Five offline ways to promote your jewellery business

There’s a lot of focus on promoting your business online and for good reason – it takes time but it can be done for free and can yield great results. However, there are also ‘offline’ real world things you can do to promote your business. LJS tutor Anna Campbell suggests five strategies.

Wear your jewellery (and get others to!)

You should be a walking advertisement for your work and when people ask you what you do it helps to be able to show them! It may sound basic but wearing your jewellery shows confidence in your own work.

Think creatively about how you get your work out there. Where will your customers come across your work? Why not give some rings to nail technicians as one of our business students did? Their clients would see the rings when they were having a manicure and asked about them so it was a beneficial partnership.

For bonus points and lots of publicity try to get a famous person to wear your jewellery! If you have famous friends that may be easy otherwise, consider sending some freebies to celebrities that your customers identify with.

Business cards

Having a good and memorable logo and business card will help people remember your business name when they want you. Make sure you have some with you at all times, you never know when you’ll want to reach for one!

There are many companies out there that can print your cards – check our Moo for a different photo on each card or Printed for a stack of the same cards.

Packaging

Receiving a piece of jewellery beautifully packaged and wrapped is part of the buying experience and will help cement your brand in the mind of the receiver. Take a look at some innovative jewellery packaging ideas on this blog post for inspiration.  

In addition, one of the things I found when I first started selling was that many of the pieces I sold were gifts. Having packaging with your logo, website, contact information etc is really helpful if items are a gift as the receiver knows where to get matching items from you! It’s also a great reminder for those that have bought for themselves and makes receiving the items a pleasure.

Attending networking events

Networking events can introduce you to potential customers and partnerships in your local area and are particularly useful if you feel you don’t currently have the contacts you need to grow your business.

Take a look at the networking events in your area by using a google search and using the terms‘ networking’ and your area to find groups. You can also find networking groups just for women. Do a little research to find out the types of people that will be in attendance to ensure it will be worth your while.

Before you attend prepare a short (few sentences) introduction to your business and take along your business cards. When you take a card from someone else make a note on the back of anything that stood out about them to you to help you remember them; these events can feel like a whirlwind and a stack of business cards may not remind you who was who!

Face to face sales

Selling at craft fairs, schools or markets are a great way to get immediate feedback on your product range and pricing. You can see what people look at, what sells well, ask customers questions about who they’re buying for etc. Don’t be too downhearted if you don’t make the sales that you wanted. Ensure you have some business cards for people to take, you never know what sales you’ll get from this. One tutor had a market stall where sales were disappointing but a customer with pieces for repair found her there and she has had a lot of repeat business from her so you never know!

Do always encourage those that are showing interest in your stall to subscribe to your mailing list by giving their email address to you. This means you can contact them again with new product ranges and offers.

What has worked well for you? We’d love to hear your experiences and advice in the comments below.

Special Business Week offers

Our founder, Jessica Rose is hosting a FREE webinar masterclass on 26th January at 6.30pm on Boosting your Online Sales.  Grab your spot on the webinar here.

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And don’t forget our special offers on business courses for this week only we are offering 25% off business day classes held here at the School using the code 23011701*.  This code can only be used over the phone so please call on 020 3176 0546 to book your place.   This discount is only available on bookings made during Jewellery Business Week 21-27 January 2016 inclusive.

Click here for more details of all the business courses included in this offer.

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And our New 8-week Online Jewellery Business Bootcamp will be starting on 27th January so if you would like more help with your jewellery business we would love you to join us!  

Author: Anna Campbell