expectations.

I think that's so smart. It's making me think through like how our shop works on our site. I'm like, oh, maybe I should go back and like put a couple of reviews in some of these actual images because you're so right that people shop differently. Um, you know, no matter what platform they're on, Amazon, your website, Etsy, um, anything like that.

Because, you know, [00:26:00] sometimes when I'm shopping online, I go straight to reviews, like. You know, I can see what the product looked like. Sure. But I wanna see like, how does it actually work? Is it actually meeting expectations on what they say they're doing? And then, you know, you go somewhere else, like Etsy, let's say, and you're looking through a bunch of images, like, I would've never thought of that mindset of having images actually educate too.

I think that's super important. And um, like you said, it can capture different shoppers in the different ways that they actually shop whatever 

Monica Little: platform that they're on. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I know a lot of people say that they get favorites on Etsy. So if you post something on Etsy and someone likes it, right?

They're favoring it, but they're not converting to an actual purchase, and I'm like, well, that means that something's missing in terms of confirming their expectations, right? They like this, it caught their attention, but they need something like some sort of trust isn't there for them to actually buy. So that's why I like to teach Etsy in that way, because it truly is making sure that [00:27:00] that whole process from finding you in the search results, to actually purchasing, no matter what potential question is there, it's covered, right?

So there's, there's no stone unturned and people have all the information they need, especially because on Etsy, um, I think unfortunately, there are situations where people buy something on Etsy and then they get it and maybe it doesn't look like what the photo said, or they were expecting something different.

So unfortunately, as small business owners, we kind of have that against us, right? Because. Some people have had bad experiences from buying from small businesses. So whatever you can do to confirm their expectations and give them trust in what you're offering through information and all those different avenues, then you kind of instill some of that.

Then they don't have questions of, oh my gosh, is this gonna show up? You know, completely different. A different color, a different size than what it looks like in the photos because you have all the content that you need across those places. Mm-hmm. Yeah, 

Abbey of Duo Collective: that's so true. Even [00:28:00] thinking about myself, it's as a shopper on Etsy too.

I definitely look at all of it. I look at everything you just said. Mm-hmm. Like I look at the photos, I look at the description, and there are definitely times where I know exactly what I need and I'm not gonna read through every detail, but then I go to the reviews and I'd love to know from your like, Advice from you from a review standpoint.

I loved what you said about how making sure the review also answers people's questions. How do you advise your clients on how to get reviews that actually help answer your question? 

Monica Little: Yeah, I love it. That's such a good question. Mm-hmm. So that's the tricky part because when we talk about those three components, the description.

The photos and the reviews, that's the one that we don't have as much control over, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. The description in the photos, we can put what we want in there, but the reviews truly is from someone else's point of view. So a couple things that I like to advise people on. This is, number one, having an awesome experience for your customers because they will then, Share a ton of details, [00:29:00] usually answering the questions that you want to have in your reviews because you gave them an awesome experience.

So, for example, if you ship it quickly, Nine times outta 10, you'll get a review that will say, oh my gosh, the item shipped so quick. And that could be what someone is looking for because people know from a small business is, it's not Amazon, is this gonna arrive in time? But when they see a review that says that, then it's like, okay, yes, now I know it's gonna ship quick and I'm ready.

So creating a five star experience for your customers is big with shipping quickly, making sure it's packaged nice. Making sure that what you're promoting in the photos and description actually matches what they get. But in terms of getting more reviews, I tell all of my clients that every two to four weeks you should be reaching out to your customers.

On Etsy, you can message them and say, thank you so much for supporting a small business and for supporting my business. I would be so honored for you to leave me a review and I will give you a 20% off [00:30:00] coupon in exchange. So a couple things there. You wanna incentivize people, right? So, If they're leaving a review, you can give them a little nudge with a message and also incentivizing them with a coupon.

But when you reach out, you can give them examples. You can say, I would love for you to leave a review about the shipping experience, about the quality of the product. You can totally prompt people. To the type of review that you want them to leave. So you're not telling them what to say, you're just saying, Hey, we would love for you to share about the shipping experience, how the product came up, um, how the gift packaging was.

And people who love to support small businesses will do this for you, especially if you had a five star experience. You went above and beyond. So they love what they got and they're excited about it. Then it's so easy to get the review from them too. So, Creating that five star experience and actively asking for reviews and putting yourself out there and saying, Hey, could you leave me a review?

And the amount that you get back is gonna [00:31:00] skyrocket the business. Cuz that's one of the biggest things on Etsy too, is, is just getting the reviews lined up so people have that trust from other people's buying experiences. Um, 

Abbey of Duo Collective: yeah, I know reviews are amazing from an SEO standpoint. Like they help increase your credibility and authority and trustworthiness with Google, and I imagine that's how it works on the backend with Etsy too, like from an authority standpoint and boosting your listings, making sure that you have like good.

And a good nu not only good reviews, but a good number of reviews can kind of help your listings 

Monica Little: overall. Yeah, a hundred percent. Cuz when you really think of it, Etsy knows that a lot of the brand awareness goes to Etsy, right? That's one of the downfalls of Etsy. So you could buy from a small business and you'll probably remember that you bought it on Etsy instead of.

That small business is actual name, right? So Etsy knows that it has this huge brand awareness. So if someone leaves a five star review, they're not only leaving a five star review for that small business, but it's for Etsy too. Mm-hmm. Because that customer is, [00:32:00] had a great experience buying something on Etsy.

So they're gonna come back and buy other things on Etsy. And now Etsy's making more money too. Right? And Etsy is a business at, at the end of the day. So when we show Etsy, like, Hey, we're putting our best foot forward. Customers love our products, which means Etsy, you're getting a great reputation too. Of course Etsy's gonna like bump you up in the search results, right?

So, mm-hmm. Reviews are a huge part, having frequent. Reviews, recent reviews. Um, so I love to do outreach and just jam up the reviews on my Etsy page because that is the best way to really grow the algorithm and beat the algorithm because those reviews coming in are just like gasoline coming into the machine once you got it right.

Oh yeah, for sure. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: And since we're not quite in Etsy yet, um, I'm assuming all of this, can it be kind of like automated within the system? Can you set it up all through Etsy or is that like something you have to do on your own? 

Monica Little: So in terms of review, [00:33:00] outreach, there is an automated email that goes out from Etsy that says, Hey, don't forget to leave a review for your recent purchase.

I personally, either myself or my virtual assistant do then. Outreach to my actual customers through just the e Etsy Messenger, you can reach out to your customers. Um, so that's something a little bit above and beyond that I like to do, but in every single touchpoint, I like to remind my customers to leave a review.

So in a marketing postcard that goes in the package, you can say, Hey, please leave a review in the confirmation email from Etsy. You can add a little bit of custom text, which can say that too. So in some instances, I go above and beyond and physically reach out to the customer via the Messenger app that they have.

But a lot of the times they'll come to you and do it automatically just from mentioning it in other places and giving them that awesome experience. Yeah, there's a lot of good people out there, so that's good. And I think people 

Courtney of Duo Collective: realize too when they purchase from Etsy that they're supporting small versus, [00:34:00] you know, going to these big box companies or whatever too.

So I think when somebody has a good experience in that space, they appreciate that and they wanna make sure that that small business is rewarded, especially within this space of Etsy. Right, because the. The purchaser, 

Monica Little: more than 

Courtney of Duo Collective: likely knows that Etsy's taking some sort of a cut too. So they're like, Hey, I really wanna help this business thrive in this space, so I'm gonna leave them a review based on the great experience that I just 

Monica Little: had with them.

Yeah, yeah. Etsy customers like, man, they really are loyal. It's hard to get them off of Etsy, but in my perspective, if they're gonna be loyal on Etsy and buy for me over and over on Etsy, You know, that's fine, right? That's mm-hmm. More customers that are coming to me, more customers that are trying my products, um, more customers that I'm helping.

Um, and I'm, I'm all about just getting that in front of as many people as possible. So I, I look at Etsy as a partnership, a lot of people. Mm-hmm. Kind of have a negative view on Etsy, because Etsy does charge fees. But I look at it like I'm paying Etsy to market my products for me, right? Like, I'll [00:35:00] gladly pay that fee if they're gonna bring these customers to me, host all the transactions, host the shipping and everything.

They make it so simple that. It's like a partnership and, and Etsy's kind of working for me, so I like to reframe it a little bit cuz some people have Yes. Um, a little bit of a negative view on Etsy, but essentially it's just a marketing platform and I'm gonna let them work their marketing magic and bring more customers to me.

That's so true. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: Um, I have one more question for you because I think what you said was so powerful and I just did this today. So I got Courtney something on Etsy recently, and I, she was like, where did you get this? And I said, Etsy, I did not say the brand's name and. Off the top of my head, I don't know the brand's name.

Um, so I'm curious, what do you do? Like, what do you help your clients with to help understand, like, how can you stand out? Like how can you get your customers to know your brand after they purchase and not just think of you as Etsy, but think of you 

Monica Little: as your brand? Yeah, that's, that's probably one of the biggest [00:36:00] drawbacks of Etsy because that transition is really, really, really hard.

Um, I think what I tell most of my clients is just make sure your Instagram handle is on your product, on your marketing card. On your packaging tapes, like your website and your Instagram handle should be plastered all over every single marketing material that you have. So if someone does wanna follow you, it's not like this search for what was that business and, and who are they again?

You actually have it right then and there, right? One sneaky thing that I like to do, which also helps is at the top of my Etsy listings, and this kind of gets a little bit. More advanced of a topic in case someone's like, what is she talking about? Um, but at the top of my Etsy listing, I like to actually have a link for the customer reading that as they're browsing and shopping to sign up for my newsletter.

I. So on Etsy listings, you can't actually link something, right? Like it's not a clickable link unless it's within Etsy, if I'm [00:37:00] linking to another listing or something like that. But my website, it's not clickable in the description, but I tell people, Hey, if you wanna stay up to date on, um, new products, coupons, promotions, blog posts, click here to subscribe.

So that right away from the person who is interested in my business and my products will go and subscribe, and now they're in my email list, which will hopefully get them to my Instagram page, which will get them more in my world. So that's something sneaky that you can do, but. Essentially, at the end of the day, if someone remembers Etsy, like I mentioned earlier, I'm okay with that because they are, Etsy is doing the job that they're meant to do to bring customers to me.

I will try my best to get that person to my direct world. If it happens, great. If it don't, doesn't happen, that's fine too, right? So we can try with these marketing tactics as much as we can, and some people will transition over to be a direct customer. But knowing that Etsy has. A big brand name too, which is kind of hard to compete with, [00:38:00] but in my perspective, the benefits of out of Etsy outweigh any of these potential drawbacks that's still so worth it just to continue to get your products more exposure that they deserve.

Abbey of Duo Collective: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Growth. At the end of the day, growth is the goal, and if you are continuing to find that growth, then continue moving with the platforms you're doing. The second you'll realize you're stagnant or your growth is kind of stagnant, then that's the opportunity where maybe you can look at investing elsewhere.

But. I totally agree. I mean, there's so many tools out there that are used because they help you do the marketing that you can't do, and as a small business mm-hmm. We do like small businesses and entrepreneurs need help, and we are so opposed to asking for help, whether that be through investing a platform or a coach or any kind of resource.

It's always like, we wanna do it all ourselves, because that's what you do as an entrepreneur, right? You wear all the hats, you do it all yourself, but. It's okay to ask for help and at Etsy is just kind of one of those helpers or those partners. Mm-hmm. And looking at it that way [00:39:00] can just, yeah. Be a total mindset shift and so powerful for your business.

Monica Little: Yeah. I 

Courtney of Duo Collective: think it's like, yeah, just kind of like a beautiful little addition. Like if we had Etsy up and running right now, we probably wouldn't put a lot towards it. We wouldn't really need to because Etsy would be doing. You know, some of the work behind the scenes for us. So it would be one of those things where, you know, if in the morning we woke up and we're like, wow, we had two Etsy sales last night.

That's amazing. Mm-hmm. Like, 

Monica Little: we didn't really have to do a whole 

Courtney of Duo Collective: lot after, you know, getting that whole setup done and we're just making this passive income. So I think that's super interesting too. Yeah. Yeah. 

Abbey of Duo Collective: Well, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all of your secrets. Um, can you tell everyone where they can go to find everything you have to offer?

And we'll make sure everything you've mentioned too, we have links in the show notes so that people can easily find it. 

Monica Little: Absolutely. So I am on Instagram. My Instagram handles Monica Little Coaching. That's where I spend most of my time. And I also have a podcast, which the Duo Collective was a guest on my podcast.

So I've gotten amazing reviews on that. So people have loved it. But [00:40:00] my podcast is called The Product-Based Podcast. So those are the two main places that I hang out on Instagram and at my podcast. And if you have any questions at all, feel free to reach out to me there. I'm happy to talk about all things product, businesses, Etsy Fair, Instagram.

All that fun stuff that goes into running a product business. Love 

Abbey of Duo Collective: it. Thank you so much. Yes, 

Monica Little: thank you. Thank you.