I see this question a lot, particularly from new shop owners: “How do I get more views?”
Obviously what people really want is more sales, but more views is the first step. It’s natural to feel discouraged when the products you’ve poured so much time and effort into are barely being seen by anyone.
Let’s fix that. Read on for a practical guide to getting more views, based on my own experience as a top 1% Etsy seller.
Be patient
I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but if you are a new shop, this is my first piece of advice. If your shop is only days or weeks old, please be patient and give the algorithm time to figure out your products and show them to the right people. This doesn’t happen instantly.
Don’t jump to the conclusion that nobody wants your products just because you don’t immediately get views and sales. Be patient and keep working on new products in the meantime.
Which brings me to…
Post more listings
I am particularly talking to digital shop owners here, but it is partly a numbers game. Many digital niches are very competitive, and new listings get a boost in the search algorithm, so keep creating new listings!
This could be a variation of an existing listing, or a bundle of listings, or a completely new product. The important thing is that you are adding more listings at least weekly if you can. Or if your products take longer to create, just as often as you can reasonably manage, while keeping the quality high.
The more listings you have, the more opportunities you have to create a product that resonates with your potential customers.
Think of each new listing as a tiny ad that you only paid $0.20 for.
Quality is important, but don’t get hung up on making it perfect. Done is better than perfect.
Creating more listings also gives you more practice at creating your products, so that they will become better and better.
Trust me, my products improved a lot over time, and that happens for pretty much everyone. You’ll look back at your old products one day and see how far you’ve come.
Work on your value proposition
What does this mean exactly? Your value proposition is why customers should choose your product, what makes it unique and why it is better than competitors’ products.
Your value proposition includes aspects like:
- your price
- your main thumbnail image
- your keywords (title and tags)
Let’s go through each of these.
How to price your products
This could be an article on its own, but in the context of this article, how should you price to get more views on your products?
Generally speaking, a lower price will entice a larger number of clicks.
The caveat is that you might attract a lot of bargain hunters if you price too low, and these can be very difficult customers to please.
My advice for a new digital products shop would be to price towards the lower to middle of the market, to more quickly attract initial views and sales.
Don’t try to be the cheapest though, and don’t get pressured into offering a bundle of 100s or 1000s of files for a few dollars (as you’ll see some competitors doing!).
Price attractively at the beginning to attract customers, sales and reviews, and then look to slowly raise your prices to the middle to top of the market as you establish more credibility and as your products improve.
What makes a good thumbnail image
I hear a lot of people saying they want their thumbnails to stand out from others and stop the scroll.
I get this argument, but as a shop with few sales or reviews, I think it is important to establish trust.
One easy way to establish trust is to have your thumbnail look similar to the top shops.
Critically examine these to find common patterns. Decide what aspects you want to include in your own, and what you want to avoid.
Whatever stye you choose, ensure that your product is clearly visible in your thumbnail, and that other elements do not steal focus. It should be clear at a glance what your product is, ideally without too much text explaining it.
The importance of keywords
As Etsy comes to understand your shop and products better over time, keywords will become less important. Don’t forget that Etsy also analyses your images and that they have recently advised people to use shorter titles as they gather information about your listings from various places.
However, as a new shop, keywords are important for helping the Etsy algorithm understand who to show your products to.
Think carefully about who your products are designed for, and when and why they would use them. Use these words in your titles, tags and/or descriptions.
Spend time doing keyword research, on Etsy or using 3rd party tools, to help you with this, and also look at competitors’ listings for inspiration.
Don’t run ads
Don’t run ads?
But you’re probably thinking, surely ads = greater visibility?
Yes, there’s even an ad strategy on Etsy called ‘greater visibility’. But wait, not so fast!
In the scenario that your shop is only days or weeks old, and you have none or very few sales, ads aren’t a magic bullet.
While they could bring more views to your product, there is a good chance that people still won’t buy your products. Either because you haven’t yet nailed the value proposition or product quality, or because the customer doesn’t trust a shop with no sales or reviews.
You might gather some interesting data about which products were viewed the most, but more likely you will just lose money. After losing money you will feel even more deflated and like you should give up.
So that is why I would advise not to run ads so early (but they can be a useful tool for growing your shop — see my guide for running Etsy ads).
Final thoughts
Getting more views on your listings can be a slow and frustrating process, but hang in there! While you’re waiting for the Etsy algorithm to better understand your shop and products, work on creating more products and listings, and ensure you have optimised thumbnails, titles and tags. Have attractive pricing which represents good value for your customers. You will soon see your consistent efforts being rewarded with more views, the first step towards a successful shop.
Breakdown of my revenue. Approximately 60% profit, 20% fees, 20% ads. Chart from ProfitTree*.
