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Jewelry businesses represent a unique market. They are not aimed at catering to a need, or a comfort. Rather, selling jewelry is based more on promoting emotions using symbolism that can go back to the traditions of hundreds of years ago. That’s where a good jewelry marketing strategy can make a difference.
The industry is dynamic and doesn’t stop growing. Edahn Golan’s US State of the Jewelry Market report indicates that the United States is the world’s leading jewelry consumer with total sales of fine jewelry reaching $68.8 billion. There are different types of jewelry aimed at different types of audiences and consumers. Based on that, creating a marketing strategy that focuses on a specific target audience is important.
Selling jewelry is an art. There may be an innate talent for creating it, but without the right skills and strategies, it can be difficult to get your business ahead and dominate the market. Here, you’ll find some ideas and marketing strategies to boost your jewelry business and reach the right consumers that will support you.
Establish a Target Audience
As stated before, jewelry businesses have different consumers depending on the products they offer. To tackle this, start by considering who your products are aimed toward when creating your complete marketing plan. In this step, you will have to establish your target audience as well as your marketing goals and what makes your potential clients special.
In establishing your audience, you also have to segment the audience to properly implement an effective marketing plan. By analyzing the target audience to identify key segments, you select groups of specific people within your larger audience to specifically target through your marketing efforts.
For your business, it is not about being seen by as many people as possible, but more about attracting the right audience with the right message.
What differentiates segmentation marketing from another type of marketing is that within the group of potential consumers there will always be someone more important. This means that you’ll need to exclude certain people to achieve effective results. While this may seem counterproductive, it is effective because not only will you sell your products, but you will also create a relationship with a satisfied public that will value your products and likely share their satisfaction with like-minded people thus growing your customer base.
Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing (1994) once said:
Segmentation is saying something to someone, instead of saying nothing to everyone.
To send the correct message, you must know to whom it is addressed. The curious thing about this step, as many studies claim, is that by grouping people together you can discover factors that connect them and make them different from the rest. Overall, the purpose of segmentation is to appeal to the interests and needs of your smaller target audience just as you would if they were face to face.
In the case of jewelry, segmentation is much more than basic demographic data such as age and income. They are clearly part of the process, but the purchase of jewelry is an emotional purchase. To define the details of your audience, you can use a segmentation method called market psychography which will allow you to define target details including interests, tastes, image projection, etc.
For example, a specific group of potential buyers may be “the modern mother who works from home” and could be defined in this way:
- She is married and has young children
- Lives in the suburbs, near large cities
- She likes to focus on her family
- Seeks to socialize in different groups such as reading clubs, social dates with other moms, etc.
- She likes gardening and crafts
- Shops at stores like Gap and JC Penney
- She hires a nanny to go to dinner with her partner
The ads focused on that group should be shown in the places that they usually visit and use a language specifically aimed at them. However, the most important thing is that the message evokes a significant emotion.
According to Nancy Lowman LaBadie, the executive vice president of the public relations firm Marina Maher Communications, “Businesses that learn [their] language, understand it and connect with it, will reap the rewards.”
This ad by Mejuri is a great example of how to create a successful campaign by segmenting your audience. A modern woman does not expect gifts to rain on her but works to earn everything. The slogan and the message resonate with the audience and without a doubt achieves results.
Finally, you must determine what makes your product or your brand stand out from the competition. Do you sell fine jewelry for modern mothers? Unique, handmade jewelry? Are you producing environmentally-friendly pieces and promoting the materials’ origins? Once you have determined these aspects, it will be necessary to establish your content around that distinction.
Create an Emotive Story
Emotions are the main force behind a successful marketing campaign. In fact, Capgemini Digital Transformation Institute’s survey states that consumers who are emotionally involved with a company spend twice as much as non-committed customers. This could not be closer to the truth for jewelry businesses.
The purchase of jewelry is an emotional one instead of a purposeful one. For many, it means a significant gift for occasions like Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. For others, it symbolizes the most special purchase of their lives—an engagement ring meant to profess their love for their partner. This is why your marketing campaigns need to create emotional responses in customers.
For example, one of the most successful jewelry campaigns known throughout the industry is De Beers’s Diamonds are Forever campaigns. The iconic phrase came about during a tumultuous moment for the company following the Great Depression. More than 70 years later, the phrase of only four words is loaded with feeling and has become one of the most recognized slogans in marketing.
Today, we can credit De Beers for creating the concept of the diamond wedding ring; before that campaign launched, they were not the standard. With a simple slogan full of symbolism, they managed to completely mold the behavior of an entire culture. That proves what a great emotional campaign can achieve.
A story rich in feelings is the perfect way to present your brand or your business and show what it represents. You can take advantage of the situation and use it as an opportunity to discuss why you decided to create jewelry. You can convey your passion for art or tell your clients that you work to create unforgettable moments in their lives.
Become the business that your potential customers choose to mark a significant moment in their lives. A good emotional campaign for a jewelry store should be:
- Inspiring: to do this, you must understand your customers’ motivations. After you segment your audience, this won’t be difficult for you to do. When people feel inspired, they act differently. Finding a model for an inspiring campaign will also help you achieve an unparalleled connection with your audience.
- Persuasive: this type of emotional campaign plays with your audience’s dreams and their desire to achieve a coveted lifestyle within society. The CEO of Tiffany & Co, Alessandro Bogliolo, created a campaign aimed at millennials despite numerous studies claiming that they do not buy diamonds. His reasoning came from cellphone emojis. Diamonds and other forms of expressing status are frequently used by this group which means there is a sense of personal projection.
- One that expresses love: in the jewelry business, this is one of the most important emotions to express in advertising campaigns. You can use the tried and true story of a couple beginning their marriage and focus your campaign on this key moment in everyone’s lives or you can take advantage of another segment of the population: single people. You can angle the campaign with a message about there being no better way to celebrate than to treat oneself or something similar.
- One that commemorates special events: many people choose to commemorate an event with jewelry making that a perfect opportunity to strengthen relationships with your customers. You can focus on stories that resonate with your audience and let them know that they are as important to your business as they are to themselves. A good way to do it could be by using their personal stories that they share on social media.
This Pandora commercial is a great example of a creative ad full of emotion. Jewelry is not the center of attention in this case. Instead, the special connection mothers have with their children is showcased and subtly linked to the jewelry. It is brilliant since Pandora wants to express that a mother, or a woman, is not defined by her jewelry. Instead, their custom bracelets are defined by the special people in their lives.
Remember that you don’t have to be a marketing giant or a multi-million dollar company to create great campaigns. For SMEs, the most important requirement is creativity. To achieve this, you must be authentic and know your audience to give them what they want. Next, you’ll need to tell these stories through the platforms they use the most so they see the ads you’ve worked hard on.
Use Online Platforms to Reach Your Audience
According to a survey conducted by McKinsey, two-thirds of consumers of jewelry brands start their search online before completing a purchase while one – to two – thirds use social media for information and general help. This means that jewelers should be using digital media as a communication platform between them and their potential customers to grow their business.
Although the same survey states that most consumers prefer to buy higher-priced items physically for security, SMEs can take the opportunity to use digital media to boost themselves and reach a larger audience.
Modern consumers consider having trust and a good relationship with their preferred jewelry business essential in order to close a sale. To build a relationship with the business, consumers trust online reviews more than anything else. The co-founder of poshpawn.com indicates that they feel confident asking their satisfied customers to leave reviews of their experience and purchase.
If you have a solid and positive reputation online, your potential customers will feel more confident when choosing between you and your competitors. Some digital media platforms are better for jewelry businesses than others. More so, you need to know how to use them properly.
Instagram and Facebook
After 9 years from the launch of Instagram, it is clear that it is no longer just for personal use or to share photos of your lunch with your followers. It has become a global platform that has given millions of brands the opportunity to strengthen relationships and gain visibility while at the same time using images to inspire their followers to do business with them.
According to a Hubspot study, 70 percent of Instagram users use the platform to search for information about a business or brand. So, using this visual platform to show your products and promote your campaigns is an ideal way to reach your audience and show them who you are.
In this example, you can see an attractive and classic “feed” from a local jewelry store in Portland called Betsy & Iya. Its clean and tidy aesthetics are visually pleasing and it encourages users to get involved with their brand. In addition, the business has an impressive 23.8k followers so they must be doing something right.
As seen in the example, the store (Betsy & Iya) invites its satisfied customers to share photos and special moments using their products and asks them to tag the brand. It is a word of mouth marketing strategy brought to the digital terrain that creates a huge sense of trust among users who are unfamiliar with the business. You can encourage your customers to do this by offering discounts or gifts in return for their promotional post.
Instagram recently added an additional feature for businesses: Instagram Shopping available in Latin America, the United States and Europe. With this function, businesses have an immersive channel so that people can explore their products and buy them online instantly. It has become the most popular tool among stores.
Betsy & Iya uses this function to redirect potential buyers to their online catalog. On Instagram, when someone clicks on the designated label in the publication, they are taken to the product’s description page where they will find the product image, a description, the price and a link that will take them directly to the website where they can buy the product.
There are several options to set up this function, but creating a catalog through Facebook, since both companies are connected is recommended. You can do this only if you have already created a catalog on your website or on platforms such as Shopify or Etsy.
Creating a business page on Facebook will also allow you to reach a huge audience. By creating a catalog in the Facebook Business Manager section you can link it to your Instagram profile, too. Here’s how to create a catalog on Facebook and link it to your Instagram account:
- Access the Facebook business management configuration, known as Business Manager.
- Click on Catalogs located inside the principal menu under “Assets.”
- Select “Add” to create a new catalog where you can assign a name and the type of products you offer to your listings.
- Upload the product information through data feed files. Facebook offers you a free CSV template to download and fill in with all the options you want to create a complete catalog.
Once ready, you can link it with your Instagram account and get your followers to interact more with your products.
Online Catalogs
With 1.66 billion digital buyers worldwide, it is not surprising that e-commerce has become a vital trading technique for businesses. For jewelers and artisans, it is a great channel to offer products to the right audience beyond your physical location.
Creating an online store is easier than you think. If you are just beginning, you do not necessarily have to choose to create your own website and buy a domain. You can, instead, choose to use the most popular platforms that have high traffic and take advantage of its popularity to get visibility.
These are currently the most popular and secure platforms for online jewelry sales:
Etsy
Etsy is an online market platform for unique and handcrafted products. It is a space for artisans, artists and collectors to sell their best products. The public that uses it prides itself on dressing and wearing clothes that nobody else has so they are willing to pay the price for such items. It currently has more than 60 million visitors.
If used properly, Etsy can provide artisans and jewelers with a unique opportunity to generate significant profit. For example, LeiLei Secor, a college student, generated more than $100,000 selling handmade jewelry on Etsy.
According to a recent study,
50 percent of jewelry sold online are diamonds, 18 percent are precious metals and 12 percent are other gems and pearls.
With this in mind, it is important to talk about how to create a store on Etsy and how to stand out from the millions of stores that already exist on the platform.
- Find your niche: it is important that your store has a focus so you can properly target a specific customer base. For example, if your focus is precious stones and metals, your store could showcase opal products to attract customers who like opals.
- Invest in outstanding photos: unlike a physical store, people who shop online can’t touch and examine your products. For your store to be successful, it is important that you use high-resolution photos. Nobody will want to invest in a piece or a set if it doesn’t look striking and attractive in its photos.
- Take note of other successful stores: you can look for inspiration by studying other jewelers who have used the platform to sell their jewelry effectively. This will give you a better idea of how to approach and interact with users that visit stores like yours.
- Create irresistible offers: in the jewelry business, it is proven that the best dates to sell jewelry are Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas. Still, you don’t necessarily have to wait for those dates to offer something special. To attract customers outside of the popular occasions, you can offer, for example, discounts on sets of rings, necklaces and earrings.
In the following example, you can see how a jewelry store is presented on Etsy. It is based in Tel Aviv, but it makes free deliveries all over the world. The information also tells us how long the store has been active, how many sales it has had and how many reviews were left by satisfied customers. Currently, this store has almost 5 stars.
Joining Etsy and opening a store costs nothing, but there are three basic rates that businesses pay. These rates are per publication, transaction and payment process. Each publication costs $0.20 USD and lasts for four active months. When you have a sale, Etsy charges 5 percent of the transaction on the sale price, including shipping. Finally, the Etsy payment system charges a 3 percent processing fee.
It is a small price to pay to take advantage of the high traffic that Etsy gets, but you should still keep it in mind when pricing your products on the platform.
Currently, Etsy is available only in North America and Europe as well as in some Asian countries. They have proposed to launch it for the Latin American market in the near future, though.
Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows users to launch a personalized online store, grow it through the platform and run the business as they would a normal personally owned website. Shopify allows you to sell from almost every country in the world through its platform. It is based on a cloud hosting system so you can create your store as if it were your own web domain.
It is a simple option for those who do not have the necessary tools to create their own web page. It even allows you to customize the themes to create a unique store that fits your brand’s identity. Unlike Etsy where stores are hosted on their platform, Shopify allows you to create it your way. You can even name the domain assigned by Shopify whatever you want.
To begin, you will have to choose one of their payment plans starting at $29 USD per month. Once you pick the plan, you can create your account, customize your page and add all your products to your store.
Shopify is quite popular among small jewelry businesses because it allows you to sell online, in person, in different online markets and through social media. For example, you can synchronize your Shopify store with your Facebook catalog.
In this image, you can see a jewelry shop based on Shopify. As you can see, it is totally customized to create a unique brand and differentiate it from other shops. In addition to all the options it offers to feature the products, it also offers the option to buy items through Instagram by redirecting potential customers to another one of its networks.
Shopify indicates that you can have SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools included in your payment plans. This will allow your potential customers to find you faster using different search engines.
If you want to learn how to create and design your own website without third-party platforms such as Shopify, check out this useful guide about how to create a professional website.
In conclusion, having a good product will always be your foundation, but selling jewelry in such a competitive world requires you to come up with good ideas and innovative marketing strategies. Find the essence of your brand, determine your audience and dominate the platforms that your clients use the most. Do what you can to adapt your business to these modern, digital times.
Remember, selling jewelry is an emotional process. Stay on top of the trends, work the different niches and create a unique brand that resonates with your audience. Social media is a channel that allows close communication with your customers so take advantage of the tools offered to strengthen your relationship with them and focus on creating something as unique as the pieces you sell.
