Helping Designers and Resellers to Learn Internet Marketing Strategies and Tactics that will Attract Customers and Sell Jewelry Online.

original photo by Yui KuboMost of major companies leverage the marketing triangle principle to reinforce brand recognition.

"Marketing Triangle" simply means having your company name (or at least main part of it) to match the name of your website and your phone number.

For example a company called "Best Buy Co., Inc." has a website bestbuy.com and a phone number 1-888-BEST BUY. The same way, a company called IBM has a website ibm.com and we aren't surprised to see 1-800-IBM-4YOU as their phone number for general inquiries.

For a long time vanity numbers were used by big businesses.

That increases:

• the chance that your customers remember you;
• your credibility;
• response rate to your marketing message.

There are several companies providing such service and Ring Central would be a good start to check. For less then $30 a month (in time of writing this article) you can have your own toll-free number, dedicated fax number, phone extensions and much more to impress your customers.

Modern technology made it available and affordable even for small business owners. Now you can have your own toll-free vanity number for a fraction of what it used to be and complete your marketing triangle.

Would you like to know my recipe for keeping up with a lot of information? It is as simple as it really is:

Use RSS!

It was made for everyone who has a lot of things to keep up with but no time to do it. That is all of us. Right?

Imagine that instead of looking through 5 multiple newspapers you would select your favorite columns and then you would daily receive just one newspaper with the only type of information that you have pre-approved. That would be quite similar to what RSS can do for you.

Now, how you would leverage that technology to save time?

1. Go to http://google.com/reader/ and sign up for a free account.
2. These two news channels would be a good start:
   http://feeds.feedburner.com/NationalJewelerNetwork-LatestNews
   http://feeds.feedburner.com/NationalJewelerNetwork-FashionNews
   National Jewelry Network is a very good source of current news stories on jewelry trends, jewelry marketing, and retailing.

Should you remember just one thing about RSS - then it's all about you getting news on your terms, the way you want them in one easy to read interface and without all that distraction that we face online.

If you are ready to jump right in and want more information here is a good video that explains what RSS really is:

Here is another good video explaining Google RSS Reader:

Now try it yourself and do not forget to subscribe to this blog.

original photo by Roger SmithA new website is on a mission to connect emerging and established designers with independent boutiques and retailers worldwide.

Mentioned at Forbes in an article about costume jewelry, Erayo for the moment features 77 wholesale jewelry designers presenting 2135 products.

If you are looking for wholesale opportunities and ready to compete globally, try their Web 2.0 platform to distribute your creations to thousands of independent retailers around the world as well as to learn, network, communicate and be inspired by another designers.

In the time of writing more than 5,500 buyers from 55 countries registered with the site.

On top of all that, Erayo provides counseling on business issues such as pricing, branding and marketing.

September 27-28, 2008

"The Virginia Wine Festival is the oldest wine festival on the east coast, now in its 33rd year. This event has a solid track record of attracting a very large, affluent DC metropolitan audience with an interest in wine, gourmet products and fine arts & crafts. This is the ideal venue to market wine and gourmet products, fine arts & crafts, giftware, gourmet kitchen items, home improvement services and other "finer things in life" products."

If you live in Washington DC metro area do not miss this coming opportunity to present your jewelry. They welcome artisans and crafters and are going to attract over 20,000 guests this year.

Art/Craft Space (products handmade by exhibitor) is 10’x10’ space on grass for artists own canopy a bit pricey - $400.

See you there.

I recently spent couple of days helping a jewelry designer with a website makeover. I hope these few things may be useful to share since I see them very often.

Email Newsletter Subscription

Why don't you have an email newsletter subscription at your website? If you do, why it is down there at the bottom of the page where nobody can see it? Even if it's easy to find, why do you think people will subscribe if you offer nothing in exchange?

Give your visitors a reason to share an email with you and your list of potential customers will grow faster as well as your business.

Search Engine Optimization

Making sure that your website is search engine friendly do not forget that, after all, we create websites for humans. Do not go extreme with SEO. We create jewelry websites not to trick Google but to serve people. Your website should be all about that.

Make Your Business Stand Out

Google returns almost 2,000,000 results for "handmade jewelry". Most of them make the same handcrafted (unique, handmade, artisan, custom, you name it..) jewelry. Ask yourself: how am I different from everyone else? I believe that you are special but here is the challenge: can your website visitors find that out in 10 seconds or less just looking on your front page? If they can't - they will go somewhere else rather quickly.

Choose Original Web Design

Try hard not to make yet another Overstock.com. If you have less then 100 items, you do not really need a full-scale e-commerce solution. If your jewelry website looks as a discount online retail store, your visitors will expect a lot of products to choose from and low prices. Is that what you try to do? In your case, original and stylish online boutique may work better.

Multi-Channel Selling

Your online store is just one of many possible channels to sell your jewelry. Do not forget about eBay.com and Etsy.com and stay alert for craft shows around.

Networking

Meet new people and make more friends. Remember that nobody buys from a stranger. These days a lot of people network online. You should consider using social networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Be Patient

Nobody can make a successful online jewelry store overnight. It takes time. Make sure that you have a good plan and a right mindset. Then stick to it and act every single day.

Guy Kawasaki pointed out a link to The Social Media Email Signature at Web Market Central.

That perfectly matches to what I use:

original photo by Vu Bui

I see more and more people who do specify several ways to reach them and that works.

Although, most jewelry designers that I know don't do that yet.

May be they should...

There are many possible reasons, but I would point out two of them:

1. You do not have relevant traffic. In other words, you get visitors that seek something different from what you offer;
2. You have relevant traffic, but you have usability issues. For example, somebody came to your site looking for an accessory, but couldn’t find the right one even though it was right there.

original photo by CayusaTo solve the first problem you need to get traffic analysis for your website. There are many free tools available, but I prefer Google Analytics over the others. Using that you can see where people are coming from, where they "landed" on your website, how much time they spent there and from which page they left. You will have a lot of information to think about and that alone may help you realize what is wrong.

The second problem is more challenging, because you can't see how people actually behave when visiting your website. Fortunately, there is a simple and very affordable solution for that. You can try a low cost usability testing. You will receive a video on how a real person would use your website for only $19.

When building your website try to think from your customers' perspective instead of focusing on what you offer.