How to Start an Etsy T-Shirt Business in 2020 with No Costs!

Hey everybody!

My name is Jackie and I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much for trying out my course.

Now if you're like me you’ve probably dreamed of one day taking your passion for making stuff and turning it into a real business.

How cool would it be to see someone using a product that you made. When I first discovered Etsy it was like a dream come true. Here I found a network of people who not only appreciated artists and crafters but wanted to buy their stuff. It was like I found an online bazaar for people who like unique things!

I thought I found the perfect way to support my passion, I make stuff and Etsy sells it right? Well...I quickly realized there was a learning curve to it all and I was in a bit over my head. I had a few questions like…

• Whats my Shop Manager?

• What are keywords and how do I get them?

• How the heck do some sellers have SOOOOO many freakin reviews?

• What are promoted listings and how do they work?

• How do some stores get the bestseller badge or the free shipping badge?

• How do some people always only have 1 item left?!

Luckily I’ve been in the ecommerce space for a while now and I dug deep to answer each of these questions. I mean, if other people could get hundreds of reviews and bestseller badges why can’t I right?

It took me months of research, months of split testing, months of algorithm analysis and hard, hard work to not only answer these questions but to put them all together. That’s right, answering just one or two of these questions would not get me the traction I needed to really scale my business. I realized what I needed to do was figure out how to make all of these pieces fit together to make a system, an Etsy Selling Machine!

Through this process of trial and error I learned how to gather reviews to add credibility to my listings, I learned how to strategically use optimized keywords in my listings to rank in Etsy’s search results, I learned how to scale my business with Etsy native ads, I learned how to bring my customers back to my Etsy Store through email, and I even learned a secret hack for adding SCARCITY to any listing.

If this sounds like something your store could use, follow along as I break down my Etsy system chapter by chapter. Let me save you the months and months of rigorous research and testing it took me to build this.

So who is this course for and what can you expect by taking it.

That is an excellent question, my friend.

This course is made for anyone who meets two crucial requirements. Ready? In order to get the most out of this course, you should (one) have your Etsy store up and running and (two) should have made at least 1 sale in the past year.

This is not a course designed to help with account setup and product listing but rather focuses really on how to grow your store. How to go from 1-2 sales a day, to 8-10 sales a day, to hundreds of sales per day, everyday.

If you need help setting up your store I will be putting up a another course that will go into store setup in more details, but for now I will assume you have figured out the basics.

OK.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here's what you can expect from this course.

By the time that you are done with this course you are going to have full control of every aspect of your Etsy business. We will go in depth into 5 key aspects for scaling your business tenfold. The course will be divided into 5 main Pillars as follows:

Module 1 : Creating the perfect listing to maximize SEO

Module 2 : Giving your listings credibility through buyer feedback

Module 3 : Growing your store through Etsy’s Promoted Listings

Module 4 : Email - How to automate your customer feedback loop and drive future sales

Module 5 : Driving external traffic

After all 5 of the Etsy modules have been completed, I will be revealing my ultimate Etsy Scarcity hack that I used to generate over $1000 worth of sales in just one day. So without further adieu, let’s get into our first module - Creating the perfect listing to maximize SEO.

So as some of you may already know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Basically when you type something into a search bar, what shoots out? For example, if you type in "hand made best friend necklace" into the Etsy search bar, you're going to see a bunch of listings that sell some type of best friend related necklaces. Some are necklaces that you can engrave your best friend's name into. Another one is engraved, "World's Greatest Best Friend". Some are matching necklace sets that you can share with your BFF.

Essentially what Etsy is doing is it is taking people's search queries and matching them up to the most relevant listings. Imagine if when you typed in "hand made best friend necklace" and all you got were listings of Disco themed wedding cake toppers, that would make things rather frustrating wouldn't you say?

Okay, so how does this all apply to me as a seller? Do you remember the last search you typed into Google? Maybe it was something along the line of "How to grow my sales on Etsy". How many pages of search results did you go through before you clicked on something you like? I know for me, I didn't go past half the first page before I was happy.

Now let's take that same scenario and apply it to Etsy. Let's say you sell hand made coffee mugs made out of terra cotta clay. Your mugs are amazing and fairly priced but for some reason you can't get past the 3rd or 4th page for the search term "clay mug" now matter what you do. What most sellers don't realize is that in order for Etsy's search algorithm to start featuring your product more prominently you need to make sure Etsy knows when and how to display you product. In this section we will go over the various strategies and concepts you can apply to help your listing appear when people make relevant searches to your product. Let's start with the difference between short tail and long tail keywords.

Soooo you’ve got your product lined up, now how do you pick the right keywords to target? How do you find the right ones to maximize conversion and boost your products’ sales? Rather than just guessing and going in blind, wouldn’t it be better if you had a compass to guide you in the right direction? In this section we will be covering a few strategies and techniques for finding, collecting and expanding your keyword target list.

We will be going over how to use Etsy’s search engine to see what terms they would suggest are related to your product and then we will go over how to spy on your competitors and see what terms they are using.

For this section we are going to examine the keyword procedure for a cool product. We’re going to look at how to optimize a “wedding cake topper” listing. Now if you were about to get married and you wanted a custom wedding cake topper, where would you begin? How you start searching for it?

Let’s start at the highest level, in what other ways would you, as a PERSON naturally call a wedding cake topper?

Would you call it:

• Wedding cake decorations?

• Wedding cake final piece

• Wedding cake emblem

• Wedding cake bobblehead topper

• Top of wedding cake

• Wedding cake signature piece

• Custom wedding cake

• Bride and groom wedding cake topper

• Wedding cake top ?

These are all things that get you pretty close to what you mean. Look through them and look for common words and elements. From that list the words “wedding”, “cake”, “decorations”, “top”, “topper” and “top” seem to come up alot. Now make a note of these terms and let’s pop over to Etsy’s search bar.

Now that we are in Etsy’s search bar let’s pop some of those strings in. The most natural way to describe a wedding cake topper is probably “wedding cake topper” so let’s start there. Go ahead and type into the search bar, “wedding cake topper” Now what do you see? If you answered a bunch of related long tail keyword strings then you are absolutely correct! Hooray! Haha.

As soon as you finish typing “wedding cake topper” you should immediately see Etsy’s suggested related searches such as “wedding cake topper with dog”, “wedding cake topper figurine”, “wedding cake topper his and her”, “wedding cake topper bride and groom”, “wedding cake topper rose gold”

Ahhhhhh, other ways to describe a wedding cake topper. As you may have noticed, the longer the keyword string becomes, the more specific and niche the product search becomes. Let’s look at the string “custom wedding cake topper rose gold custom lettering” as we build it out word by word. Okay if someone searches, “cake topper” what are they looking for? Bingo a cake topper! High search volume but also rather general. What kind of cake topper? A birthday cake topper? A tea party cake topper? A frosting piper to finish topping a cake?

Now let’s add on our next keyword, the term wedding to build the string “wedding cake topper” Now we’ve narrowed out all those options we previously mentioned. We are no longer in the market for a birthday cake topper, or a tea party cake topper or even a frosting piper to finish topping a cake. No we are specifically looking for a WEDDING cake topper. Okay, next question what kind of wedding cake topper? Maybe some bobbleheads? Maybe a 3D sculpture made to the likeness of the bride and groom? No, we are looking for a CUSTOM wedding cake topper. Actually we’re looking for a CUSTOM wedding cake topper in a cursive font that is rose gold in color. Do you see how much more specific our final string is compared to “cake topper”? Pretty nifty huh? Now let’s move on and take a look at what our competitors are doing.

Okay so collect those strings and set them aside for later. We’re now going to spy on our competitors and see what keywords they put into their listing! Now go back to the Etsy search bar and type in “wedding cake topper” click on the first few listings and then scroll all the way down to the bottom.

Look for a section that says “Related to this item” These are the tags your competitor placed into his or her listing to describe their wedding cake topper. Now you have a list of perfectly curated, niche specific tags for your listing:

For wedding cake topper you should see terms such as:

Weddings

Decorations

Cake toppers

Wedding cake topper

Wedding topper

Cake topper

Personalized topper

Monogrammed toopper

Last name topper

Calligraphy topper

Now go through all of your competitors on the first page until you stop seeing unique keyword strings. Make sure to write down the terms you like and want to incorporate into your own listings. Be careful to note, if your competitor sells something that is a wedding topper but not related to your product at all, it might be better just to skip out of that term entirely. For example if you have a customer that makes Titanium Cursive Wedding Cake Toppers it might not be the best idea to add the keyword titanium into your list because one, it will take up space that another keyword could occupy and two if the keyword is not specific to your listing it is not likely to generate a conversion. If someone is specifically looking for a titanium wedding cake topper (for whatever reason) your rose gold one probably wont do.

Now that you have learned these two major techniques for keyword discovery take what you did and repeat it across Amazon, Ebay and Google platforms. If you type in "wedding cake topper" into Amazon you're going to see a whole other world of wedding cake toppers.

Now that you have a good understanding of how to find your products' keywords let's dig into how to incorporate them into your listings so that Etsy and its users can find you!

So now you found some long tail keywords that are relevant to your listing – now what?

Now it's time to incorporate them into your listing. Keywords can be placed directly into your listing in three key places.

(1) - Your title - this is where you will place your strongest and most relevant key words

(2) - Your product's description

(3) - In your 13 allotted product tags

Etsy pays the most attention to the keywords in the beginning of your title so make sure to place your top level keywords in there. If the beginning of your title closely matches a customer’s search words, you will rank higher. For example if you are selling Fuzzy Blue Unicorn Socks. Make sure those four words are featured near the beginning of your title. Secondary words such as hand made, knit, or soft can be placed later on in your title or in your product description. Just remember, if your listing doesn't have your keywords inside of it, there is nothing for Etsy to search and display. If you never tell Etsy your are selling "Fuzzy Blue Unicorn Socks" how will it know to display it whenever a user searches "Fuzzy Blue Unicorn Socks".

Also, Etsy allows you to select up to 13 tags for your product. This is another place where using keywords is a great idea! Make sure to use up all 13 tags as more keywords will give you more opportunities for people to find you.

Let's take our previous example of your "rose gold wedding cake topper" and breakdown your keywording strategy:

First step is to list out your keyword strings from most relevant to least relevant. Let's say we come up with these strings:

• rose gold wedding cake topper

• wedding cake topper

• custom wedding cake topper

• cursive wedding cake topper

• wedding cake decorations

• wedding cake decorations for him and her

• bride and groom wedding cake toppers

Now the next step is to break these strings down into their individual unique words. The way Etsy's search engine works is that it take all of your unique keywords and allows them to form searchable strings.

For example from your original unique string "rose gold wedding cake topper" Etsy will be able to form the following search engine terms:

"gold wedding cake topper"

"wedding cake topper"

"rose wedding cake"

"cake topper"

"wedding cake"

"wedding"

"cake"

As long as the keywords are placed in your listing, Etsy's search algorithm will automatically break apart all possible word combinations.

In order for us to maximize the number of keywords in our listing and thus maximizing the number of searchable strings we need to not repeat ourselves. There is no benefit to adding the term cake to your listing 20 times, its already there if it is there just once.

So now let's breakdown the unique words from our earlier strings:

• rose gold wedding cake topper

• wedding cake topper

• custom wedding cake topper

• cursive wedding cake topper

• wedding cake decorations

• wedding cake decorations for him and her

• bride and groom wedding cake toppers

becomes

• rose gold wedding cake topper custom cursive decorations for him and her bride groom toppers

Now find unique ways to incorporate those terms into your title, product descriptions and tags. Be sure to place your more relevant terms near the beginning as Etsy places a higher emphasis on your first few words. Have a stab at it and get unique!

Here is our example keyworded title for your reference:

• Wedding cake topper - Custom rose gold cursive toppers for him and her - Have the most unique decorations for bride and groom

I've provided my own personal product description template to help you get started right away! After this lesson concludes, feel free to download and use my template for your own products!

Our handmade __________ is meticulously crafted from the finest quality __________. Each __________ is assembled by hand and takes ___ weeks to complete.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PREMIUM QUALITY: We use only the best ____ and the highest quality _____ to hand make our __________.

HANDMADE TO ORDER: Each order is individually hand made upon order. Once placed, we begin the process of hand making your __________.

FULL LIFETIME WARRANTY: We believe in our product so much that we've included a complete 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you are in any way not satisfied with your ________, simply let us know and we will replace it completely free of charge!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SPECIFICATIONS:

Material: __________

Dimensions: WxHxD: __________

Color: __________

Finish: __________

Weight: __________

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

♥ Each __________ is crafted and shipped with our utmost care & love! ♥

We strive to bring you the best quality __________, along with many new captivating designs introduced regularly, so be sure to add our shop to your favorites.

Each __________ comes with our Full Lifetime Warranty. Should anything happen to your __________, let us know and we will take care of it right away! Our __________ makes the perfect gift for the new baby, the wife, the husband, the mom, the dad, the girlfriend, the boyfriend, the lover, the auntie, the uncle, the grandpa, the grandma, the brother, the sister, the son, the daughter. These __________ really are the best birthday presents for just about anyone on Etsy.com

Have you ever heard the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words"? According to the ever dependable Wikipedia:

"The phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single picture, this picture conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a description does.

I mean think about it, I can describe the Grand Canyon all day but wouldn't it be so much easier to visualize it with a picture? Like this? [picture of grand canyon pops up].

Exactly. My point is, whats the point of doing all this work for keyword ranking if you don't have AMAZING pictures of whatever it is you're selling? People are visual, they look at something and make instantaneous decisions about whether or not they "want it" or they "ABSOLUTELY NEED IT". If you have access to an iPhone take your product out into the world and snap some photos or ask a friend to help you model it. If you can afford it, look to hire a professional photographer to help you showcase your product in the best light possible.

Once you get people searching and clicking on your product, make it hard for them to leave. Take beautiful pictures and let them imagine they've already bought your product!

Okay...key lesson here so pay attention closely. If you look at Etsy as a whole what is it? It's a marketplace that connects craft sellers with people looking for unique gifts. Although the Etsy marketplace isn't a physical place you can visit, it is just as vibrant and filled with craft sellers as any bazaar or marketplace you might have visited before. For now, let's pretend that it is a physical place you can visit and it's called "Etsy Land"

Now imagine you are a customer and you walk by a stall and you see these amazing unicorn beanies. They're made of the softest ethically sheared llama wool and look so cute. You go up to the stall and politely ask if anyone can help you. Someone comes out from the back and you say "Hey - your unicorn llama beanies are super awesome looking, and I was wondering if you guys possible had my size?". The guy barely acknowledges you and grumbles that he will have a look. He goes in and you're now waiting. 5 minutes goes by, 10 minutes go by, 15 minutes goes by before he finally pops out. He tells you He only has small and medium. You take the medium and continue with your day.

The next morning you wake up to put on your unicorn llama beanie and you find that one of the button eyes is starting to come off. Not to worry, Etsy Land is still open and you figured since it was hand made you could just go ask the guy from yesterday to fix it. You finally get back to his stall and after glancing it over tells you it's you're fault that the button came loose, that you got a size too small for your big head and that's why the button popped off. I know... what a jerk right? Anyways, you leave never to return again but before you do, you realize that at Etsy Land you can leave a review about your experience with each stall. The Unicorn llama beanie seller told you your head was too big for his beanies, what kind of review do you think you're going to leave? Exactly.

Now back to Etsy... don't be that seller. Your customers, although they may be online, are real people with real expectations. They are going to pay you real, hard earned money and expect to be treated as such. Nothing will hurt your Etsy store more than bad customer service. Upset people leave upset reviews and bad reviews leads to Etsy not liking your store because at the end of the day, a bad seller makes Etsy look bad. So to summarize, if you are going to go through all the work of making and listing and keyboarding your products make sure to be responsive and treat your customers with respect.

I know this can be frustrating sometimes so I've included some generic templates you can use to craft your best answers! Once you've had a look at them and made it a policy to always treat the customer right we'll move into our next section, "How to get more reviews"

So if you've made it this far, you're probably pretty serious as a seller and you really actually want to make this work. If that's the case the name of the game is good reviews. Nothing will have a bigger impact on your listings that a bunch of 5 star reviews. If you're in the market for titanium tipped fountain pens and you just looked them up and are about to make a purchase, what makes you choose one over the other? Both look pretty similar, contain the same type of ink and cost just about the same, only 1 listing has 1280 5-star reviews and the other one has 7 5-star reviews, which one are you going to chose? Yeah, the 1280 one. I mean 1280 people can't be wrong right?

And this is where Etsy sellers can really start to see their business take off. The more reviews a store has, the more credibility it has not just with buyers but also with Etsy. Etsy DOES NOT like sellers who routinely ship products late, or produce low quality goods. Etsy really values their users and so will always try to serve them the best experience. With that being said, who on Earth do some of these sellers have thousands and thousands of reviews? I mean cmon, that's a lot of reviews.

And you are absolutely right, those are a lot of reviews and the stark reality of the situation is that they have probably just been selling on Etsy for a long long time and have accumulated those positive reviews over thousands and thousands of positive interactions with their customers. Let's move onto the next lesson to go over just how you can get there yourself.

So what does scaling mean and how do I do it? Put simply, scaling your business is just a fancy way of saying, growing your business. Now in terms of your listing and keywording time and customer purchases are what will drive your listing rankings higher and higher. The longer a listing has been active, the more trust Etsy has in it and the more customers want to click it, the more Etsy is willing to showcase it. Now this is the key, ranking happens when a certain amount of clicks leads to a certain amount of conversions. Etsy likes it when a person browsing looks at your listing, clicks it, and then buys it, receives it and never complains about it. In the last section we focused on maximizing your conversions by adding beautiful pictures and obtaining wonderful reviews from your excellent customer service. Now we're going to focus on time.

In the world of SEO there is a way to make time happen faster. Only problem is that it costs money to make time go faster. When you first list a product, you are naturally going to be placed at the back and for some terms like "pearl necklace" that line is very, very long. Fortunately, if you have an amazing product that everyone can see, you can skip that line for a small fee paid to Etsy. You guessed it, I am talking about ads.

In this next section we're going to go over how ads work and how to use them to quickly scale your business.

Let's start by heading over to Etsy to have a look! Okay. Now that we're in Etsy let's do a quick search. Type in "koala teddy bear" and hit search? Okay now have a close look here at the top left corner of the 1st 4 listings. Do you see how it says "Ad"? Yup! That's because those are ads just like a Google ad or an Amazon ad. Now scroll down halfway to the bottom. Yup that's right, a second row of ads. Now let's go to the next page and look, same thing, two rows of ads. One at the very top and one row halfway down the page. As you can probably guess, this goes one as you continue through the search listings.

Okay, now why is this so important? If we look at the pattern of top and middle across multiple pages we can get an idea of how Etsy runs it's ads. Since it is a bidding system like most ad platforms the more you're willing to pay, the earlier you are going to be presented to the person browsing. Most people make their decisions on the first page of a search query, however there are some people who like to keep on scrolling to make absolutely sure they are making the right decision. And the opposite is true as well. The further back your ad displays, the cheaper you are going to pay for it. Now we can use this to our advantage as someone who is willing to browse through several pages of product listings, might have very strong buyer intent. Now that you have a general understanding of how an Etsy browser interacts with ads, let's see how they work, under the hood.

scaling = control of all aspects of your business. You can't scale without control and certainty. Can you provide the products, are your finances profitable?

How to drive profit - charge more, have more repeat customers, find more new customers, cut down costs.

Two things drive ranking = time and conversions.

So this section is all about emails. I get it, why is there a section on emails when my store is about Etsy?! Well... believe it or not, email is a very powerful tool that ties right in with running an online storefront.

Have you ever been to a mall and signed up to try out a product and then a few weeks later you get a postcard in the mail asking you if you would like to come by and give the store another visit? Chances are you have, or you have at least received a target or best buy catalogue in the mail sometime in the last two months.

I don't know about you but Target and Best Buy are some pretty big names in the retail space and if they know a thing or two, its that in order for customers to come back to their stores, they have to REMIND them to come back! Now, we don't have to go through the effort of obtaining addresses and sending things to people's physical mailboxes but we can send them a message to their virtual mailbox, ie their email inbox.

Now I know what you are thinking, how do I go about emailing people? How do I even get access to my customers' emails? Do I just email people when they buy stuff from my story? Well...no, not quite. Enter, Aweber. Aweber is an autoresponder that helps you automatically send emails to your customers when they purchase something from your store. Basically, its a service that helps you send out emails to your customers! Whoa...I know right, pretty crazy.

Imagine being able to send every one of your customers direct messages whenever you wanted to. How powerful do you think this could be for your business. What if you could send your past customers an email with a special discount code once a month? How many people do you think would maybe click and come back?

In this section we're going to go over how to skyrocket your sales with email. Now I know what you are thinking. "I've never sent my customers an email before, what would I even send them? More pictures of my products?" For those who are not experts in sending emails, the task of what to send, when to send and how to send emails can be quite daunting. Luckily, I've been sending emails for years and only through rigorous trial and error, have I finally been able to come up with the perfect email chain. That's right, I've built the perfect Etsy email chain and I want to give it to you. These emails are the accumulation of years and years of knowledge that I hope you will apply. If there is anything at all that I hope you take away from this course is this: "Use the power of email to form a relationship with your customer and continue to reengage them with your store" If you can apply this bit of advice, I can guarantee you, you will succeed.

Alright, with that being said, let's get into it. We're going to start off by getting your Etsy account integrated with Aweber. Once we get that sorted we will go template by template and discuss the reason and logic behind each email. Along the way, you will learn email best practices, how to build real relationships with your customers, and how bring your customers back to your store without being intrusive. But first, let's get you setup!

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Please visit here to properly sign up for Aweber: https://www.aweber.com/easy-email.htm?id=500416

The guys over at Aweber are super friendly. Here's my friend Jay. If you've got any questions, just reach out to Aweber via their live chat feature. They're always ready and super helpful, tell them Jackie sent you! :P

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Please visit here to properly sign up for Aweber: https://www.aweber.com/easy-email.htm?id=500416

Okay, so now that we've got your store setup with Aweber let's really dig into our email strategy. If you were to ask a typical marketer what's the most important thing about sending emails? He or she might tell you the images you select for your banner or the color of the call to action button or which email service you choose to partner with is the most important thing. Now while all those things could impact how effective your emails are overall, there is just one thing that will really determine whether or not you will be successful and that is, are you able to form a real relationship with your customers?

These days, people are constantly bombarded with emails. I mean how many emails have you received since starting this course right? Most of those emails are from companies trying to sell you something whether that be a new health supplement or the latest diet fad. Now our strategy is different. Instead of focusing on selling our products, we're going to focus on the happiness of our customer. Rather than trying to sell something, we're going to try and add value. Sounds pretty cool right?

In this module we're going to look at 8 different email templates and how each one further develops our relationship with our customer. Now without further ado, let's get started and how do all relationships get started? With one person saying hello to another person!

Now let's head over to our Aweber screen to begin building out our automatic email sequence!

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So, now that we're in A Weber, let's have a quick look around. This is our home screen and to the right, we have our messages, subscribers, signup forms, reports, lists options. And this big green button, that says, create a message. We're actually going to skip that and we're going to hover over to here and navigate down to campaigns.

Okay… so, campaigns is a cool function of A Weber. It's part of their autoresponder sequence and it allows us to create messages, add delays and then send more messages automatically as soon as a customer subscribes to your mailing list.

So, this is our original Etsy purchase thank you, this is our live form, so we're going to skip that and we're going to instead start a brand new campaign. So, click into create a campaign and we're just going to give it a simple title of Etsy email flow 1 - post purchase. And then, let's make sure our capitalization is all correct.

Okay, so Let's have a quick look at this next screen. On the left, we have our actions, basically send a message, wait, or apply a tag. In the middle, we have welcome to the campaign editor. And this basically allows you to select a trigger to when to start building your campaign. Do you start a campaign when someone is added to your mailing list (So basically, when a customer makes a purchase) or when you apply a tag. We'll get more into that later.

So, for now, select on-subscribe. So, this basically tells A Weber when a person makes a purchase, add them to our mailing list and then get them ready for our first message. Go ahead and click that. So now, we're here with on-subscribe.

Now we're going to focus on the left-hand panel... so actions. Let's take this scenario. Somebody has made a purchase, they've been added to your email list and now, we're going to send them a message. But first, why don't we wait a little bit? So, somebody made a purchase, let's wait 1 day... perfect, it's already made for us. And then after one day of waiting, let's send them a message.

So now, we're going to navigate back to our Etsy central course page and let's grab the template that I’ve included. Okay, so click in to “create a message” and we're going to go into our drag and drop email builder. So, as we wait for that to load…

Okay... so how does this break down. On the left hand panel, you have your elements, things that you can drag-and-drop, such as a headline or a new paragraph or maybe you want an image, that there's a banner image or a call to action button. You could even add a video if you really wanted to, but we're going to keep it simple. My philosophy with emails is, the simpler the email, the more likely it is, to get inboxed and the more likely it is that the customer is going to understand it and not get overwhelmed.

So for now, go into this middle box, highlight everything that's inside to leave it and then paste. So, we're going to go through this email line by line. So, subject title, hi. Let's see if we can get rid of that. We got, hi, first-name fix, we got your order.

So, what is this little curly bracket exclamation mark first name fix feature? That basically is a bit of simple code, it tells A Weber, hey, when you see this curly bracket that says first name underscore fix, replace that with the subscriber aka your customer’s first name. So for example, if we sold something to somebody named John Smith, it would say, hi John, we got your order. And then in the body would say, hi John, my name is, and then here you would insert your name.

So, subject title, let's copy and paste the subject title and put it up into the subject title....right there. And you can actually look at all those tags I was talking to you about right here. So, personalize by adding all these things.

So you'll see, if you wanted to add their name again, so just add their name, at the end just to test it. So, go ahead and type in full name this time. You'll see curly bracket exclamation mark name underscore fix {!name}. So, for us in this email, we just want the first name because saying their full name can get a little bit creepy.

Anyways, so now that we've gotten that into our subject title, let's delete that. So, let's start off our email with, hi John, first name fix, my name is and we're just going to insert a name here. I'm is going to put Jackie. ‘’Hi, my name is Jackie and I just wanted to personally introduce myself and say thank you for supporting. We're going to make up a store, it's going to be called Etsy central.’’

So, ‘’hi John, my name is Jackie and I just wanted to personally introduce myself and say thank you for supporting Etsy central. Our team of Master Craftsmen and craftswomen have just received your order and we'll get started on constructing it right away. Since each item is individually handmade, it takes us about 7 to 14 business days to make and deliver your order. If you have any questions or have any issues at all, please don't hesitate to email me back here. I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. Here at Etsy central.’’ So, let's put that in. ‘’It is our top priority to make sure you have an amazing experience. Thanks again for your business. I'll keep you updated on the progress of your order. Best, Jackie.’’ And then, here users add their Etsy profile and it will be etsy.com.

And that's about it. Then hit save and now you have your first email. Let's save and exit and see kind of where we are. Okay, so let's take a look at that. So, from here, a customer makes a purchase and then you wait one day and then you send them the message that we just drafted. Very cool. Okay, so let’s see you in the next email.

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : Hi {!firstname_fix} - We Got Your Order!

Email Body:

Hi {!firstname_fix},

My name is [Your Name] and I just wanted to personally introduce myself and say thank you for supporting [Your Store].

Our team of master craftsmen and craftswomen have just received your order and will get started on constructing it right away!

Since each item is individually hand made it takes us about 7-14 business days to make and deliver your order. If you have any questions or have any issues at all, please don't hesitate to email me back here, I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can! Here at [Your Store Name] it is our top priority to make sure you have an amazing experience.

Thanks again for your business, I'll keep you updated on the progress of your order!

Best,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

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Now that you have introduced yourself you've taken the first step to creating a relationship with your customer. In the last email you just wanted to let them know you appreciated them and that you are going to work hard on their delivery. Now, just like how you gave Aweber a day after they entered your mailing list before sending out your first email you're going to wait 3 weeks before this next one. So copy and paste the below template and let's head over to Aweber!

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All right, so welcome back to A Weber. We're going to continue building up the rest of our email chain. So, just a quick recap, a customer subscribes, we wait one day, and then we send them our introduction email.

So, now that we've introduced ourselves and we've shipped out the customer’s product, let's check in and make sure that they got their product. One, this allows us to be proactive and say, hey, if there's any issues, let's make sure we get them resolved. And then two, it allows the customer to know that you actually care about them.

Okay, so after waiting a first day and sending the first introduction message, let's wait an additional 21 days. And that's basically three weeks, three weeks gives you enough time to get their order handled, shipped and then gives USPS or whichever other shipping service you use, a time to deliver your actual package. So, let's add in a delay, we're going to wait how long, we're going to wait 21 days, three weeks. You could also do three weeks, if that's what you would prefer. We're going to save that.

Let's go back into our email campaign. And we're going to add a new message now. So, let's go back to our emails, copy and paste. Let's create a new message drag and drop email builder. Let's take our subject title and put that where it's supposed to be. And now, let's clean that up.

So, ‘’hi, john. It's Jackie again. We shipped your item out a few weeks ago and I just wanted to touch base and make sure you received it. If you haven't received your item yet, or if there was anything wrong with your order, please respond to this email, we’ll take care of it right away. Since each item is handmade and individually shipped, sometimes packages get lost. The last thing we want is for you to not receive your items. If you have any questions or have any issues at all, please don't hesitate to email me back here. I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks again for your business. I'll keep you updated on the progress of your order. Best, Jackie. www.etsy.com /myprofile. And then hit save, save and exit. And there you have it, two emails down the email line. All right, let's go on to our next email.

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : Hi {!firstname_fix} - Did you receive your order yet?

Email Body:

Hi {!firstname_fix},

It's [your name] again! We shipped your item out a few weeks ago and just wanted to touch base and make sure you received it.

If you haven't received your item yet or if there was anything wrong with your order, please respond to this email and we'll take care of it right away!

Since each item is hand made and individually shipped sometimes packages get lost. The last thing we want is for you to not receive your items. If you have any questions or have any issues at all, please don't hesitate to email me back here, I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can!

Thanks again for your business, I'll keep you updated on the progress of your order!

Best,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

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Okay! 2 emails down a few more to go. So now that you have had a few messages go out from your end, you're going to see at least a few responses come back. You'll be surprised at how many tracking links haven't updated, or how often packages just get lost in the system. Now in the Ecommerce space, we call these leaks. Instances in which your customers are not happy are chances where your business is vulnerable. If a customer has a bad experience, they may go out and post a negative review or tell their friends not to back your company any longer. In essence, a case where a customer has not yet received their shipment by 3 weeks is a period of time in which your business is vulnerable. Now by emailing and asking customers if they are happy, you have been proactive. You started the conversation and took responsibility for their happiness. With that level of commitment to the customer, the next email is going to blow your mind. In this next email, we're going to check in one last time and then ask them about their experience. If their experience was not in anyway 100% awesome then let us know and we'll take care of it. If they did have an amazing experience then let them know that nothing would mean more to you and your company than their honest and unbiased review.

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : Hi {!firstname_fix} - Everything Cool?

Email Body:

Hi {!firstname_fix},

Just checking in on ya again, have you received all of your items yet? If you haven’t or if you are in any way not 100% satisfied, please email me back here and we’ll get that straightened out right away!

If you loved your item(s), nothing would mean more to us than your honest and unbiased review of our product. We’re a small shop and every bit helps. :) If you would like to leave us a message, just visit our storefront here [Link “here” to your storefront].

Thanks again for your business, I'll keep you updated on the progress of your order!

Best,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

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Now in the last email we took the first step in bringing someone back to our store. We did not ask them to buy anything else, rather we just asked them to come back and leave a review if they liked their experience. By getting someone to come back to your store, you've now initiated the habit of revisiting. In this next email we are going to take it a step further by offering your customer a reason to come back to buy!

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : {!firstname_fix}! - Here's 25% off on us... :P

Email Body:

Hey {!firstname_fix},

Thank you for your recent purchase on Etsy.com. As a small shop we really appreciate it when people are excited about our products.

As a token of our appreciation, we wanted to give you 25% off your next purchase from our store. Make sure to use code: ETSYVIP at checkout.

Thanks again for your business and we hope to see you again soon!

Best,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

P.S. - If you loved your box, nothing would mean more to us than your honest and unbiased review of our product. We're a small shop and every bit helps. :)

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Now on to email 5. This is the last email in our customer follow up email chain but before we get into it, let's do a quick recap of the emails we have sent so far. Starting when the customer completes a purchase and enters our mailing list, we wait a day and send them a quick emailing introducing ourselves and letting them know we received their order. Then 3 weeks later we follow up and ask if they received their item and instruct them on what to do if they have not. Then after another 2 weeks we check in again. This time though, we ask that if they did indeed have a good experience to leave us an honest and unbiased review. After that we proceed to bring them back to our store again, this time with a 25% off coupon. Now for this last email, we're going to introduce a new concept called LTV. LTV stands for lifetime value and refers to the lifetime purchase value of a customer of your brand. To break it down simply lets say you run a jewelry store. You have a person that comes to your store and purchases 1 necklace for $25 but never comes back ever again. Since this customer only ever spent $25 at your store, this customer has a total lifetime value of $25.

Now another customer loves your product so much that she gives your products away as presents to all of her friends as their birthdays come up. One month she might buy 1 or 2 pieces, another 0 pieces and yet another 4 or 5 pieces. Overall in the span of 2 years she has bought 12 pieces of jewelry in total worth $30.

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : We missssss you... :(

Email Body:

Hey {!firstname_fix},

This is crazy. Can you believe that it has been 6 months since we first crossed paths? My goodness how time has flown. How have you been? Since we last spoke things have been crazy around here but we've managed to launch a few more products and can't wait to show you!

Since we've known each other for 6 months now, I wanted to give you another coupon. This coupon is massive and only good once so make sure you get all the goodies you need. For you next purchase make sure to use coupon code : 40PERCENTOFF for, that's right, 40% off your next purchase.

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

As always, thank you for your business and we hope to see you again soon!

Best,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

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So that concludes our sequential email campaign now we are going to go into our email blasts, Individual emails that are catered to specific events related to your business such as New product launches, Holiday Deals, and End of the Year Clearance sales. These emails go out as you have updates to share with your customer base. One important strategy for scaling is releasing more different products aka creating more SKUs. Let's go back to Etsy Land for a minute. This time you walk around and stumble upon this booth manned by two very bearded men selling, you guessed it beard products. They started their company back in Oregon using pine sap they harvested by hand from the surrounding woods. They make quality stuff and have gained a solid reputation as a reliable company. Now their most famous product is prickly pine beard oil and you stop by their tent to pick up a vial. Now as you pick up the vial a nice gentleman asks you if you've ever shopped there before to which you reply no. He then tells you all about the company and what goes into each and everyone of their products. How each item is hand made and work together to give you the most amazing shaving experience EVER. Oh my goodness. Now before you know it you're at the checkout counter, not just with 1 vial of shaving oil but rather you're also leaving with beard wax, beard tonic, beard shampoo, basically everything but the beard itself. You came for 1 item and left with 4 items. Now that's the power of having more products in your store. People want to browse, if they like something you have in your store, chances are there going to like other items in your store as well? How many times have you been window shopping and next thing you know you've got a bag full of stuff! So the moral of the story is, launch more products more often and grow your stores by giving customers more things to buy. And when you launch a product, send EVERYONE in your mailing list an emailing letting know you just released a new product. It'll create buzz and hopefully get people revisiting your store! As always, feel free to personalize the template below to fit the specific needs of your store, get creative!

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : New Product Check It Out!

Email Body:

Hey {!firstname_fix},

We wanted to take a second and thank you again for being a loyal customer. Without you we wouldn't be able to make the things that we do.

We hope you still love your items as much as you did the first day they arrived, if not, don't hesitate to reach out and let us know.

In other news, I wanted to update you on our latest product release. It's a .... [Insert description of your product here]

Here's a link, in case you wanted to have a closer look : [Your Etsy Profile Link]

As always, thank you for your business and we hope to see you again soon!

Take Care,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

P.S. - If you loved your box, nothing would mean more to us than your honest and unbiased review of our product. We're a small shop and every bit helps. :)

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If there was anything I ever learned from my years and years of customer service experience is that nothing is more important than creating real relationships with your customers. Take care of them as you would a friend. If your friend bought something from your store and it just somehow happened to break, would you just leave the problem up to them to solve or would you be proactive and maybe give them a new one? At times it might feel like everyone is just being extra picky but trust me, taking care of your customers will pay off HUGE in the long run. Your loudest and most vocal supporters are going to be the ones who started off with a terrible experience and you turned it around into an amazing experience. Well, if your customers are your friends don't you think it would be nice to bid them a Happy Halloween, or a Wonderful Thanksgiving, or a Merry Christmas? Exactly, now wish your customers a happy holiday and give them a nice coupon code to let them know you are thinking of them. Now, we've gone through the message creation aspect that I know you will have no problem setting these emails up, please feel free to change them up and tailor them specifically to your store. Happy holidays!

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : Guess what we've got for trick-or-treaters!

Email Body:

Hey {!firstname_fix},

Happy Halloween! The leaves are changing, the air is getting heavy, and everything has gotten just a bit spookier. We just wanted to take a second and wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

Although we don't have any candy to send you, we have arranged for a little treat. Use the code: "TRICKORTREAT" FOR 25% off your purchase. But beware, this coupon is good only until the next full moon!

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

As always, thank you for your business and we hope to see you again soon!

Stay Spooky,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

P.S. - If you loved your box, nothing would mean more to us than your honest and unbiased review of our product. We're a small shop and every bit helps. :)

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : Happy Turkey Day!

Email Body:

Hey {!firstname_fix},

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Fall is fully in the air and it's that time of year again when hot chocolate flows abundant.

We hope you got to spend some time with the people you are thankful for. This Thanksgiving, we're thankful for you and as a token of our thanks, here's 25% off anything in our store, just use coupon code: "MASHEDPOTATOES"

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

As always, thank you for your business and we hope to see you again soon!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

P.S. - If you loved your box, nothing would mean more to us than your honest and unbiased review of our product. We're a small shop and every bit helps. :)

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Email Body:

Merry Christmas {!firstname_fix},

Brrrr is it getting cold or what? I can't believe another year has come just like that. I hope you're having an amazing Christmas filled with delicious food and friends and family.

Although some of you ended up on Santa's naughty list, most of you did alright. We talked to the man himself and he gave us the go ahead to give you guys a little Christmas spirit from us. For the next week, until the end of the year, use coupon code: "FROSTY" FOR 25% off your purchase.

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

As always, thank you for your business and we hope to see you again soon!

Merry Christmas,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

P.S. - If you loved your box, nothing would mean more to us than your honest and unbiased review of our product. We're a small shop and every bit helps. :)

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Okay, so remember when I told you about LTV and the long term value of a customer? As a quick recap, the LTV of a customer refers to the total value of their combined purchases over their lifetime as a customer to your store. Well, one of the best practices to solidifying LTV and creating purchase habits from your customers is to incentivize them with huge sales. We're talking 50% off. Now I know what you are thinking, won't that devalue my brand? If I am always giving out 50% off coupons won't my customers get wise? Here's the strategy. Have massive sales during times in which massive sales are expected. If you're in the market for a TV when do you want to buy that TV? You guessed it...Black Friday or Cyber Monday right?

These opportunities in which people are looking for massive sales to splurge on are the perfect opportunities for us to impact purchase behavior and drive long term value. Basically, during Black Friday, New Years, etc. it's not only acceptable to use 50% off discounts, it's expected. During Black Friday, no one is looking to save 15%. They're looking for the big discounts, so within comfortable margins of your profit numbers, use this 50% off BLOWOUT template for massive sales. Again, please feel free to change up and use this template as you feel the need. If you have any questions on message setup, please refer email 6 for a direct guide on email blast setup.

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***When using this template, feel free to personalize it to your store. The more you make it your own, the better it will come out. The curly brackets are ways of personalizing your emails. For example {!firstname_fix} tells Aweber to use the customers first name in your email. Replace all regular bracket content with your store's own information. For example [Your Store Name] would be filled in with the name of your Etsy store.

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Subject Title : BLACK FRIDAY BONANZA! :(

Email Body:

Hi {!firstname_fix},

This year we're really going to take it up a notch. For Black Friday we are really going to outdo ourselves. This year we're going to give all of our past customers 50% off any item they want for this weekend only! We've updated the store since your last visit so feel free to have a look:

Just remember to use your coupon code : BLACKFRIDAY for, that's right, 50% off your purchase.

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

As always, thank you for your business and we hope to see you again soon!

Best,

[Your Name]

[Your Etsy Profile Link]

P.S. - If you loved your box, nothing would mean more to us than your honest and unbiased review of our product. We're a small shop and every bit helps. :)

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Okay, so now that we've gotten your Etsy store linked up to your Aweber account and we've gone over a few templates it's time for you to get creative! Think about all of the creative ways you can send a note to a customer to let them know you're still thinking about them. For one of my businesses, we made custom printed t-shirts and so we would ask our customers for any designs they might want to submit to our design team. Our customers loved it as it was a new way of presenting a shirt that allowed them to be a part of the creative expression. That particular email chain had one of the highest click through rates of all time for me. The templates I have included for you guys and gals represent the base upon which you will build and grow your own emails. Add personal touches, use different templates, include logos. Update your customers with interesting news, images of your manufacturing process, anything that might spark their interest and keep them engaged in the conversation. Just remember, the most important thing with all of this is to just get creative! And with that, we conclude the email section.