Admin Matt delivered on his promise to share Etsy’s comprehensive 2008 Holiday Marketing Plan with the members of Etsy. And, what a plan it is!
From the Storque article:
Friends, the holidays are upon us, and for the last several weeks we have been working hard to make sure that we are doing whatever it takes to make the season a success for us all. My role, specifically, is to bring more buyers here. What follows is a general look at the seven major areas of my holiday marketing plan.
1. SEO and SEM
Etsy’s most significant marketing investment this holiday season will be in search marketing. Search marketing comprises both Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) and Search Engine Marketing (“SEM”).
SEO: Wikipedia describes SEO, or Search Engine Optimization as the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. With our new CTO, Chad Dickerson, and the help of a firm specialized in SEO techniques, we hope to increase the volume of organic traffic to Etsy from external search engines. There are best practices that Etsy needs to adopt — simple things like appropriate descriptive title tags for all relevant pages — to maximize this opportunity and ensure that search traffic is growing as fast as direct traffic and referral traffic. These changes will be implemented into the site on an ongoing basis.
SEM: Search Engine Marketing refers to buying paid search listings (e.g. “sponsored links”) on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other important search sites. We will be working with an outside firm specializing in search marketing to manage these buys and to measure their effectiveness. While it’s always difficult to predict user behavior on search sites, a well managed SEM effort could be a very important driver of traffic to Etsy. Click here to learn more about SEM.
2. PRINT ADVERTISING
While the bulk of our advertising spending will be on search marketing, we think we can bolster brand awareness by advertising in a number of highly-targeted, socially-aware publications and their related websites. We are still determining where all the ads will be placed, but we will be running full-page ads in several magazines that are positioned well to reach potential Etsy buyers this holiday season. These ads will not be part of the CO-OP advertising program.
3. MEDIA OUTREACH
We spend a lot of time developing our messaging, pitching to the media and working with reporters and publishers on stories and product requests for the holiday season. We also take great care planning and producing beautiful, handmade press kits. Our new press kit is a unique handmade book full of gorgeous images of Etsy products and sellers. We truly believe in taking a very personal and thoughtful approach to pitching the media, and continue to realize relatively good success as a result of these efforts. To view some of the press we have already received, please visit http://press.etsy.com and our monthly press report here.
4. IMPROVED SYNDICATION TOOLS
For the past few months, Jared has been developing something we have been calling the Super Etsy Mini. Like its little sister, the EtsyMini (see how-to use the EtsyMini), the SuperEtsyMini allows you to embed Etsy products on external sites. Now, however, it is purely customizable. It can pull from your listings, a specific section of your shop, a specific tag, the front page, your favorites, any showcase, gift guides, treasuries, or any custom collection of product you wish. Furthermore, it will now display these products in a variety of ways: floating through space like the Time Machine, as a slide show, or in a grid. The applications (team tags, affiliate programs etc) are really quite limitless, and we are excited to unveil it to you soon.
Furthermore, we will be adding expanded resources, downloads, widgets, and important business and marketing information into the Promote section of Your Etsy, so we can help you better promote and improve your own shops and businesses.
5. EMAIL MARKETING
We realize that we are not effectively using email to drive new and returning visitors to Etsy. We are planning many changes, but they will not be in place before the holidays. That said, there are a number of smaller but still very important improvements slated to launch pre-holidays.
6. CONTESTS, PROMOTIONS, AND EVENTS
Contests/Promotions:
- Halloween: We’re teaming up with Instructibles.com, Makezine.com and many others to bring you a fun challenge and spread the spooky spirit this Halloween. Whether you’re a crafty costume maker, party decorating diva, or a casual trick-or-treater, there will be lots of ways to get involved and lots of ways to win. Details to follow soon.
- NASA and Etsy SpaceCraft Contest: We are currently planning an exciting late Fall promotion with NASA. (Yes, the space agency.) I am not yet permitted to go into too many details, but I think this promotion will help generate a good deal of media attention and open Etsy to many new audiences. We will keep you updated.
- Holiday Sweepstakes: One buyer-focused sweepstakes is currently in the planning stages for November/December. The details are not yet confirmed.
Upcoming Events:
We will be representing Etsy at various holiday events around the country. Details will be announced in the Storque as we get closer to the holidays. One of them, about which I am particularly excited, is New York Magazine’s Best Bets shopping event in New York City.
7. LIMITED TEST WITH NPR
We are also considering experimenting with sponsoring public radio in selected American markets where Etsy has strong penetration. The goal of such spots would be to drive brand awareness of Etsy.com.
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Please understand, this post is really just an overview of the marketing side of things here at Etsy. We are undertaking a great deal of work in all other areas of the site as well: product design, development, merchandising, programming, etc. I also want you to please realize that not all the details are finalized at this point. Some aspects of this plan are subject to change, and may do so.
To further discuss this topic, please see the associated Forum thread.
September 11th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
And more good news!
Very, very nice!
September 11th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
From what I’ve been reading everyone else say, it’s brand awareness that they all want Etsy to strive for, rather than a particular marketing approach. It’s good to see them state that specifically in their release. I’m kind of missing something here though, where’s the timeline for these steps? Is everything going to be launched in December? That’s a little late. So is November. These things will need to be in the next 6 weeks.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
It’s nice to see two positive, somewhat optimistic moves in one day! A nice surprise after the server burps earlier in the week with the treasuries.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:17 am
it is an upbeat and optimistic announcement - definitely lifts the spirits!
September 12th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
AliciaMay hits the nail on its head - where it the timeline and the specifics? While it seems to be very nice to read a very long post that was meant as an internal discussion between techies, it does not address sellers, it doesn’t EVEN ENGAGE sellers in the plan or discussion.
Town meetings, if you have even been to one, are a total waste of valuable seller time and Etsy sure has wasted enough of that.
Etsy can write 50 more articles about what they might do with the internal structure of the site, or how they are going to pick the item and stores that get in their new ad campaign (as usual, Etsy picks who gets what, and that means a very select few) and sellers are not included in the plan!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought Etsy had managed to drive me ’round the bend, but this time, they really have splattered the final insult in the bloated, out of touch Storque.
I’ve had it.
Etsy will still be sitting in Brookyn, dreaming up plans that are never going to be implemented. They left their sellers behind in every single new or reworked “tool” added to the site, with nothing new or exciting for a long time. They still have no clue. They are not really interested in what their sellers want and need.
The constant and alarming unrest in the Forums is key to getting the mood of Etsy sellers———–that sellers are willing to put their necks on the block, which Etsy will chop off at any opportunity and then some———to vent their justifiable rage and frustration.
Plan??????????????????? let’s see it now with dates and the starting rollout for all these holiday tools. WHO is going to have access to them and what it’s going to cost.
I
September 12th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Since Matt just publicly stated that Etsy is not holding a discussion about the holidays until 2 weeks from now (or around the end of Sept.) that confirms that I am spending the next week purchasing my store space, holiday ads, and all holiday promotions and none of them will be on Etsy. My ad budget is just about spent for the holidays, and Etsy isn’t on the list because they haven’t presented a set of promotion tools that I can use.
Better late than never means if Etsy has a holiday plan at all of any substance for sellers, then it will be the shock of the century.
Either you have an agenda with SELLERS at the top of the list, or you have an internal agenda that is private to only employees so that they can figure out their workload, even though this is an ecommerce site with a couple of hundred thousand stores. If 3 years wasn’t enough time to get your house in order, you need expert help and in a very big way or it really is too late.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Buying search words on google is a great idea. That is one form of advertising I actually respond to- like I have bought things that I saw in paid google ads. I think it’s actually much more effective than print because
1. it’s targeted to something the person is actively looking for already, you aren’t trying to create the desire. It is already there.
and
2. it’s an easy click away, vs. reading something in print, then having to go turn on your computer and type in a url.
I am also excited about the Halloween contest and the super-etsy-mini.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I think this is a really positive move for Etsy. It’s late (of course), but it’s good.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Anyone seen this “new press kit is a unique handmade book full of gorgeous images of Etsy products and sellers. “? Who is in it, exactly? And, ahem, how were they chosen? 3 guesses…..