The JA Report: News, Tips & Trends from Jewelers of America

Online Content Matters

A website can be a great marketing vehicle or a disaster, depending on what you put on it. In “Five Tips for Writing Good Content for your Website,” Suze Bragg notes, “no good content = no good customers.” That’s an equation your store’s site cannot afford.

Bragg shares the following ideas for attracting (and keeping) customers with the quality of your content:

• Think Before You Write. In describing jewelry, for instance, she says to look up synonyms for brilliance, brilliant and beautiful. Think of the actions or scenarios related to the piece of jewelry first, like a romantic wedding proposal or the head-turning appeal of a gorgeous piece of jewelry, and write the copy around it.

Use the Diamond Sales Do’s

Selling diamonds is all about personal connections and romance – rather than technical details and price points, according to experts surveyed by JCK magazine. In “Experts Offer Top 10 Diamond Selling Tips,” Glen A. Beres shares top diamond do’s for successful sales:

Sell Beauty: “Your clients aren’t buying a piece of paper (diamond certificate) or an alphabet soup (quality grades). All those things are fundamental and support the sale, but at the end of the day, if it’s not a beautiful diamond in the eyes of the client, they won’t buy it.” -- Barbara Hight-Randall, president and co-owner of Hight & Randall Ltd.

Perfect Pricing

Putting the right price on product can be a delicate balance, especially during challenging economic times. Over at the Small Business Trends blog, Ivana Taylor shares ideas from The Art of Pricing by Rafi Mohammed.

Consider these strategies when pricing goods:

• The Nine and Zero Effect. People associate the number nine with value and zero with quality. Decide what you want to communicate and price accordingly.

Forget the Fear & Beat Sales Expectations

Fear is contagious, and a sales killer, according to Mark Stevens, columnist for Entrepenuer.com. In “When the Selling Gets Tough, the Tough Get Smart,” Stevens says sales staff shouldn’t sell to, and fall victim of, the negative statistics. “No matter how bleak the headlines may be, people are still buying -- millions of them,” he writes.

Stevens offers sales associates the following tips to thrive when selling in a down market:

• Drop the word “recession” and replace it with “opportunity.” People are buying and you need to find where the opportunities are and make that your market.

Divide and Conquer Your Customers

Creating great customer relationships isn’t about having one formula that fits every single customer. David Peters, Jewelers of America’s Director of Member Services, says you must divide your customers into at least three unique groups and tailor your marketing messages accordingly.

To get you started, Peters offers the following suggestions for customer groups:

• Potential Customers: Customers who haven’t purchased from you yet and are prospects. Peters advises targeting them with a message that builds interest in your store and its products. Include special incentives to make a first purchase.