Your Etsy business brand – make your Etsy shop stand out

When building an Etsy business brand, start by understanding what makes you different. Listen to what other people say about you and how they perceive you and your business.

What exactly is an Etsy business brand?

Before we start, let’s focus on the importance of building a brand and not just a business.

Overall, a business markets a product or service – that’s all. But a brand is different.

It is the heart and soul of your business.

It is the recognizable personality, the vision and the voice behind what you’re offering.

To build a successful Etsy business brand you need to grow trust and create connection with your audience. A brand is about how your customers feel when they interact with your Etsy shop, for example.

Many people view brand as the logos and look of a business but it’s so much more than that.

Your Etsy business brand is the vision and the mission of your business.

Be super focused with your Etsy business brand

When I started my first Etsy shop, I wanted to please everyone I came into contact with.

I spoke to customers generically and I altered my brand to meet their needs.

Wanting to please, I bent over backwards to make the custom designs they were asking for even though these didn’t fit into my brand or vision for my business.

I was so desperate to get a sale that I abandoned the mission of my business. Eventually, feeling overworked and disappointed, I decided to only create designs and invites that belonged to my vision for my Etsy business.

And everything changed.

I was speaking to a much smaller audience, but I was getting consistent sales.

So, my message to you is –

Build a brand not just a business.

How to build an Etsy business brand

Now you understand the importance of a brand, how do you go about building it?

Want to know how I did my branding? I have a workbook that shows you the exact path I followed to build my brand which you are welcome to download and use for your business.

So, let’s get started. 

Firstly, to truly understand your Etsy business brand you need to focus on your vision and your mission for your business. Therefore, let’s consider each of these in turn:

Your vision

Your vision is made up of the aspirations and the long-term goals you have for your business.

First clarify what your aspirations are for your business and define the direction you want your business to move in.

• How do you want your business to look in the future?
• What is the wider impact that you aim to create with your business?
• What are your long-term goals?

If you can communicate your vision for the direction you want your business to move in, then you will attract customers whose values resonate with your own.

Customers will support businesses that share the same values as they do.

As a result, your vision statement will add meaning behind why you run your business.

Your mission

Your mission reflects what you do, why you do it and the value you bring to your customers.

It sets out tangible goals and allows customers to identify with your business.

To clarify, the mission is front and centre of all decision making.

In other words, having a mission statement gives you a framework to keep you focused when making business decisions.

So, by sharing your mission through your brand, a customer can understand that your products are made for someone like them.

Warning: nailing down your mission is a tricky, messy process. It involves scribbling, long periods of reflection and lots of searching questioning. But I promise, it will all be worth it. However, don’t despair.  Instead use my Etsy Business Brand Workbook and trust me. By the end of the process you should aim to have 3 magical sentences that define your business beautifully.

Ultimately, you’re considering the answer to a number of questions:

Who?

Whom are you serving?

You can find lots of tips on figuring this out in this post.

What?

What value do you give to your customers? That is, how do they benefit from your business?

What problems are you solving?

Why?

Why did you start your Etsy shop? In other words, what’s the story behind you getting started?

Why are you producing the products you are making?

Channel your inner toddler and every time you answer one “why” respond with another “why”. This will help you to dig deep into why you do what you do.

How?

How do you incorporate your values into your business? 

After answering these questions you should be able to compose some sentences that describe the mission of your Etsy business.

Etsy business brand design

So, now you’ve done the tricky part. You’ve identified your vision and you have a beautiful mission statement for your business.

Now you are ready to decide how you want your brand to look and feel.

I urge you not to spend too much time on this part of your brand.

You can make a logo and choose colours, select fonts and decide on a brand voice in a day. You honestly don’t need to spend any more time than this in deciding your visual brand identity.

It’s much more important to know who you are serving and what value you are offering than what your brand looks like.

The only thing that is important is that you are consistent.

That is, you need to be using the same fonts, colours and voice throughout your Etsy shop and across your social media platforms.

Make a mood board

First, collect some images on Pinterest to make a mood board like this one.  Look for colours, fonts and designs that inspire you and Pin anything that you would like to influence your Etsy shop’s look.

Choose 5 colours for your colour palette with at least 2 of these being neutral. Go to Adobe Color for inspiration. This is the colour palette and other brand elements I chose for Abbey Gate Designs:

Choose your fonts

Now, find the fonts you want to use.  The only rules are that your shop logo and any text in banners should be easy to read and pleasing to look at.  Here are some popular font combinations you might want to consider:

Create a logo

Next, using the inspiration ideas you’ve collected, hop on over to Canva and make a logo. If you need some help, here’s a useful tutorial for how to do this:

To save you some time, I have some editable branding sets available in my Etsy shop.  All you need to do add your business name to the template and you can download your branded items in minutes. Pop over to MiriCampbell to take a look.

Define your brand personality

Now it’s time to identify your brand personality. Look at this diagram and decide where your business lies

Grab your free Etsy business brand workbook here:

Now have a go at developing your own Etsy business brand

You now have all the tools you need to develop an impressive Etsy business brand.  

To sum up, you have identified what you stand for, who you serve, and what your business looks like.  Consequently, you’re ready to go out into the world and share your awesome products with customers who’ll be queuing up to buy.

I’d love to hear about your journey into developing a brand.

Have you made a brand you’re proud of?

Drop me a line below with a link so I can take a look…