The next few weeks and months will be hard on most of us. First and foremost, you are a human being living through an unprecedented global crisis. If you’re struggling with low morale, lacking motivation and having difficulty focussing on anything work-related, please take the time to find your centre of calm so that you’ll be able to see the opportunity in this obstacle when the skies clear (especially if you have children at home!)
Anything you do to fill up your creative reserves will pay off in the long run. Take advantage of this collective pause to explore any pastime that’s been tugging at you, even ones that seem unrelated to your jewellery career. Mind your mental health and show yourself compassion if you’re not as productive as usual. That being said, it would be a missed opportunity to spend the lockdown period on the couch, so: here are some gentle exercises that could get you into motion:
- Back up your data!
- Stuck in a free-fall of social media scrolling? Redirect your attention to the pages of jewellery brands you admire and see if you can get any ideas or inspiration from the way they’re handling this slump. Make notes of what you could implement in your own business and take at least one small action step towards making that happen.
- Rearrange, improve or clean your workspace. A change of environment can be very helpful if you normally operate from home, plus it’s easier to transition into work mode from even the unrelated action of physical movement, rather than from a state of total inaction.
- Explore your signature style and all inspirational materials you’ve gathered over the years and see if you can find an evolutionary next step that could birth a new range. No signature style yet? Assemble and curate the images that really grab you, and ponder why. Don’t be limited to jewellery design: explore a range of sister industries like industrial and fashion design, and even art, photography and typography. Try to tease out a common thread. How can that influence your style going forward?
If you’re ready to dig into working on your business, choose a few tasks that would give you the best results for your personal situation:
Products and services:
- Consider which of your current offerings have the most chance of being in demand during or directly after this slowdown and focus your attention on how to improve and promote these.
- It’s worth pondering what new revenue streams you could create, however:
- Nobody knows how long it will take for business to return to normal. There’s lots of advice out there on turning to online services but unless you already have some kind of digital portal and audience (never mind a good camera, microphone and lighting setup if you’re thinking of doing video tutorials…), by the time you’re ready to hit go, lockdown is likely to be over. For most people, it would be a better use of time and efforts to examine your current range and customer profile and work on either learning a jewellery-related skill that will expand your services, or making new pieces that could sell well when we emerge from this crisis.
- Media reports claim that divorce filings in China surged as lockdown was lifted (which may very well be attributable simply to the fact that the cases that would normally have averaged out over those weeks were not able to be filed until the day people were allowed to leave the house), but there’s no denying that isolation is a stressful experience and can put pressure on relationships. Do you have a range of jewellery items that could work as “I’m sorry I drove you crazy” gifts? Or would your market appreciate a tongue-in-cheek “our marriage survived” range of commemorative items? There are always silver linings and business opportunities to be discovered, even in a crisis.
Should you pay for advertising?
Especially now, you should be putting out some form of marketing materials. As competitors cut back on their ad spend, there will be less noise in your category and your product exposure and brand awareness has the potential to increase. This visibility leads to sales due to the ‘Mere-exposure effect‘ – the tendency for people to develop a preference for products or services simply because they are familiar with them. Solid data from the last 100 years shows that businesses that invest in marketing during difficult financial times are the ones that thrive. The cost of advertising in physical publications should drop now, but if you don’t see specials being advertised in your newspaper or magazine of choice, just ask!
Marketing you can do for free:
- Think long-term. If you can get sales now, fantastic. But if all you do is add people to your mailing list, or keep your message in front of people, you’re ahead of those who are treating this like a long vacation.
- Email is a crucial tool. Free bulk mail platforms like MailChimp or Send in Blue make it easy to create your own newsletter. If you haven’t started gathering customers email addresses, create that database now!
- Stay in touch with your clients, but keep your tone calm, reassuring and sensitive to how people are feeling right now. Many jewellers run small, intimate operations and share common values with their customers. Offer relevant advice where applicable; even if it’s just a list of things that are helping you personally to cope (but carefully consider expressing any political or religious views in this highly charged environment).
- Identify where the bulk of your sales come from. If it’s word of mouth, how can you leverage your existing customer base to create new sales? It’s much more effective in both time and cost to target previous purchasers who already know, like and trust you.
- With regards to social media, you may love interacting on Instagram, but if Facebook is getting you the most positive leads, put most of your marketing efforts into that channel.
- Review the messaging and imagery that has been converting best (this is very different to the posts that get you lots of engagement, but don’t result in sales) and strategise how to create more of that, while staying relevant and sympathetic to what your audience is going through.
- Especially if you regularly send customers tips on jewellery care etc, create your content for the next few weeks and bank it. About to launch a new range? Have it ready to post on social media when the time feels appropriate. Now would also be a good time to write evergreen content targeted towards your ideal customers that could generate hits on your blog or website.
- Ask for support. People understand that small businesses are suffering and there are dignified and honest ways to communicate this without sounding demanding or desperate:
- Remind people that it’s a great time to discuss and design custom pieces for future occasions; especially if you have enough stock of the materials you work in. Skype, Zoom, and even Facetime and WhatsApp video calls will all suffice instead of in-person consults.
- Offer a sale on your current stock (for delivery after lockdown)
- Suggest purchasing a gift voucher
- Ask for follows, likes and shares on your social media, or for signups to your newsletter
- Now is a wonderful time to ask for testimonials. People have time and are more often than not happy to help. If it’s for your website, a photo of the person would help to legitimise the reference if they’re willing to supply one. Other useful places are Google my business, on your Facebook page and any other review sites you may be on, including Tripadvisor if that’s relevant to your workshop
Update your digital materials
- Your online presence is doing all the heavy lifting for your brand right now. Go through the copy and images on your digital channels and see what you can make more current or authentic.
- Canva is a free graphics programme that you can use to create images for the web – now’s a great time to figure out how to use it
- Updating your website content regularly has the added bonus of boosting your rankings in search engine results.
- If a complete overhaul is needed, find a web designer who understands how to create mobile-responsive, search engine optimized websites that are not just ‘brochures’, but serve your business objectives and work on your behalf to reach your revenue goals (eg: facilitate sales, generate leads or build trust and authority).
- If that’s not in the budget, do some research on free website builders – there are many solid ones available now.
- A homepage really needs to do only 3 things: explain clearly what you do (and who you do it for), how you are uniquely positioned to help the viewer, and have a clear next step for them to take – ie: request a quote, make a purchase, sign up for your mailing list, etc. Your content, especially on the homepage, should focus on what you do for your customer. Save your company history for your ‘About’ page.
- Set up Google Analytics so you can see where your visitors are coming from, what content they’re engaging with and what pages might be causing them to lose interest and leave from. Register for your free tutorial at Google Academy.
Streamline business and marketing processes
There’s normally never enough time to stop and objectively evaluate if the systems in your business are working optimally.
- Ask your team what tasks they feel take longer than necessary to complete, or what paperwork (however crucial) could be at least partly streamlined.
- Everything that can be automated or simplified should be, from your invoicing software to everyday communications. Do you really need to be constantly checking internal communicators, Skype, WhatsApp, email, Messenger etc… or could you benefit from a software solution that integrates these into one platform?
- If customers often ask you the same questions, make an FAQ document and keep this updated as new common queries emerge. Emailed or WhatsApped requests for quotes should be met with a standard response template.
- Do you have a way to stay in contact and follow up with your customers or are you relying on memory or your inbox? Keeping info like their tastes in jewellery and when they purchase (and even anniversary dates and their spouse’s name) in a customer relationship management (CRM) system will assist you to build the relationship and spark marketing ideas. Hubspot offers a free tier that allows you to do this and more.
- Trello and Asana are project management tools that ensure team members stay on track even while working remotely. They’re widely used even in companies where all staff operate under the same roof.
- If you haven’t yet, figure out how to schedule your social media posts so you can batch them in one go for a week or more. You’ll find free tutorials and help files online for all platforms.
- If you’re marketing actively on a variety of social media channels, look into tools that both schedule posts for and combine all your platforms into one interface to save you time lost by the distractions inherent in having them all open at once, or switching between them.
CPM will continue to put out helpful content and search for new ways to support our clients in these stressful times. If you have any topics you’d like us to explore, please contact us via our Facebook page and we’ll do our best to accommodate your request.
Be well!