Laryssa: Hi. I’m your host, Laryssa Wirstiuk. Through this podcast I aim to empower and inspire jewelry entrepreneurs and innovators so they can thrive by doing what they love. I’m passionate about digital marketing for jewelry brands, and I’m excited to share my passion with you. This is episode 131, and today I’m going to discuss how you can start involving your customers in your jewelry marketing. Not only can customer engagement help your brand feel more authentic and trustworthy, but your customers can also help guide you in your product development decisions and in the direction of your business. But, before we get to today’s episode, I want to share some marketing-related news and insights from the past week that caught my attention.

So, this is an article from Social Media Today. Based on a recent survey amongst Pinterest pinners and non-pinners, the social media platform found that its users are [01:00] 40% more likely to say the environment is a personal interest, and 30% more likely to take action as a result. People on Pinterest are also 70% more likely than non-pinners to seek out local brands or products, while 80% of pinners are looking to shop for more sustainably made products, and there’s definitely an increased focus on sustainability. So, if that’s a focus in your jewelry brand’s marketing, if you make sustainable jewelry products, then you’ll definitely wanna milk this on Pinterest. So, based on these survey findings, Pinterest has provided three key tips for marketers looking to align with these usage trends. One – provide educational content. Two – show off your sustainable side. Three – inspire action, and four – showcase your position on this front and how you’re working to support key [02:00] initiatives to tackle the impacts of climate change.

Second, I found a really great article from Search Engine Journal about preparing for cookie-less ecommerce. So, we’re not talking about the chocolate-chip kind. What I mean by cookie-less future is, by 2022, Google will be doing away with its third-party cookies in the web browser Chrome, and Apple will be removing access to device identifiers on iOS. So, this is a huge step forward in data privacy, but it also kinda stinks for businesses that have been relying on this data to provide more personalized ad targeting and personalized product recommendations. So, this will specifically cause issues around ad targeting, measurement, and cross-channel attribution.
What will you need to anticipate in this cookie-less future? You’ll need to [03:00] consider things like digital identity. It’s gonna be tougher to measure ad impressions, frequency, and to classify new versus returning website visitors. You’re going to need to think about ad targeting. So, consumers will definitely see less personalized advertising. But also, fortunately, this is the cost of increased privacy. And attributions. So, without these third-party cookies, it really will become impossible to track enough of the customer journey to make attribution reliable.

What are the solutions? You’re gonna need to start focusing on your first-party data. It will take on even more value. So, what is first-party versus third-party data? First-party data is the information that you directly collect from your audience or customers. So, for example, that’s when you make a sale, or when a customer or user subscribes to your email list – [04:00] all of those things are first-party data. And, the more your audience authenticates with your website, the easier it will be to tackle any sort of analytics challenges that will result from this cookie-less future.

Finally, I saw a really good article from Marketing Mag that answers the question “What will marketing look like in 2030?” That’s an interesting question. It’s not too far away. Some interesting insights here. I’m not necessarily surprised by them, but I wanted to share. So, one, definitely, an increased emphasis on location-based advertising. So, new advertising methods based on physical location and the presence of people will become a lot more effective and feasible. Two, there will be a focus on “cut through the clutter” marketing. Brands will need to figure out how to compress and make more efficient their marketing [05:00] message, to communicate it as quickly and briefly and in as much an interesting way as possible. And personalized products marketing. Ecommerce will definitely be more about personalized products rather than mass-produced products. Fashion brands and jewelry brands will begin to produce and sell items that are specific to their buyer’s measurements and tastes. And of course, something I’ve talked about on the podcast before very frequently, content marketing, especially original, creative, and authentic content marketing, will become even more important than ever before. If you want to get the links to the articles I shared in this segment of the podcast, you can sign up for my email newsletter by visiting joyjoya.com/signup, and you’ll get a digest with the links whenever a new episode drops.

Okay, let’s get to it. So, how can you better involve, incorporate your [06:00] customers in your jewelry marketing? To ultimately get them more excited about the brand, but also to be more authentic, trustworthy, original, creative in your content, and also just to have a whole other channel of content coming in for you, because your customers are really helping you create that content. So, I’m gonna share some tips – some of them you may be familiar with, or may have tried. Some may be new to you. But, just reminders of ways to really get your customers involved.

So, first thing – you definitely want to, when you can, highlight your customer’s stories. Make them shine. For example, on your Instagram profile, in your Instagram Stories, Reels, or even regular posts, highlight those customer stories. If you’re looking for ways to motivate your customers to share their stories with you, maybe hold some kind of contest [07:00] that encourages your customers to share pictures, videos, even written-out stories, and offer some kind of incentive to really get customers to want to share those things with you. I think you’d be surprised. Customers, especially if they’re satisfied once, they’re gonna be really excited to want to share your products with the world. And if you are incentivizing that by offering some kind of prize or discount, they will be even more excited to do that. It will give you a store of content that you can build out and use in things like Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and you can build little micro-narratives around these customer stories, and get other customers even more engaged, and possibly more excited, or feel more willing to share their own customer pictures, stories, videos. Definitely encourage that. You can even [08:00] create- If you do already have a blog, maybe in your blog posts you can feature customer stories, do Q&A’s with past customers, or even with the customer’s permission, tell their story in your own words alongside pictures, videos, whatever other kind of media you have.

Next, I would suggest, if you can, if you have the resources, to consider building out a customer advisory team. You can call it whatever you want, but basically it’s like a board or a VIP group of customers that have purchased a lot from you, that you trust, that have share honest feedback with you in the past, who have felt really involved with the brand, they follow on social media and are really engaged with your content. You want to wrangle up these customers and appoint them [09:00] to this team, and make it feel really official, exclusive and special. Of course, you’ll want them all to agree to confidentiality, but with this team you can share things like early designs and ideas, and them gather their feedback and thoughts I exchange for things like discounts, or maybe other incentives, like maybe early access to products, or even giveaways or something, whatever you can afford to give in exchange for their feedback. You can even throw exclusive parties and other events for these customers. You wanna make them feel like they’re truly involved in your business, and like they have a say in the future.

I was actually once part of such a customer advisory team for a handbag brand that I love, that I’ve purchased many products from. They’ve since discontinued this [10:00] customer advisory team, but I was part of it for a couple of years, and they even had a digital portal just for this customer advisory team, where I could log in and see different questions posted on a forum. They would regularly have exclusive surveys that only we could access, and we would then sometimes get a free product, or even really great discounts for future products. It was super fun, and probably made me spend even more money on products, even though I was getting them at highly discounted prices, because I felt like they care about me, and that I have a say in the future of this brand. It just made me really excited, because I was already a fan, and continued to be one as I went through this process. So, I loved that, and I really recommend it to other brands that are looking for [11:00] ways to encourage customer involvement.

Another idea would be to regularly conduct surveys, and really try to look for ways to make them fun. I get a lot of B2B surveys from different business service providers I use, and they’re kinda boring. They’re like “We’re looking for your feedback, take 10 minutes to fill this out.” Think about a way to make these surveys engaging and fun, and maybe gamify them, and offer an incentive for customers that do complete the survey, whether it’s a discount or something else. Almost every time I’m working with a client, and we’re stumped on something, or we have a question, or we’re not really sure how to move forward, the answer is almost always “Let’s ask the customers.” It usually clears up a lot for us. It gives us ideas, it gives us guidance, it lets us know what the customer is really desiring, [12:00] so that we can best cater to them in our marketing and business decisions.

Another idea is to be more democratic. Allow your customers to vote on things. So, not only a survey, but give them a few options, see which one they like best. You can consider co-creating something new with customers, whether it’s a collection, or a specific product, or a limited edition product. They can help you name the product, or even come up with color ways, or special details on that product. It’s really fun to get your customers involved in the product development process. If you haven’t done so already, you can consider implementing a customer referral program, so that your current customers can get rewards – whether that’s a points system or incremental discounts – when they refer friends, family and loved ones to your [13:00] brand.
You also might want to consider building a community around your jewelry brand. Sephora is a really good example of a brand that’s also been able to build a community. So, not only is Sephora a retailer of makeup, cosmetic, skincare products, makeup accessories etc., but they have truly built a community of makeup professionals, lovers and aficionados, and all of these people are part of Sephora’s online forum. So, if you go to any product on the Sephora website or app, you can see people who have purchased it – a lot of them will upload pictures of themselves, write comments about how they‘ve used the product, whether on social media with different hashtags, on YouTube, showing how the products are being used, tips, [14:00] suggestions, really honest opinions. There’s truly a community of people who not only love Sephora, but another layer of that is that they’re excited to share with other community members what they have found, and what they’re passionate about when it comes to these products. These are more than just customer reviews. They’re people truly sharing their passion and enthusiasm.

Another example of a brand that has built a community is a yoga apparel brand called Alo, and they have a website and a totally separate platform called Alo Moves. It’s basically online streaming yoga classes. So, the teachers are all also Alo brand representatives, they wear the clothes in the videos. But, they’re just educational classes that anyone can take. You don’t necessarily have to wear Alo when you’re taking the [15:00] classes, but it’s another added element of community building, and offering value, and bringing people together with a shared passion and vision that doesn’t necessarily just revolve around your products. Consider featuring your customers in an upcoming ad campaign. So, if you’re running social media ads, and you got a really good photo or video testimonial from customers with their permission, think about featuring them in an upcoming ad, because your customers are really your best spokespeople.

And finally, you might wanna think about – and this is not right for every brand, but if it’s aligned with your brand – think about embodying strong values, or some kind of strong value or position on something, whether it is sustainability, or some kind of social justice-related issue. [16:00] It will definitely alienate some people, but you’ll also build that community of people who also support that. As I mentioned with the Sephora and Alo example, it builds a group, a really strong, tight-knit community of people who are united in something that’s not necessarily your product, but is very much related to your brand and your values.