Day 10 - Promote with Treasuries

Well, we are at Day #10 of our Etsy Challenge and after so much hard work tweaking and fixing up our listings, it is time to get ourselves out there and start promoting our shop.

When it comes to advertisement and treasuries, I keep going back to an article I read several weeks ago about the difference between Earned Media and Paid Media.

To give a brief description, here is a fragment from another website that talks about them and describes them lightly:

Earned media: Getting someone else to provide content about you on a media platform they own and control. Also known as Public Relations

Paid Media: Paying someone to include your message alongside their content, on media they own and control. Also known as Advertising.

Both of these concepts may seem a bit unclear and intimidating at first, but the best way I can relate them to our Etsy shops is by thinking of 'Paid Media' as any kind of advertisement where I most likely paid a price in order to get exposure or where I looked for customers versus 'Earned Media' which is often free and totally unexpected (think of a referral for example).

Yes, there is a huge truth about Paid Media and it is the fact that you can control it. You can choose the audience you are targeting, you can predict/expect results and rely on specific numbers. Whereas Earned Media does not work this way. It is often something you don't control at all and the results of such exposure are unpredictable.

But, does this mean we want to focus on just Paid Media? No, not at all!

My suggestion... focus on Earned Media more than on Paid Media.

Why? Well, it is FREE.

Earned Media on Etsy

Free Etsy advertisement is hard to spot. Yes, we see sellers getting featured for free in Etsy's newsletters, their blogs, their front page, their storque articles, their facebook page, their twitter, etc, etc ,etc. But we never make the connection!

It is like a big 'duh!' moment here. Why are you not one of those sellers?
How much do you think all that free Etsy advertisement help those sellers? 10 views? 100 views? 1k views? .

Remember, Earned Media is out of your control so guess what.. you cannot even say how much it really helps. Just know this, it is A LOT of exposure!

Treasuries are just another one of these great free tools we still have available to everyone on Etsy.

The beauty of treasuries though, is that we do have a little bit of control over the effects of them. That's where PR is key and we need to start working on that right away!

Treasuries

Treasuries on Etsy are curated galleries where you can display a selection of up to 16 items at a time. The person creating the treasuries is the 'curator' and as such, he/she carefully picks other sellers' listings based on a specific theme, color palette, mood, or even just randomly.

Much like an exhibition at a museum, a good curator will put together a gallery that makes sense, is inviting/appealing to the eye, and that adequately promotes each one of the items selected.

When a treasury is created , it then joins the list of Etsy treasuries where anyone who is browsing through them can find them and comment, click on products, etc.

Etsy has a secret combination (which they are not interested on sharing with us yet) that 'rates' each treasury and ranks it by its 'hotness'. The hottest treasuries end up on the first pages of the treasury lists and are often selected to be briefly displayed on Etsy's Front Page.

Here is more info on treasuries provided by Etsy:

How to Make a Treasury
http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/how-to-make-a-treasury-the-nuts-and-bolts-688/

Etsy's Treasury: Finding Focus
http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/etsys-treasury-finding-focus-3508/

So, why should I make a treasury?

Well, back to our Public Relations and Earned Media talk...

Etsy treasuries allow the curator to network with other sellers and to get a reputation for their taste and keen eye. Thanks to human nature, this often results in increased traffic to their shops.

We all love beautiful things, so when we see someone who has a special talent to pick those things for us, we want to know more.. so we visit their shop!

Also, if we are selected to be included in their treasuries, we'll be so thankful or excited that we will most likely ... visit their shop.

If we are a bit jealous because they are popular and we are not, we might want to investigate and we will start by ... visiting their shop.

If we just want to learn about their taste and preferences, yes, we will read their profile, look at their favorites, visit their shop and even add them to our circles.

How awesome is to be a good curator!

Now, one more thing that happens to good and frequent curators is that they benefit from the 'pay back'.

Very often, selected sellers will be more than glad to share their love with a curator by including that person's items in one of their treasuries.

So really, every time I create a treasury I'm giving myself 16 chances of being included in one. When I do get such inclusion.. guess what? I'll get more traffic to my shop and sales!

Did it cost me anything? Nope, just my time and PR efforts.

Once again, the results of these efforts are unpredictable. I get included in many treasuries which do not get me so many views but once in a while.. something happens and voila! I get lots of views and even sales from them.

Now, I have not made it to the Front Page yet but that would be the best thing that could happen to a treasury you are part of. Your chances of getting several hundreds of views and many sales increase exponentially.

Whenever you create a treasury, make sure to let the people in it know. They will be glad to click on it, comment and help you make it 'hotter'.

Also, take the time to introduce yourself. Briefly mention your shop and invite them to heart it, add you to their circles, visit your blog, etc.

When you are included in a treasury, make sure to visit it and thank the curator appropriately. You would want to ensure that they choose you over and over again.

To do:

I may be cutting this post a bit short but I don't want it to go on forever either. Treasuries take time to put together, so do your homework, read the Etsy articles on them and make at least one per week.

Feel free to include me in them .. haha!

Good Luck!