At GemFind Digital Solutions we have over 20 years of experience attracting interested, engaged and ready-to-act prospects to jewelry stores, so we know a thing or two about inbound marketing. Capturing engagement ring clients can be one of the most lucrative sectors to market in -- but it is not without competition, especially in your local market.
As a jewelry store owner, you are already aware that the wedding and bridal jewelry segment of your business is ultra-competitive. How can you get your message noticed amongst all the competition to be the engagement ring store of choice in your area when it comes to popping the question?
It’s easy to simply say “build an email list”, but the roots of this marketing initiative go far deeper. You have to encourage the user to want to take action with an attractive and engaging “lead magnet”.
You want to grab their attention early in the process, when they’re still in the “just looking" and consideration phase of buying an engagement ring. The actual purchase itself may be months into the future -- so why the need to start so early?
Your goal should be to catch prospective clients before your competitors do. The first to make a meaningful connection is almost always the one who the customer will choose to make their investment with. Not just by virtue of being first, but also by having interesting and compelling content to draw upon starting with education.
A lead magnet is an enticing, downloadable item that users can obtain in exchange for giving you their name and email address. Lead magnets are most often downloadable ebooks that contain valuable information that piques a user’s curiosity and encourages them to subscribe.
As an example, you could start with an ebook on “How to Shop For and Buy an Engagement Ring” - a sort of complete introduction to the process: what to look for, how to evaluate the quality, how to ask questions to your significant other about what they might like while still keeping things a surprise, and so on.
Your experience as an engagement ring retailer comes front and center here, so be sure to demystify the process so that the prospects sees you more as a friend giving valuable advice, rather than a company trying to sell you something.
The lead magnet process should start with an Ebook - something that can be used as a an educational tool to attract clients and encourage them to want to hear more from you. It doesn’t have to be a New York Times Bestseller, but it does have to work to share your expertise and experience in engagement ring shopping, buying, sizing and more, so that the user comes to see you as a trustworthy and credible guide along their journey.
As customers weigh their options, you need to be there at every step in their journey to nurture them along the path that ultimately leads to purchasing an engagement ring. That means being ready with relevant content to help further their decision. You’ll be employing a multi-pronged strategy of lead nurturing and conversion optimization.
You shouldn’t just create an attractive lead magnet and then let your email list go stale. Keep them involved by crafting email nurturing campaigns. These types of campaigns can start with an ebook or other free, downloadable lead magnet, but then over time, help to give users even more reasons to buy from you.
However, as you create an email nurturing campaign, it’s important that your messages:
The first step in attracting customers who are looking to purchase engagement rings is to engage (pardon the pun) them with the right advertising. This could be a combination of various types of Google ads, such as display ads or click-to-call, as well as Facebook and Instagram ads to show off your brilliant selection of engagement rings and pique their curiosity.
Each type of ad is designed to attract a specific type of shopper at a specific point in their engagement ring journey, so let’s take a closer look at where and when you could use each one.
These types of ads are ideal for those who are just starting to do their research about engagement rings. Search campaign ads can be targeted around a specific type of wedding engagement ring to further draw the prospect in and encourage them to check out your products in greater detail.
Focusing on a highly searched keyword such as "engagement rings" will draw a high number of clicks in your local market if set up properly with your SEO. Broader and more long-tail key words are more specific and will not have as many clicks but it is still necessary to cater to those leads and capture their information.
You may not realize it, but Google goes much deeper than just being a search engine. It owns hundreds of online properties across all manner of subjects and industries. Google Display Ads take advantage of this large and expansive network of websites to display a graphic ad from your business or product across these networks and websites that you choose.
Naturally, doing well with Google display ads means knowing which sites to target, and having an ad that matches what that site’s target audience is looking for.
One of the best ways to capture interested prospects in-the-moment is through Google’s click-to-call option on their ad platform. A click to call counts just like a mouse click on an ad, except it routes users to a number you choose, so that they can get in touch with you directly if they have any questions.
Users who are still narrowing down their options for engagement rings tend to notice Google Shopping ads. These provide an ideal way to display your products in a way where users can get information directly, such as the name of the product, price and the website where it’s offered.
Instagram and Facebook may not have as many promotional venues as Google, but they nevertheless engage users visually and encourage higher clicks than plain text ads. With both Instagram and Facebook, you can create carousel ads which provide multiple images in a single ad or showcase the same ring from different angles.
Landing pages that are custom made to attract users to view your engagement rings are crucial toward getting them to become loyal customers. Although you may or may not already use landing pages, precision-tuning them for specific outcomes, such as attracting more leads who are interested in buying engagement rings, is much different than just encouraging them to sign up for your mailing list or stop in for a ring fitting.
The right landing pages do a great deal of heavy lifting when it comes to helping users transition from the “just looking” phase into zeroing in on that ring that is “The One”. This is why it’s a good idea to have and use several different landing pages and continually test various things on that page, like your product photos, the call-to-action and other features, so that you can hone in on what’s truly driving your prospects to take the action you want them to take.
It’s understood that not every user who visits your landing page or signs up for your lead magnet will become a customer right away. But that doesn’t mean that all that time and money you spent to acquire them just slips through the cracks.
Using retargeting, a form of marketing, you can make sure that your business and your engagement rings stay front-of-mind with users who are still in the market to make a purchase. Retargeting essentially reminds users of your products while they’re on other sites. It’s possible that through their engagement ring shopping experience, they found a beautiful ring on your page, but possibly forgot where they saw it. Retargeting helps minimize the chances of that happening.
Making all of this happen isn’t magic or luck -- it’s science backed with data. At GemFind Digital Solutions, our Lead Generation Packages are built for your needs and budget. Bring more engagement ring leads into your business today by signing up for our Platinum Package, which gives you all of the services outlined here -- custom made for your jewelry business. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you reach more engaged engagement ring shoppers!