Do These 3 Things for Jewelry Marketing Success in 2023

0:00
Hi, I’m your host Laryssa Wirstiuk. Through this podcast, I aim to empower and inspire jewelry entrepreneurs and professionals, so they can thrive while adding more beauty to the world. I’m passionate about digital marketing for jewelry brands, and I’m excited to share my passion with you. As we all know “jewelry is joy”, so I’ll gladly seize any opportunity to talk about it.

0:25
This is episode #223. Happy New Year to you! After a short holiday break, I’m back in 2023, and I’m so grateful to you, my podcast listeners and viewers. To kick off the new year, I’m gonna set you up for success by sharing three things you must do for jewelry marketing success in 2023 and beyond. Do you struggle with creating a vision for your business? And do you feel overwhelmed by the landscape of the year ahead? This episode will break it all down for you. So when you finish listening or watching you’ll have clarity in your business and feel empowered to set goals. These three things are going to be: 1) conduct a SWOT analysis; 2) set SMART goals based on past performance, the reality of external circumstances and the vision that you have in your imagination; and 3) throw the checklist out the window.

1:39
But before we get to the solid gold of this episode, I’d like to take a moment to remind you that this podcast has both an audio and video component. So you can either listen on your favorite podcast platform or watching YouTube by searching Joy Joya. I love creating this content as my act of service to you, my awesome listeners and viewers, and you can support the podcast for free by taking the time not only to subscribe, but also leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts which helps other jewelry dreamers find it too.

2:11
In this segment of the podcast I give out my Sparkle Award for the week. During this segment, I highlight a jewelry brand that’s impressing me with our marketing. The Sparkle Award is also interactive so you can visit sparkleaward.com to nominate a jewelry brand that’s inspiring you these days, and I might feature your submission on a future podcast episode. This week’s Sparkle Award goes to Automic Gold, which is a New York City based jewelry brand that makes what they describe as “gender free jewelry”. I had heard of this brand before. I believe I saw them on Instagram. But I recently learned more about the business and founder Al Sandimirova. Hopefully I said that right. In a video from CNBC “Make It” series on YouTube. And I’ll put that link in the show notes. So you can watch the video too if you’re curious. So Automic Gold is a queer owned and operated jewelry business. And the story of how the business came to be is really what’s the most remarkable and inspiring thing for me personally. So when Al came to the US from Russia in 2009, they took a job making $4 an hour at a gold refinery in New York City’s diamond district. In an effort to make extra money they began designing and selling their own jewelry online, specifically selling it on eBay. And in the first year they made $165,000. Since then, Al has built this side hustle into a $4.8 million business that designs jewelry marketed specifically to the LGBTQ plus community. I like that they’ve specifically targeted a niche in the marketplace. I talk about this all the time, but no surprise, I love it. And they’re not afraid to step into this niche. They were showcasing inclusivity in their model photos long before it was the cool thing to do. And they also have and are really communicative about their sustainable manufacturing practices. So definitely check out the YouTube video if you also want to be inspired by this story. As I mentioned, you can visit sparkleaward.com to nominate a jewelry brand that’s inspiring you these days.

4:44
Let’s discuss some news related to jewelry or marketing. Each week I share my thoughts about three relevant articles, and you can get those links in the show notes. So the first article comes from the official TikTok Newsroom, and it’s called “What’s Next 2023 Trend Report”. So social media platform TikTok recently released its trend report for the coming year. And the Global Head of Business Marketing for TikTok Sofia Hernandez said in a really interesting quote “2022 was the year people realized they didn’t have to live their lives as they always have done – with different points of view and ideas transcending cultures on TikTok.” So TikTok really believes and maybe this is true, that TikTok is the place people come to realize that there are so many different points of view, ways of approaching life, different niche communities, that people who use the platform really feel inspired that they can be individuals. And I think the way that this applies to the jewelry industry, is that consumers have realized, especially in the last few years, that they have tons of choice in the marketplace, they’re no longer limited to like the big well known players in the jewelry industry, they have plenty of choice when it comes to how they decide to adorn themselves and gift jewelry to others, whether that is choosing brands that more closely aligned with their values. Or maybe they’re choosing wedding jewelry that’s not necessarily traditional, and more reflective of their personalities. So TikTok’s also predicting a rise in entertainment, really when it comes to marketing and advertising. They say when marketing, when advertising messaging is delivered, like an ad, but loved like entertainment, brands can see incredible business results. TikTok has really become a platform for spreading joy, and fun. So if you’re going to be a brand on this platform, you have to know that your followers, the users of this platform, are really going to respond best to light-hearted content. So brands should capitalize on this by sharing that more entertaining content by leading with a light and playful approach. Also brands that want to be on TikTok need to realize that TikTok has really become a place as I mentioned, kind of earlier, when I was talking about this article, a place where people with hyper niche interests can gather, they can find other people out there in the world who are similar to them. And they can really feel comfortable being individuals. So if you happen to cater to a very niche audience with your jewelry brand, then this could potentially be a really great opportunity for you in your business. My main takeaway from this article is for jewelry brands that really can find their target audience is on TikTok, there are so many opportunities to get creative with content, and experiment with what will resonate with the consumers who are most enjoying this platform right now.

8:17
The next article comes from Harvard Business Review, and it’s called “Research: consumers value fate in marketing narratives”. So this new article starts off with an example from the jewelry industry. So of course that caught my attention right off the bat. This story goes like this. Imagine that you’re shopping a jewelry website and you see the about page or you see a bit of the like bio or the story. And it says that the founder of this jewelry brand unintentionally, unintentionally discovered a goldmine while they were out on a hike. They never had the thought to start a jewelry brand. But because of this fateful moment, they discovered a goldmine, and they were suddenly inspired to start the business. Would this makes you want to buy the jewelry even more? Well, according to new research, it could actually motivate people to want to buy a product. So previously, previous research showed that consumers valued hard work in starting something or having a new idea and like having intention behind it and a plan. But now apparently this new research shows that fate and unintentionality actually seems to be more appealing. In the study actually used this example of a fictional jewelry company to test the participants and see how they reacted to different types of brands stories.

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So here’s a quote from the article, “We found that consumers who read that the gold mine was discovered unintentionally were more interested in shopping at the jewelry company than the consumers who read that the gold mine was discovered intentionally and the consumers who read the brand’s biography with no details about the gold mine’s discovery”. So they also tested the same messaging on social media, and the same thing held true that people have responded better to the more like fateful story. My main takeaway from this research is that if you do have some kind of unintentional or fate driven discovery aspect as part of your business’s story, then you should definitely be capitalizing it on this and emphasizing it in your storytelling. It could be especially interesting, I think, if you deal in vintage or antique jewelry, because there’s always this like discoverability factor behind finding this one of a kind piece out there in the world, and then sharing that with your customers. Of course, don’t be making stuff up. But if this does happen to apply to you, you should absolutely be capitalizing on it.

11:20
And then the last article comes from CNBC and it’s called “10 real-world things people have done after watching TikTok videos”. I promise this is relevant to jewelry. So back to talking about TikTok, if your jewelry brand is not on the platform, but again, an only if you think your target customers may be spending time there, you should know a few important things about the shopping behavior of TikTok users and the actions they tend to take after seeing posts that they resonate with. So a recent survey from the new consumer asked TikTok users what action they’ve taken as a result of using the platform. 28% followed a new brand, 27% purchase a new product, and 17% wore a specific outfit or dress in a specific style because of a TikTok post that they saw. But you should also know as I mentioned earlier with the other article that most people come to TikTok seeking entertainment. So as a brand, you need to balance enticing users to view/shop your products, while also providing a fun and entertaining experience on the app. My main takeaway from this article is if your jewelry brand is already entertaining, playful and fun, and you think your target customer spends time on the platform, then TikTok does according to the research, present opportunities to be discovered and also to actually influence your target customers to buy your products because people definitely take action when they’re on TikTok. For more information about any of these articles, check out the links in the show notes.

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Okay, let’s talk about three things that you definitely need to be doing with your jewelry marketing in 2023. Okay, the first thing you may have been confused by the acronym, but I will explain it to you. Number one, conduct a SWOT analysis. So it’s actually SWOT, and it stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is a great thing to do for your marketing strategy at the beginning of the year. And I’ll break it all down for you.

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So first, you want to get really honest with your current state. Rather than just sweeping things under the rug and moving forward with your goals and pretending everything’s gonna work out for you. You need to assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. So first, when you’re evaluating your strengths, you want to ask yourself questions like, and you may want to get a pause and get a notebook or you can come back to this but I’m going to list a lot of questions for you. So strengths. What do we consistently do well? What do we do better than our competitors? What are our strongest internal resources? That could be you, that could be a team member, that could be talent that you have that could be a collaborator, something that you are already really strong at, and what seemed to work best in 2022. And in past years, those are just a few questions to get you started on strength. When you’re evaluating your weaknesses, you want to ask yourself questions like, what resources are we lacking? What’s holding us back from achieving our goals? Do your customers truly understand what makes us unique in the marketplace? And what is making us feel self conscious, or insecure about our current positioning? And those are some tough questions, but they’re super important to address. And then when it comes to evaluating opportunities, it’s one thing to seek existing opportunities. But it’s really a whole other ballgame to actually create opportunities for your jewelry business. So ask these questions. Could you be serving underserved customers who don’t feel accepted or seen at other jewelry stores? Or jewelry businesses? How can you lean even more into your brand identity to make a powerful and unforgettable statement? Is it possible for your business to more specifically align with a niche customer demographic? And what approach to marketing have you never tried before? And then finally, for the SWOT analysis, you’ll want to evaluate your threats. That’s the key. When it comes to evaluating these threats, you shouldn’t be hyper focused on your competition, actually. But you need to be aware, obviously, of what’s happening in the marketplace. So ask these questions. Are you regular regularly checking in with the industry? Are you aware of the trends in consumer preferences and behavior? Are you operating as you always have? Could you be doing anything to create a blue ocean for your jewelry business? That really means you are making the competition irrelevant and actually carving out uncontested market space? Are you aware of any external factors like the economy, for example, that may be impacting your customers purchasing decisions?

17:48
Number two, so you’ve done your SWOT analysis. Next, you want to set SMART goals. So we’re going to cover my personal favorite way to think about goals. If you’ve read my book “Jewelry Marketing Joy”, then this will not be new to you, you will have read about this before, but it’s always good to have a review in the New Year. So when you think about goals you’d like to achieve this year or at any time, you want them to be SMART, which is another acronym. It stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time based. So I would say specific is one of the more important ones mostly because it’s the one that most people avoid. They’re afraid to be specific, because, unfortunately, they’re afraid of failure. So if you tell yourself, you want to achieve something specific, and you don’t achieve it, it might feel like a blow to you. But at the same time, if you don’t know exactly what you’re hoping to achieve, then it’s really going to be impossible for you to break down that larger, year-long reach goal into manageable, measurable milestones. So specific goals usually involve numbers and data so that you’re able to measure them in regular intervals, typically on like a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. The M in SMART stands for measurable. You need those specific goals to have some way to measure them. Otherwise, how will you assess your progress toward them? So you need to choose your key performance indicators or KPIs that are related to the goal, become really familiar and comfortable with them. What are the levers you’re going to be pulling in your business to help you achieve your goals? How can you measure your progress and business health? So it needs to be measured.

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A is attainable. Yes, it’s important to have reach goals, to push yourself, to dream big. But they need to be in some way realistic. So you need to use past experience, past business performance, to see how much you’re capable of growing, while also considering external factors like predictions about consumer behavior about how the economy is going to perform. There are a lot of things involved in choosing a potentially attainable goal. The R stands for relevant, that may seem like a no brainer thing, but are you actually setting goals around what’s important? So, for example, let’s pretend you are launching an email marketing program for your business like you’ve never done email marketing before. And you decide that a goal for your email is “I’m going to make X amount of revenue generated from email by the end of 2023”. That may not actually be relevant for what you’re doing. Because if you’re just starting an email marketing program, you may want to do something a little more intermediary like focus on optimizing your click rate or optimizing those email campaigns to make sure they are actually driving traffic to the site. Conversions may not be the thing that you should be focused on right now, because it’s kind of jumping the gun a little bit. And then the T in SMART stands for time based. In some ways, the time based one is one of the most important because you need to have urgency around your goal and know when you’re hoping to achieve it. Otherwise, the goal is just more of a daydream. So I really love this quote from Brian Tracy. He says, “There are no unrealistic goals, only unrealistic deadlines.” Basically, he’s saying that everything is achievable. It just depends on like, when are we looking at here 50 years, or by the end of this year? So the time based part really kind of ties all of this together.

22:37
So once you’re good with your smart goals, you have them set, you want to do number three on my list, which is stop checking the boxes. Yeah, okay, I’m basically sharing a checklist of sorts with you. But I also kind of want you to throw the checklist out the window in 2023. I’ve said this so many times before, too many jewelry brands are just checking off the right boxes, the quote unquote, right boxes when it comes to their digital marketing, but not ever really trying anything out of the box or unique. And then they wonder why they’re not seeing results? Well, it’s because they’re all literally doing the same thing everyone else is doing. So stop playing it safe, start creating that blue ocean, that uncontested market space. Instead, really try to lean into your unique value proposition. So what truly makes you unique in this marketplace in the jewelry industry? And that SWOT analysis that I just talked about can help you start to uncover that if you don’t know. Try a marketing tactic you’ve never tried before. Or maybe that you haven’t even really seen used in the jewelry industry, you can borrow from another industry or another brand that you admire. Tell a story about your brand that you’ve never seen before. And you might need to step outside of the industry to get that fresh perspective. really strive to be a disruptor in this new year. Don’t just strive to be great or have pretty products. What does the industry really need more of from your perspective? And how can you fill that void? Which customers want to buy jewelry or could potentially want to buy jewelry? But are feeling underserved right now? And how can you cast a smaller net but potentially earn the attention, admiration and loyalty of a more specific niche customer.

25:12
What do you think about that? Do you feel set up for the new year? I’d love to know 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. To purchase a signed copy of my book, Jewelry Marketing Joy, visit joy joy.com/book for more information.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai