25 Best TikTok and Instagram Tips for Etsy Sellers

Social media is a big opportunity for Etsy sellers to bring in more of their own buyers, rather than relying completely on Etsy to drive traffic to their shop. But where do you start? 

TikTok and Instagram have brought success to so many Etsy sellers, specifically because of video marketing. Both platforms can feel a little daunting at first if you have only ever used them for personal use, but it is worth the time spent learning them to have more eyes on your shop. 

Here are our biggest TikTok and Instagram tips for Etsy sellers!

Etsy Tips Using TikTok

TikTok is a platform that Etsy business owners can definitely use to their advantage! If your target audience is hanging out on this platform, then putting your products here can get them in front of the right eyes.

This platform gives you the ability to edit and share videos on any topic that you want and share to a large audience. And the great thing is, you will see a lot of engagement! So getting videos of your products or even just you and your small business out there is another opportunity to draw traffic to your shop.

10 TikTok Video Ideas for Etsy Sellers

Here are some of the best tips for using TikTok for Etsy sellers!

Make sure you have a business account

First of all, you want to make sure that you have your business account set up. This is important because there is more to a business account than a simple personal account. You will be able to see information on how your content is performing and other analytics, as well as access to some extra tools that TikTok provides for content creators. 

This also includes a large music library with over 150 thousand sounds that you can use for your videos! So you want to take advantage of all these extra features, and be able to see the data from your viewers.

The con to upgrading to the business account is that you can’t use some of the trending songs because they aren’t licensed for commercial use. This is why some sellers will put off upgrading right away, gain some followers, and then upgrade. You are limited with putting links to your shop if you don’t upgrade. Of course, you are using this account commercially so it makes sense to have a business account. More details from Tik Tok here.

Research your niche

The next important step is to start doing some exploring and researching on your niche and figure out a direction for your content for your Etsy shop. You want to see what is out there and that will really give you an idea of how to create content around your products. 

One way you can do this is by using your “For You” page, which is at the top of your app when you sign in. This is where TikTok will gather both content that is currently trending and content that is based off of what you have previously engaged with and shown interest in. This can give you an idea of similar businesses to yours and how they present their products.

Search for similar content

You can also directly search for similar content to yours and see what is already out there. You can see at the bottom of your “For You” page, there is a menu and you can select “Discover.” This helps you find content by trending audio, trending hashtags, and using a search bar. 

The search bar is where you can always search terms related to your products and see it in a range of categories. Once you search a term, it breaks the results up into different tabs where the results of that search term is found. There will be the top results, users that may have the search term in their name, videos, audios with the search term in the title, and hashtags. 

To get the best idea of what is performing well, you can use the results on the “Top” page and see what the most popular content is related to your niche and product type. You can also use the “Users” tab and see if any of these users are putting out content about similar products and see what they are doing well, and how you can put a spin on it. 

You should also take a look at hashtags and get an idea of what you should include in your content, as well. 

This is a very important step to make sure you know which direction to go with your content and put the best videos out there!

Start creating your first videos

• Start by selecting the + button at the bottom of the app. From here you can either upload content from your media library or use the TikTok camera to record your own video. 
• Then you can start adding sounds, effects, filters, or anything else to the video to make it enticing for viewers! This may take time to figure out so just keep this in mind and experiment with all these different aspects, which you can even do before you start recording. 
• You start recording your video by pressing the red record button, and once you are happy with it you can tap the checkmark to move on. 
• Now is when you will start editing! You can trim it down, cut sections out, add any details, etc. 
• Next, you can add in hashtags and you’re ready to go! 

It will definitely take you time to get started with creating content and figuring out how to edit and add audio or text. But, it’s just important to have fun with it and not be afraid to put your content out there!

Ideas for your first videos

Feeling stuck on which direction to go with your first videos? Here are a few fun ideas that you can make your own!

• Give a behind the scenes on your process. People like to know how you create your items so give them this glimpse! You can speed up your videos on TikTok to show a timelapse video of your process while still keeping people engaged. 
• Pack an order! This is especially fun if you add a lot of unique touches to your packaging and want to show those off! “Pack an order with me” is a fun way to engage viewers, and also give them that behind-the-scenes experience. 
• Tour your workspace! Do you have a fun and eye-catching workspace? Why not show this off to your viewers. People love a personal touch and feeling connected to your business!

These are just a few basic ideas, but you obviously want to pay attention to trends to give you inspiration as well!

Be vulnerable

Something to keep in mind is what we mentioned above, that TikTok is a social media platform meant to be for having fun! And part of this is being vulnerable and letting your viewers get a glimpse at who you actually are, and not simply just presenting your products and expecting this to convert to sales. 

Let your personality show and give people insight into who the person is behind the business! This makes all the difference on TikTok, because people want to see the realness. So be vulnerable and not afraid to show who you are!

Use relevant hashtags

Hashtags are a big part of how your content will get found. As we mentioned above, it’s important to do your research to find the best hashtags for your content! Start here with using some of these hashtags that you found and see how they work for you and evaluate the results they bring. 

You can always use less-niched hashtags that can bring in a wider range of viewers, but it may be harder to compete with a lot of other creators. Eventually, you will start to compile specific hashtags that fit your content perfectly and bring in more viewers. 

Follow the trends

TikTok is all about the trends! So if you’re going to be creating TikTok videos, you want to be on top of these trends and use them to fit you and your brand. Does this mean you can’t put out videos that aren’t trending? No! Still put out your relevant content ideas that gives a glimpse of your products. 

But using trends is just another great way to bring more eyes to your videos and make it a greater chance that your video is seen and receives the engagement you are looking for. Trends are always changing day to day, so keeping up with them is important and is worth your time!

Be authentic

Yes, you should try to follow the current trends to have more success on the platform, but you also need to be authentic. TikTok users will want to follow brands that have their own uniqueness, not a brand that is just like everyone else. So what makes you and your brand different? 

Put your own spin on trends and make it fit you and your business. And, never force yourself to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with or just plain don’t want to do! You need to do what works best for you, although it may be good to step out of your comfort zone every now and then. 

Let your brand stand out and be authentic in your videos!

Focus on engagement

Engagement is key to having success on your TikTok account! It’s a great space to get to connect with other business owners and learn from each other. If you’re wanting to see more of a specific type of content, engaging with it and giving it a like or a comment is how you do that. 

TikTok will take that and show you more of what you are interested in. So not only will engagement help with potential buyers, but it can also help with finding related content to yours and also give you inspiration. 

Another important thing to remember is always replying to comments on your own posts, because you want to grow those relationships and build followers that could lead to sales. You want to show your viewers that you care about their input and want to continue receiving engagement.

Use all of your social media platforms

Repurposing content is such an important way to save you some time and get this content that you worked hard on out to other platforms! Take your TikTok and turn it into an Instagram Reel, send it out to your email list, turn it into a Youtube video, etc.

You want to increase engagement across all your platforms so find ways to share this content in more than just your TikTok account!

Be consistent!

Consistency is what you will hear preached over and over again for social media. And that is definitely true for TikTok as well! The more you can consistently pump out content for the platform, the better. 

But even if you can only put out one TikTok video a day, keep that going consistently! The algorithm will favor your videos if they see that you are putting out content regularly, and this will mean getting your content seen by more eyes. 

You can batch create your content so that you can have plenty of content ready to go for when you need to post videos, rather than scrambling to create videos each day. Come up with a content plan and know exactly what you want posted and when. This will make the whole process easier and make sure that you’re consistently posting on your TikTok account!

Using Instagram to Promote Etsy Businesses

Instagram has been around for much longer than TikTok and there is still so much potential on the platform! There are so many different ways you can grow your Etsy shop and share who you are to bring in more Etsy sales and have more eyes on your Etsy products. It’s all about just using Instagram the right way and showcasing your shop.

15 Instagram Tips and Tricks for Etsy Small Business Owners

Here are some of the best tips and tricks to use Instagram for an Etsy Shop and grow your small business!

Make your content unique + eye-catching

Take time to look at some of the popular accounts out there, especially ones that are related to your niche on the Etsy platform and have similar products. What do their static images look like? What do their Reels look like? 

There’s usually something that makes these posts stand out for this brand, but still has a cohesive feel to other Instagram accounts. But across the board, it should be obvious from each account what they are selling or what they are all about. And this is important for you also!

If you are posting a mix of different posts where they may see some of your personal photos vs some of your products, it may be confusing what your Instagram account is about. You want it to be very clear what you are posting and keep it one-of-kind, rather than trying to recreate someone else’s posts. 

Take time to make sure your content is high-quality and beautiful to the eye so it draws attention to your products!

Naturally promote your products

Not only do you need to create unique and eye-catching content, but it also should feel very natural. You don’t want Instagram posts that feel pushy and make your followers feel like they’re being forced into buying something. 

Your posts should just be posts about your online business, what you sell, and about you and then maybe this will encourage sales. You don’t need to be constantly pushing why someone would need to buy your products. Keep it natural! 

Your followers should want to buy from your shop just because they like your products and who you are!

Let your followers get to know you

Social media is all about connecting and growing relationships. This means that if you are only posting about your Etsy business and not trying to show glimpses into who you are, you may struggle to bring in sales. People don’t just want to see your finished products!

They want to know more about the person behind it, how they got started, what they’re passionate about, how they make their products, etc. Some people may not feel comfortable sharing too much about themselves, so there’s ways you can do this without putting your face or your family out there too much. 

Experiment to find out what works

Using Instagram as a marketing strategy can take some time to figure out. You need to watch for what is working, and what isn’t. You can experiment with different types of posting (stories, static posts, Reels), or different types of content and figure out what resonates with your followers. 

When you are experimenting, you need to take time to look at the results. Which posts had the most engagement? Which posts were shared the most? And then from here analyze the post. Was it the caption or call-to-action? Was it the quality of the image or video? 

Did you post it at a different time of day? Or maybe it was the hashtags you used. There is so much you can analyze and from here you can experiment even more! Basically you can continue to experiment, because you never know when things may change and different content may resonate with people. 

Show behind the scenes

As we already mentioned a few times, people love seeing behind-the-scenes of small businesses! They want to know how it works, and especially how you create your products. This may bring in more buyers once they see how much love and hard work goes into a product!

You can show behind the scenes of a lot of things! It can be you coming up with a design and sketching it out. You can show behind-the-scenes of actually making your product. You can show a behind-the-scenes of your workspace, or you packaging an order. There’s really such a wide range of ways you can show your followers what it looks like on the backend!

Giving people this glimpse of what goes on that they don’t normally see will really help you stand out and help the buyers feel more of a closeness with you. Which can then end up potentially turning into a sale!

Engage with your followers

As we mentioned with TikTok, engagement is just as important on Instagram! Interacting within the comments can make a big difference on your organic reach on the platform, which you definitely want to take advantage of!

Instagram may also be somewhere that buyers feel they can come to you for questions, rather than a message on Etsy. So you need to watch for questions about your products, because a quick and helpful answer could mean a sale!

You want to also show that you care about your followers and that you don’t use the platform solely for making money. You want them to feel that they are important to you and that you take your customer service seriously. So plan on setting aside time to engage with your followers!

Find your target audience

Part of figuring out what to post means figuring out who your target audience is. Instagram is really helpful with providing some of these insights, like your audience’s age, gender, and location. So taking time to evaluate these insights will help you figure out who is interested in your content and may be potential buyers. 

Once you have an idea of who your target audience is, you can start gearing your content toward those specific people. You will see the type of content they prefer and continue to create content geared towards them. 

Take advantage of Reels

Video marketing is huge right now, which is a big part of why TikTok has become so popular. Reels were started as a way to compete and are perfect for getting your products in front of a lot of eyes. Many people worry about having to get in front of the camera, but you can either try to find ways around having your face actually in the video, or push past the hesitation and just create videos!

If you are wanting to really have success on Instagram, then Reels are definitely an area to focus on. Instagram has said that they will favor video content over static content, so if you are only posting images or carousel-type posts, then there’s a good chance your content may not bring in a lot of traffic. 

It’s a learning curve to figure out how to do Reels, but it will be worth your time!

Utilize captions and hashtags

Captions are a way to branch off of whatever message you are conveying with your image or video. It is where you can really go in-depth about your product, your process, or even just fun aspects about you and your life. Longer captions tend to bring more engagement, but you can always experiment to see what works for you and your audience. 

You also want to add a few hashtags that relate to the content you are posting, but don’t just choose any random hashtag that pops in your head. Do your research and figure out which hashtags are popular, but also not too popular. You can start by using the Explore tab, or even just searching related keyphrases and navigating to the “hashtags” tab to see relevant tags. 

You can experiment with hashtags as well and be consistent in changing them up and not always using the same hashtag combinations. As far as how many, everyone tends to say something different but you can always aim for about 5-10 hashtags per post. 

Many people tend to post their hashtags as a comment rather than the caption to have it feel less cluttered, and that can be an option as well. 

Use call to actions

You don’t want to just post and then not give your followers a next action step to take. Of course you don’t want it to feel too pushy or unnatural, as we mentioned above, but you do want to encourage them to take an action. 

Maybe this is to comment below and let you know their favorite holiday, or to go to your stories to see a sneak peek at a new product coming to your shop. You just want to keep them in engaged in your content, so giving them an action step is important!

Use your Instagram stories 

Instagram stories are such a unique opportunity for connecting with your potential buyers that you don’t want to miss out on! Since these are temporary, this means they are the perfect place for you to be able to connect with your followers in a more real way, without worrying about everything being perfectly branded, edited, and scheduled. 

This is the perfect place for you to share more about yourself and let buyers get to know you! This can be where you provide more of a behind-the-scenes, and a bit more about your personal life. Obviously, you don’t want to overdo it, but you do want to give glimpses into who you are and more about your business. 

Here are a few ways you can use Instagram stories as an Etsy seller: 

• Show a sneak peek of a new product coming out
• Take them behind-the-scenes of a photoshoot for your products
• Use polls and ask questions to not only increase engagement with your audience, but to also gain some insight from your followers and figure out what your target market is looking for
• Run promotions! Since these stories are temporary, it’s a great way to offer a quick sale or offer a freebie and only the people that view your story in time can utilize it. 

There really is so much you can do with Stories, and to get an idea of what this can look like, start following some small businesses similar to yours and see what they are doing. What do you think you could do better? Or what would you share instead? 

Make this a space to really grow relationships with your followers!

Tell the story of your brand

We’ve touched on this already, but really share the inspiration behind your brand and how you got started. Maybe everyone doesn’t have this amazing story behind their shops, but there’s still reasons you got started as small business owners! 

It could be because your grandmother taught you how to knit when you were a kid and that got you to love crafting. Or, maybe you were a mom looking for a way to be able to stay at home with your children and turned a passion into income. Whatever your reasons, share this with your followers!

There’s a good chance you will find people out there that resonate with you and will have more admiration for you and your business. Feeling like people can relate to you and that they know the story behind your shop will grow relationships and that could lead to sales!

Use influencer marketing

This route may not be for everyone, especially since it may cost a good chunk of money, but hiring an influencer to promote your products could get your items in front of a lot more eyes. This could mean that you make up the money that you spent on the influencer, and hopefully even more. 

A few things to keep in mind though is that first of all, you would need to find an influencer that would be sharing with your target audience, because otherwise it is wasted. You want to be sure that their followers are the type of people that would buy your product. 

Second, you shouldn’t be reaching out to influencers letting them know that you would be giving them the product for free in exchange for posting to your audience, because most influencers will not accept that. And if they do, they may not be the right ones for the job!

Again, this is a route that may not fit you and your business, but is an option for some!

Be consistent

Just as it’s important for TikTok, consistency is also very important for Instagram as well. The algorithms on Instagram are always about consistency, but it’s also about being in people’s heads. You want them to know who you are because you post so consistently and they know to expect that content. 

This means putting up a post regularly, as well as showing up daily to Instagram Stories. This may seem overwhelming but it can often be quick, and would be worth the traffic and potential sales that come your way. 

If you’re spending the time to work on your social media platform, you want it to be worth it right? So make sure you are being consistent in posting and showing up regularly, and Instagram will favor your content!

Have fun with it!

If you’re not enjoying Instagram, there’s a good chance you may not bring in a lot of traffic and you may just end up wanting to quit. So why not make it something that you enjoy? What are some of the things you love about your business and how can you tie this into social media? 

Do you like being on Stories? Spend more time there and put your focus on ways to really engage your followers there. Do you enjoy making Reels from trending audio? Then make this your focus! Just do what you enjoy, as well as making sure your followers will enjoy it also.

Etsy Explore and Final Etsy Seller Tips

TikTok and Instagram are both very powerful tools that an Etsy seller can use to skyrocket their sales.

Etsy has also just launched its Explore feature so learning how to make video content for your shop can be tremendously helpful for using Etsy explore.

Too often sellers feel too intimidated to even get started, but once you take time to do your research and figure out your direction, it will be worth it when you see those sales rolling in!

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