marketingLove, Socially Distanced
In this era of social distancing, people are craving hugs or some other form of psychological comfort or warmth. “Try to give them a bit of that,” and you will be warmly rewarded yourself, says Shahraz Kassam, owner of Shamin Jewellers in Surrey, British Columbia. “We send chocolates with every online order, and you have no idea how many customers love it.”
SELLINGVideo Virtuoso
In the search for silver linings, the COVID-19 crisis has improved many jewelers’ online selling skills. Denise Oros of Linnea Jewelers, in La Grange, IL, says that one of the things her team has learned during video chats is “to position necks or other elements in front of us while keeping loose change handy so we can easily show proportions.” Yes, change is the only constant, “although at this juncture I am going kicking and screaming into the flow of technology selling,” Oros admits.
TECHNOLOGYEnsure Web Accessibility
Is your website serving the sizeable percentage of the population with low vision? How about those who are colorblind? Seventy percent of websites don’t. To ensure your website still offers accessibility, Peggy Gartin, marketing expert in the vision industry, suggests taking this simple test: Turn off color and look at your website. Does it still make sense? If not, it has color cues that 7 percent of Americans can’t see because they’re colorblind. Second, head over to colororacle.org and unplug your mouse. “Can you still navigate the site with your keyboard? If not, then someone using a screen reader would be stuck, too,” Gartin says. “Work with your developer to make things better for people with disabilities.”
MARKETINGCater to Early Birds
With all the emphasis in recent years on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers have learned that deals don’t get any better as the season progresses and the selection dwindles. What to do? Be ready for them now, says Kate Peterson, Performance Concepts, “with a system of refreshing best sellers and calling attention to gift items through placement and signage.”
COMMUNICATIONKeep Emails Short
A bracing email policy to live by, from Tim Ferriss, is to limit all email responses to five sentences or less. The rationale, as explained in his weekly bulletin, is that it “forces me to be concise, to choose only the essentials of what I want to say, and limits the time I spend replying to email. Keep them short, but powerful.”
STAFFTheir Cup Runneth Over
The staff at Dianna Rae Jewelry in Lafayette, LA, says the “I’m sorry” donation cup that sits in their break room does wonders for morale. “This gives everybody a chance to acknowledge any little action they feel calls for an apology and just drop a few bucks into the ‘I’m Sorry’ donation cup,” says owner Dianna Rae High. “This covers situations like ‘Sorry, my little joke was kind of at your expense,’ or ‘Sorry, I left my leftover casserole in the fridge when I went on vacation.’ And it keeps things fun.” The idea is that when the cup gets enough money in it, it’s pizza time!