The best publicity campaign is a consistent and cost-effective promotion of your brand, starting with your target audience, and spreading outwards to their connections, so you retain your old customers and attract new ones.
In the past, jewellers and other businesses had to rely on print media and television advertisements to consolidate their word-of-mouth promotions – the problem with TV and print advertising was that these were expensive advertising methods that did not give measurable results.
Today, you can launch your own social media campaign and take control of your brand advertising, by interacting directly with customers and understanding what they want from you. This enables you to build a platform of past, present and future customers, while increasing the visibility of your brand, whether you are a small independent business or a large franchise.
So what are the steps involved in creating an effective social media platform to promote your jewellery business?
Define Your Brand
In order to “sell” a clear vision of your brand, you need to define it. Identify your target audience and consider what they are seeking from you – whether it is a unique edgy design, timeless luxury, ethical sources of material, or personal collectibles. Write a short statement that describes exactly what you are offering your customers.
Once you have defined your brand, based on what your target customers want, you must ensure that every social media post conforms to this brand statement. Customers will not retain a memory of your business if your brand message is confusing or inconsistent.
Create Your Social Media Platform
You can expand your social media profile over multiple platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram andYouTube,as well as your web page. While each platform has its own voice and appeals to your target audience in a different way, you do need to ensure that all of them retain a consistent visual message, based on how you have defined your brand.
If you prefer to keep your social media profile simple with just one platform, choose Facebook as this is the most versatile and comprehensive forum. With Facebook, you can share photos, and relevant news stories to engage followers in a conversation, while you can also promote your latest products or any upcoming sales or special deals.
Most important of all, Facebook is the site people use to keep in contact with their extended family and friends, so you have the opportunity to expand your audience when loyal customers share your posts or start conversations in the comments section.
A Post a Day Keeps Followers Engaged
While social media promotion can be cost-effective, it also takes time. And it is easy to fall into the trap of constantly posting content or engaging too much with readers. This is time you could invest into other aspects of your business.
A good rule of thumb is to post once or twice a day on both Facebook and Instagram. One post a day keeps your customers engaged – setting a maximum of two posts a day ensures that you are making an impact on your audience, and your content is fresh and relevant.
Try to vary your posts, with a range of different material. Sales messages should only take up about 15% of your content – mix it up so your followers don’t get tired of endless sales pitches. The rest of your content can be a mixture of images, news stories and conversational pieces.
For news stories, set up a newsfeed, such as Feedly, to send you links to relevant articles so you can share newsworthy articles with your followers. Posting articles sourced from Feedly will also encourage conversation among your followers.
Catch their attention with an article about the world’s most expensive diamond or the latest celebrity fad. This will keep your site interesting and up-to-date and also helps vary your content so you’re not just selling jewellery, you’re also starting a conversation.
Check your social media platforms regularly throughout the day, to ensure that comments remain courteous.
The Power of Imagery
When people browse the Internet, they are particularly drawn to appealing photographs, and as a visual product, jewellery is particularly easy to promote online.
Instagram is the perfect forum for displaying beautiful and compelling images online, so if you have a talented photographer on your team, you can experiment with uniquely creative pictures of your jewellery. This will attract followers who might not necessarily be in the market to buy jewellery right now – by building brand awareness, you will attract a long term market.
Twitter is perhaps the least engaging platform for a jewellery business, as there is no visual component, but you could use it to promote your other platforms, by tweeting short succinct messages about upcoming sales or blogs, or even promoting thought-provoking discussions taking place on Facebook.
Let Your Customers Do the Talking
One of the key elements of a social media presence is the ability to engage in a conversation with your followers.
Ask your followers to give their opinion about various colours and styles and designs, so you can learn more about what they like. This is valuable and cost-effective market research as you can hear directly from your target customers. Alternately, help them solve a problem with articles about caring for jewellery or choosing the right ring design or how to shop ethically.
Create a connection with your customers by inviting them to display their photographs of your jewellery on your page. A newly engaged customer can send a photo of his fiancée wearing her engagement ring (purchased from your store) with the caption “She said yes!” This is an excellent way to promote your engagement ring range beyond your current target audience, as this newly engaged family will share the post with their family and friends, increasing brand awareness beyond your immediate customers.
Ending a post with a provocative question is a great way to stimulate response from your followers.
Tell us your love story!
Which necklace is your favourite?
Who would you give this bracelet to?
Reward Your Followers
Your social media platform encourages followers to become repeat customers, by keeping them engaged with your products and reminding them about the positive experience of shopping from your store. Reward your regular followers with special giveaways, discounts and competitions, and release previews of your latest range so they can be the first to buy from you.
Your customers are your best marketing resource and social media is the best platform for building a strong relationship with them. Create a friendly and stimulating environment that reflects the style and essence of your jewellery range, and you will engage a strong and supportive customer base.