What "Works" in Jewelry Marketing

Laryssa Wirstiuk
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.

Welcome to Episode #277. Today, I’m diving into the topic of when marketing actually “works”. Sometimes, marketing seems like a big mystery. Is it all about posting on social media? Sending out emails? Is there a magical formula for boosting sales? And when exactly does marketing start to show results? If you’re fairly new to the business world, these might be some of the burning questions on your mind, making it tough to see how marketing could genuinely benefit your business and what signs indicate that it’s hitting its mark. In this episode, I’m going to unpack what effective marketing can really look like for you and what it means for marketing to truly “work”. I think you might find my insights surprising, but in the best possible way! I’m going to let you in on some behind-the-scenes of what it looks like for our clients when we’ve uncovered a way for their marketing to really do what it can do best.

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.

Okay, let’s get into today’s episode, my Sparklers! So I’m going to be honest with you: even though I love marketing, there’s one aspect of it that I kind of hate: and that’s the fact that there’s no crystal ball. Unfortunately I have the tough job of telling people that the work of marketing needs to be done, but there’s no guarantee on what the outcome will be. The more you do marketing and the more consistent you are with marketing, the better we can get at making educated guesses about what will happen. But still, there’s never any iron-clad guarantee of what the results will look like. And that’s a tough thing for me to say to small business owners who don’t have the luxury of unlimited time and unlimited money, “So you’re trying to tell me that I have to invest in this, but we don’t know what’s going to happen?” Yes, that’s unfortunately true. It makes me kind of sound like a scam artist, doesn’t it?

But the unknown is kind of the risk you take in general when you go into business. You can do ALL the right things, every single thing. You can go to expensive business school, you can copy a template of how someone else built a successful business in your industry, you can hire the best and brightest and smartest people, and you have so many variables working against you: the economy, changing consumer preferences, trends, available technologies, your margins, luck, literally so many things you can’t control.

And the same goes for marketing. You don’t know what will come of it due to so many outside factors, but the reality is that you HAVE to do it. Because without marketing, you won’t have audience acquisition and customer relationship building, and without those things, you will be standing still without any forward progress. So that’s the first truth you need to know about marketing. And now that you know that truth, you have two choices: 1) you can spin your wheels trying to do it yourself without any guidance or support or 2) you can invest in your marketing sooner rather than later to have direction, strategy, and quick learnings. So what does it look like when marketing “works”? For my clients, it can mean so many different things, depending on your stage of business, and I want to give you some examples. Marketing that “works” doesn’t not always mean you can directly attribute sales to it, although you may be able to in the future. Again, it depends on this business’ stage of growth.

A client who’s never really found consistency or cohesiveness in their marketing, so they don’t have a unified content calendar, irregularly send emails, or post on social media very sporadically. For them, marketing that works is unifying all the pieces together along with their production calendar to build consistency into the plan. This means basically “training” their audience to expect more consistency and then to see how the audience behaves in response to this change. The goal here is not necessarily to make sales, although that could be a nice side effect. The goal instead is to level up from disjointedness to inconsistency and find balance and cohesiveness. This will work for a period until we learn about patterns and behaviors and get comfortable with a cadence of marketing that works from the client. From there, we can continue to think about leveling up, but this is what “works” for the client at the stage where they’re at.

A client who’s accidentally found some great success in their business, but isn’t totally sure what’s working or how they can invest more into the thing that will have the most impact and continue helping them to grow the business. For them, marketing that works means figuring out what’s actually had the biggest positive impact on their revenue. It truly means auditing their marketing, looking at the data, cutting out the marketing channels that aren’t really contributing to the success of the business, leaning into the marketing that is working and potentially thinking through that strategy. It could also mean doing some clean up. So for example, if email marketing is contributing the most to the business, then it’s worth looking at the email list, cleaning it up/segmenting and looking for more ways to build up that list. The future of marketing for this business might mean adding in some new things to try or leaning in even further, but for now the marketing that works is streamlining the most impactful efforts.

A client who’s been in business for decades and is successful by any standards with multi millions of dollars in annual revenue. This client is doing all the right things, but perhaps they want to reach a new target audience or a new market. In a lot of ways, this client will be starting from scratch, since they’re doing something completely new. The marketing that has worked for this client may not work moving forward, and the expectations of everyone really need to be managed because we’re dealing with a whole different beast and trying a new approach, almost the same as a jewelry business starting from scratch with little-to-no information about what the outcomes may be. The challenge with this type of business is that they’re already used to success, they’re used to things working. But the real thing that’s going to “work” moving forward is giving it time and patience to come to fruition.

A mid-size jewelry business looking to diversify its product line: This business has a solid customer base and consistent sales but wants to innovate by introducing a new, eco-friendly jewelry line. Marketing that “works” for them involves educating their current and potential customers about the value and uniqueness of this new line. It could include content marketing strategies like blog posts and videos that highlight the sustainable materials used, the craftsmanship behind the products, and the impact of purchasing such items. This approach might also involve partnering with environmental organizations and leveraging eco-conscious influencers. The success of this marketing effort can be evaluated through customer feedback, pre-orders for the new line, and the engagement on educational content. This approach aims to not only sell a new product line but also to position the brand as a leader in sustainability within the jewelry industry. Those are just a few examples of so many examples of what marketing that “works” can look like. And what works for the business today may need to be reevaluated in six months, in one year, in five years. It’s a constant evolution and exploration that needs to be tied to the business’ current stage of growth as well as the goals. Depending on the business’ marketing budget, some things can also be accelerated or held back. What “works” for one business likely won’t work for another business, even if they sell similar products at similar price points. I think my clients are pretty surprised when they find out that, even though Joy Joya only services clients in the jewelry industry, literally every one of my clients has their own unique footprint of what is working for them and what we’re trying to develop for them. So much of it too depends on their unique group of customers and how they behave; I’m honestly always surprised by customer behavior. They dictate so much about how the marketing will perform, and sometimes we have to learn more from them before we can figure out what to do next. They’re our best teachers.

Now that I’ve given you some general examples, let’s talk about the marketing tactics that actually drive revenue because I know you really want to know. A lot of people out there still don’t believe me because I consistently get the feedback that they think email is dead, but across the board without question, email is the strongest deliverer of revenue for my clients. It performs above and beyond social media marketing and really anything else. Not only that but when you use an email marketing tool like Klaviyo that’s directly integrated with your ecommerce shop like Shopify, you can pretty closely see what that path to purchase looks like and which emails have the strongest impact on your sales. Some other things I’ve seem that are working: Collaborations, either with other brands and/or brand ambassadors and influencers. It’s a surefire way to get in front of another person’s audience and help you build your exposure. Short of presenting your jewelry at in-person events very often, I really can’t think of another way that will give your brand exposure, unless you have tons and tons of money to dump into ads and PR exposure, like high-profile celebrity level PR exposure. But again, just that is not going to result in sales; it’s going to result in eyeballs on your brand, and then you have to do the work of getting them in your inner circle, on your email list, and inspiring them to make a purchase, building that relationship over time.

Live video on social media, if you already have an audience because obviously this won’t work in a vacuum, but if you can commit to going live and showing up for your audience regularly, like at least once/week, you’ll create an expectation that you’re there for them, you’re being transparent, and you’re making shopping super fun and easy for them. This is a great way to build relationships, and if you can find a way to convert those live viewers into email subscribers, even better! Because then you can continue to build relationships with them over time. But again, as you’ve probably gleaned from this episode, there are always exceptions. One thing I love so much about marketing is that I can work with 100 different jewelry brands and literally learn something new and have a new challenge with each and every one of them. They are all going to have an individual footprint as to what “works” for them with their marketing. It’s really important to have someone advise and guide you if you feel unsure for yourself. This is something that Joy Joya offers our clients. You guys know that I never do a hard sales pitch on this podcast, so I’m not about to start now. But I do want to give you some advice that, when it comes to marketing that “works”, if an expert or a course or a program is promising you some kind of outcome without intimately knowing your business and your customers, they’re just trying to sell you something and don’t know what marketing is going to “work” for you. I saw this because I see so many people spinning their wheels on support that’s just not tailored for them. The so-called experts or course sellers or whoever are just throwing out their bait and hoping something will get caught. So know that marketing is individual, marketing is a process of discovery, and marketing is necessary – but better done with a strategy and with clarity in mind. I hope that was useful and that that all made sense to you.

Okay, now that we got all that out of the way, let’s get into the goldmine. This is a segment of the podcast where I get personal and share insights on entrepreneurship, mindset, success, growth, and all things business. On this week’s GOLD MINE, I want to share some tips for how to be more confident as a business owner. I want to cover this topic today because I hear and see the criticism that many jewelry entrepreneurs get from disgruntled customers and even just “the haters”. I hear from my clients some of the really nasty client feedback they get, even when 99% of their feedback is positive. There’s always someone who will be unhappy. I also see it happening on the backend of what I do in marketing, through reviews, comments, and more. For even the person with the toughest skin, this type of negative feedback or even the careless, rude comments can really throw off your momentum and mood, really chipping away at your confidence, enthusiasm, and hope. Oftentimes, our first reaction when we see negative feedback is to get super angry in response and write something negative back. But there are actually two things you should do instead. 1. Take a step and breath back and ask yourself, do I want to engage with this person? If it’s necessary to engage, how can you respond with kindness? So that’s the first thing to do. Also, can you actually learn from this, or is there really nothing to be gained? Try to take something away from the interaction, so it’s not just 100% negative.

But then there’s also the ongoing self care required to make sure those things over time don’t chip away at your confidence and get your spirits down. So some of these tips I’ve actually gotten from a podcast I listen to and love called “The Confidence Podcast” if you want to check that out. One of my favorite ways to build confidence is to do hard things and to always be challenging yourself. That’s one tip that has personally helped me build confidence over the years, especially since I’m the type of person whose default is to doubt myself. Something didn’t work out? It must have been my fault or something I did. I tend to give other people the benefit of the doubt and then blame myself, which then can eat away at my confidence. However, when I started really pushing myself to commit to things in my business, even just my weekly commitment to this podcast and trying things that feel risky or uncertain and pushing myself out of my comfort zone as much as I can handle, I notice that things that may have made me feel imposter syndrome or may have rattled my confidence in the past can no longer rattle me in the same way. Because I’ve already shown myself again and again that I show up for myself and my business and do the hard things – and if there’s anyone who’s going to point a finger at me, I can tell myself in my head (rather than writing back a mean comment) that I’d like to see them trying to do that hard things too. It’s easy to be a critic behind a computer screen, but I’ve earned the street cred for myself, and my reputation to myself can’t be rattled. So I would recommend the same to you, if you find that you sometimes have imposter syndrome, or don’t feel like you’re good enough or where you quote-unquote “should be” or if you let negative feedback get under your skin, make some kind of commitment to yourself. Try something that you don’t think a lot of other people would do. It can be anything! Something that feels doable for you but would look impressive or hard to other people. Constantly look for ways to push yourself out of your comfort zone – and then actually follow through as much as you possibly can. It might even be worth having a “meeting” with yourself every week and asking yourself, how can I push myself out of my comfort zone this week? And then make a plan, so you actually follow through on that. The more you can show yourself that you’re capable of doing hard and amazing things, the less anything can rattle you. And the more you feel confident that you can depend on yourself in your business and that you have all the control, the more confident you’ll be in general. What do you think? Do you sometimes suffer from lack of confidence in your business? Drop me a message via Instagram DM, leave a review on the podcast, or comment on our YouTube channel. Let’s engage in a discussion about it!

Did you have any questions about today’s episode? You can always email me Laryssa at laryssa@joyjoya.com. If you loved 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. 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