I would recommend collecting email address of your customers early on. It’s important to drive sales from repeat customers and sustain your Etsy shop long term.
If you want something free to start with, I would recommend Sendinblue. You can send up to 300 emails a day for free and there is no limit of subscribers for the free tier. It also has an automation/workflow function included even in the free tier.
If you want something more advanced and easier to use, I would recommend ConvertKit. One of the functions you need - automation/workflow - is only available from $9 per month.
Once you set up the email service, you can think of an incentive for your customers to sign up. Usually a discount works well here. Make sure the discount is higher than the one you are running in your shop. For example, if you are running a 20% discount in your shop, then your coupon code should be more than that, like 30%.
Another type of incentive is an information product. Make sure it is highly related to your products and desirable to your customers. For example, a job hunting guide can be a good sign-up incentive if you are selling resume templates. Or a wedding checklist can be a good incentive if you are selling wedding related templates. You can make them in Canva.
After that, it’s time to set up a simple workflow. A workflow is basically your sales machine that will send emails to your customers automatically. It’s also known as automation, funnel, or email sequence.
The first step in your workflow should be your welcome message. Write a simple message thanking them for their order. And include your incentive - either include the coupon code in the message or attach the file of the information product.
After that, set up a second message that will be sent after 3-5 days. This message is about asking your customer about their experience and prompting them for a review. You can modify from the message template from the previous section on “Getting Initial Reviews”.
Now with your email workflow set up, you can start asking your customers to sign up to your email list. Every service is a bit different, but in general. It should work something like this:
With this email list, you will be able to contact them whenever you have new products or a new sale. Just remember don’t spam your subscribers.
If you want to learn more about email marketing for Etsy sellers, start the course here.
At this stage, your time is better spent on creating profitable products and optimising your listings (Mockup photos, SEO, description, pricing, etc). Don’t spend too much time on social media marketing.
Shops are often sustainable and profitable just by Etsy traffic alone. There are more than enough buyers on Etsy.
Etsy ads could be a good investment in the beginning to gain extra traffic and sales/reviews. You can test it out and see whether it works for your shop. Click here to start the Etsy ads course.
However, a lot of times, because digital products are lower in price, Etsy ads are not particularly profitable.