Content and Storytelling Audit for Jewelry Marketing

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Ready to break free from algorithms, vanity PR, and money-sucking ads? My name’s Laryssa Wirstiuk, and I’ve learned in 7 years of jewelry marketing that content is the crown jewel. My agency Joy Joya takes a holistic approach, leading with laser-focused storytelling, impactful content creation, and strategic content distribution. This method has worked for the solopreneur as well as the multi-million-dollar company, and now I’m sharing these systems and tactics with you. Here’s to standing out in the Sea of Sparkle.

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This is Episode #231, and today I’ll be sharing tips on how you can conduct a Content and Storytelling Audit for your jewelry brand, so you can start taking all the tips I’ve shared so far in Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart and begin assessing the current state of your marketing content and storytelling. Because you can’t see the way forward if you don’t know where you stand now. I’ll be covering: What’s a Content and Storytelling Audit, and why’s it important for jewelry brands that want to stand out in a Sea of Sparkle? How can you start auditing your marketing content and storytelling? What will you be doing with the results? From now through early July of this year, I’ll be rolling out a free (yes FREE) six-month, podcast-guided program called “Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart” which will involve weekly audio and video lessons as well as companion PDF downloads for each new episode. If you want to sign up for the FREE full program right away and get the companion PDF download to this episode, visit joyjoya.com/jump. Link in show notes as well.

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But before we get to the solid gold, I like to take a moment to remind you that this podcast has both audio and video. So you can either listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube by searching Joy Joya, you can support the podcast for free by taking the time not only to subscribe, but also to leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts. And if you leave a review, I might read it in a future episode. So please let me know what you think about this episode, or any other major takeaways you’ve had recently.

2:29
But before we get to the solid gold, I’d like to take a moment to remind you that this podcast has both audio and video – so you can either listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube by searching “Joy Joya”. You can support the podcast for free by taking the time not only to subscribe but also to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. If you leave a review, I might read it on a future episode – please let me know what you think about this episode or about any other major takeaways you’ve had recently. Speaking of podcasts, did you know I also co-host another podcast with jewelry marketer Liz Kantner? It’s called Success With Jewelry, and we’ve already released 25 free episodes everywhere you listen to podcasts as well as on YouTube. We also have an Insider community, where we share extended episodes, hands-on guidance, and a plethora of resources. Visit successwithjewelry.com to learn more.

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Okay, my sparklers let’s get into the next installment of Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart all about auditing your jewelry marketing content and storytelling. Again, you can visit joyjoya.com/JUMP for the companion PDF to this episode. It’s free, so why not? So let’s talk about the answer to the first question I’m posing for you today. What is a content and storytelling audit? And why is that important for jewelry brands that want to be standing out in a sea and create their own Sea of Sparkle?

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So first, you’ll want to shift your mindset about content. Content is valuable. And you need to start thinking that way. Each piece of content that you put out there for your business should be considered an asset, since it’s something that you can eventually repurpose, and reuse and then continue to gain benefits from in the future. The same way that like if you were to buy a home, your home is an asset that will hopefully gain value over time, your content is like the home that you buy for your business. It is an asset, and you need to think that way. So auditing your marketing content and storytelling means looking at all the assets you’ve already created up until this point and then deciding whether or not they’re still aligned with your brand and your approach to storytelling as well as whether are not each asset is helping you move forward toward achieving your business and marketing goals.

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If you were to search right now for “content audit” on Google, just to get some more perspective, you will likely find some tutorials that require technical know-how and some familiarity with search engine optimization or SEO. I promise we’re going to get into SEO later in Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart. So I want to make this version of the Content and Storytelling Audit as friendly to a beginner as possible, so that you don’t have to know that stuff yet. In order to do this audit, I just am saying that to let you know that there are definitely different levels of how deep you can go with this.

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So when I’m saying the word content, I’m referring to the following items, but they’re definitely not limited to this list. So blog posts, homepage content about us page content, or brand story content, any other landing pages or informational pages on your website, educational materials that you share with clients, whether those are printed materials, or PDF downloads, or some other kind of resource, any storytelling on your product pages or in your product descriptions, gift guides or other free downloads and PDFs, any printed marketing assets that you have for your jewelry brand, direct mail marketing, video and audio content, and quizzes and other interactive content.

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The reason why this audit is so so so important, especially for small business owners is because usually I find with the smaller businesses, that marketing kinda just happens over time. It kind of accumulates and gets added to. And then because the business owner and their team are really nimble, and they’re getting caught up in the present of their business and just like adapting to what’s happening at any given time, they don’t ever really sit down to review and assess their old content assets. And then when someone does kind of do an audit for them, they find out that many of their content assets are super outdated, just because no one has taken the time to go back over those things. And oftentimes, they get forgotten. And it’s really important, just as you would clean your house on a regular basis to kind of like “clean your marketing house”. So I keep using the house metaphor in this episode. But I think that there, there are a lot of similarities. You want to keep your marketing house clean and tidy. You want to treat it like the asset that it is.

8:03
So how can you get started with auditing your marketing content? Well, when you sign up for Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart at joyjoya.com/JUMP and get the companion PDF, it’ll have a link there to a Google Sheet template that you can copy for yourself and use for your Content Marketing audit. So that will just make this super easy. Or you can even create a spreadsheet or whatever kind of format that works for you that basically you’re going to want to have the following information in this spreadsheet or wherever you’re putting this these details.

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So first, you want the name of the item. So something that you and your team would easily recognize. So if it’s like a product description, for example, of like, your silver dangle earrings, you would just call it like silver dangle earrings, product description. This is just to kind of give it a name. Next, if it has a title, like if it’s a blog post or some other written material, write what that title is, then you want to put the content type categories. So that list that I just mentioned, the blog posts, the printed materials, the product descriptions, write out what the category is, so that if you need to sort this list later, it’s really easy to group these categories together. If you know the date it was published or posted, that’s really nice to include here, so you can kind of see how this changes over time. If there is an author associated or writer associated with that, put that person’s name. If it’s a digital assets, like a web page or blog post, put the link to it. And then you want to ask just yes or no very briefly the following questions. Is it visually aligned with the brand? Yes or No? Is it up to date? So does it have all like the relevant information that is related to the business now? Yes or No? Does it still reflect the brand’s story? Yes or no? And then is there a call to action or a CTA? So does this piece of content invite someone to do something else? Is there a button, is there a clear instruction and just say yes or no. And then it’s great to have a column for notes. Like if something immediately comes to you, or you need to give context to this thing, or write like, a reminder for yourself, it’s great to write that in a “Notes” column. And then an action item for the future, you may not at this point, understand what the action item is. And we’re gonna go further into this in future episodes. But if there’s something immediate, like, there’s a mistake, that’s very obvious and needs to be changed, or can easily be updated, then put that action item in there and set a due date for it also. And if you’re not going to be the one actually doing the action, assign it to someone so that it can get done, it can get updated. So at least right away, you’ll probably have a few things off the bat that can be updated.

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Now that you know about the different types of categories I mentioned, like the possibilities of where content can go, and you see your whole list in this spreadsheet, you can probably start to see where the opportunities are. So where are like the holes or the gaps in your content? What things aren’t you sharing that you could be sharing? What stories aren’t you telling? Or where’s your story not being told in the content that you already have? And as you think of these things, at least, with the limited knowledge that you have, at this point, I want you to maintain a running list somewhere of all those opportunities and gaps so that you don’t forget about them, and that we can eventually build and expand upon them. So now that you’ve kind of started this process, started thinking about it, what will you be doing with these results in the future? Or like, where are we going with this? So you might actually have a lot of ideas for creative marketing content at this point, even just by looking at your existing content. So you can definitely start fleshing out your ideas, and maybe begin brainstorming the plan of what it would take to get there. But before you invest a lot of time and energy into any one idea, I would encourage you to keep listening to future episodes. And just so that you know how to set goals and priorities first, before you decide which ideas are really worth pursuing. Because the reality is, if we really acted on every single idea and whim that came into our minds at any given time, we would have no hours in the day because they would just take up all our time and attention. And likely, we would be pulled in a lot of different directions. So it’s good to keep track of your ideas. But it might not be the most efficient way to pursue marketing to like do all the ideas at once. So let’s hold on to them. And then we’ll decide which ones to prioritize. I’ll also talk about in future episodes, how you can repurpose and update some of the content that you already have. But again, if you see something that’s a glaring mistake, or needs to be updated immediately due to there being errors or major inconsistencies, then of course, please go make those changes while you’re waiting for my advice and guidance in future episodes.

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Okay, that’s it for now, much more to come. I’ll be expanding on this topic and guiding you through so that you can actually take this and act on it. Go to joyjoya.com/jump for additional information action items and that Google Sheet template that I mentioned, and you will be on your way to content marketing success for your jewelry brand.

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Before we get into The Gold Mine as well as my jewelry marketing news roundup, I want to share a case study of a jewelry brand that I think touches upon what I just spoke about. So these are my thoughts about how I’d apply the lesson to a jewelry brand in the wild. Disclaimer: this brand is not my client, I don’t have access to any of their internal data. So I’m offering my observations as a marketer. So this week’s case study is about Missoma, a London-based demi-fine jewelry brand that has been in existence since 2008. They make fashion-forward designs that can be worn everyday. Missoma has a blog on their website that’s updated a few times per month, and it includes topics like “Behind the Design”, “In Conversation With”, “Style Guides”, and more. Lately they’ve been publishing a lot more instructive blog posts like: “How to Style Pearls”, “How to Create a Ring Stack”, and “How to Style Silver Jewellery”. I love seeing that they’re building out a content library, and I would encourage them to do the following: Set a reminder to revisit on a quarterly or bi-yearly basis to update some of the more evergreen posts, like the ones I just mentioned and make a point to reference them whenever they’re promoting products related to the post. So in June when the birthstone is pearls, they may want to send an email campaign linking again to the “How to Style Pearls” blog post. Share with their influencers and customer service reps to use as guides to provide value for customers Build them out into longer resources that could potentially live on website landing pages or even in printed materials that get sent to the customer depending on what they purchase Regularly check in with search engine rankings to see if there are opportunities to update the posts with more keywords and/or to link them to each other Make sure that the products that are linked in these posts are still in-stock products and that they have clear calls to action; if products need to be swapped, that’s good to go – to ensure that people who find the blog posts are able to move forward to their shopping journey Crowdsource from customers to see what they would want to know, try to differentiate from Mejuri and other brands – the content does not seem super interesting or unique Though the benefits of the blog are not limited to search engine rankings, a blog definitely does help with that. I ran their site through an SEO tool that I use, and thanks to one of their blog posts, they’re ranking in the top 10 results in Google for the keyword “how to stack bracelets” as one example. What do you think? You can check out the Missoma blog for yourself in the show notes.

15:08
Okay, let’s get into THE GOLD MINE! So if you’re new to this podcast, The Gold Mine is a segment that’s a little more personal take for me. It’s usually around mindset, or entrepreneur, entrepreneurship or business challenges. Today’s topic is based on a quote that I came across by marketing expert, Seth Godin, one of my absolute favorites, and I want to share it with you as a prompt for further reflection. He wrote in a blog post from 2012, “But everyone doesn’t deserve their own audience. That’s something that’s earned.” Even though he wrote those words more than 10 years, I think they’re truer than ever now. Nowadays, business owners have access to so many digital platforms – and the potential for an audience – at their fingertips. For example, you can create a business account on TikTok and theoretically have access to TikTok’s 1 billion active users. The idea of it is thrilling. So then entrepreneurs get this idea in their heads that if they build it, people will come, right? The potential for connecting is out there – all I have to do is post on my social media accounts, send my emails, deliver my advertising, and I’ll be golden. Doesn’t that sound like a entitled outlook? I’m not saying you’re entitled because I know you, my Sparklers, are amazing. But I do want to tell you that what Seth Godin says is true, you have to EARN your audience. You have to WERK. And you have to work harder than ever in the history of the world to earn your audience because you’re competing with so much noise (as well as so many other worthy brands) for your audience’s attention. The next time you sit down to publish your next social media post or write your next email, ask yourself, “Is this worthy of earning my audience’s attention?” Remember, your audience is people who you respect and want in your community, so you have to go out of your way to charm them, the same way you might do if you were courting someone you really liked and were trying to earn their admiration and trust as well. This doesn’t mean being a try-hard or about love bombing because your audience will see right through that. It’s about showing up as the business’ true, authentic self and putting genuine effort into connecting and offering value. Not about expecting that checking all the boxes is going to earn your audience’s loyalty and attention. And then being realistic as well that earning anything takes consistency and time, and it won’t happen overnight or in a few days or even in a few short months. You have to be in it for the long haul. Tell me in a YouTube comment or podcast review if you can relate to this. What have you been doing lately to truly earn your audience’s attention?

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Let’s get into the news roundup, where I share three articles related to jewelry or marketing. And you can always get these links in the show notes. So the first article today comes from CMSWire, and it’s called “In Marketing, Resist the Temptation to Go Short”. Marketing is often viewed by many entrepreneurs as a cost or a tax, rather than an investment. And this is especially true in times of economic downturn. At these kinds of times, marketing budgets get hit hard by the pressure that business owners feel to drive down their operational costs. So according to this article, companies in these times tend to focus instead on these easily measured short term campaigns, like, they know, oh, I’m only going to invest this amount of money for this short period of time. And we’re going to be able to see the result quickly rather than looking at the long term picture, how can we build our brand that will make an impact a year from now, five years from now 10 years from now? So the danger of only looking at these short term marketing efforts, or only investing in marketing when you feel comfortable that you have the budget to do so, the danger is that it can come at the expense of long term brand building, which can actually help support these short term initiatives in ways that honestly can be hard to measure, and hard to see. So what are some of the most successful growing companies right now at this time of economic uncertainty doing to to be successful? They are finding this healthy balance between these two types of marketing, the short term, and the long term. When businesses are pulling back on operational costs, and they’re like, Oh, well, I’ll just cut my marketing budget. Let me see what’s performing and what’s not performing. And I’ll just nix the things that aren’t performing. Yes, in theory, that sounds great. And generally, I would recommend that, but it’s so much more nuanced than that. And not as simple and straightforward as just like looking at the numbers, cutting this, doubling down on that because you cut could cut something that seems to be underperforming, and then actually see that something else is impacted, because you didn’t realize in your branding and your marketing, that the two were linked, and it can be hard to sometimes measure what impacts what. Also in times of economic downturns, while your competitors are tightening up their belts and focusing on the short short term, there’s an opportunity for nimble small business owners to grab the attention of the people that you want to target. So there are many arguments for not cutting back on marketing. When you think that is going to be like, the easiest way to cut your operational costs, it’s actually advised to maybe double down and if you don’t have the actual money budget, then maybe you can invest that back in time in energy. In just intention, let’s put the effort into the marketing, now’s the time to do it. That’s my main takeaway.

28:55
The second article comes from Practical Ecommerce. And it’s called “How to Optimize for AI Answer Engines”. What does that mean? So the future of online search is coming. And it’s kind of already here. So search engine optimization, SEO, there is now a subcategory of SEO called AEO, and it refers to answer engine optimization. So here’s a great quote from this article that explains this. “As a search engine improves, it actually evolves into an answer engine, providing an answer instead of in addition to a list of sites. This is why search engines developed carousels, knowledge panels and features snippets.” Then the user won’t have to like comb through the search results to find the best answer anymore. Instead, they’ll get delivered one answer by the search engine. And maybe you’re like, okay, this is blowing my mind a little bit. But if you use Siri, for example, if you’re already a user of voice search, you know that if you ask Siri something Siri is not going to give you like a list of possible answers, Siri is going to give you one answer. So the future of all search engines is that they will strive to give you what they believe is the best answer rather than a list as you would have in Google. Now, as a business, if you rely on getting discovered in search engine results, if that is some aspect of your ecommerce store, which it is for many businesses, you need to prepare yourself for this future of search. Right now, you need to focus on so many things that we’ve been talking about in Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart, creating helpful, informative, and entertaining content. And then moving forward in this program, we’ll be talking more about SEO and about key words and phrases. So you need to also be able to identify those key words and phrases that people would be searching for to find you so that in the eyes of this answer engine, your business can be the answer or the best result. It’s all about communication, credibility, and deliverability. My main takeaway is, I’m not going to get too far in the weeds with this right now from a technical perspective. But I want you to know that the future of how consumers discover businesses online is already here. Okay, we need to be prepared to meet this future, which is actually now, by being the best at offering content related to our business and products. And being focused on delivering value through content. If I could, like, underscore my own words in the air, I would underscore being focused on delivering value through content.

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And the last article comes from ClickZ. And it’s called “How to make collaborative content work for your brand”. Have you been looking for more creative ways to generate content? I know it can be hard to keep up with that content grind. Try this tactic, if you haven’t already. So collaborative content is a strategy that involves more people in ideating, creating, and promoting your content. These people include your customers, your employees, or partners, or whoever you work with, and maybe even influencers. So the highlights of implementing such a strategy include having more diverse content, more creative content, just a fresh take, because you’re getting outside perspectives. So it really allows you to cast a broader net online and satisfy the needs of more customers, while leveraging stories, leveraging insights from those outside your own bubble. And that can build trust, because it’s offering social proof and more. So looking to collaborators to help you build your content, I wouldn’t say this should be your primary approach to content. But it could totally help you add, as, as I mentioned, like unique voices, a creative take to your content mix. Bring some diversity into it. My main takeaway is leveraging things like customer reviews and testimonials in your content is an especially awesome way to build trust with your audience and share user generated content with them. It’s also fun to get your employees or people you work with your business partners involved in your content if they’re open to it, because it shows that your business exists within a wider community and that you’re part of something. And again, you’re not just in your own bubble. That’s it for today.

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Did you have questions about this episode about Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart? You can always email me Laryssa that’s laryssa@joyjoya.com. If you love this podcast, please share it with a friend who’d appreciate it. And don’t forget to subscribe as well as leave a review on Apple Podcasts. I also would encourage you to check out my co hosted Success With Jewelry Podcast with Liz Kantner. There’s so much information there you’re going to need a notebook to sit down and take it all in and make a to do list of all the things you can do to uplevel your brand. If you’re completely new to digital marketing, then you’ll want to purchase and read a copy of my book Jewelry Marketing Joy. Visit joyjoya.com/book for more information.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai