If you’re looking to expand your Etsy shop but don’t have the budget for large-scale marketing initiatives, here are five tips to help you market your Etsy shop online without risking bankruptcy.

1. Set a budget and stick to it.

One of the first things you should do before you start spending money on expensive ads or packing tours to countries with high fees for shipping is to set a budget and stick to it. As an Etsy seller, your financial stability depends on you being able to spend and manage your money wisely. So before you make any big purchases, ask yourself if you can truly afford it and whether or not it is worth it.

2. Focus on building a community.

Etsy is a place to share creativity with the world, but it is also a place for crafty individuals to connect with one another. One of the best ways to attract potential customers to your shop is to establish yourself as an online resource for creative ideas. When potential customers land on your website, the first thing they will see is a big green button that invites them to share their creative side and connect with you.

3. Use keywords in your content.

When a person types a keyword into the search bar of their browser, they are looking for content that relates to their search term. Content that contains the keywords they are searching for will appear higher up in the results of their search than content that does not contain these keywords. Make sure that the content on your website contains these keywords somewhere in the text itself, preferably towards the beginning of the piece.

For example, if you’re selling bags and you want to appear for “handbags” in a Google search, make sure that your website contains the word “handbags” several times throughout the text. Even better if you can get specific with the keyword: “Handbags from Thailand” appears higher up in the results than “Bags”.

4. Use SEO.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of earning higher search rankings on search engines like Google.

The better your SEO, the more likely you’ll appear at the top of the results page when someone searches for your product or service.

5. Measure the results of your efforts.

If you’re looking to expand your Etsy shop, it’s important to measure the results of your efforts. To do this, set up a small test group within your email list and track the behavior of these individuals around the use of key phrases as you adjust your content strategy. When you’ve determined which keywords you will target and developed content around these keywords, measure the results of your efforts by looking at the number of times your key phrases appear in the search engine results for your target terms.

For example, let’s say you’re a leather goods shop that wants to appear for the terms “leather purse” and “handbag”. You’ve optimized your blog posts for the terms “leather purse” and “handbag”, you’ve built a website around these keywords and are tracking the behavior of your target audience in your test group. As you can see in the screenshot, Google shows me three results for a search for “leather purse”:

• The first result is for a leather purse manufacturer,
• The second result is for a blog post that talks about creating your own leather purse,
• The third result is for a store that sells leather purses.

This is a good result for you because it means that when someone types in “leather purse” into the search bar, your website comes up in the results. Furthermore, looking at the first two results, it seems that your target audience is interested in creating their own leather purse because your post encourages them to do so. You can use tools like Google Analytics to track the behavior of your audience and determine the best way to engage with them.