Marketing for success as a jeweller
Blog
As part of the new book ‘Start and Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business’ with Jessica Rose, a handful of talented and successful, handmade jewellers were invited to be interviewed about various different elements of their business.
Each jeweller was chosen specifically to talk about a particular area of focus within their business which they were doing brilliantly at, to share their real life experience and demonstrate how its done. One of these areas of focus was marketing…
Having a good marketing strategy and great content to share is key to growing a successful jewellery business, but finding the balance between marketing and making can be tricky.
For this chapter of the book, Jess invited successful handmade jeweller Elin Horgan who is doing a fab job at marketing her business to talk a bit more about her marketing strategy from which channels she focuses her time on, to how she goes about creating great content.
Here’s what Elin had to say…
Elin in her studio
How long have you been a jeweller for?
I’ve been making jewellery on and off for years – starting with some beading and Fimo (of course!) when I was a child and then in later life going on to take a silversmithing evening class at a local college.
How did you start making jewellery?
To begin with my jewellery making was a creative escape from a very uncreative job, but following the birth of my first child I saw an opportunity to make a career out of it. I enrolled in a business start up course and a one day a week Certificate in Jewellery and Silversmithing course and started to think about putting together a cohesive collection of work that I could approach shops & galleries with. I finally launched my business in 2013 and now work on it full time, making and selling my jewellery online and through stockists and also teaching wax carving workshops.
Elin’s packaging and branding
Which channels do you currently use in your marketing?
I use Instagram as my main social media channel with the odd post on Facebook (usually just for events) and also e-mail marketing directly to my customer base. I also blog regularly as this really helps with my website’s SEO. It’s probably seen as the less exciting side of marketing, but it’s so important in helping people find you online.
In the past I’ve also used Pinterest and although I found that it drove traffic to my website it was very low converting so at the moment I just focus on the above channels. It’s really important to me that it feels manageable because you need to be putting some time into marketing each and every day. If you try and do too much you end up not doing any of it very well whereas focusing on a few key areas means you are more likely to get it done.
Which part of marketing do you enjoy the most?
I quite enjoy planning out what I’m going to be doing month by month and week by week. Give me a colour coded spreadsheet and I’m happy!
I start by making a very topline annual plan and then break it down into 3 month chunks with more details on what’s going out where. I believe it’s important to have a clear idea of where you’re going – ie:- when a new collection launches or when you’re going to do a sale or promote a special offer – so that you can plan accordingly. Otherwise you’re just randomly doing stuff and it’s not cohesive so has less impact. It can also make it hard to evaluate what works and what doesn’t.
I think lots of jewellers just want to get on with the making side of things and see marketing as a chore that has to be completed, but actually there are lots of ways that you can be creative with your marketing activities too – it doesn’t have to be boring.
Little and often is definitely the approach that works for me and I like to treat it like a skill to be learned and refined. If I see an e-mail or a social media post that works really well (it doesn’t have to be jewellery related) then I like to make a note of I and think about how I could use the idea to create something of my own. It’s good to have a bank of topics that I can use for social media posts and e-mails so that when I’m feeling totally out of inspiration for something to write I can just grab an idea from my spreadsheet and use that.
Re-purposing content so that it works across multiple channels is such a great way of saving time and effort. For example, I might write a blog post about the difference between gold filled, gold plated and gold vermeil jewellery which I can then re-use as an e-mail, social media posts, Reels etc.
Is there anything you find challenging?
It can be a bit dispiriting when something doesn’t work as you hoped, but I’ve learned to put it down to experience. You won’t know if you don’t try! I think if you have the mindset that it’s about experimentation and seeing what works and doesn’t work then you feel more positive about the same thing. I try and see everything as an opportunity to learn about my customers and what they’re interested in, I don’t always get it right but that’s ok.
Tell us about how you use email marketing in your business?
I e-mail my list once a month if there’s nothing in particular going on, but if I have a new collection launching it might be several times in a month and in the lead up to Christmas it’s pretty much once a week.
In my experience it’s absolutely true what they say about e-mail marketing being more effective than other channels and I’m usually guaranteed a pretty good response from my list when I put out an offer or launch something new. I like to think of it as a way to reward customer loyalty (although not everyone on my list has purchased from me) so I often give early access to sale pieces and exclusive special discounts to be subscribers. It’s a great incentive to get people to sign up and they also get a discount code for 10% off their first online order.
I can’t emphasise enough how important is to start building your e-mail list from day one - it’s your most valuable asset because it’s yours!
Tell us about how you use instagram your business?
I think Instagram is great for growing a community around your brand. It’s a nice way to start conversations with customers and show some behind the scenes type content about how your jewellery is made and your inspiration. I would definitely caution about becoming too reliant on it though. As we’ve seen recently with the prioritisation of short form video content on Instagram, social media platforms can and will change according to the company’s priorities and what’s working for advertisers. If you’re over invested it can be really frustrating when things that used to work don’t and engagement drops.
If you’ve got limited time, you’re probably better off working on your SEO (assuming you have a website). It’s not as exciting, but the pay off is much longer term.
With Instagram I try to mix my content up so that it doesn’t feel too salesy. I usually use a combination of informative posts with 1) general jewellery know-how – how to clean your silver jewellery or which necklace length works best on you – 2) updates on what I’ve been working on – new designs, work in progress, commissions and 3) Fun stuff – like do you prefer silver or gold or what was a first piece of jewellery you bought.
I have found that leading with a question and keeping the copy quite short and snappy is the best way to generate engagement and of course you need to spend time interacting with other people’s accounts too.
How has marketing helped your business to grow?
I think the biggest thing for me is that it’s increased my visibility. I feel so lucky to running a business at a time when there are so many no/low cost options for marketing activity. It means that there are lots of opportunities for small business owners without a huge outlay in terms of budget. You can try lots of different things out and see what works for you which is so valuable.
Anything else you’d love to share?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Lots of jewellers are perfectionists (which is how they make such beautiful work) but when it comes to your marketing you have to try and let go of those perfectionist tendencies and be open to experimentation. You won’t always get things right, but if you did then you probably wouldn’t learn anything!
Want to know more?
If you’d like to learn more about how to market your jewellery business online and read Elin’s top tip for new jewellers starting out, then you’ll find it all here in the new book - ‘Start and Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business’ with Jessica Rose.
want to learn more about marketing your jewellery business?
If you’d like to learn how to market your jewellery business to sky rocket your sales then why not consider taking one of our marketing courses or becoming a member and joining our flagship programme - The Jewellery Business Bootcamp which is open for admissions at the start of every year. Click below to find out more…
