Even the most stalwart jewelry-industry traditionalists will concede that digital has significantly changed the marketing game. Print, radio, billboard and television were once the foundation of every campaign. These days, though, there’s more to it. Instagram, Facebook, email blasts, geotargeting, Yelp reviews, and climbing to the top of Google’s search engine results compete for the attention — and ad dollars — of every retailer. But figuring out how to optimize a limited marketing budget can be challenging.
Out with the old? Not yet
For stores that still rely on traditional media, the experts have some good news.
“Traditional advertising has absolutely not run its course,” says Ellen Fruchtman, president of Toledo, Ohio-based Fruchtman Marketing, which specializes in the jewelry industry. “Digital, albeit important in today’s overall strategy, is simply one piece of the marketing puzzle. And one size does not fit all.”
For example, she continues, while younger bridal customers may lean more toward digital, the over-45 fashion customer is still keen on traditional channels.
It’s not just about age, either. Certain markets are better suited to one approach than another.
“Traditional media is still extremely effective when used correctly,” says Bruce Freshley, CEO of South Carolina-based Freshley Media, a multimedia marketing agency that works with jewelers. “In Los Angeles, radio isn’t effective, because it’s too expensive. But in a lot of our markets, radio still delivers people into the store.”
H. Bredemeier, owner of H & H Jewels in Coconut Grove, Florida, takes a holistic approach. “You have to do everything,” he says. “We do a print catalog and print mailers, and a lot of Instagram, and Facebook, plus events and lots of billboards, which we did until the hurricane last year. And we’ve been doing radio, which we just started, because older markets aren’t so much into Instagram.”
Julie Gotz, director of digital marketing at Freshley, agrees that for stores that can afford it, it’s best to cover as many bases as possible.
“Digital is no longer optional,” she says. “It’s something you must be putting into your marketing plans. In an ideal perspective, you have multiple mediums working together, including billboards, print, radio and digital. Is that the case for every store? No, because budgets can’t support it. But ideally, it’s all working together.”
The devil’s in the data
Stores concerned about transitioning to digital should first take a good, hard look at their current customer base.
Greg Furman, founder and chairman of the Luxury Marketing Council, says any marketing campaign, whether digital or traditional, starts with a rigorous approach to understanding customers.
“Before a store transitions to digital, it has to determine how sophisticated its ability to track and target its existing customer base is,” says Furman. “Stores have to be able to segment customers before they can transition, and family-run businesses don’t always do a great job of that. But if you haven’t segmented your customers and don’t know them in depth, then transitioning to digital means you’ll be in the same soup you’re already in.”
That starts with a well-developed and smoothly functioning database, according to Gotz.
“There are now many ways to keep in touch with customers,” she says. “If a store has a database of existing customers, it can target ads to them digitally. Digital marketing doesn’t mean stores are losing touch with customers. If anything, stores are growing their connections.”
To pay or not to pay: The ROI question
One of the biggest pushbacks from retailers regarding any form of digital marketing is that it’s hard for them to see a return on investment (ROI), so paying for a digital campaign is difficult to justify. But Fruchtman claims digital is not only worth the cost, it’s a relative bargain.
“The only way to push your message out on Facebook or Instagram is to pay for it,” she maintains. “That being said, it is one of the most cost-efficient [forms of] advertising you can do.”
She also emphasizes the importance of getting a professional involved. “Marketing is not for amateurs,” she states. “It’s far too complicated today. Would you send your first-day employee out on the floor to sell to the wealthiest person in your city? Same thing.”
Gotz says any successful digital strategy is a combination of advertising-agency intelligence and retailers putting in their own elbow grease. “It’s important for stores to manage the content of their pages and interact with their customers on a daily basis,” she says. “Where you need to bring in experts is when you’re doing social media advertising campaigns. Everybody thinks they’re a social media expert, but just because you’re posting to Instagram does not make you an expert. And for strategic advertising plans, that’s something you can’t just do on your lunch break.”
To each region its own
Stores also need to know their own region and advocate for strategies that make sense, regardless of what an agency or brand partner is suggesting.
“When we speak with our brand partners, many of [our online] views are from parts of Europe where they do not use out-of-home advertising such as billboards,” says Betty Guerra, director of integrated marketing at Zadok Jewelers in Houston, Texas. “[Those brand partners then] try to persuade us to cut billboards from our co-op plans. But we know our region best. We’re fortunate enough to hear customer feedback such as, ‘I saw you carry X brand from your billboard and drove right in,’ and we have the sales to prove it.”
Guerra has also found that younger men who listen to sports radio, where she advertises year round, will tell her sales staff that’s how they found her store. “The proof is in the pudding,” she says.
But digital has a place, too, especially with self-purchasing customers, she adds. “Digital is a great platform for the watch geeks and strong, independent women.”
The informed customer
Nowadays, it’s practically impossible to find a customer who hasn’t been exposed to digital marketing in one form or another, notes Furman, and that means retailers that don’t want to engage that way will be affected. “Very few buyers — including boomers — make a purchase anymore now without coming to that purchase informed from online research,” he says. “They know the price points, value differentiators and research, and they come loaded with information. They’re as informed as the sales staff.”
That means stores need to step up, he continues, whether they want to or not. “Digital is forcing the retailers’ hand. You have to be honest and intelligent in terms of price, value, and even other jewelers, and you have to be able to have a human conversation without being defensive. Digital puts it all on the line as soon as a customer walks in the door.”
Image: ShutterstockArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2018. To subscribe click here.