Jewelry marketing lessons for growth

from Southern Jewelry News Digital Magazine

QUaLiTY

By André Savoie

This time of year, I hear from many jewelers who want to talk about how to hit their goals for the rest of the year. It’s even more interesting this year, given how last year ended up going. Many jewelers reported having down years. Meanwhile, others held steady or even grew.

These differences didn’t happen because of random chance. There’s a specific reason these businesses succeeded while others didn’t: they focused on their marketing. There are plenty of ways to do this, but we’re going to share three surefire tips that we know get results for jewelers.

#1 - Build Your Audience

Throughout the Year

You may have heard this advice before, but do you really understand WHY it’s so important?

The reality is the majority of sales, especially from big events during the holiday season, come from what we call your “warm” audiences. Warm audiences are your past clients, email lists, social followers, and website visitors - people who know your brand and have already bought from you.

This past year, we ran a Black Friday promo for one of our clients. Their business sold around $20k in products on an ad spend of $2500.

Seems like great numbers, right?

But if you break them down, you’ll find that nearly $17k of the sales came from their warm audiences. Only $3k came from nonconnected customers.

These results are typical of many campaigns we run. Don’t rely on one-time buyers for your revenue, warm audiences are what produce big results.

Lesson learned: If you want a massive return on ad spend, build your audience throughout the year.

#2 - Train Your Warm Audiences

As much as people crave surprises, customers like to know what to expect. If your brand has an annual sale or event like Black Friday, you’ll want to keep things consistent, and it’s likely your customers will buy every year.

On the flip side, here’s something interesting: our best clients never run sales. They run special events, but they never have sales or even discounts on their products. Yet they manage to sell big numbers.

It may seem counterintuitive, but what this strategy does is train their client base to not expect or wait for a sale during the year. Instead, they emphasize their competitive pricing positioning at all times.

Then, during peak times like the holiday season or Valentine’s Day, they offer things like new merchandise or customized shopping experiences. They know their warm audience, so they’re able to offer things that have big value to those audiences, much more so than a discount.

Since people who follow their brand aren’t expecting a discount, it doesn’t influence their midamericajewelrynews.com buying decision. And the client protects their profit margins by not discounting in the first place.

Lesson learned: Train your audience to not expect sales. Instead, offer specialized events and products during peak seasons.

#3 - Don’t Get Overly Focused on Channel Attribution

While everyone wants to know what their best-performing marketing channels are, I caution you not to get hung up on the ROI from any one channel. Instead, keep a close eye on the bottom line.

Today’s marketing attribution models are flawed despite all the advances in technology. Plus, the iOS and privacy laws have made direct channel attribution even trickier. Throw in branded advertising like radio or TV, and it’s anyone’s guess which marketing channel gets credit for store traffic or sales.

Take, for example, the client I mentioned earlier - the one who ran the Black Friday promo. $2,500 was spent on social media ads. The direct, attributable sales of $20,000 were from Facebook and Instagram.

However, the client recorded $120,000 in total sales over the weekend.

The client used a mix of tactics, including organic social media, emphasizing the special offer on their website, and email marketing. But can we be 100% sure that only $20k of their $120k haul came from the social ads? We don’t think so.

Watch the bottom-line numbers to evaluate how your campaigns are performing. You’ll be glad you did.

Lesson learned: Don’t get hung up on one advertising channel. Instead, focus on your bottom line.

Summary

Many jewelers watch their competitors run sales during the holidays, and they can’t help but wonder if those campaigns are working better than theirs. Don’t take the bait.

Focus on building your list throughout the year, train your audience on what they can expect, and deliver value to them throughout the year. Then, you’ll be ready for the big times of the year and have a stable audience you can rely on. And when the time comes to look at the numbers, don’t get too focused on which reports show the best numbers. Stay focused on the bottom line.

André Savoie is the founder of High Level Thinkers, a digital marketing agency serving local jewelers with digital marketing, including Facebook, Instagram & Google advertising, local SEO, email marketing & more. For more information, contact André at andre@highlevelthinkers.com, 504-669-3207 or visit www.HighLevelThinkers.com.

GIA examines 34.59 carat CVD laboratory-grown diamond

(CARLSBAD, Calif.) - The GIA (Gemological Institute of America) laboratory in Hong Kong recently evaluated the largest chemical vapor deposition (CVD) laboratory-grown diamond seen by the Institute. Produced by Ethereal Green Diamond in India, the 34.59 ct, 24.94 × 13.95 × 9.39 mm, emerald-cut laboratory-grown diamond was evaluated as VS2, G color. The size of the largest CVD diamond seen by GIA increased by 111% since the Institute reported on a then recordsized 16.41 ct CVD laboratory-grown diamond in 2022.

Gems & Gemology (G&G), GIA’s quarterly professional journal, recently published an online research note that includes all observations and spectroscopic features of this latest record CVD-grown diamond. The research note will appear in the Summer 2023 print edition of the journal.

“This more than two-fold increase in size within one year is an impressive technical achievement in CVD diamond growth,” said Tom Moses, GIA executive vice president and chief laboratory and research officer. “With such production improvements, correct identification and disclosure are critical to maintaining consumer trust; this is another example of why GIA devotes significant resources and research to protect consumer confidence.”

This 34.59 ct CVD laboratory-grown diamond has minute features that resulted in it being evaluated as VS2 for clarity. Researchers found small black graphite inclusions, some along the inside of the body, while others formed clusters of clouds between growth layers. Microscopic observation showed a weak “oily” or wavy graining looking through the table, a feature sometimes seen in CVD laboratory-grown diamonds.

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