How to GET MORE SALES on Etsy FAST: LESSON 1 – Photos & Descriptions

We’ve got an awesome free five-part mini-series happening over the next few days and we couldn’t be more excited about it! Our friend Dave from AddToCart and WoodlandZen has so much wisdom and helpful info when it comes to selling on Etsy and he is about to hit you with some of that awesomeness! We’ve had Dave on The Jam before and held a webinar with him about maximizing Etsy ads. So hang on, because you’re about to find even MORE Etsy shop success with Dave and the Marmalead team is stoked to be part of it!

Hello and welcome!

I’ve created this free minicourse for a few reasons. To help struggling Etsy sellers, and to compile a clear outline of methods and actions to stimulate your Etsy shop’s sales, quickly and efficiently. You can spend hours, weeks, and for some even years scrounging through the internet looking for that one piece of golden advice that will bring you the best basic outline, along with the whys on how to get your shop moving in the right direction.

This free mini course is made to go in conjunction with my full program: Slow Sales Solutions which goes over the most in-depth strategies to increase your Etsy income substantially, regardless of shop age or performance. If you enjoy this free mini-course, please consider joining. To follow along properly, get the free eBook / course, and receive my emails with additional helpful content on each lesson please go to this link:

LESSON 1: Photos & Descriptions

The Silent Killers. Yes SERIOUSLY. They are way more important than you think. Here is why: Do you know how freakin’ important these two things are? Do you know how many listings, or shops I critique or review during a coaching call that have descriptions or photos that cost them sales? Let me break each one down and tell you why these have an impact on your ranking, and your conversion rate.

A: Photos

Specifically the main image. “First impressions are everything.” This expression couldn’t hold more truth in the e-commerce world. Your thumbnail image can make or break a listing’s performance. You literally could have the best SEO in the world, spend 3 days researching every single word in the title and tags, but have it sink to the bottom of search if you do not have a great thumbnail image front and center. In fact, CTR , otherwise known as click-through rate is such a heavy ranking factor that Etsy’s algorithm favors it a lot more than you think.

Have you ever seen some listings in front of yours or on the front page that you wonder how it got there, with very different tags or titles? Well, Etsy deemed it relative to the search through their interest based search results method. And since it has an amazing click-through rate due to its amazing photo, there it is. Staring you in the face. Of course, it needs to check out in the other departments as well such as sales, conversions, and reviews, but a high CTR is exactly where that entire journey begins. When you make a new listing, guess what the first test that you need to pass is aside from title and tags? Your click-through rate.

What to do to fix or improve your main images:

Try 3 new types of shots of the product in question. Enhance the lighting, or make whatever tweaks you can to improve it. Do your absolute best with creating a new eye-catching shot that will dominate in attention-grabbing. Chances are you have increased your photography skills since those last photos were taken, or at least thought of a few new ideas on how to capture them.

Then create 3 duplicates of that item with new SEO on each one, and test a brand new image on each one (yes this is allowed). Keep in mind this won’t be a winner takes all situation, because the varying SEO of each duplicate makes it impossible to compare. BUT if you do see a winner out of those first 3 pulling far ahead of the other 2 in views and sales within a month then you know that image may be a keeper.

If not, keep creating duplicates with new SEO along with that new set of images to continue testing. Through testing, you will eventually find a clear winner that gets more people to click right away. To take it to the advanced level, follow the “Digital Cobwebs” technique in my Slow Sales Solutions Course.

B: Descriptions

How are you convincing your customers that this product is the best they can choose? They are in a sea of products. They will spend mere seconds on your listing sometimes. If they don’t find the answer to something, or satisfy their need with the specific product they will be gone. The description can make or break a listing. If you are bland and boring in your descriptions, or maybe short, then you may lose out on sales and rankings.

One big example is clothing. If you didn’t have a size table in the description or in the photos with an infographic, your conversion rate would drop so fast, resulting in a lower and lower ranking. Even if you had an amazing click-through rate in the beginning!

How to fix your descriptions:

Start by asking yourself what questions your customer needs to be answered before purchasing. Is it a sizing concern? A material type necessity? These answers vary for each type of product. Either way, you as the shop owner need to identify them and go above and beyond to make sure the answer is easy to find.

The best way to do this is to not only include the answer (whatever it may be), in the description but with an infographic as one of your 10 photos. People look at photos first. So if you can take care of any hesitations while they are looking at how pretty your product is, then you’ve shortened the product purchase path. Meaning a conversion is much more likely for you.

Key Take-Aways of Part 1

The first two things of the “product purchase path” can speed up or hinder your conversion rate and ranking substantially. DO NOT overlook the power of these two aspects. These two parts I just outlined are steps 1 and 2 of someone buying your products. If they aren’t being tuned, tested, and improved throughout your Etsy selling career, then algorithm changes will take you out of the game year after year.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading! Remember if you have not already, grab the free course eBook here. Also, if you enjoy this content and would like to join the Slow Sales Solutions Program, or any of my Etsy success programs, use code MARMA40 for 40% off at any time. View Courses Here.