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What is Shop Cohesion?

So we're going to talk about shop cohesion. And remember that I had told you that shop cohesion, a great way to bring that to life, is when you're walking through an art show and you see a booth and it pulls you from across the room. That is what you want to create in your Etsy storefront. You want to create ambiance and atmosphere and you want to compel the visitors to your Etsy shop to want to take a piece of it home. And today we're going to really be looking at how the top-selling shops create that atmosphere and build an experience for their customer. I like to talk a lot about, one of the questions ... And this goes hand-in-hand with copyrighting, is that you look at the benefits, what's the value, what is your customer really wanting to bring home? I like to call it, "What are you really selling?" Because I know at the Energy Shop ... At the Energy Shop, I sell spirited bracelets, they are charged with reiki, there's a whole story that goes behind them. And I could tell you all ...

that, that I sell gemstone bracelets, but what I'm really selling to my customers is the enhancement of their positive affirmations. I'm really selling positive reminders for their best life intentions. And the bracelet they wear is actually like a love note to themselves, to remember to stay on track, to remember the spiritual calling that they're trying to follow. So there's a lot more going on. So I can say, "Yes, I sell gemstone bracelets." But that's not going to connect with my right customers. What I'd rather do is tell people what I'm really sending home, what I'm really bringing home for the customer. The other example that I have when it comes to that is designer handbags. I am obsessed with Michael Kors. I love the style of the bags, I love everything. And they're not cheap bags, but I will save to collect these bags. Don't take me into the store because I'm going to walk out with something, that kind of thing. For a long time, I know very well that I could buy a bag at any store, I could buy a bag at Target for $20. It's going to be made of the same materials, it's going to be sewn the same, it's going to hold together the same, but I buy Michael Kors because I love the feeling of glamour. That's something that's important to me. I love glamour, I'm attracted to it, I am drawn toward that feeling, and Michael Kors bags make me feel glamorous. So what are they really selling to me is not the overpriced bag. It's the sense of glamour that I feel because it's such the right style and such the right match for me. So shop cohesion is the total of everything we're going to discuss today. It's how to create that atmosphere. It's how to create that ambiance. It's how to make the customer want to bring a piece of your brand home by pulling them across the room, by making them click, by getting them to your storefront and making them feel like, "I've just arrived "in the absolute right place." Lisa, before we go on to that, I'd love to ask a couple questions that came in in the online audience. So Heidi asks, "Since Etsy and the jewelry market "is so saturated, how can I attract ideal customers "when my products are in a relatively higher price range "although fair and perhaps under-priced "for labor and value?" Great question. And the reason being is because Etsy sellers come on Etsy and they start to compare themselves with everybody else. So this is something that's going to come up again. So Etsy sellers come to Etsy, look at that market, and then try to compete with that market and try to average out with that market, and often price themselves for that market. But Etsy's not built like that as a storefront. It's not an Amazon.com where they're showing you comparable prices of all the other brands. That is relying on Etsy to be the thing that sells your products for you. But that's not the way to go about it. Rather, you want your marketing campaign to be what sells the products for you. You want your marketing campaign to be the thing that draws and attracts. And so if she is thinking about ... She shouldn't be comparing her prices to other people on Etsy, because that means she's feeling like she's one in a million in the marketplace, rather than feeling like she's one in front of a global audience. A product that millions have yet to see. There's a big difference, do you see that difference? Huge difference. Jean Rill-Alberto asks, "Hi Lisa, I'm a mixed-media artist "and jewelry designer as well. "I put both on the same Etsy site. "Is that a bad idea?" I guess mixed-media art and jewelry. Is it bad to put it on the same... Yeah. Shop. Right? And I'm struggling with the words to not say it's bad, but say it's bad. (audience laughter) Because everything ... Etsy is not a place to organize a lot of different things. It's not. It's a limited storefront. You have maybe ten categories. You have only that limited space that I showed with my Etsy site, that it's all uniform and it all has to make sense upon arrival. So mixed-media and jewelry don't make sense together. They'd each be a fabulous Etsy storefront in its own right, but they need to be separated because the customers are going to be different customers. So I like to build an Etsy storefront bringing one specific customer to that site and making sure everything on that storefront connects with them immediately. So if I came for your mixed-media work, I would feel disconnected by the jewelry. And one final question, Lisa, from Steph B. "How many listings would you say a shop needs, "maximum and minimum?" Is there a max or min? I like that question. No, I like that question. Because it's one of those things ... It's another thing that people worry about online. So I want to tell you, first I want to tell you, that everything that I say is going to go against the popular advice. So people say list as much as possible. I say don't. Because I like for people to treat their storefront not as a way to capture one-off listings from the Etsy Marketplace, but rather as a place to invite people where everything makes a lot of sense, it's beautifully organized, and it's easy to shop. So I like to use the Etsy storefront as a storefront versus using it as a place to hold and get a lot of listings. So, that said, I started my shop with I think eight listings. I went two rows. And I waited until I had two rows worth of inventory and started it, and then I sold out. Again, starting in 2010, it was a different marketplace then. I don't think there's a rule for how many items that you need to have when you're starting or that there's a rule you should follow. I sell out when I have a page and a half of product. So I don't believe that there needs to be three pages of product or four pages of product. But, if I'm advising somebody to start marketing their Etsy shop, I will ask them to have 24 listings. I will ask them to take up a page, so at least that makes sense to a brand new visitor arriving. So I like 24 listings. That's a great question. Thank you for giving it to me. Thank you. Great answer. Okay. So with shop cohesion, it's everything from the branding of your storefront and the trust that the customer gets from seeing that it's a well-put-together or well-thought-out storefront. It's your product photography. Product photography is huge and very important. And we're going to be talking about product photography today. I'm going to give you some tips and I'm going to show you some embarrassing mistakes that I've made. I have them all pulled up, blown up really big for everybody to see, and then I'm going to show you just some things for getting started or improving or enhancing. We're going to look at checklists of how you can improve that on your own. I'm big on self-critiques, because our perspectives are always so close. I'm really big on self-critiques so I can show you how to check your own work. So I'm going to give you sort of a key that you can check your work against. And I'm going to give you ways that you can enhance it on your own even though your perspective is so close. I'll give you ways to back up out of that and see it from a different light. We're going to talk about listing titles and how to make compelling listing titles and get people ... Listing titles would be the next thing they do after you've given them a strong first impression with all the visuals on the page, they're going to start reading, and so we're going to talk about what you want them to be reading and how to make that writing really matter. And I'm going to show you a summary of compelling copyrighting. It's sort of an advanced topic when it comes to marketing online and business online, but I'm going to give you something to walk away with to make sure you have a really solid storefront by the end of the day. And that's all part of the total package. And that's what we're here to create today. So a strong presentation, a cohesive presentation, will draw them in and make them hungry to click and eager to buy. If you're struggling with that, I have a very quick and easy branding exercise you can do for your business. This is something that I always advise my clients, especially if they're not sure that they're getting the message down on their storefront, and that is to choose three adjectives that describe your brand. That's it. Three adjectives that describe your brand and the message you're trying to deliver to your customers. So in my world, that means, "positive, "life-affirming, and energetic." And once you have those three adjectives all you have to do is test everything you've put out there to make sure that it falls in line with those three adjectives. So when you name a product, does it represent those three adjectives? When you write a listing or take a picture, does it represent those three adjectives? When you think about putting another product or launching a new line in your current Etsy shop, be careful. Does it match those three adjectives? If it doesn't, it belongs in its own shop. So you always want to, as we're really putting together a cohesive storefront, you always want to make sure there's adjectives, there's movement, there's feeling behind your shop. You always want to make sure that it's the same consistent message. So before I go any further, the main takeaway today is this is your business on the Etsy platform and I want you to always remember that it's that. You always want to be in control of your business. You always want to look at it as a tool you're using. You don't want to build and run and rely on an Etsy business, you want to build and run and rely on the business that you were called to create. And so take Etsy and bring your brand here. Make Etsy about ... Make your Etsy storefront about what you're selling, what your brand is representing, and take the time to express your message and express it consistently.