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

Why You Must Redefine the Customer Experience to Thrive

For jewelry brands, customer relationships have always been a foundation of success. Jewelers pride themselves on being some of the most customer-centric retailers in their communities. So you should be relieved to learn that succeeding with the modern consumer – in our increasingly networked, digital world -- is going to require a renewed and refocused emphasis on customer service and relationships.

This is the premise in the great new marketing book, The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Grow Your Business Through Existing Customers, by Becky Carroll -- customer advocate and social media marketing expert. In the introduction to the book, Brian Solis, principal analyst at the Altimeter Group, writes: “As everyday sales and service become commodities, experiences and relationships become paramount.” That’s good news for jewelers, who already excel in the realm of the customer experience.

Tip: Avoid Marketing Mistakes That Can Ruin Holiday Sales

With the holiday sales period accounting for about 30% of specialty jewelers annual sales, we’re sure you’ve prepared your holiday sales and marketing plan and checked it twice. But with so many changeable factors affecting your potential costumers’ shopping habits -- like the unsteady economy or ever-growing multi-channel shopping options -- it’s important to make sure you don’t make unknowing holiday marketing blunders.

Read this list of the worst “Mistakes That Could Ruin Holiday Sales,” by Joanna L. Krotz from Microsoft Business strategies, and then avoid them. Use the suggestions to ensure your marketing campaigns are doing everything right to draw jewelry customers in this holiday season.

Use JIC's Fall Contest to Benefit Your Brand

As jewelers, you share in some of the most romantic (engagements, anniversaries) and life-changing moments (weddings, births, promotions) of your customers' lives. You know that each piece of jewelry you create or sell to a customer carries with it a special memory and story that is valued far beyond the price of the piece.

Have your customers share these jewelry stories  in Jewelry Information Center's fall  Sparkling Snapshots Contest, and they could win a Grand Prize package that includes a luxurious spa getaway and jewelry.

Holiday Emails You Can -- & Should -- Plan Now

Get ahead of the rush by planning your end-of-year customer outreach with these tips from Constant Contact

It’s hard to believe the holiday sales season is almost upon us. And yet, before we know it our inboxes will be full with emails offering exclusive coupons and sales from big-box and chain retailers to motivate holiday spending. As independent jewelers, you should prepare your holiday messages in advance to differentiate your small business from the competition -- and stand out from the clutter of pre-holiday offers. 

Adding Web Videos to Your Marketing Strategy (Part 2)

By Stan Bashmashnikov

Last month, we walked you through the fundamentals of adding web videos to your marketing strategy. The importance of a good camera, clear sound quality, neutral lighting, stable image frame and YouTube channel all correlate to a professionally made video.

So what more is there to mastering web videos for your brand? Practical implementation, of course. Knowing how to create a web video is only half the battle. To have real success from online videos -- as outlined below -- you must deliver actionable and relevant ideas to  inspire customers to return to your website or store. No need to shudder – it’s not as daunting as you may think.

Adding Web Videos to Your Marketing Strategy (Part 1)

By Stan Bashmashnikov

Jewelry retailers are gearing up for all things summer. This traditionally “slow” season doesn’t necessarily have to be. Customers will flock to your store through a fun and interactive social media strategy using online video. Audio & Video Production Expert Mark David Zahn's article, "Is your Flip video camera killing your brand image?," provides video how-tos for even the most inexperienced. We've included a hit list of his advice to help you start generating excitement about your brand with web videos.

Retail Resolutions, Part 1: Marketing Trends to Try

Have you planned out your business resolutions for 2011? To help you get started Tobe, the international fashion and retail authority, has written its annual State of the Consumer Report, which includes their projected top retail trends for 2011. To help retailers formulate long-range business plans for success in today’s hyper-competitive consumer-driven economy, State of the Consumer identifies and analyzes changing demographics, emerging business opportunities, and lifestyle influences impacting the retail industry.

We've highlighted their 2011 marketing and merchandising retail trends that fine jewelry retailers and designers should consider implementing -- or they could find themselves losing to digital- and fashion-savvy competitors.

Samuel Gordon Jewelers: A Small Business That Gets Social Media | BNET

Daniel Gordon, president of Jewelers of America-Member Samuel Gordon Jewelers, was recently profiled on BNet.com in an article detailing how he reduced the annual marketing budget to $50,000 by embracing social media marketing. Read what makes the company's strategy a success . . . click for full article.

via bnet.com

Just for Jewelers: Free Internet Marketing Tip Series!

We just received a press release announcing an event that includes a "week of Internet marketing tips for independent jewelers" and wanted to pass it on to The JA Report's retail jeweler readers!

The Event: Just for Jewelers: A Week of Internet Marketing Tips For Independent Retail Jewelers
When: October 11-15, 2010
Where: Online

Mac and Cheese Web Marketing announces an online social media event Just for Jewelers. Starting October 11th, Mac and Cheese's Facebook page will feature free daily tips specifically for independent jewelers

Ingredients for Internet Marketing, Part 2: Understanding Traffic

By Vedran Tomic is an Internet marketing consultant, who specializes in local search and is a contributor to SmallBizTrends.com, a small business news site

In Part One of “Ingredients for Internet Marketing for Jewelers,” Internet Marketing Consultant Vedran Tomic explained the importance of web design, social media and local search to your Internet marketing campaign. Now, he explains how organic and paid search helps build your web traffic and increase your customer base.

To have a decent return of investment (ROI) on your Internet marketing efforts, you will need to get traffic to your website. More specifically, you will need targeted, qualified traffic. In the case of local brick-and-mortar jewelers, this means web traffic from people in your area interested in jewelry.

Web traffic can be acquired in many ways. In this guide, I will concentrate on traffic from search, because search is arguably the most important channel of traffic acquisition. There are two types of search traffic: organic search traffic and paid search traffic. No search marketing strategy is complete without both of these models at work. However, it’s important to understand each method’s advantages.

Ingredients of Internet Marketing Success for Jewelers, A 2-Part Series

By: Vedran Tomic is an Internet marketing consultant who specializes in local search and is a contributor to SmallBizTrends.com, a small business news site

Why Internet Marketing?

Growing a small business without a clearly defined Internet marketing strategy today would be more than just difficult. Consumers have never had as many choices and as little time as they have today. The Internet has not only given consumers more options – but also more power to influence your business’ reputation and success. People can grow your business beyond your imagination just by sharing their experiences with their friends and family in person and online. They can also cut your business in half by posting negative reviews on the web.

Traditional advertising methods through TV, radio and print ads offer lower and lower ROI, as consumers are choosing the Internet to explore, decide and shop. This is true for retail jewelry, as well as all small businesses. But this is not the end of marketing; it is the beginning.

Using the Internet to put your business directly in front of a costumer who is searching for your services or products, at the moment she's searching, is one of the best ways to market your business. This is the reason every small business owner should revisit their marketing budget and consider allocating more resources and effort into Internet marketing.

Successfully Communicate Responsible Business Practices

As consumer expectations rise, the need to tout your responsible business practices has also increased. In the article “Spotlighting Your Social Responsibility,” Rachel Meranus of Entrepreneur.com writes that companies of all sizes can benefit from communicating “hidden assets.” These include things such as how employees are treated, programs for environmental sustainability, efforts to source responsibly and charitable associations.

Meranus shares the following tips to highlight your social responsibility:

“Strike a Pose” With Fashion-Forward Marketing

At the recent JCK Show in Las Vegas, Jewelers of America’s in-house fashion and jewelry trends expert Helena Krodel picked up great ideas from “Selling Through Fashion,” an enlightening and entertaining panel discussion. Krodel was thrilled to learn a few tricks and hear creative advice aimed at retailers who are looking to market and merchandise year-round. Retailers got tips on how to position themselves as fashion experts in the minds of consumers through trend-driven in-store merchandising, special events, online media and social marketing.

The panel was comprised of four industry experts: Elizabeth Anne Bonanno, EAB Consulting; Randi Molofsky, Portero.com and author of A Girl’s Guide to Buying Diamonds; Frank Proctor, Luxury Brand Group; and Michael Schechter, Honora. The discussion was led by moderator Victoria Gomelsky, who is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and other publications.

Krodel shares some of the best advice from the panelists:

Defuse Unhappy Customer Comments

Whether you’ve embraced the web or not, your business can still feel the impact of a negative customer review on websites such as Yelp.com. According to BIGresearch, a consumer market intelligence firm, 92.5% of adults say they regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store.

For this reason, it is imperative that you control your reputation on the wild wild web. In “How to Take Control of Your Online Reputation,” Mikal Belicove offers tips from Neal Creighton, co-founder and CEO of RatePoint, which provides online review services to businesses. Creighton shares ideas on how to address unhappy customer feedback before it negatively affects your brand online. 

Use Creighton's tips to make sure your reputation thrives online -- and on Main street:

Plan For the Las Vegas Jewelry Shows

The Las Vegas jewelry trade shows are right around the corner. Are you prepared to make the most of your product purchasing and networking time this year? With more than 2,500 exhibitors at the JCK Show and over 200 exhibitors at Couture, planning your visit to Las Vegas is more than essential.

Amanda Gizzi, Jewelers of America Director of Consumer Communications, offers smart planning tips so you can maximize every dollar and minute of your Las Vegas trip:

Capitalize on the Power of Online Pre-Selling, Part Two

The days of web marketing are here to stay. Don't waste time bemoaning the fact that traditional print ads and radio spots may no longer be only way to grab consumers’ attention. Instead, in Part One of "Capitalize on the Power of Online Pre-Selling," Larry Chasin, president & CEO of Ideal Diamond Solutions, explained why you should embrace the web for the excellent pre-selling tool it can be.

In Part Two, Chasin offers tips on how to maximize Internet tools to most effectively pre-sell your jewelry product and close more sales in-store:

Capitalize on the Power of Online Pre-Selling, Part One

We all know that attitude is a major component in sales. The more upbeat you are, the better are your chances of closing a sale. But if, like many retailers, you feel that the Internet has distorted the way jewelry businesses are run, Larry Chasin, President & CEO of Ideal Diamond Solutions, suggests you revisit that thought.

As a jewelry sales veteran and head of a company that provides a ground-breaking technology platform to the industry, Chasin understands both sides of the great "Internet vs brick-and-mortar sales" debate. To reconcile traditional sales with the power of the Internet, Chasin suggests thinking of your website and web tools as avenues for pre-selling your jewelry merchandise.

If you've been in the sales business for any length of time, you understand the power of pre-selling merchandise. It's a lot easier to close a sale with someone who already has real interest in something, versus someone who doesn't.

Use Chasin's tips to start treating the web as a pre-sell tool and thrive with in-store sales:

Be a Jewelry Resource with Email Marketing

Keeping an eye on marketing ideas from other companies is critical to your own success, whether you’ve fully integrated email marketing into your business, or you are just getting started. Some of the best ideas can be found when we think about our own customer experiences.

Lauren Thompson, Communications Manager for Jewelers of America, shares how shoe brand Geox is getting it right when it comes to email marketing:

For Christmas, I bought a pair of Geox shoes as a gift. While I went to the retail location, during the rush of the holiday season, I found it easier to buy the shoes online – which featured the same services and discounts that I would have received in store. Ever since I made the purchase, Geox has sent follow-up emails. As JA’s communications manager, I have been impressed with the brand’s soft sales approach and customer service in their direct email marketing. These emails remind me that for future shoes/gift purchases, Geox needs to be on my list of retailers to visit.

Cut Marketing, Advertising and Promotions Costs Creatively

Getting your brand “out there” is essential – but are you spending your marketing and advertising budget wisely, or watching dollars go down the drain? If you’ve been reaching the right demographics and seeing measurable results, you probably don’t need to alter much, if anything. On the other hand, if old promotions and ad buys have gone stale, it may be time to freshen up your marketing mix.

David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, shares the following tips to cut your budget, while improving your marketing results:

Don’t Forget Outstanding Online Service

Earlier this week, we offered advice from Larry Chasin, President & CEO of Ideal Diamond Solutions, about  joining the “free” marketing and information revolution. He shared tips on how to turn consumer desire -- and expectations -- for free information into an online marketing tool for your jewelry business.

But offering free marketing and expertise is just one part of the equation. If draw people to your jewelry website without providing outstanding services for outstanding products, the initial attention will fade quickly.

Today, Chasin offers some must-have online service options to go along with your marketing:

Market Your Expertise Online For Free!

There's a lot of talk in marketing circles lately about "free" being the new driving force in business. But since retailers don’t want to give inventory away, does it have anything to do with the jewelry and watch industry? "It does when it comes to marketing that inventory," says Larry Chasin, President & CEO of Ideal Diamond Solutions, an online technology platform provider that focuses on the jewelry industry.

A lot of the discussion stems from the new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, by Chris Anderson, a social commentator who earned his reputation as an editor of Wired magazine. He focuses on how the digital revolution has made some things free (or almost free) that we used to pay for and how that has affected industries like news, publishing and music.

Chasin says there is a useful takeaway for jewelers: the fact that consumers are now used to getting information for free, and they have come to accept it as the norm. He suggests using that development to your advantage in your marketing, and offers the following ideas to capitalize on content:

Don't Dismiss Social Media

Perhaps you’ve heard about a new report that says people's trust in each other's online recommendations about companies has dropped 45%. Does that mean you should forget about doing any social media outreach? Definitely not, says Larry Chasin, President & CEO of Ideal Diamond Solutions, the jewelry industry’s online technology platform provider.

Social marketing -- whether through blogs, Twitter, Facebook comments or any combination of them -- remains an important tool in your marketing arsenal. Chasin points out that these platforms are useful in building and sustaining relationships. And relationships, he adds, remain one of the central planks on which the retail jewelry industry is built.

The new report, entitled "The Edelman Trust Barometer" produced by Edelman, a leading global PR firm, shows that the number of people who view their friends as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, since 2008. However, the report also indicated that trust has diminished across almost all sectors, including government, business and banking. This affects how the report should be interpreted, Chasin says, since people are generally less trustful these days.

He offers some perspective on the report, and some points to keep in mind about trust and social media:

Make Public Relations Gems From Daily Routine

Everyday monotonous tasks can be turned into a perfect public relations opportunity for your business. Learn to think like a well-oiled PR machine by making everything you do synonymous with your brand.  

The JICchicks, the spokeswomen of Jewelry Information Center -- Jewelers of America’s consumer education arm, perform public relations on a daily basis and offer some great examples:

Integrate Bricks and Clicks for Customer Satisfaction

First, the good news: Many retailers took advantage of the huge jump in online spending this past holiday season. Comscore Inc. reported a whopping 20% increase in jewelry and watch sales over the previous year -- and not just for E-tailers. Many traditional retailers added a shopping cart to their websites this year. The bad news? Too many left customers frustrated when they failed to successfully integrate their online and traditional merchandising strategies.

This became apparent in a study by Forrester Research. It found that while most customers are satisfied with their online shopping experience, that attitude did not carry over when they "pre-shopped" online and then visited a store to make the purchase. Dissatisfaction centers around a disconnect between the two modes of selling. Larry Chasin, president & CEO of Ideal Diamond Solutions, an online jewelry merchandising platform provider, says the remedy is to tightly coordinate your online and in-store sales and merchandising.

He offers these tips to integrate your online sales with your in-store sales experience:

Use Google Analytics to Track Website Metrics

If your business has a presence online, you should keep track of the site analytics the same way you would with your brick-and-mortar store locations. Google Analytics is an easy-to-use tool that tracks your website statistics – and the best part is, it’s FREE! It can be implemented into your site by adding a piece of code to your website's HTML.

Once you, or your website developer, set up Google Analytics on your website you can use its reports to compare metrics on a variety of subjects like your unique visitors, referring websites, referring keywords, what content is most popular on your website, etc.

Once you start using Analytics, here are some things to look for:

Take Legislative Action

As you know, decisions in Washington, D.C., today can impact your bottom line tomorrow. Members of the jewelry trade need not be silent on these matters. Through grass roots advocacy campaigns, we can have a collective and strong voice on Capitol Hill.

Now Jewelers of America has made it even easier for both members and non-members to reach out to legislators on issues of importance. Through the recently launched Legislative Action Center, you’re a point-and-click away from being heard by Congress.

Some quick tips to make the most of this new service:

Control Your Website’s Destiny

For many independent business owners it can be easy to cede power to web designers -- who have the expertise they lack -- when creating and operating a website. But Mikal Belicove, of Entrepreneur.com, warns businesses to avoid “being held hostage” by programmers and designers.

He offers the following tips to protect your business down the line:

List Logic: Make the Most of Google Business Listing

With so many consumers looking to find local information and businesses online, listing your business through Google’s free Local Business Center is a no brainer. The service allows businesses to create a free listing on Google Maps and track important info -- like who is searching for you online.

Adding Google to your business-building arsenal is just the first step. In “10 Things You Should Have Done to Make Your Google Business Listing Great,” Vedran Tomic shares the following ideas on how to make the most of the Google biz platform:

Take Part in Social Media: Phase Two

There’s no doubt that social media really took off in 2009. The coming year will offer businesses the opportunity to take what they’ve learned and use it to improve and expand their networking efforts. In “Five social media tips for 2010,” Patricio Robles shares ideas to help companies face new challenges and take advantage of new opportunities.

Some tips to consider to thrive with social media:

Retail Trends Post-Recession

The post-recession retail landscape is likely to differ in many ways from what we experienced prior to the downturn. The changes are layered: retail itself has been altered by several factors, including the high number of companies going out of business, new technologies and the growth of social networking. Consumer attitudes and spending habits have also shifted dramatically -- and in some cases, those changes will last beyond the recessionary times.

Navigating these changes will be tricky, but if your business can address them you’ll have an edge over your competitors. In “Next year’s 10 great retail trends,” Michael Baker shares ideas about the Australian retail landscape that can be applied here in the U.S.

Some of the evolving trends you should consider in 2010: