GONE ARE THE days of holiday event marketing as the standard advertising practice for local jewelers. 25 years ago, four timed radio advertising blitzes was a surefire, successful way for a jewelry store to spend their marketing budget for the year. The jewelry store owner told the story of their brand in short snippets before Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, a made-up holiday in the summer, and the traditional holiday season.
The old days may have been simpler, but there was no chance to remind people that their local jeweler was there for them during the other 40-odd weeks of the year; 40 weeks with folks falling in love, getting married, celebrating anniversaries, having birthdays, getting promoted at work, and of course, husbands just needing a way to get out of the doghouse. 40 weeks of missed opportunities.
Back then, you couldn’t type “engagement ring” into Amazon during breakfast and get one delivered to your doorstep before dinner. 25 years ago, a jeweler may have been competing with two or three other jewelers in their hometown. Now, the competition is worldwide. Today it is crucial that a jeweler keep their name and message in front of consumers, because their personal touch is the thing that Amazon will never be able to compete with.
Fortunately, engaging with the right customers is more affordable than ever. The independent jewelers that are thriving today are the ones who utilize technology to keep themselves relevant to their customers. They are the ones that have a killer website, a loyal following of fans on social media, and the ability to bring folks from those resources into their stores when the occasion strikes.
Most people know that a website built by a professional is a must. It has to be fast, pretty, updated regularly, and people have to be able to find it. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are getting more complicated and competitive each year, and people who don’t follow along get lost in the dust. Small business owners have enough on their plates without having to keep up with constantly changing algorithms, and would be better off letting the professionals handle that so that they can focus on their customers.
Social media seems easy enough. Everyone and their grandma is on Facebook, how complicated could it be? It turns out that it is pretty darn complicated. Businesses with successful social media pages aren’t just putting up posts of a pretty ring and hoping people like it. They build their business by hyper-targeting ideal customers, then getting those customers engaged with the story of their business. They then develop those online relationships by presenting them quality content, both organically and through paid re-marketing campaigns. I can’t imagine a business owner having time to learn how to do that along with all of their other duties, let alone having the time to plan and execute a strategy.
Event marketing still has its place, but that place is all year-round. A jeweler can still pump up their ad spend for major holidays, but they can also hit those personal moments missed. If a jewelry store owner 25 years ago wanted to target every person in a relationship with someone who has a birthday next month, they had no choice but to advertise to everyone in town. They would need to spend an exorbitant amount of money on billboards, radio ads, and television to catch that event. Today, they can reach nearly everyone who meets that criteria for a fraction of the cost. They just have to know how to do it.