Jeweler, New To Digital Marketing? Start Here.
February 24, 2020 (0 comments)
If you're a jeweler and have never really embraced the digital tools available to promote your storefront, you're very behind the times. If this sounds like you, you're probably a little confused or overwhelmed where to begin! In this article, I'll break down where I recommend jewelers should be starting their digital marketing to create a solid, profitable foundation.
I'm going to be discussing strategies for driving foot traffic to your store. In a later article, I'll focus on the ecommerce side.
Primary Goal: Drive Foot Traffic To Your Jewelry Store.
Step 1: Website Modernization
The absolutely first thing you must do is get your website to proper standards. Because in today's age, people no longer see an advertisement or promotion for your store and simply go visit your store after seeing that ad. They will go to your website first, size you up, decide if your business seems reputable and worth their time, and only then will they decide to come into your store or not.
They'll compare your website against other local jewelers in the area.
Without having a website experience that will impress your customers, all the marketing in the world will not help you. So, let's make sure you have a nice clean website that works properly - at the least! It needs to show what brands you carry, too. Don't make your customers guess. If they have to guess on your website, there is very little chance they'll be confident enough to go visit your store.
Step 2: Google "My Business" Local Listing
If your website is ready to go, the next place you want to focus is your Google listing. A Google "My Business" listing, perhaps, is the most crucial element of driving foot traffic to any local storefront/business in the world. It may seem simple, but a business is judged incredibly harsh based on how they appear on Google. If you're a jeweler with only 2 Google reviews and not much information comes up about your store, you simply won't get the business.
This step comes at #2 on purpose. I think your Google listing is more important that social media! There is not a more qualified buyer than someone on Google at that moment specifically searching for exactly what you offer!
This is the listing that appears when someone searches for a product or service in their area. It looks like this, shown in the red box below, and includes tons of valuable information to convince your buyers to come into your store:
It's extremely easy to create a "My Business" local listing page with Google. You can do so by
CLICKING HERE.
The most important aspects of your My Business page is your reviews, which is a clear indicator of trustworthiness and quality. This is why companies like Podium have taken the jewelry industry by storm - their software has made it easy for jewelers to get a quick, painless testimonial from their customers right on their Google My Business page.
Step 3: Social Media
With your website and local Google listing in place, moving to social media should be your next priority.
If you don't have both a Facebook and Instagram presence, you essentially don't exist. Customers expect to see that businesses are "with the times" - they'll expect to see months or years of posting history on your page of the items you sell in your store. Not having this will send off huge red flags in your potential customers minds.
Beyond the "trust" issue, having a strong social media presence just makes sense - it's smart business! Having an online showcase and hub to interact with future and existing customers is incredibly powerful.
So what constitutes having a "good" social media presence?
For starters, you need to post every day. As it is, Facebook limits how many of your followers actually see your posts (2%). So you need to be active to make sure your audience sees your message.
Secondly, you need to respect the different psychologies of the various social media platforms. Facebook and Instagram are the two most obvious places to begin. Despite both these platforms being owned by Facebook, each platform should be used in completely different ways.
Facebook is more of a long-form content publishing platform. This is where you should be publishing your blog articles, press releases, etc. Instagram, on the other hand, is focused on imagery. People scrolling through Instagram really don't want to be reading long articles and such. If they did, they would be on Facebook at that moment. Instagram is where you should be showing off fantastic imagery of the products you carry, photos of your friendly staff, and more.
Lastly, at some point you're going to need to enhance your social media presence with paid advertising. This avenue opens up the opportunity to really attract new eyeballs to your page. Without paid ads, it's pretty difficult to grow your social media following the way it deserves.
