Jeweller - April 2020

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BUSINESS Marketing & PR Simple and effective ways to boost your word-of-mouth referrals Building buzz around your business can be challenging, writes THOMAS YOUNG, but one of the simplest – and best – ways to market yourself is through your customers. The most powerful form of marketing is word-of-mouth referrals. This is true regardless of the size of your business or marketing budget. When generating referrals, your customers become your sales force! After all, who better to promote your products than loyal customers? So, here are 12 ways you can develop word-of-mouth referrals for your jewellery store. Ask for referrals The easiest way to generate referrals is also the most important. People want to help others, especially when you are good at what you do. Let your customers know that you are looking for referrals by asking them! They will be happy to oblige, and some will go out of their way to help. Be specific Provide your referral sources with a few details about your target market. If you are not specific in your request, referral sources will generally not be able to think of a particular person to whom they could recommend your store. Make your request specific: describe your ideal customer. Align with your customer’s vision Get inside the head of your customers and align with their vision – that is, what they want to accomplish. Be a resource; understand the needs of your customers. Referrals will come when they realise that you really do understand them and that your goal is to help, not just make a sale. Develop word-of-mouth promotions Develop a marketing promotion plan that encourages referral benefits for your existing customers. Make the promotion worth your customer’s time by offering valuable incentives for new referrals. A good example is a friends-and-family promotion. Promote feedback Ask your customers to evaluate your products and services and provide feedback on how you measure up. Share this information with current customers and new Turn your customers into your sales force by encouraging referrals. prospects. Obviously, correct the areas in which you are deficient and remove barriers to customer service. Continue self-development Commit to constant learning as a business owner. You must expand ‘out of the box’ and constantly increase and develop your knowledge and abilities, or you will be left behind by the competition. Knowledge is powerful and shoppers will come to you for expertise before they buy from you. Build a customer community Find ways to bring customers together with other customers. This might be achieved through your store’s Facebook page or group, a ‘chat’ section of your website, or through in-store customer events. This brings a community of customers together and stimulates word-of-mouth. Communicate your competitive advantage Understand why you are different from the competition and what sets you apart in the eyes of the customer. Communicate this message in your promotional activities. Be clear in delivering this message; it’s the most important component of your direct marketing efforts and the reason people become loyal customers. Listen to your customers In jewellery retail, as in all sales processes, it pays to become known as an excellent listener. This communicates that you care about others and builds an enormous Look for other like-minded businesses that currently service your target market help each other amount of trust. The fact that you are the best listener will be passed on to others and result in valuable referrals. Build alliances Determine how you can reach your target market by developing alliances with other businesses. This is very common on the internet as websites, Twitter accounts and Instagram pages link to and interact with each other with great results. Look for other like-minded businesses that currently service your target market and find ways to help each other. Learn how to network properly Take time to learn how to effectively network. Establish a networking strategy and plan on helping others, which is the key to successful networking. Read and learn more about how to network effectively and seek the advice of other networking professionals to ask what makes them successful. They will often share their secrets. Develop a website that people talk about Establish a website that catches peoples’ attention. When people are browsing online and come across a great website, they typically tell others about it. It is very common and easy to share links with friends, particularly when browsing on a mobile device. Find a way to make your site unique by adding value to your target market, which will make them far more likely to share your link. These are a few ways to build word-of-mouth referrals for your business. Remember, there is no quick fix in sales and marketing, and no substitute for excellent customer service or valuable products and services. Take the time to strengthen your marketing efforts, focusing on these areas, and watch the referrals come pouring in. THOMAS YOUNG is CEO of Intuitive Websites. He has 25 years’ marketing and sales experience. intuitivewebsites.com 46 | April 2020
BUSINESS Logged On The six keys to creating a website that improves your sales There are several simple strategies you can employ to improve your website and thereby improve online sales, writes DAVID BROWN. There are many jewellers who feel the internet is the single biggest threat to retail growth these days. Although I believe ‘experiences’ being preferred over ‘material items’ is also creating an impact, there’s no doubt the internet is strong competition that will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. The trend of many online retailers opening bricks-and-mortar stores shows that a two-pronged approach to shopping is not only very effective – it’s essential. Therefore, it’s important that physical retail outlets also beef-up their online presence in order to create the widest possible retail footprint. Having a strong, effective website is a starting point for ensuring you get the maximum benefit from your online presence. A good website needs to incorporate the following factors if its to become an extra salesperson – and not just a pretty piece of online wallpaper. One purpose per page I’ll let you in on a little secret: most people are lazy and don’t like to think. Between making a choice and doing nothing, we tend to take the do-nothing option. That’s why a web page that asks a customer to do multiple things, such as ‘like’ a Facebook page, sign up to a newsletter, make a purchase, and enter a competition, is likely to finish with the customer choosing none of the above and closing the window. Each website – with perhaps the exception of your home page – should ask the customer to do one thing and that page should be all about getting the customer to do whatever that one thing is. Simple! Oh, and about that home page… Don’t over-focus on your home page You might think your home page is the front door to your site, but chances are most website visitors are coming in through the tradesmen’s entrance, so to speak. Assess your website to ensure it encourages visitors to shop with you. Google does not give preference to home pages. The search engine treats all pages the same based on their relevance, which means it’s most likely that a customer who found you by searching Google for ‘diamonds’ will be directed to your website’s diamond-specific page, not the home page. Only those people specifically searching for your business will be directed to the home page and that’s not going to be most web searchers. Keep it clean Less is more, at least when it comes to your website. An overabundance of images and words is not conducive to an effective website. It is there to do a task, not win an award for artistic achievement. Many small businesses that utilise web designers sadly find their site being all about ‘the look’. The design is important, of course, but it should not override user-friendliness and purpose. Responsive design Responsive design refers to your content being readable on any device. Be it tablet, laptop or smartphone, your readers need your website to look tidy regardless of the format. Many small businesses that utilise web designers sadly being all about ‘the look’ It should automatically adjust – ‘respond’ – to the screen size upon which it is being viewed. Most website-building services, such as Squarespace, include this feature automatically. With more than 70 per cent of readers now using a mobile device to view the internet, its time your site caught up. Have you recently viewed your website on your smartphone? Now is the time. The power of video If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million! Maybe not quite, but video content is the preferred means of absorbing content for an increasing number of web visitors, especially those in the under-35 market. Hello, engagement rings! Furthermore, a high percentage of websites still don’t offer good video content, meaning those that do are getting a jump on their competitors. It also gives you a chance to stake a presence on YouTube, which is the world’s second-largest search engine after Google. Lights, camera, action, people! Check your load speed Most visitors will only give a website a handful of seconds to load – some surveys have estimated this to be less than three seconds. Yet a large number of businesses are losing traffic (potential customers) because they did not spent time and money to ensure their page load speed was reduced to within this window. This issue can be very easily rectified. There are many ways a website’s performance can be improved, but start with these six factors and you’ll be on the right track to making yours a more effective business tool. DAVID BROWN is co-founder and business mentor of Retail Edge Consultants.. retailedgeconsultants.com April 2020 | 47
Page 1 and 2: VOICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY I
Page 4 and 5: Manage every interaction with your
Page 6 and 7: In house self-winding movement, 40m
Page 8: Upfront #Instagram hashtags to foll
Page 11 and 12: Coronavirus forces drastic measures
Page 13 and 14: Furore as diamond prices fall; Rapa
Page 15 and 16: INSIDE My Store The Diamond Shop AU
Page 17 and 18: LEARN ABOUT Gems Synthetic Moissani
Page 19 and 20: GET PRODUCTIVE Retail Action List l
Page 21 and 22: FREE SUPPORT SERVICES FOR INDEPENDE
Page 24 and 25: STRATEGY FEATURE | Coronavirus Surv
Page 26 and 27: STRATEGY FEATURE | Coronavirus Surv
Page 28 and 29: INTERNATIONAL Trade Show Report WRI
Page 30 and 31: FEATURE Watch Industry Report WATCH
Page 32 and 33: TRENDS IN TIME | Watch Industry Rep
Page 34 and 35: Colour Diamonds Feature | FLIGHT OF
Page 36 and 37: Product Showcase NEW RELEASE Adina
Page 38 and 39: Watch Showcase E BESTSELLER EPOS Sw
Page 40 and 41: Watch Showcase NEW RELEASE Luminox
Page 42 and 43: BUSINESS Retail Strategy REAL REASO
Page 44 and 45: BUSINESS Selling Why repeat sales a
Page 48: My Bench Steve Pallas Steve Pallas
Page 51 and 52: When 2 shows are better than 1 INTE

Jeweller - April 2020

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