Big-Ticket Risks
Red flag: A shopper who asks to see the most expensive item in the store. The Jewelers Security Alliance recommend establishing a price threshold where staffers ask to see identification when a browser wants to try on something at your top end. (Tip: Blame it on “insurance rules.”)
The Seduction of Buzzwords
Too much jargon is a sales killer but a light peppering of multi-syllabic inside terminology has uses: 1) It gets customers excited by the idea they’re getting an education; and 2) It enhances the value of your expertise. Restaurants have long known this. In The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu, Stanford’s Dan Jurafsky describes how an analysis of 6,500 restaurant menus found that “every increase of one letter in the average length of words describing a dish is associated with an increase of 69 cents in its price.” Vine-ripened rubies, anyone?
Squeaky Clean
“Disneyfying.” That’s the word David Lindsay, owner of Purdy’s Jewellery & Gems in Bobcaygeon, Ontario, CA, has come up with for the pre-opening cleaning routine at his store that includes everything from the sidewalk to the displays inside. “Everything is clean, but no one sees any cleaning staff,” he says.
Make sure customers know exactly why they should sign up for your email bulletins — e.g. exclusive discount offers and event invitations.
Grow a List
Email marketing company Constant Contact has assembled an impressive list of ways to boost your contact book. Titled “The Ultimate Guide to Growing a Massive Email List” it consists of 61 ideas including:
• Create a “reasons to sign-up page” on your website.
• Include a call to action on your FB Cover Photo.
• A birthday club.
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See instr.us/01161 for all the ideas.
Book Club
When it comes to networking, Brad Weber, of Weber Goldsmith Gallery in Carmel, CA, is a big believer in involvement in anything “artsy,” citing museums, playhouses, and music events. But the best source of new customers was the local book club. “Fifteen out of 15 women became huge customers,” he says.
Hit Reboot
It’s a new year, time to work out what’s really important in your life. William Pollack, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard, recommends making a list of things that are significant in your life and then checking how you feel about each one. “Shuffle your commitments based on your answers. Note the things that bring you happiness, and don’t just criticize,” he told Men’s Health.
Suck It Up
An item to include on your New Year shopping list: A second vacuum cleaner. “One is for gold dust dirt and the other is for plain dirt,” recommends Steven Wardle, co-owner of Forest Beach Designer-Goldsmiths, in Chatham, MA.
Peer to Peer
To keep your best employees, have regular conversations about compensation. A survey by PayScale, a website that tracks salaries, showed employees who were paid less than the market rate were twice as likely to be satisfied with their job when a manager simply sat down and discussed their pay (and future opportunities to increase their earnings). Meanwhile, 64 percent of employees paid at the market rate believed they were underpaid. It is thus vital managers be able to show these workers their pay is in line with rates elsewhere, PayScale VP Tim Low told Bloomberg.
Go Local
The digital world is not an easy one to master, but it has an edge over other media when it comes to engaging younger consumers, says Stephen Lussier, the CEO of Forevermark, especially when exploring the emotive appeal of diamonds. If funds are tight, Lussier advises investigating local digital marketing startups that “are likely to welcome any new opportunity to build their own business,” he told Rapaport Tradewire.
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