Why You Need an Etsy Email List Now: 9 Amazing Reasons
An Etsy email list is possibly one of the most undervalued and underused things I see regularly when reviewing Etsy stores. I trawl the Etsy seller’s entire Etsy profile, homepage, about section and social media’s and cannot find a sign-up to an email list anywhere!
This is losing so many Etsy seller’s traffic, repeat buyers and, therefore, income. If you do one thing today… start an email list – it could be the most productive thing you do for your Etsy store all YEAR. Another important aspect is to improve your Etsy SEO… check out these 23 Etsy SEO tips now!
In short, you need an Etsy email list because you can start growing a fanbase interested in your products. An email list significantly increases your chance of repeat buyers, and emails have far higher click-through rates and conversions compared to social media. An email list gives you direct contact to buyers, allowing you to avoid social media algorithm changes and potential shutting down of your accounts. You need an Etsy email list now because it can greatly help if you switch to your own selling platform, you can gauge interest in new products, as well as make the process of getting bestseller items much easier.
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Without further ado, here’s 9 game-changing reasons why you NEED an Etsy email list:
1. Start Building a BUYING Fanbase
Everyone who joins your Etsy mailing list will love your products and will be more serious about buying from you. Sure, you can start building a fan base on Instagram or Facebook, but they aren’t all buying fans… it’s not quite the same.
This is because there’s a lot of Etsy seller’s supporting one another, or people just generally following or liking content… and also those that just want a follow or like in return. Often, the hard truth is that these people have zero intention of making a purchase from you. Whilst this isn’t always the case, for a lot of the time it is.
However, it’s different with an email list. Instead of just having to click a button to say follow or wanting something in return, they have to fill in their personal email address. This isn’t something some people take lightly either. It ensures that the people on your Etsy email list are serious about hearing from you and about your products. This becomes a purely buying fanbase… rather than a mixed fanbase who just followed or liked without any intention to purchase.
2. Email Lists Skyrocket the Chance of Repeat Buyers
It’s very true that when you make a sale on Etsy, often, that buyer will never make a purchase from you again. It’s not because they didn’t love your product, it’s just because they forget and next time they search for something, they click on the first few listings that come up.
With an email list, you significantly increase your chance of repeat buyers. By getting those who have already made a purchase onto your email list, you know they’ve already bought from you and are likely to do so again. With regular email contact from you, they won’t forget about you and they’ll become a loyal fan.
Even if they haven’t bought from you before, if they are on your email list the chance of them becoming a repeat buyer skyrockets. This is because you can contact theme again and again in an authentic way… if they are a hard sale, eventually there will be something they love and have to buy!
3. Email Lists Have the Highest Click-Through Rates & Conversions
So you now know everyone on your Etsy email list is interested in your products, and you know they are much more likely to become repeat buyers. This leads to this very short and sweet point.
Email lists are also known to have the highest click-through rates. This means people on your list are much more likely to click onto your Etsy store than from social media, and are also much more likely to make a purchase. Fact.
Check out this fantastic article written by CampaignManager. It offers some fascinating statistics on how email lists have much greater click-through rates and conversions compared to social media. A perfect example of this is how you are ‘6x more likely to get a click-through from email than you are from Twitter.’
4. Have DIRECT access to ALL these fans and AVOID algorithms
Again, many people argue they have access to their fans through social media. I again say this is not the case.
Social media has all sorts of algorithms… one day your posts are shown to people and the next they aren’t. I’ve even had it myself on one of my accounts. One day, I was getting approximately 100 likes per photo on Instagram going strong and growing, then almost suddenly for the next few weeks I was getting about 50. Not only this, often accounts can have hundred or thousands of followers, but they actually only reach a small proportion of these followers because of the algorithm.
Imagine if you relied SOLELY on your social media. What if there’s an algorithm change and suddenly your traffic and sales have halved? This CANNOT happen with an email list. You will always have direct access to ALL these fans as every email sent out is guaranteed to get into their email inbox. Whether they open this is a different story… but at least every one will receive and see your content unlike social media.
5. You DON’T Own Your Social Media Account
Not only may there be an algorithm change on social media, your account can be removed entirely.
What a lot of people sometimes forget is that you don’t own your social media account. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still your content and photos, but technically the social media app owns your account. You can be blocked, banned or shadowed at any time for breaching the terms of use. And if you’re like 99.999% of users, you haven’t read the terms of use.
I’ve been shadowed on one of my Instagram accounts for liking too many photos… it was lockdown and I was bored. I couldn’t like, follow or message anyone for weeks.
Also, the actual social media outlet itself can be removed entirely. Remember Musical.ly? If not, this was an incredibly popular social media platform that was simply removed. Whilst, admittedly, I can’t see that happening with things like Facebook or Instagram, they may begin to lose traction as everything does eventually. New social medias will arise and so on.
With an email list, you know it’s yours. You know it will always be there. It will never reset.
It is important to note that having social media accounts is still important alongside an email list. I discuss social media in some of my tips in my article: 29 selling on Etsy tips.
6. It’s A FREE Form of Marketing
Who doesn’t love the word free? Whilst later on you can choose to pay if you wish, there is an option to always keep it free.
With SendInBlue, who I use for EVERYTHING, they allow you to send out 300 free emails every single day… forever. If you did end up wanting to send more than this, SendInBlue is also much cheaper than any alternative email marketing service available. This is because most other email services make you pay a monthly fee once you hit a certain number of email subscribers.
This means that as soon as a certain number of users subscribe to your list, you HAVE to start paying. However, with SendInBlue, you can have 100,000+ email subscribers and still be using it for free if you wanted to.
This email marketing tip is so important. Similar to the article I wrote, is selling on Etsy worth it where I explained Etsy is just another avenue for income, it’s similar to email marketing. An Etsy email list is simply another way to get your products in front of people and get more sales. If you do it with SendInBlue, it’s a free method of reaching these extra people.
7. An Email List Makes Getting Bestsellers Easier
If you’ve sold on Etsy for a while, you know how coveted the bestseller symbol is. To get a bestselling product is an amazing achievement… not to mention it makes getting sales much more likely.
An email list can make getting these easier. This is because when you introduce a new product, it will naturally get a new listing SEO boost. If you’re interested in Etsy SEO, I strongly advise you read this article detailing 23 Etsy SEO tips. Anyway, you need to take advantage of this temporary SEO boost.
With an email list, as soon as you upload a new product, you should send an email to everyone on your list. As email lists have much higher click-through rates and conversions than social media, it means you’ll likely get some quick sales (depending on the size of your email list).
Etsy will take notice of this new product getting a lot of attention and will very rapidly boost the new listing in the rankings. As you have a substantial boost and you’re appearing much higher in the rankings, it means it is much more likely you will start getting organic traffic on this listing from search which greatly increases your chance of getting a bestseller.
8. Starting Your Own Website (Etsy Doesn’t Own Your Email List)
If you’ve read my article titled: ‘is selling on Etsy worth it?’ you know many Etsy seller’s use Etsy as a stepping stone. Etsy is often the first place people sell due to having no upfront costs (besides listing fees) or monthly fees. It’s a great place to dip your feet into business.
That said, when people start making more sales and start developing an audience, they sometimes expand outside of Etsy. This allows you to create a website that completely suits your brand and exactly what you’re trying to sell. You run it and Etsy can’t mysteriously shut you down or charge Etsy payment fees.
Growing an email list while you’re on Etsy makes this move to another platform so much smoother. One of the positives of Etsy is having built-in traffic coming to your store. On your own website, you don’t have this and you have to drive it all yourself. This is when an email list of avid fans you’ve built really comes in handy!
Etsy doesn’t own your email list. By having this email list, you can take your products anywhere and you’ll always have support.
9. Gauge Interest In New Product Ideas & Build A Relationship With Your Audience
Many people also believe email lists are just to send out product reminders and make sales. This isn’t the case… and can also look spammy and insincere!
An email list is also an amazing way to gauge interest and ask your avid audience whether they’d like a certain product or not. For example, if you sell candles you could put together an email detailing some of the scents you’re considering adding.
Your email list will let you know which ones they think are the best. This gives you an indication of which products to actually make before you go and spend money making them. You can also even ask which scents they would like to see and then go about sourcing and making these products!
By having regular interactions with your email list that isn’t just about reminding them of products you’re selling, you build a repour with them. Your brand becomes well known to them and they feel like they know you more. This overall improves sales and brand awareness.
Why You Need an Etsy Email List Now: Final thoughts
I harp on about email lists in most of my Etsy articles. Examples of where I’ve talked about this include my 5 tips underused by Etsy sellers, as well as my monster article on 29 selling on Etsy tips. It’s because it’s SO IMPORTANT.
I really hope this article, if you didn’t already have a mailing list, has pushed you to start one. If you sign up to SendInBlue, you can always use this for free if you choose to. Really ask yourself… ‘do I want more traffic and sales on my Etsy store?’. If the answer is yes, the best decision you can make is to start your Etsy email list right now.
If you enjoyed this article, firstly… thank you! Secondly, I highly recommend you check out some of the other Etsy advice Pastime To Profit has written. From these 23 Etsy SEO tips, to these 50 Etsy group boards you can join on Pinterest to promote your products, I’m sure you’ll find them helpful.
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