Bad news: if you want to sell jewelry online, you can’t just put your products on a website and call it a day.
If only it were that easy!
As beautiful as it is, jewelry doesn’t sell itself. You have to herd people toward your website so they can browse your products and ultimately buy some of your fabulous jewelry.
But you don’t want to send just any ol’ person to your website. You want to find people who are actually interested in jewelry and in buying it.
That requires you to look for jewelry clients in all the right places. And if your sales are low, that might mean you’re currently hawking your website to the wrong crowd. Here are some things to think about and some ways to attract buyers.
Narrow Down Your Audience
What kind of jewelry do you sell? If it’s earthy and made of all-natural materials, it’s going to be a hit with environmentalists. If it’s got a decadent, classic feel, reach out to a wealthier, older, and more conservative population. If you only stock rings, men and women of marrying age want to see what you’ve got.
Figuring out your audience is so important. You cannot be optimistic and think that everyone is a potential buyer. They’re not. First of all, your price points probably exclude some people automatically. Second, you probably sell a certain style of jewelry that will not mesh with everyone’s personal taste.
Dig deep into the mind of your buyer and create a “buyer persona” to help you understand more about this person. For example, the wealthier, older, and more conservative group who will love your gold and pearl necklaces probably don’t hang out on Instagram, but they might be on Facebook. But younger people who are interested in buying unique engagement rings are likely to be on Instagram and Snapchat. More on that below.
Don’t forget about gift-givers! So many of your marketing efforts can be directed toward people who won’t actually wear your jewelry. Create a buyer persona for these people too.
If you’re already an established company with a decent amount of customer data, evaluate it and use it to create another buyer persona.
For the love of all that is shiny, don’t skip this step! Knowing your audience is fundamental. Take the time to do it right.
Choose Social Platforms Based on Your Buyer Personas
Now that you have some ideas about who might want to buy your jewelry, it’s time to see how that compares to the most popular social media platforms.
SpredFast has a super helpful infographic that you should bookmark and study: The 2018 Social Audience Guide.
If you want to reach people with some spending money, put Pinterest and Twitter to work. If you want to reach 35- to 44-year-olds, you can find them hanging out on YouTube. Younger folks love Instagram and Snapchat.
To start, pick one or two platforms that you think give you the best shot at reaching your target audience, and then create an engaging, high-quality, gotta-love-it presence.
Create Highly Targeted Facebook Ads Based on Your Buyer Personas
Facebook knows a lot about its millions upon millions of users. And their advertising platform allows you to leverage this in a very sophisticated way.
Remember how we used environmentalists as an example of people who would probably love jewelry that is earthy, made of natural materials, or even made of recycled materials? Take a few guesses as to the kind of non-profits or pages that this audience might “like” or follow on Facebook, or what they might list as an “Interest” on their profile page.
You can have your advertisement shown only to people who like certain things. This keeps your ad campaigns highly targeted. But it also puts your buyer persona and the quality of your content to the test.
PPC Banner Ads or Google Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads, like those on Facebook, can also appear as banners on the margins of other websites, as sponsored results in Google, or on YouTube videos. The key here is to make sure the ads are only shown when certain conditions are met.
No, you don’t know their interests per se like you do on Facebook. But just check out this list of ways you can target your Google ads. For example, you can show your advertisement to people searching for certain keywords, for competitors, or to people who have previously interacted with your brand. Do your research and run a few campaigns to see what works.
SEO: Letting Customers Be in Charge
Unfortunately, surveys are revealing that customers really hate advertising. Yes, we just told you to do some advertising. That’s because it still works, even if it’s less effective than in previous years because customers are wising up to the selling game. In short, PPC ads should be just a piece of the whole pie.
Social media marketing lets you strike up conversations with your audience on their turf, so much of the content you post there should be a soft sell. It’s a long-haul strategy because you have to earn the users’ trust before you can blatantly market to them.
But if you really want your customers to feel like they are in charge of this entire process, you have to do search engine optimization (SEO).
Your customer initiates the search, and of all your competitors, you want to be THE jewelry site that pops up first in their results. That’s because customers trust Google to give them a great first result, and they rarely ever get past the first page, much less past the top three results.
No one gets to the top spot of Google by pure luck. SEO strategy positions you high in the results pages. It’s a tactic that will continue to work for you over and over again, and of all the strategies we’ve talked about so far, it’s the one that you really need to start right now. It takes some time for Google to index your site, so don’t put it on the back burner.
Consider Localizing Your Site
And one of the advantages of being a jewelry e-commerce store is that you have a potentially global market. But you may have to make a few tweaks.
For example, you don’t have to do a full-fledged translation of your website in order to reach many customers in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. They’ll understand your site, even if they think it’s weird you don’t spell it “jewellery.”
But language isn’t the only barrier. You need to ensure you have appealing shipping rates and times, and that your e-commerce site can accept different currencies besides USD.
You can rapidly expand your potential audience by localizing your site this way.
Seek Cross Promotion Opportunities
Another way to find jewelry clients is to partner with other brands that have similar target audiences and buyer personas without being in direct competition.
For example, you could partner with a clothing company that does not sell jewelry. You help promote their brand to your audience, and they promote your brand to their audience. Your brand could appear in their social media campaign or in their newsletter, and vice versa. They could even have a “Jewelry” link on their menu that takes users directly to your inventory.
After all, anyone looking for an outfit will probably be interested in completing the look with jewelry. Other ideas for cross-promotion include shoe companies, hat companies, watch brands, etc.
People Have to Like What They See Once on Your Site
Good news! Your site traffic is up. You’ve found people interested in jewelry and they clicked on your site. But they are leaving the site without buying anything. What gives?
There are so many reasons why this might be happening, but a poor web design, slow site loading speed, and unprofessional-looking photos and content are three major culprits.
Before you start focusing on apps to cross-sell items or adding pop-ups to promote sales, you have to worry about the foundation of your website. Do you have clear pictures of all the jewelry you’re selling? Does it look like a professional took them? Do you have enough product information, such as crucial sizing information? Are the customization options readily available?
A website that looks professional gives an immediate impression that your business is also professional and that you sell quality products. If your website looks like it was never updated from the old GeoCities days, people will assume you don’t take your business seriously enough to invest in quality web design, and probably not in quality jewelry either. They’ll skedaddle.
Fortunately, you’ve already landed in the right place to fix that problem. We love designing websites for jewelers that keep customers browsing and buying. We can also handle your SEO so that you’ll start showing up in searches right away. Schedule a call and let’s chat about transforming your jewelry business!
