Pushing your brand to the next level of success

Last week I has the privilege to speak on a panel at the Retail Jeweller UK Jewellery Festival 2024. The panel, Pushing your Brand to the Next Level of Success focused on how to use branding to grow a distinctive and stand out brand to gain recognition and, most importantly, make sales.

I sat alongside Fay Cannings, founder of Seekd, Ruby McGonigle, copywriter and digital marketing professional at Lebrusan Studio and Sophie McKay, consultant, founder and creative director at Bar Jewellery. Moderated by Kassandra Gordon, jeweller in residence at Kensington Palace and founder of The Jewellery Collective who were hosting the panel.

I decided I would revisit some of the topics we touched on and share my opinions and insights because the questions put to us and our answers could help or have significance to makers and jewellers who could not attended.

“What is a brand, what does it consist of?”

A brand is built with obvious factors like a name, logo, colour palette, marketing materials. But there are lots of not so obvious aspects with need to be present for a successful and distinctive brand. Market positioning, ethos, values, mission, customer relations, and a unique product offering to mention just a few.

“How can you start crafting a cohesive narrative that resonates with your target audience?”

It should all start with them, the people you want to sell to. You need to spend time on your target audience research so you understand them and know what they want to see.

Choose solid content pillars that will appeal to your audience and speak about them often, these are the foundations of every topic that builds your brand identity. This reassures customers they’re in the right place for them.

Always bear in mind, storytelling and narratives are not only written. You need a consistent visual and aesthetic narrative too. All distinct brands have an obvious and recognisable visual thread in not only their content but their product too. If you offer a bespoke service be mindful of the pieces you promote after you create them. If they are not something you would create for your own brand, do not promote them. It may seem harsh but initially, bespoke does not build a brand.

“How can jewellery brands translate market research into designs that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also address customer pain points and fulfil unmet needs?”

Market research is not only about what you see other brands doing, but what they aren’t doing. Look at what gaps there are in what your competitors offer. Be unique. Make sure you’re not making product which already exists elsewhere, but cheaper. From your research you’ll know if your customer realistically exists and has the money to spend.

Don’t follow trends which won’t appeal to your customer profile. It can be tempting to join the ‘it’ crowd of brands but it won’t mean anything if you don’t take your customers with you. Or if you don’t have a solid plan for how to attract a new audience.

“What are effective strategies for small jewellery brands to gain visibility and recognition in a competitive market?”

Make sure your Instagram profile is optimised. All that text is searchable and can be the first impression for prospective customers so ensure all your key words are present and their is no repetition. Your logo should be your profile photos so viewers can build visual recall.

Align yourself with brands which will resonate with your customer and who’s customer, you hope, will resonate with you. this immediately grants you access to a new audience. Share and tag content in hopes of getting reshared. Collaborate in a more formal way on photoshoots, blogs, giveaways…there are literally endless ways to collaborate with brands, think outside the box!

If your pieces are at the right price point and style gifting prominent people or influencers who appeal to your audience will be a great opportunity to gain recognition. Don’t be beguiled by follower numbers, an influencer with 15k followers with your exact ethos and aesthetic will be so much more valuable than some random fashion blogger with 300k.

“What are the key metrics jewellery brands should track to measure their brands effectiveness and impact on sales?”

The first thing I’d say is don’t mix up marketing and branding. Marketing can get people to your site, good branding will turn traffic into conversations.

There are several e-commerce metrics you need to pay attention to. Your returning customer rate is incredibly important to small handmade brands. Building connections is the most important thing you can do so tracking the number of people who come back time and time again is key. You should also consider rewarding these repeat customers too, treat them like the VIP’s they are!

Keep an eye on your purchase funnel to see if there are blockers to people buying. If you have a high add to cart rate but low checkouts this is normal but can be a sign that people love what you do but don’t trust or relate to the brand enough yet. Or they are waiting to receive a discount on their cart, these are likely fair weather customers but a sale is a sale!

Something I know many makers ignore is their mailing list, this is the biggest mistake a small business can make. Your mailing list will be the most valuable selling tool you will ever have. Build it and engage regularly. Tracking open and click rates will give you a better idea of what appeals to your audience.

“What are the most impactful PR activities you can focus on for maximum results, when you have a busy work schedule?”

PR has changed. Traditional PR is not always effective for small brands, exposure is essential but it rarely results intractable sales, let alone instant sales. It takes a long time to build a PR profile. Before looking into professional PR you can try it yourself with options like PR Dispatch and Press Loft. Or DIY by approaching bloggers or or niche publications, targeting the right customer on a smaller scale will likely be more valuable than a feature in Glamour.

If you’re short on time but do want to pursue PR features make sure to plan it into the second half of your year. Approaching long and short leads from July to November for Christmas gift guides will be the most valuable use of your time.

Always prioritise customer touch points over trade press. Any PR is good PR but if the only people seeing it are other jewellers then it’s not going to get you any sales.

“How do you measure the success of PR efforts?”

This can be incredibly difficult. Over the medium term you should be an increase in mentions on social media and referrals to your website. In the long term you would hope to increase sales slowly. PR is certainly not a silver bullet and without strong branding foundations is unlikely to move the needle.

Thanks again to Retail Jeweller for giving all of us on the panel the opportunity to share our knowledge. I hope it was not only insightful but practical and useful.

If you want to find out more about working with me you can book a FREE discovery call or get in touch to discuss this topic & any other areas of your jewellery business that you need more support with. Plus you can follow me on Instagram for more regular jewellery industry & e-commerce insights & actionable advice.