I hate to admit it, but when I started selling on Etsy at the end of 2018, my motivation for creating and marketing a product online had nothing to do with dreams of making sales or building a base of loyal customers who love my products. Nope.
At the time, I was working through several digital marketing courses. Rather than just understand the concepts, I wanted to put a marketing strategy for selling a product into practice. So, to get some hands-on experience marketing a product online, I decided to open an online shop and market something.
Seems legit, right?
Initially, the questions in my mind revolved solely around the marketing and not much at all around the product. I had questions.
Questions like:
“Is it possible to market something so well that people would buy it whether they want it or not?”
“Is online success possible irrespective of the product?”
Or maybe…
“What is more important, the product or the sales pitch?”
I know…cringe. It isn’t that I wanted people to buy things they didn’t like, but I just wanted to know…
“How good are these marketing strategies I’ve been learning?”
I had no idea the depth of the rabbit hole I was about to enter.
Selling on Etsy: Product Required
First, I didn’t have a product to sell in an online shop. There were so many options to consider that I soon found myself in a state of analysis paralysis.
Print on Demand was becoming very popular at the time, and when I wasn’t busily reformating and editing my resume to nurture what was becoming a very long job search, I had been playing around with creating some digital art.
At the same time, men’s leggings had become fashionable, and I felt there was room for more. Whether they needed it or not, I was going to create some never before seen designs, put them on men’s leggings, and make the final product available to any men secure enough in their masculinity to wear them.
Just Follow This Easy Three-Step Process
My graphic design skills were lacking, and I had no idea what went into selling on Etsy or setting up and managing my own online shop, but everyone selling a three-step process made it look easy.
All I had to do was:
- Set up with all the print-on-demand platforms
- Build a website
- Employ all of the marketing strategies
- See what happens
It was a no-brainer, really.
Well, there was a bit more to all of this than I had bargained for; I hadn’t yet thought of selling on Etsy, and the reality of setting up online shops, creating designs for products, and then promoting those products was quite apart from my initial expectations.
I had much to learn.
Quality Product Required
By early 2019, I was scraping my last two pennies together, trying to figure out how to market a product online for free, and I hadn’t ordered any samples of the designs I’d created. Nevertheless, I had made them available for purchase to anyone who might stumble upon them. But that was okay because I just wanted to get some practice marketing a product, right?
I very self-consciously mentioned them on my Instagram.
And then it happened:
Out of the blue, a complete stranger placed an order!
My heart skipped a beat…
My stomach fell to the floor…
I thought about my customer, and that’s when it hit me: I needed to do a quality check on my designs and product!!
Quality Checks Matter
It suddenly became clear: Even if everyone on the planet purchased my product, and even with a refund policy in my favor, if nobody was happy with what they got, the monetary profits would hardly be satisfying. In fact, I would feel terrible if that happened.
I had already done a ton of work at this point, but I hadn’t taken the time to really consider the customer and how receiving their order would make them feel.
So, it was back to the drawing board for me.
Getting Real
As I considered more deeply the individuals who would ultimately receive my product, put more time into learning how to create the highest quality print files possible, ordering and evaluating samples of the products, and making changes based on my evaluation.
I spent an additional year in this development phase before I finally felt good about what I was offering.
I still haven’t gotten around to creating and implementing anything resembling a full-scale marketing campaign, but the good news is that the people who have purchased ColorfulPants by MissPixATX really enjoy wearing them! As a result of the five-star reviews my customers have given my shop, I’ve been awarded star seller status for the last three months that I’ve been selling on Etsy.
Admittedly, that wasn’t the priority when I initially started this project, but it should have been, and this recognition is where the real success has been for me.
