How to Promote Your Etsy Shop with Instagram

Regularly posting the items from your Etsy shop on Instagram will keep your followers interested (and hopefully ordering!). Share a photo and a link to the listing for your products and be sure to add hashtags that apply to your item. Hashtags are words with the “#” symbol in front- #Etsy and #handmade are two hashtags that I use regularly when promoting my products on Instagram. They are a great way to gain new followers and likes for your photos and account because they are searchable (you can click on a hashtag, or even type in the word in the search feature on the app, and find posts that also used that hashtag).

A brief word on Instagram filters:
One of the reasons Instagram is so popular is that it has a set of amazing filters that can improve and alter the look of your images. It’s fine to use their filters when posting your products on Instagram, but make sure that you aren’t changing the photos so much that they don’t truly represent what you’re selling. You never want a customer to be confused about what they are buying and receiving, so you should never use filtered photos for your listings on Etsy.

Find and follow bloggers, magazine editors, stylists, and boutiques that you find interesting on Instagram. This way, you can keep up with current trends, blogs your products have been featured on, and stores that carry your items–or those that may want to in the future! It’s an easy way to make connections for your Etsy business, especially if they follow you back.

There are also Instagram accounts that exclusively promote items from Etsy. If you’re hashtagging your posts with “#Etsy”, they will most likely find your Instagram posts, but you can also search for these accounts. Follow their specific instructions for being “featured” on these pages- some require you to hashtag or email them for a paid promotion. If your products are promoted this way it’s essential to share the love with a “shout-out” to them on your Instagram and other social networks.

Offering a giveaway, contest, or sale on your account is another effective way to market your Etsy shop on Instagram. You can partner with a blogger and cross-promote a giveaway on both of your pages to increase brand exposure and get even more people to participate. Running a giveaway will help you gain new followers- including ones who may eventually become customers in your Etsy store.

If you’re having a sale in your Etsy shop it’s also a good idea to promote it on Instagram.
Just post a picture with the details of the sale along with a link to your shop, any applicable coupon codes, and hashtags that will draw in shoppers! The Black Friday / Small Business Saturday / Cyber Monday weekend is one of the best times to run a sale and notify your followers on Instagram.