16 weeks until Christmas: Your Sales Success Guide (podcast episode)
There are just 16 weeks until Christmas which is traditionally a busy time for jewellers. In this week's episode of the Jewellers Academy podcast, Jess and Anna Campbell discuss how to effectively prepare your jewellery business for the Christmas season, breaking down the actions by month sharing what to do and what not to do to have the best and most profitable Christmas yet.
Listen now:
222: 16 weeks until christmas: your sales success guide
with Jessica Rose and Anna Campbell
There are just 16 weeks until Christmas which is traditionally a busy time for jewellers. In this week's episode of the Jewellers Academy podcast, Jess and Anna Campbell discuss how to effectively prepare your jewellery business for the Christmas season, breaking down the actions by month sharing what to do and what not to do to have the best and most profitable Christmas yet.
Here is an overview of your activity month by month. Listen to the episode for all of the advice and tips.
September
September is your preparation month where your focus is on finalising your collections, making your Christmas stock, getting your photography done (listen out for next weeks podcast for more support around photography) and packaging ready. Marketing in September is low key with some posting on socials and an email or two with updates.
September is not the time to try to design new collections or go hard on your marketing.
October
October is where your marketing ramps up. Spend the first two weeks checking your website and refreshing listings. Make sure your descriptions are clear. Update your photos with the ones you’ve taken. Change up the banner on your website for something Christmas themed so shoppers immediately know that you are ready to ship. Be sure your last order and shipping dates are clear. Ensure you are sending out regular emails and posts on socials sharing what you have for sale. Examples of content are: spotlight on a collection, a spotlight on earrings, a gift guide with pieces grouped by pricing etc.
November
November is sales month and it’s time to find different ways to share the same message in email and on your socials. Your message is about your collection/s, what you have for sale and that your jewellery makes the perfect gift. Share reels, carousels, images, focus on one collection, focus on all the rings you have available, focus on items under a certain price point. Send weekly emails.
This is also the time to follow up with people that have shown interest. Check out who is clicking on links in your emails and send them a personalised email about the item they clicked on. DM people that like your social posts or interact with you on socials. This isn’t the equivalent of a cold call. If you imagine you had a bricks and mortar shop and someone was trying on your jewellery you would talk to them about it. This is the same thing and helps people feel more connected and confident about buying from you
November is not the time for making jewellery, the focus should be on selling this month.
(Of course, this does depend on your business model and if you make to order or work on commissions then your books will be open until you have enough orders for the season)
December
We only have the first two weeks of December before the Christmas selling season is over and you will have cut off dates for orders so ensure you are communicating them regularly. Your cut off dates will be location dependent and so some of these will be in November. Ramp up the emails with at least 3 in the final week sharing the last order dates and with clear links for ordering.
If you sell gift vouchers, you will want to ramp up talking about these once the last order date for jewellery orders has passed.
General tips
Avoid overwhelm by doing one thing every day and having a focus for your month. Don’t try to do everything, you’ll end up doing nothing and feeling bad about the season
Think about how to keep yourself motivated. Can you schedule in a reward at the end of the selling season?
Take a proper break once Christmas sales are over
Learn more about Jewellers Academy
Your next episode:
Email marketing is a powerful tool for jewellers, but only if you’re getting people to actually read what you send them. In this episode, Anna Campbell is taking over the podcast to share her top tips for creating emails that people will want to read. She also explains how to avoid getting your emails flagged as spam, and she discusses some of the reasons why email marketing is more important than ever. Anna is the part-time community manager for Jewellers Academy, and she’s also a coach for creative business owners.
