Etsy – Branding Your Shop
Branding brings the unique story of your business to life, helping your shop stand out from the crowd and connecting your products with your target market.
Having a clear brand identity achieves several goals:
1. It contributes to the perception people have about your business.
2. It can make encounters or purchases much more meaningful and memorable.
3. It can have a lasting impact on customers.
More technically, good branding gives you a solid base to build from when developing or working on your business. Your brand is your path to follow.
It doesn’t need to be hard and don’t over think it so let’s start with the basics.
While the basics of branding are helpful for those just starting out, these questions and elements should continue to be considered overtime, especially when looking at growing your business.
In fact, Etsy recommends taking a step back and reevaluating your brand every six months (just to make sure you’re where you want to be, sticking to it, or to accommodate any outside factors).
Defining Your Brand and Developing the Aesthetic
When getting started, a seller must define their brand. Some questions to ask yourself include:
• Why do you sell your items?
• What is important and consistent about your product?
• Which words would you use (and want other people to use) to describe your items? Your brand?
• Who are your customers?
From there, the next step is to develop an aesthetic. Some things to think about are:
• What story and style do you want your business to convey to your target market?
• What colors do you like? Use my quick tip here on how to find brand colors that compliment.
• What fonts match the tone that you would like to convey?
• What photos would help to develop your unique story?
With the information provided above, head over to this Facebook Post and tell us what three words describe your brand!
So, where can you communicate your brand so that a buyer comes into contact with it? Or, where is it that you can use your brand or branded elements on Etsy to influence a buyer to purchase? Let’s find out!
Communicating Your Brand
Banner, Shop Icon, and Shop Owner Photo
• Your Banner is the most prominent graphic that buyers see when visiting your shop. You can create beautiful banners for free using Canva. Learn more about canva here and how to make an Etsy shop Cover Photo Here.
• The Shop Icon is an image used to represent your shop across the site.
• A Shop Owner Photo, or profile photo, appears prominently at the top of your homepage.
These elements sit at the top of the Etsy page and can quickly communicate your brand or send a positive message. It’s important to choose an identifiable image that reflects your brand and a friendly picture that puts your best face forward.
Above is a really fun and creative example from SteshaParty! By using colors from the cover photo in the shop icon looks branded and to take it further if she wore coordinating colors in the shop owner photo, it would have been a more cohesive picture of her brand. I also like how she utilized the shop cover photo to add people to her text alerts and social media.
Listing Photos
Your listing photos should align with your shop aesthetic.
After viewing one of your items, a buyer might scroll down your shop. For this reason, photos can’t just be good on their own. Collectively, your images should look nice together. Be deliberate in how you assemble product shots and which listings you highlight. Being cohesive across your images keeps your shop aesthetically pleasing. In turn, your shop can come off as credible and professional, which can lead to a better conversion rate.
The example above from shop BordenAcres you can see each image has a similar natural background and each soap is displayed in the same manner.
Other Branding Opportunities
About, social media, shop policies and packaging…
About Section
Your About section is the place to tell buyers what inspires you, how your products are made, and the reason you started a small business. This example, from PotteryByOsa on Etsy, puts a nice human touch to her brand.
Social Media
The content you share on social media is a continuation of your shop’s branding including its aesthetics and tone. In this example below by wreathsbyemmaruth on Etsy, there’s a strong aesthetic that is cohesive throughout her Instagram page.
Keep in mind your brand when you do live videos on social media. Everything you project out to the online world should be your personality and your brand, which is more than just colors, fonts and photos.
Shop policies
Your shop policies provide your buyers with information that they may need before purchasing from you.
The layout of your shop policies is designed to help you answer your buyers’ most pressing questions and to help them build trust with your shop. Also, shops with policies receive a slight boost in Etsy’s Search.
Packaging
Your packaging is an opportunity to provide a brand-aligned first impression of your products. Additionally, your packaging can even influence another purchase. An example of a shop with great packaging photo is JumellesCandleCo.
