READ THIS FULLY AND CAREFULLY, this CAN MAKE

OR BREAK your entire business.

Most of the businesses that fail DO FAIL because they don’t have a story. The business they created has nothing to deal with their own story, feeling, passion, knowledge or life experiences.

You have your story and a message to tell with your brand.

You may not want to become a personal brand - BUT I PERSONALLY THINK YOU SHOULD GO ALL-IN WITH THAT…

This is how I understand things and how we could leverage your story: It is your passion to create and design so people can experience the passion you put into everything you do, enhancing their happiness in life.

Your brand has A LOT of things to say.

THIS IS THE KEY of everything FROM NOW ON.

I want you to get back to the very beginning.

This is something we don’t do, when we first start.

However, trust my experience, it is now critical = a niche isn’t even enough, in 2023.

It used to be, a few years back. But hear me out, I don’t have the right numbers BUT every day, at every minute, every second: a new shop is being created on Etsy. Multiply this by 10 for shops created on Amazon, on Shopify, on Squarespace, on Wix, on eBay and so on.

Selling and shopping online is becoming part of our every-day life.

And people that are selling THE EXACT same products that you do will keep coming in. They will keep coming in with cheaper prices, shortest delivery time, quicker production time, stronger message and so on.

Does it mean your business is now gone? NO.

Does it mean you’ll have to level up and be super clear and explicit with what you have to offer, to stand out? YES.

Every successful businesses started SMALL and SPECIFIC. Amazon did too, selling specific books at first.

The key is to get specific first, and expand later.

You get the point = the world does NOT need more products in the marketplace these days. The world needs solution to our problems.

I want you to become a problem solver, and not JUST a seller anymore.

You now need to understand the reasons behind why people do things, because only once you do, you can understand why they will or will not, or haven't bought what you sell yet, and influence them so they will in the future.

This might be quite funny to hear BUT this is a fact, people don't buy products. They buy feelings and outcome.

And here are the exact 2 things they buy what they buy :

They're EITHER scared to miss out on something

They want to upgrade, improve their life or gain pleasure.

Gaining pleasure and avoiding pains are the two main motivations for their actions, in anything they do in life.

Your goal is to find the pleasure they wish to gain and the pain they wish to avoid, by understanding (AND WRITING THESE THINGS DOWN) deeply about what they are struggling with, what are their pain points and what are their best aspirations and their desires - and then show them how your products appears to be THE SOLUTION for it - so either to improve their life OR to reduce their struggle.

THIS IS WHERE YOU WILL START, today. Back to your basics.

So what's coming next is crucial.

I'm about to ask you a question.

The answer is from you and for you. This is not a challenge, you don't have to prove anything, it is honestly for you so you need to be honest with yourself on this.

Can you say in a single sentence what your brand is all about? What is your 'straight to the point answer' when someone asks, ‘so what do you do’?

Also known as the ‘elevator pitch’. You are in an elevator, and you have 10 seconds to explain to the person next to you what you do before you arrive at your floor. What would you say?

Let's talk formula. (don't worry, we aren't doing maths, otherwise I would have never wrote all of this!)

I [your name] or We [your brand's name] help X to achieve Y by Z.

X = Your target clients.

Y = What you help your target clients achieve. The outcome.

Z = How you do it

Examples of my own niche: 5 Dollar Friday is helping ambitious driven small business owners to launch, grow and scale their online store through resources, tools and constant individual support.

If you aren't able to complete this fully, read further. We aren't done!

You don't need to come up with a crazy 'problem - solution' idea. Or to stay hours and hours sitting on a chair trying to find the new revolutionary product.

Not at all.

It just needs to be clear. You need to be THE BRAND that points this out, to stand out.
The problem you are about to solve can even be very small, very insignificant.

The key is to create a clever cohesion between all of your existing and future new products.

Remember that people buys outcome, they buy benefits, they buy the end experience. Attract the same group of people that have one struggle in common to market your products to them. Nothing more.

Today, the only way to set your business for success, you will need to get crystal clear on the the problem you are about to solve to move forward. It needs to be:
a topic you are PASSIONATE about, like an obsession, something you will be able to talk about DAY IN - DAY OUT.

a problem/need that people WOULD BE WILLING to pay you money for to get it solved/fulfilled. (and this is VERY important, because in business, nothing happens until a sale is made. No demand? No business.)

To me, the only way to successfully solve a problem is a problem that you're trying to overcome and actively looking for solutions (creating products) OR a problem you ALREADY overcame yourself.

Your content on Instagram, your content on Pinterest, your design on your website, your pictures on your product pages, your product description on Etsy, your business cards, every banner from your Etsy stores or website, the emails you're going to send to your email list, the people you are going to target on your social media, the hashtags you're going to be using.

Everything will be around that. This is going to become your message, the problem that you solve.

The problem you solve should be ONE problem ONLY.

Examples of my own:

• Drinking 2L of water a day
• Staying motivated to go to run every day
• Keeping all my ideas in ONE place, organised
• Setting up boundaries between family time and work time
• Coping with the loss of my mum
• Struggled a lot to understand how taxes and VAT work
• Struggling to create a course from A to Z
• Not knowing how to use Excel Software
• Keeping my kids entertain without cartoons on week ends
• Warming my kids milk when travelling
• Not finding a "all boho everything" store in the high street
• Not finding matchy outfits for mum and kids in the UK
• Fear that my newborns would stop breathing while asleep
• Keeping my house organised and decluttered to maximise productivity

Once again - the problem you want to start solving now will become the reason your business exists.

Take the time you need to think what you want to be known and remember for.

FIND YOUR NICHE

Get started on the right foot with our exclusive workbook 'How to Niche Down and Solve a Problem'.

Designed to help you identify a profitable niche and develop unique solutions for your target market, this workbook offers clear, actionable steps to build a strong foundation for your business.

And best of all, it's FREE for our members!

SELECT YOUR BRAND'S COLOURS

Colour can play a major role in your potential customers decision-making. Without even knowing what your product is about, customers will rely on brand colours to decide whether or not they want to engage and learn more about your brand.

Moreover, repetition of the same colour(s) can strengthen brand recognition and awareness. If you are consistent with your brand colours, they become part of your brand in the eyes of your target audience.

Now - when picking your brand colours, there are a number of things you need to consider. First, you need to think of your target audience. Who is your target audience, what do they care about, what mood do they need to be in to engage with your products and brand?

Best practice would be to select 3 colours and 3 fonts.

And stick to them forever.

Ok, so your brand will/or already has its own personality, just like colours, and customers go after products that match their own. Defining your brand personality helps customers make purchasing decisions, and it helps you target the right people/right audience.

So, what’s your brand personality?

Start by asking yourself these six questions:

• Gender: Is my brand traditionally masculine or feminine? (It can be both. Mine is.)
• Tone: Is my brand playful, formal, funny, casual, empowering, serious...?
• Perceived Value: Is my brand luxurious or affordable?
• Time: Is my brand modern, old school or classic?
• Age: Is my brand youthful or mature?

Energy: Is my brand loud or subdued?

Your answers will give you an idea of your brand personality.

We say "first impressions count."

The first thing a customer sees about your business is your brand colours.

What do you want your customers to feel when they think or hear about your brand?

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION THAT SELLS

This cheat-sheet will clearly be THE game changer for you to start creating MORE listings and products.

You'll be able to craft your product description FASTER and turn all your previous boring ones into high converting machines.

Are you tired of struggling to come up with product descriptions that truly capture the essence of your products and convert potential customers? Do you worry that your current product descriptions might be turning off potential buyers or not helping you rank under the right long-tail keywords? Then look no further, Upstrider's Product Description Service is here to solve these problems...

THE ABC METHOD.

Type in the search bar the first extra broad keyword you've got in mind for the product you want to list. For example, here we use 'Straw hat'. When you finish writing the word, you will notice that the Etsy search engine offers you a list of words related to your search. Now, you've got a few options. If you add the word 'for' to 'straw hat', you will see another variety of keywords.

Type in the search bar the first extra broad keyword you've got in mind for the product you want to list. For example, here we use 'Straw hat'. When you finish writing the word, you will notice that the Etsy search engine offers you a list of words related to your search. Now, you've got a few options. If you add the word 'for' to 'straw hat', you will see another variety of keywords.

TITLE: Now, you should have your main keyword chosen. You will now be placing the most relevant long-tail keywords at the beginning of your product title, this will let the buyer know exactly what the product you are selling is about, resulting in more clicks, fav, and so... more sales.

I'm deciding to go for 'Personalised Name Straw Hat', as my main keyword, for my very first listing.

Note that each of your title should be different, otherwise you will be competing with yourself when ranking. And as Etsy points out, 'keep a buyer in mind, not a computer.' The language used in the titles should be as natural as possible, and readable from a human.

OK. Then let's craft the rest of it. THE KEY HERE is to allow an EXACT MATCH to happen. Sellers forget that and often, they will want to stuff all their keywords in there, even if they don't kinda match with each other. You want to find a few other ways to talk about your 'main keyword'. Every keyword will have to turn around that first long-tail. Including your tags. So with this in mind:

TITLE: Personalised Name Straw Hat, Sun Beach Hat with Name Personalisation, Custom Straw Beach Hat, Customised Sun Hat

TAGS: Let's try to understand first what's a tag and what's a keyword.

Keywords are descriptive terms and topics that define what your 'content' is about. They're the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called "search queries."

Tags are what we put into a listing’s tag field to tell Etsy what our item is. Tags are part of the 'metadata' (SEO) for your Etsy listing. They're here to help Etsy’s search engine determine what your item is.

Etsy allows up to 13 tags on your listings. To improve your Etsy shop’s SEO, you have to use all 13 tags. The more keywords you have listed, the more often your products will appear in searchers rankings. Your tags HAVE TO BE longtail keywords or phrases too. The tags on your listing can be up to 20 characters long. Do not use single words, as it won't be helping you to rank higher. For your own information, you can see what kind of 'related tags' are being used, when you click on a listing. Scroll down till the end to find them.

My way of doing things is as follow: once again, I want to turn all my tags around my long-tail keyword so it tells Etsy that this listing is very specific, very niche and so Etsy will push this one up as it will trigger many similar 'search terms' at once when someone start a search.

My tags would be as follow:

TITLE: Personalised Name Straw Hat, Sun Beach Hat with Name Personalisation, Custom Straw Beach Hat, Customised Sun Hat

13 TAGS: Personalised hat, custom hat, straw hat, beach straw hat, personalised sun hat, custom straw sun hat, hat with name, sun beach cream hat, Ivory sun hat, name on sun hat, straw hat custom, customised hat, ivory hat

As you can see here, I've made a lot of repetition and kept using different words - terms combinations. I'm just being very very very specific and very intentional with my listing.

THIS title + tags were turning all around the fact that my hat is Personalised, and that it's a sun beach hat. MAINLY.

This is what I want to show up for, on Etsy.

But it doesn't stop there. I haven't said my last words for this product. In fact, this was only ONE VERSION of my product.

I could open an Etsy store, and have ONLY a stock of straw hats in my office. My store could be up and running with one product only, yet having 100 different listings to be found for. With one single straw hat.

LET ME EXPLAIN.

'Personalised Name Straw Hat' is one listing. (feature target)

'Ivory Straw Beach Hat' is another listing. (colour target)

'Custom Straw Beach Hat with Bows' is another listing. (feature target with bow)

'Bridesmaid Straw Hat' is another listing. (purpose target)

'Wedding Straw Hat' is another listing. (event target)

'Summer Straw Sun Hat' is another listing. (season target)

'Matching Mum Daughter Straw Personalised Hat' is another listing. (feature target)

AND SO ON.

Aim to create a perfect match between your tag + title + the first thumbnail + the product itself (of course!)

• Don't repeat your tags, use 13 DIFFERENT TAGS
• Get your keywords used in your title and create your tags from YOUR TITLE.
• Use long-tailed keywords ONLY until you get consistent sales. Shoppers using long-tailed keywords are much more likely to convert to buyers as they know exactly what they're looking for. Less noise, more targeting.
• Place your main keyword at the very beginning of the title, as it becomes the URL of your 'product page'
• Place all your tags into your description as organically as possible through clear and easy to read sentences
• Etsy does NOT check plurals or singular searches, so you don't need to use these 2 forms in your title or tags. You only get 13 so use them wisely!
• All shop sections filled
• All shop attributes and categories