By Rex Hammock
Founder and CEO

Earlier this week, the craft and handmade marketplace Etsy announced that, in April, it will be launching a new B2B marketplace to expand the services the company provides to its maker/sellers. In addition to its current emphasis on helping members sell their products, the new Etsy Studio will provide members easy, direct access to vendors they use to create their crafts and other products.

How content is the foundation of Etsy Studio

As part of the launch, Etsy is developing an array of instructional support to help members source materials, create and market their products, and sell them online, at live craft events, and even to retailers.

Etsy Studio will feature 60 tutorials on everything from customizing a cutting board to creating a bezel setting for a ring. Each tutorial will link to all the supplies required to complete the project, giving users the option of buying all the products at once or picking and choosing which ones they need.

At Hammock, we call this use of customer media “content-enabling commerce.” While marketing with content is great for search engine marketing and lead generation, Etsy and others are demonstrating how marketers can provide content that also leads a customer to the checkout counter and beyond.

Lesson for marketers: Look for ways to integrate content into the sales process. Buyer guides, how-tos and instructional media should be considered an enabler of commerce, not a resource that is several clicks away from commerce.

Image: Etsy.com



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