As we move closer to 2020, marketing strategies for the jewelry industry are continuing to evolve in order to keep up with consumer needs. In the past, attracting new customers was as simple as placing an advertisement in the Sunday newspaper or on the radio. However, in this day and age, consumers are responding less and less to these tactics. But, why?
It stems from an evolution in mind set and accessibility. Frankly, consumers know what they want, and with the internet at their disposal -- not to mention, search engines like Google -- they can quickly and easily find it. They no longer depend on companies to tell them what they need, instead your customer will seek the best business near them offering the product or service they’re interested in and vet them quickly to find the best value.
With this in mind, jewelers would be wise to implement a marketing strategy that resonates with their target audience. On one hand, you have traditional outbound marketing; the other, inbound marketing. But, which marketing strategy is right for your jewelry store? Let’s examine them both to provide a better understanding:
As we previously mentioned, outbound marketing is the more traditional way of reaching customers and is still used today (especially in the jewelry industry). With technology and consumers changing so rapidly, many have questioned the effectiveness of outbound marketing techniques, which includes:
These type of marketing techniques share one common theme: they are all, essentially, a sales tactic presented to the consumer. In other words, companies must seek out their customers with promotions and ads to entice them. Herein lies the difficulty.
If you run a business that offers lawn care services and decide to run a radio advertisement not only do you run the risk of it not being heard by many people, but the consumers who do hear it may be made up of apartment renters without a lawn. The same goes for jewelry stores.
Promoting your engagement rings in your local newspaper means you may reach a small percentage of your target audience, however, the bulk of the people reading your ad could be single adults. In other words, outbound marketing is very much a blind marketing strategy,
What’s worse? Measuring the effectiveness of these outbound marketing techniques is next to impossible, unless your only goal is to simply have your advertisement heard or seen by anyone.
Want to learn more about outbound marketing? Download our Jewelry Store Marketing Guide!
Unlike outbound, inbound marketing provides valuable content to address specific pain points or concerns of customers. This type of quid pro quo strategy is an incredible way to get highly relevant leads into a sales funnel and allows you to tailor further marketing efforts unique to those consumers.
With that being said, inbound marketing is only as effective as the offer (or lead magnet) you create.
The process for creating an enticing lead magnet is simple. You figure out an offer that can help educate or solve a specific problem for your target audience and promote it. One of the best ways to do this is with a landing page on your website.
From here, you simply create a way for your users to opt in -- typically through an email sign up form -- which will allow you to nurture the leads over a period of time with additional offers and content to entice them into becoming an actual customer.
Looking for the perfect lead magnet for jewelry stores? Check out our recent blog post!
There are plenty of methods to drive traffic to your specific lead magnet. These include:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) -
Attracting relevant search engine traffic to your business’ website is one of the best (and cost-effective) techniques. With that being said, SEO is not a quick process and requires the expertise of a digital marketing team to yield optimal results.
Blog Posts -
Posting articles to your website’s blog is a major facet of SEO and driving search engine traffic. Simply posting a 300-500 word article with the proper keywords and internal links can lead to an influx of leads on a consistent basis. Not to mention, blogs are evergreen and can pay off for years to come.
Learn more about what makes blog posts so effective for SEO here!
Social Media -
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are an incredible place to share the your lead magnet as it can allow you to reach thousands of consumers in a short period of time.
Now that you’re aware of the distinct differences between inbound and outbound marketing, you’re probably wondering which is right for your business. The answer will depend on a few factors, but there’s no denying inbound marketing is the present and future when it comes to increasing business.
Here’s why we think jewelry stores should invest in inbound marketing:
Outbound marketing, such as television ads and billboards can be extremely expensive, and (at the end of the day) only reach a small portion of your target audience. With inbound marketing, such as an eBook lead magnet, you can ensure only a specific demographic is targeted, which means your budget will be spent on attracting relevant leads.
As we touched on previously, it is extremely difficult to measure results -- and ROI -- with outbound marketing strategies. On the other hand, there are multiple ways to precisely track inbound marketing campaigns.
For example, if you place an email list sign up form on a landing page and create a Google Ad to drive traffic to this specific web page, you can track how many users actually filled out the form. You can even expand on this by tracking other conversions such as CTA (call to action) button clicks and phone calls derived from your Google Ad. These granular metrics allow you to determine what campaigns work the most to ensure an ideal ROI.
Even if you’re not a digital marketing expert, you can partner with an agency who specializes in inbound marketing. At GemFind, we offer multiple inbound marketing strategies specifically for jewelers. Partnering with us means you’ll be implementing the proper lead generation techniques to begin attracting potential customers quickly and on a consistent basis.
According to the 2018 United States Ecommerce Country Report, 88 percent of consumers do research online prior to deciding to make a purchase in-store or online.
This is important information to consider when it comes to selling products most would consider a "major purchase" such as an engagement ring. Typically, the time it takes a consumer to purchase an engagement ring is three and a half months. With a proper inbound marketing email campaign, you can properly nurture a potential customer for a long period of time before they are ready to buy that engagement ring of their dreams.
Contact us today to get started. 800-373-4373
Inbound Marketing Infographic: