These are trying times for all. And every business has been hit in a number of ways. As a heritage jewelry business, it has made us rethink our business strategies to be able to support ourselves and our staff of craftsmen, cutters, sellers, and more. We would like to share our experience with our readers on how you can harness the use of technology to change your jewellery business. If you are one of those post or old jewelry business owners that really want to use technology to change your jewellery business, then this article is for you.
While there have been a number of developments in jewelry design technology in terms of 3D printing, laser sintering, convertible jewelry, and more, this article deals primarily with the sales and marketing aspects of the jewelry business. We will be learning more under the following headers, curated for the jewelry business looking to overcome the current dip and rise up as a global leader in the business:

• Social Media
• Digital Marketing Strategies
• Customer Satisfaction tools
• Software for jewellers
• Mobile ApplicationS
• SMS support

  

In recent years technology has infiltrated into every part of our lives to become extremely integral. With almost everyone having access to a smartphone, one can virtually carry out his business success through his fingertips! Yes, believe it or not, it is that easy! Easier said than done!
It is all about building the right strategies and using the correct tools to reach out to the maximum audience possible. While there are professional agencies that can seamlessly manage a lot of digital promotion and marketing, good online research and a bit of investment time can provide you with enough information to undertake such a venture on your own. In this article, we provide the basic building blocks of how to use technology to grow and improve your business. So, continue to read on, and let’s not try to find shortcuts.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Social media channels are the perfect tools to create a personal brand and reach out to the widest possible network of clients out there. The trick is to package information into a visually attractive package that can catch a viewer’s eye as he/she just scrolls by. While there are a number of tools to do that, most tools are optimized for a particular platform. While the social media landscape is extremely volatile, some of the most popular ones that we recommend for your jewelry business are the following:

– Twitter:

Twitter is an engagement goldmine where because of the wide audience diversity, unrestricted lines of concise and clear communication, both brands and consumers have an even playing field. With the hashtags, tweets, retweets, etc, the desired audience is easy to pinpoint as long as your content is relevant. Check out our company’s Twitter here.

– Facebook:

While it may not be the hot stuff it was back in the early 2000s, with 2-6 billion active users in just the first quarter of this year, Facebook still remains the biggest social media network. With such a wide audience base and its unique business tools, it would be foolhardy not to engage on Facebook. Check out our company’s Facebook channel here.

– Snapchat:

With more than 229 million daily active users and 4 billion snaps sent in a day, Snapchat is a short message/media application that is extremely popular with the younger generation. With creative, interactive content, Snapchat can become an extremely popular medium for your jewelry business.

– Instagram:

This photo-sharing app has come a long way from being a holiday picture-sharing app. Following youtube closely, it is THE place to be for influencers, brands, and advertisers. Just like Twitter, the use of hashtags pinpoints the interested audience, which can lead to a lot of lead generations. With most of the user demographic being that in the age group of 14- 40, this is the perfect platform to market a range of your product.
If you have a jewelry business – Instagram is the place to be. This is the foremost social network that has been on the rise for jewellers, designers to be as people buy blogger-inspired jewellery or fashion-inspired heart pendants. Instagram gives a great way for jewelers to get into their prospective customer’s minds and build their Jewellery brand.
Check out our company’s Instagram channel here https://www.instagram.com/navneetgemscom

– LinkedIn:

The professional cousin of Facebook, LinkedIn has been aptly called the “professional social networking site.” About 40% of the 575000000 members access the site on a daily basis. Since it is a professional site with serious contenders on it, regular updates to your LinkedIn profile ensure that you generate effective leads. In fact, Hubspot found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective in generating plausible leads than Facebook or Twitter. But Linkedin is more for B2B rather than direct consumers, mostly very serious and professionals – in our industry it’s the Pandora, Van Cleef’s CEOs, employees who would have an account – maybe that’s not really your target.
Check out our company’s LinkedIn channel here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/navneet-gems-minerals-co-ltd

– Tiktok:

Again a platform for the younger generation, TikTok might be something to look into if you are looking to generate informal but interesting content. Tiktok is set to grow in popularity immensely and as there aren’t many jewelry businesses on it right now, this might be the right time to strike in!

– Youtube:

With 500 hours of videos uploaded to Youtube EVERY minute, Youtube remains the second most popular social media platform today. The simplicity of its UI, combined with the fact that absolutely any content on any topic can be created, makes Youtube a content marketing heaven.
For jewelry businesses, this is a great way to share their products as not everyone is able to visualize every cut, color, size, and type of gemstone. From tutorials to reviews to launch, your video menagerie can consist of almost ANYTHING to attract customers, investors, wholesalers, connoisseurs, etc from around the world.
Even our company has seen videos touch 250,000+ views especially on this blue sapphire video that was simply educational and helped many people find the right blue sapphire before they could jump into making a decision online.

DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES:

By now you must have mastered the basics of social media and need the right marketing strategy, so read on.

Brand Awareness is perhaps THE most important factor in this digital era. Digital marketing requires considerably less investment than conventional measures of promotion and can reach out to larger audiences in a smaller period of time. Here are our top 5 digital marketing tips to boost your jewelry business’ brand awareness.

– Leveraging influencer relationships:

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective methods of promoting a brand in this digital age. Creative videos can cost substantially less than slapstick marketing strategies like advertisements as reviews by these influencers are viewed as credible by their many fans and followers. Since the number of influencers in the field of gemstone jewelry is quite limited, the few sources have a massive following.

– Elevating Content strategies:

While video marketing and picture marketing are important, there is absolutely NOTHING like content marketing. A finely written content will keep generating readership even months after being written. As there are many technicalities like word limit, keywords, SEO involved in creating effective content, this investment is highly recommended. Informative videos are also by the way a content strategy.
Gemstones and jewelry is a specialized topic that requires a higher than normal amount of investment. Therefore there is nothing like words in print to generate trust and a lasting relationship with your customer.

– Collaboration:

This extremely effective tool works both ways to benefit both participating parties. This method has been extremely successful on Youtube and Instagram where two interested parties collaborate to generate a buzz about a product. With our youtube channel, we are open to effective collaborations with genuine buyers and influencers.

– Getting SEO comfortable:

Search engine optimization is a tool that helps to grow direct traffic to your website without any paid tools. It is a laborious and long process, figuring out the type, number, and sequence of words that people frequently use to search for a product. However, once done correctly is the best way to steer away from paid marketing as you direct the traffic to your website and get orders. Since this has worked immensely for our gemstone business, we strongly recommend SEO. We also believe reading about SEO on every aspect of the jewelry business on one of our favorite websites like MOZ.com is an absolutely important aspect to getting SEO right. Read, Read and Read.

– Being creative:

The only way to outshine in this digital world is to constantly evolve and be creative. We all remember that one fun advertisement that had a catchy concept or tagline. The moral for us: Do not be afraid to be unconventional. People respond positively to quirky and fun! One way of being creative is to click gemstone and jewelry photos that are really really unique, different, HD – people react to good photos differently.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TOOLS:

Before visiting any post place today, the tech-savvy customer looks to read up on it. With jewelry and gemstone being such an expensive investment (even 50$ is considered expensive for someone living a basic lifestyle), it is inevitable that retailers and wholesale gemstone investors will look to procure favorable reviews online. Never think against reviews.

– Google reviews:

The easiest way to check out the stats about a place is through google reviews. In fact, it is so easy that you don’t even need to open another tab once you enter the name of the company on the search tab! Therefore it is important to maintain a good google review profile. However, since they are so easy to enter, absolutely ANYBODY can enter a review, leading to a lot of either negative or positive bias. Therefore it is always wise to supplement it with another customer satisfaction tool.

– Trustpilot:

One of the foremost applications that record customer satisfaction reviews, Trustpilot is an extremely reliable source to get genuine reviews from genuine buyers. As it is not an open-ended platform for all, the reviews on Trustpilot are generated from genuine purchases.
Check out our Trustpilot customer reviews for a clearer understanding.
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.navneetgems.com

SOFTWARE FOR JEWELLERS:

Business automation is one of the most efficient ways to ensure that processes run smoothly from stock acquisition to sales analysis. This reduces the possibility of human error, ensuring that the entire process runs seamlessly. Also, are you thinking or currently working in your jewelry business as a single person? It’s important that you automate. Here are a few suggestions.

– Businessman:

This cloud-based app is perfect for manufacturers and retailers. This software integrates with a number of third-party platforms to grow your business seamlessly.

– Hootsuite

It is an excellent place to manage all your posts in one place and make sure they are scheduled all at once, even on Instagram (which doesn’t have a scheduling option) this is really a great tool. We personally use it (Trade secret)

– e-Jewel:

An ERP software for jewelers, retailers, and manufacturers, this is perfect for a jewelry business with multiple stores and functions, keeping track of everything, from inventory to sales in one place. (It could be different for small jewelers initially, but it will be useful for your future)

– Wjewel:

This cloud or on-premises software is perfect for jewelry management in all its aspects; from vendor management to sales, it does it all.

– Mail Chimp

Now that you have a long list of emails collected for our post letter you must send them regularly again automatic emails – through scheduling on Mail chimp they go out automatically in any part of the world so you can sit back and see your jewelry and gemstone orders come in.

– JewelMate Enterprise Retail Software:

An exclusive retail software, it processes sales, returns, and exchanges, layaways, special orders, repairs, and more. With many additional features, it eliminates a tonne of human error.

– Lightspeed Retail:

While this is a general retail software used by a number of retail industries to manage their stores. This is a good place to begin on low investment, although it isn’t custom-made for a jewelry business.
Please note that this in no way is a complete list of jewelry software. We have tried to represent ones that are versatile and can handle a number of jewelry businesses comfortably. Always ask for a demo and make an informed decision before about the abilities and limitations of any software before its purchase.

MOBILE APPLICATIONS

With a smartphone gracing almost every hand today, the fastest and smoothest experience you can provide for your customer is through a mobile application. This also helps in building direct interaction with your customers as they can leave direct feedback, ask queries, read blogs, and be updated on the latest collections your company has to offer.
Falling in line with this philosophy we have developed the Navneet Gems and Minerals mobile application.  We would like to invite genuine wholesale buyers globally to peruse our complete collection on the exclusive Navneet Gems app. It works pretty simply:

1. Write to us enumerating your interest in a particular type of gemstone, along with details of your company – as this is strictly B2B.
2. Your credentials will go through a whetting process by our team,
3. Following this, an exclusive link will be sent by our executives to your email id, along with your login and password.
4. You can now go through our complete collection and place a direct order to us through the app!

Write to us at  info@navneetgems.com to know more about the application. You can also contact us at (+66) 985498500.

SMS SUPPORT:

This simple yet effective method is a sure-shot method to ensure that your customers are kept in a constant loop with you. Every phone is enabled with this feature, making it a universal method to reach out to each and every customer. Sending your customer updates about the latest gemstones acquired by you, gemstone blogs and other details can lead to rapid sales conversion. You can even add chat support on your website, link your Facebook to your Whatsapp for immediate reply.

Conclusion:

Here we have mentioned a handful of strategies that can be implemented in an easy and budget-friendly way. The internet gives us access to the WHOLE WIDE WORLD and not making use of this opportunity would make us the biggest losers. Proper brand-boosting with all the tools that technology can offer us can make you a global gemstone and jewelry brand in no time.