Selling digital products on Etsy could be tough.
With thousands and thousands of digital products competing for attention, effective marketing strategies are essential to getting traffic and sales.
Over the years, I’ve gained experience selling digital products on Etsy, accumulated over 10,000 sales. This includes Canva templates and editable designs on platforms like Corjl and JetTemplate.
I’ve put together this practical guide of how to build a stronger foundation and bring in more traffic to your digital product Etsy shop.
Let’s get started.
When selling digital products, Etsy SEO is crucial in generating free, organic search traffic on Etsy. For many Etsy shops, the majority of your traffic will likely come from Etsy search.
Start by optimising your titles with SEO-friendly long-tail keywords. Instead of generic titles, think about what makes your products special. For example, instead of "digital planner," be specific and try something like "minimalist Goodnotes digital planner for university students." This long-tail keyword not only describes what the product is but also targets a specific audience. To think about the long-tail keywords you should use, here are a few areas you can think of:
Also, remember to use all 13 tags. First, match your keywords from the title. Then, add relevant words to mix-and-match with your keywords to get extra listing tags. For example, if you have “2oz dropper bottle label”, you can add relevant words like “packaging” and “editable” to get tags like “2oz packaging label” and “editable label”.
Your listing photos are the first thing shoppers see, and they need to make an impact. Making listing photos for digital products is a bit different than photographing physical products.
For digital products, I’d recommend creating mockup product photos for your designs. They help buyers envision the end product, making it feel more tangible even though they’re only purchasing a digital file. I use Artboard Studio to create my mockup photos for my Etsy shops, but there are plenty of other tools available in the market like Placeit and Freepik Mockup.
It’s also very common for digital product sellers to add text overlays to your photos. The aim is to provide information to shoppers that they may otherwise miss easily. You can use the extra text to highlight key features, outline the buying process and more.
Digital product niches are almost always competitive. To have a better chance of standing out, I recommend niching down.
Rather than competing with thousands of generic products in a big niche, you can choose to niche down and focus on a smaller group of target customers. For example, instead of creating just another menu design, make one that is specifically targeted towards veg-friendly cafes with extra icons for dietary requirements like ‘gluten free’ and ‘vegan options’. This way, you’re not just another option; you’re the best option for that specific group of buyers.
Offering a bonus can set you apart from the competition. The key is to make the bonus relevant and valuable to your target customer. For example, if your Etsy shop that specialises in resume templates, you could offer a free resume writing guide with every purchase. This not only adds value but also encourages customers to choose your shop over others.
This works best for shops that have a clearly defined group of customers, because this way, you can create one bonus that can be used for all your listings, just like the example of the resume template shop above. If your shop sells a wider variety of designs, find a common asset that could benefit the largest amount of customers. For example, in my shop, I offer an icon pack that customers can copy and paste into their designs, which can be a bonus for a wide variety of designs like business cards, hang tags and packaging labels.
After focusing on the previous strategies (SEO & listing optimisations), then you can explore the option to get traffic through social media marketing.
Instagram and TikTok are popular social media platforms for digital product Etsy sellers. But just posting your designs or mockup photos isn’t going to get you much engagement.
One of my favourite methods to get engagements is to show your creative process. Post time-lapse videos of you designing a template, share behind-the-scenes content, or create short clips that show how your products can be used. For example, if you’re selling a Canva template for social media posts, you could show a quick tutorial on how to customise it for different brands. This kind of content is not only engaging but also helps potential customers see the value and versatility of your product. Take this Instagram reel as an example by Posterlad:
One of the best ways to increase your profit margins is by offering bundles. Digital products, especially Canva templates, have low production costs, so bundling multiple items together can boost your average order value, therefore profit margin. Bundles are usually offered at a discounted price compared to buying the designs separately.
A well-crafted bundle offers more value to the customer. The benefit usually lies in the convenience in the case of digital products. For example, a wedding template bundle can include everything that a couple needs like invitation, seating chart, welcome sign and more, so that it saves them time and hassle to put together all the designs.
For digital products, Etsy ads may or may not work for you. This is mainly due to the lower price point of digital products. I’ve run ads for my shop, which has about 8,000 sales, but found that they weren’t particularly profitable. In most cases, I was just about breaking even. That’s why I recommend approaching Etsy ads with caution.
Instead, focus your efforts on methods that have a higher return on your time, like optimising your SEO and improving your listings. If you do decide to run ads, start with your best selling listings and those with high conversion rate, and closely monitor your results.
I hope you can apply these strategies to grow your digital product Etsy shop, especially strengthening your SEO and optimising your listings for a strong foundation.
If you are selling (or thinking of selling) Canva templates, this practical guide walks you through step-by-step of how to sell Canva templates on Etsy.
Or read this inspiration post for 30 popular digital product ideas for Etsy sellers.
