Doing business on Etsy can be very lucrative if you know how to effectively drive highly targeted traffic to your shops. Always keep in mind that Etsy is a marketing platform where thousands of independent sellers are hawking their products. With that said, the competition among sellers can be very tough. Whatever products you are selling, there will always be somebody else selling the same thing or something quite similar.

Needless to say, if you want to be successful on Etsy, then you need to focus a lot of your attention on attracting good traffic. We’re not just talking about traffic here. We’re talking about targeted traffic to Etsy shops, and here’s a huge difference between the two. If you are generating targeted traffic, then your conversion rate will be much higher because the people arriving at your Etsy shops are genuinely interested in your products.

So how exactly can you drive highly targeted traffic to Etsy shops?

You can start by implementing the following tips and strategies:

1. Use a website or blog to direct people to your Etsy shop. This is a strategy that works very well if you can find time everyday to write content which you publish in your blog. This is often referred to as content marketing, because he goal here is to use the blog as a stepping stone for new customers. You utilize it to talk about your products, drum up the hype, and answer inquiries that customers may have. In essence, you will be using the blog to create relationships with your customers. The more personal you treat them, the more they will support your Etsy shop.
2. Be active on Pinterest. It’s no secret that Pinterest is a very popular social media site among people who love art, crafts, and handmade products. With that said, it’s the perfect place for you to promote your Etsy products. Using Pinterest is free and you have nothing to lose in signing up. The main secret to being successful on Pinterest is to be active by pinning regularly and connecting with other users who share the same interests as you. Once you are able to build a sizable community on Pinterest, your audience will continue to grow from there on. If something you pinned on the site gets featured on Pinterest’s frontpage, expect a deluge of traffic to be heading your way.
3. Optimize your Etsy product listings for the search engines. The main Etsy website ranks pretty highly on Google so you have some work cut out for you. But if you want your specific products to appear on the search results, you need to flex your SEO muscles a bit. First of all, when creating titles for your products, make them very specific. Do not make use of general and over-used words and the more specific you are, the better. As to the description of your products, make them short and fluff-free. Don’t use too much adjectives, just stick on describing what the product does and who needs it.
4. Connect with other Etsy sellers and see if you can cross-promote each other’s products. This is especially effective if the other sellers also maintain their own websites or blogs. For best results, you should connect with sellers who belong to the same niche as you. For instance, if you are selling art prints, you might consider connecting with sellers whose products are also in the arts category. If your respective products complement each other, then you can do cross-promotion, and you could promote the other seller’s products to your communities or followers, and in return he/she promotes your products to his/her own communities and followers. It’s a win-win situation.
5. Create a Facebook page for your Etsy shop. With active members that number to over a billion, Facebook is the largest and most popular social network today. You should take advantage of this huge market by creating a page for your Etsy business. You can use the page to update your customers about new products and other developments in your business.

Driving targeted traffic to Etsy shops is not difficult at all. You just have to do your part by investing your time into the process. You have to be regularly active in the online communities you’ve joined. Connecting with as many people as possible is the key to building a successful Etsy business.