Tips for Creating Content for your Jewelry Business
Okay so today we're going to be talking about creating content. And this is just going to kind of go through some tips just to hopefully make your life easier. Making content for your brand can be very overwhelming, especially when you are a small business and you are just one person. So hopefully these tips will help you out. So first of all if you haven't seen me before I am Kelli Greene. I’m the Marketing and Creative
Manager with Halstead, I’ve been there since 2017. And prior I was actually a customer. So me and my husband are both metalsmiths and we owned a small jewelry business which opened in 2014. And we had a small little gallery, you can see here where we carried other local craftsman things such as other jewelry artists, housewares, textiles, we did paintings, and drawings, and posters, and all different things. So it was super fun, we loved it and we ended up
having a close in 2018 - kind of when we had our kids and stuff. But I was able to transition into Halstead, so I’m so excited that I got to stay in the jewelry business. Prior to that all of, you know, most of my working years were spent in retail and retail management. And that's kind of where I got to learn the business side of things. I do have a B.A. in art from ASU. I didn't major in metals, but I did take small metals and jewelry classes while I was there. And then my very first
introduction to jewelry making was I actually went to a public high school in Mesa, Arizona and they offered a jewelry class. So that was my very first exposure to it. So again I’m Kelli with an ‘i’, my email is at the bottom @halsteadbead.com. If you have any questions I’m always ready to help. So reach out. Okay so to get started, what is content? So obviously if you just look up the definition of content, it doesn't really relate to marketing. So just the plain definition
is “what is inside or included in something.” So when it's applied to like publishing or art or communication, it's kind of just the information and experiences that are directed towards an end user or audience. So even there it's still kind of vague. Like, what is content marketing? What is the content when it comes to putting your brand out there? So I kind of picked different little parts of descriptions of content marketing from Google search, and this is kind of the best description that I came up with when I think about it. And obviously, just a disclaimer, so
when you're creating content for your brand you're going to want to know your target customer first. Because all of the content you are creating is going to be tailored to your target customer. So what I came up with was “content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.” And obviously your end goal with marketing, with your business in general, is to get people to buy from you. So ultimately, the end action is you want someone to make a purchase. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. How you can make content for your small jewelry brand and some tips to make it not so overwhelming.
So when we're thinking about content, these are a bunch of different things, you know, that you can create to help build your brand and market your brand. So, you know, I think there's like 12 right there. On top of that, you know, even a look book, a catalog a wholesale line sheet, a postcard, a flyer that you create for an upcoming trunk show or for a craft fair you're attending. Those are all pieces of content that you can create for your brand. Obviously some are more in-depth and can maybe be more valuable or hold more weight than others. Obviously, you know, blogs and guides are gonna take longer than just a social media post. But this is the whole realm and everything that you can create. And that's what we're gonna be talking
about as content today: things that you can post on social media, put in your emails. Things you're putting out there to your customer or prospective customers to get them to know your brand So these are the three sections we're going to go through today. The power of planning. Maximizing your reach with the content you create. And then recycle, reuse,
reduce your stress. That's kind of my favorite section. So here we go. The power of planning. So, especially when you're starting out running your small business it's usually just you. And I feel like a lot of people look at other brands, whether they're jewelry brands or other small businesses, and they think to themselves “how in the world do they have all these gorgeous photos of their product,” “how are they sending monthly emails, like what am I even supposed to put in there,” “who has the time to post on social media every day,” “who has the time to think of all these you know funny little quotes or the copy they put on their social media posts,” and just “how is one person doing it all, how does one person manage four different social media platforms, plus their website, plus you know responding to emails, making the jewelry.” You know, obviously you are wearing 50 plus hats as a small jewelry business owner So I think these are things that kind of people think, how in the world are you doing this. And they're really, - it can be done by one person and really is they have a plan. If you don't have a plan, you're just going to get more stressed out as things pile up and you think of all these, all of your to-do lists. So if you
were able to attend the Jewelry Business Forum, you may have seen my presentation on creating a marketing strategy. So this slide is actually pulled from that presentation. And I think the best way to kind of start out with a marketing strategy and thinking about how you're going to create your marketing content is with a timeline. I like to do a 12-month timeline. So obviously we're on the last day of March, so you could start with April through next March. And just
even putting 12 squares on a piece of paper and just really short descriptions of what you want to accomplish. You know, in April you want to do a photo shoot, in May you want to write your first blog. Maybe you want to do a blog every quarter, so that will go in every corner on your timeline. You can kind of see here all your marketing tasks including photography, email campaigns, social media posts, blogging, events, website updates. The only thing I added to this slide is
before I wasn't saying creating content, I was just listing out all of these things. So really, making that timeline is how you're gonna create content to put out there to promote your business. And again this 12 months is just a general guide to follow. Once you're going to break down your tasks into month, quarter, and then ultimately your weekly tasks, and those are going to have way more detail. So I’m going to show you an example of breaking down a task, you know, saying next month, April, you want to do your photo shoot - so that's on the calendar. But now we need
to make a more detailed plan for the day of the shoot. So I’m going to show you this example now. So when you think about planning a photo shoot, and it does not have to be a with a paid photographer. it does not have to be with a fancy camera. This can be done with your cell phone. We have some great blogs and tips for shooting jewelry on your smartphone. Our graphic designer and photographer Janelle also did a presentation about taking photos on your smartphone. So this this can be just you planning this with your own phone. So, but you need to have a plan going in. So obviously the time and place you're going to be taking these photos. You want to think how is the lighting going to
be. What time of day am I shooting: in the morning, at night. Will I need extra lights, what do I need to bring with me. You're also going to want to think about like, do you have a theme? Is this for your spring collection? Do you want to have flowers there? Are there going to be models? What product are you shooting? Is this going to be your best sellers, is this just going to be a shot of your latest one-of-a-kinds? So have that in mind ahead of time. And then how many
shots do you want to get from the shoot? You know, if you're planning a photo shoot once a month or once a quarter. You know, once a month you might want to be getting 30, 30 to 40 photos from your shoot. And I know that can seem like a lot. And even if you have a small collection of jewelry, if you're only, you know, have eight pieces to shoot to get to 40 photos is actually really, can be really easy. You know, you do a group shot,
you do four of the pieces at a time, two of the pieces at a time, and then individual shots. You kind of switch up the layout, the angles. Also you're going to want to be thinking about where you're going to be posting these, because that will determine the formats too. Obviously for Instagram you want squares. The photos used on this slide are shots for our summer campaign.
So obviously we got props, the greenery. We wanted the yellows and blues and we shot this all together. And this, you will see this on our social media over the summer. So just definitely planning ahead is going to make you get the most out of your photo shoot. If you, you know, wake up
one morning and you're like oh my gosh I haven't posted on social media in a week, I need some photos. And you kind of rush and put something together; like yes that can work, and you can get a few photos from that. But if you didn't plan ahead there's no way you're going to get 30 shots. So think about planning. You know, if you aren't used to kind of having a plan and due dates, it might be a little rough in the beginning. But I promise once you start doing it, it's really going to help you out and actually, you know, save you a lot of time. So you want
to get the most out of a photo shoot. So you really need to think about all these things: Where can all these photos be used? How can they be used? What platforms am I posting them on? So this is how you plan the shoot. So then after the shoot you are also going to need to do some things. Really being organized is also going to save you a lot of time. Naming each photo and then saving to labeled folders. Even social media now tracks SEO through tags and names of your files, of your photos. And it'll just make it easier for you, you know, if this photo on my slide here is named ‘Onyx Collection 2020’ so I know what it is. And then if it's also saved within a folder,
you know, named ‘My Look Book for 2020’ I’m going to be able to find it a lot quicker and be able to access it. And then also those tags, if the name of your photo is already there, you know ,you're not scrolling through months and months of photos looking at photos named img00782. That doesn't mean anything to you and it's not gonna help you. So one of the things I suggest that will just save you so much time and so much stress is to look into a scheduling platform for social media. I’ve used Tailwind in the past, I’ve used Later. This is, these are platforms that you can connect all of your social sites on. So your Instagram, your
Facebook, your Pinterest, your Twitter. Whatever you're on and you can go in and it kind of looks like a calendar view. Tou upload your photos into there and then you place them out on the calendar. And then they automatically schedule for you. This can save you so, so much time. You could schedule one day a month, one day a week, and go in and schedule out. Obviously you still need to be on your platforms to answer questions, you know, comment back and forth and talk to your customers, potential customers. But you won't have that extra stress of everyday thinking, or every other day thinking, “oh my gosh I need to post. I don't have anything to post. I can't
think of what I’m posting.” You can just get ahead of the game and you have your next month planned out and it's just one less thing to stress about. And these platforms usually aren't very expensive. Like 25 bucks a month. If you don't want to do a scheduling social media platform you can just
also, you know, put calendar reminders you know every Monday/Wednesday/Friday that you need to post on Instagram. And an easy way if you do have Instagram and Facebook, if you haven't figured out you can link those counts together because it's all under the same umbrella now, so you can post Instagram and also have that post to Facebook. I suggest doing different content if you can, but that's an easy way to get two posts with less time. So also getting dates on the calendar for your next newsletter or email blast to your customers. You know, some people get overwhelmed, like what am I gonna write in an email. And today I feel like the copy of your email isn't as important, it's almost more visual. And then you want to have links to get them to your website
or to get them to your social pages - wherever you want them to go. So even just writing a few, you know, a subject - a cute subject line, a little intro, adding three or four photos, and a paragraph of copy about what's happening in those photos - that's enough. That's great. It gets people to remember your brand, remember your name, and maybe see some of your new collection.
So also think after the shoot, where else can these photos be used. You know, obviously they could go on your website, they can go on your blog, all of your social pages. And just get them anywhere that they could go. You know, if you have a personal Facebook too, maybe you can just tell your close friends “Hey I just did a new photo shoot, check it out” and send them to your business page. So again, due dates. This slide is also from the Building Your
Marketing Strategy. Get due dates on your calendar. You know, you get your 12 month timeline and then break it down to monthly. And then in your monthly have due dates and hold yourself accountable, however you do that. I love checklists. I fill up my Outlook Calendar so I have digital reminders. I also have a big paper calendar on my wall that I handwrite tasks in and at the end of the day I cross off. I really like checklists somehow that motivates me, it makes me happy. So find out what's satisfying to you and whatever helps you get through your due dates.
So now you've created this great piece of content, you've planned it out, you know, you have all these beautiful photos, maybe you have this great blog article. Now you want to maximize your reach. You want that out to as many people as possible. So how are we going to do that? So obviously you want to get the most mileage out of every piece of content you create. So we're going to think about all the places we could promote, post, and share. And then also would anybody else be in your network and your community be interested in sharing this content. It never hurts to reach out. And networking, as a small business
owner, you want to be doing constantly. And then also are there opportunities for collaborations or cross-promoting when creating content. So biggest thing, kind of talked about before: promote, post, and share everywhere. You have all these social pages. It just does you a disservice to not take the time to post the content to all of them. You know, you will have customers/potential customers, followers that follow you on a few of your social handles. Or you might you know someone might just
only follow you on Instagram and they're on your subscriber list. Or they only follow a certain board of yours on Pinterest and that's it. So there's people that are going to overlap. Snd then there's people who are not going to overlap. So you want to make sure you're posting it everywhere so you can maximize your reach. So I wanted to go through a little example of 10 ways to promote a new blog post. And this, you know, if you don't have a blog this can be, you know, a new look book if you're more into visuals, a new Pinterest board. Think of it as any piece of content. So we're going to go through 10 ways to promote it.
So obviously first your Instagram grid post. So maybe you wrote this, maybe you have a nature inspired jewelry line, you love the outdoors, you know a lot of your pieces are inspired by different places you've hiked, different flowers you've seen, just different things in nature. So your latest blog post is about all of the hiking trails you've done recently, and maybe you live in Utah. So Utah hiking trails. So first on your Instagram a grid post is a post that shows up on the grid in your little square. So first you want to want to post a photo of your blog cover. So that's your first promotion just on your regular Instagram grid post. Now you're gonna
share that post into your story because some people may see your story and not see your grid post. You are at the mercy of all of these algorithms, so definitely share it to your story. And you can you know just do the share from the grid to the story and maybe put a cute little icon gif on it and then say new blog alert. Also really quick, on your phone you can, you know, flip your camera - this does not have to be a big production - it can just be a real short video of you talking about your new blog article. Like hey guys Kelli here I just finished my new article about the hiking trails I did this last year in Utah. They were so beautiful, see all my photos, see the jewelry I wore, and how I was inspired by these hikes.
That's as long as it needs to be and post it to your Instagram TV. So number four to promote. Email your subscribers. I feel like people forget about their email list. People gave you their emails and said yes please email me, so do it. They, you know, if they follow your brand they like you, they like your jewelry, they're gonna be interested in what you're interested in. So an email to subscribers: New blog just post posted,
add a few photos in from the blog, a paragraph about it, and then obviously link to your blog. So now we've done some Instagram posts, we emailed our subscribers, now let's post on Facebook. So a lot of people have their business page on Facebook and then they also have a personal Facebook and then they're also in a lot of groups, so post on all of them. And usually when you post
a link to your blog it'll pull your cover page, your cover image, but make sure there's a link. People will want to click on the link from your Facebook page, don't just post a photo and say new blog without the link. Facebook you definitely want to make sure you have your link there. So that was five ways. So another cool way to promote a new blog post is to create a Pinterest board around it. So obviously you're gonna post some of your photos from the blog, from your Utah hiking blog, you're going to want to post some of your jewelry photos in there, and then also pin other people other people's pins to this board. Make a really nice,
beautiful Pinterest board about it. So now you've also linked your blog to your Pinterest. Another thing you can do is pull a quote from the blog and create a graphic around it. Maybe you use one of the pretty photos from your hike and you put some text over it, and maybe just one of the little, a little quote or an inspirational thing that came to you that you put in your blog. So now you've created another graphic to promote the same piece of content. You can post it on Instagram and then also post on your business Facebook
page. Finally you can pull a photo from your blog. So you're not using the cover photo now and just post to your Instagram and Facebook story, “have you read our latest blog.” And all of these 10 ways to promote can be over a week or two weeks of time. And then finally number 10, now let's email your subscribers again - but this time we're going to flip it and say have you checked out my new Pinterest board. And maybe use some photos from the board, some photos from Pinterest, maybe other people you pinned and promote it that way.
So to you maybe you're like “oh my gosh no one wants to read this blog 10 times, no one wants to hear about it 10 times,” but really you're the only person that knows you promoted it ten times. Like I said prior, a lot of your followers don't follow you on every social platform. You're also at the mercy of an algorithm, so you don't know if they're actually seeing all of your posts in the first place. And maybe that first email, you know, you sent out to your email subscribers maybe you know I opened it and I was excited to read it and then got distracted and deleted it; never saw it again. But then now you sent another email a week later telling you about your Pinterest board I’m like oh yeah I wanted to see those pictures from her hike and then I’m in there now. So people get distracted. People do not see everything you post. So you want to promote as much as you can to make sure people are getting the message.
So networking. So think about other small business owners that share some of your customers interests. You know sometimes you can collab with other jewelry artists, but you might want to go outside of jewelry just so you're not, you know, competing with whoever you're collaborating with.
So, you know, if you are this nature inspired jewelry brand maybe there is a ceramics artist that also kind of has the same love for nature and hiking. And maybe they would want to share some of your content, and maybe you would want to share some of theirs. A good way to build a relationship, if it's not someone you've met in person or been able to talk to prior, is to look through their content and see if your customers would be interested and offer to share.
Getting cross links and backlinks to your website is only going to help you with SEO. Ad it's going to open up your audience. More people are gonna be able to see you if your link to your website is also posted on the ceramics website. So building this relationship where you can share back and forth, it also makes you have more content. Because now you can share
other people's content. So it's another thing you can post about, another thing you can talk about, another thing you can offer your customers that's adding value to your brand. So collabs and cross promoting. You can actually, prior to creating the content is where you kind of would want to plan these. So reach out to your network prior and you would create content for the purpose of collaborating and cross promoting. This would be something where all the parties agree that they are going to be posting this content on Instagram, they're gonna use it in their emails. You know, a lot of people - especially starting out in the jewelry business
and now with so many social media influencers, you know, you might get a DM that says “hey send me a free piece of jewelry and I’ll post about it,” that's not a collab. That's you sending someone a free piece of jewelry. So unless that person is Lady Gaga or someone who has, you know, millions of followers and they promise to tag you in it, I wouldn't do that. That's not a collab. You want to collaborate with people who are going to put as much effort into making the content and they are also going to get something out of it. So kind of make sure when you're collaborating
that all parties are getting - are putting in equal effort and getting, that it’s worth it for all of you. So collabs will take more time and planning. They can be a little bit more stressful. But it's worth it if you're, if the content and your brand is going to be shown to a whole new audience. So here are a few examples of ways to collaborate with other small business owners. So one is just, you know, if you do have a blog - I like to do this - and reach out to people in the jewelry community and get, you know, get their opinion on topics that I’m writing about. And then I use their quotes in the blog. I usually will put a little photo of them and a bio and link
to their website. And this is something that you can do for your blog too. And a lot of times if you include somebody in your blog, include their expertise, include a quote from them, and a link to their website, they will also share your blog. So that that's getting more traffic for you. Another one is doing a big photo shoot. You know, where you get a local photographer, you get someone to do hair, do makeup, you get models, your jewelry is there. Maybe you're at a specific location: maybe you're at a winery that's also going to post about it. I see these big collab photo shoots happening a lot, especially kind of in the bridal industry. It's kind of like
a faux wedding shoot or a cute elopement shoot. And if all the parties agree to promote and share across all their platforms, you know, if you have 10 different people, small businesses involved in this shoot then you're going to be posted on 10 more pages. So really think about how that can maximize your reach. Another thing is doing like a local dine and shop guide. Getting some, you know,
local restaurants in on it, getting maybe even food trucks or local clothing designers, plus your jewelry - and all getting together and building a local dine and shop that you can share. And maybe other people, maybe your city wants to share different things like that. So think of ways you can get people together that are going to have an invested interest, that are going to, you know, put in the effort to make this happen, and then everybody kind of benefits from it. Obviously
if you work with someone and they don't hold up their end of the deal, they don't post on social, they don't tag you, they don't email you - it's kind of just a lesson learned. You want to be forward. Depending on how many people you're working with and how much time and energy you're putting into it, sometimes you may want contracts for these kinds of things. So we went through the power of planning and we went through how to maximize your reach.
So now we're going to talk about reusing some of your older content or giving it like little recycles or facelifts that can really help you. So first I want to say: It is okay to reuse content. If it is quality content and you took the time to create it, I think you should reuse it. I think you should promote it again. I think you want to make sure everybody sees it. So just thinking about it, this wave necklace. Maybe these are all different Instagram posts that were posted over maybe a two month period. So the first one: I’m scrolling through Instagram, I see it and I think oh that's a super cute wave necklace. Don't think of anything else about it. The second time this artist posted it,
I didn't even see it. Didn't even show up in my feed, I don't know where it went. Third time, again I think oh my gosh I...this wave necklace is so cute, my sister would totally love it. She lives by the beach, it's her thing, you know. Okay it's in my mind. Now a few weeks later, a month later, I see it again. Now I finally click it, I finally purchased. It really does take someone seeing something multiple times to make the connection to trust your brand to finally go through and make a purchase. So it is totally okay to reuse content. So here are some tips for how to reuse content. So first of all, spread it out. Obviously you don't
want to post the same picture five times in a row. But also, spreading it out doesn't mean it has to be months later. So this picture of Stephanie from S. Howell Studios, she was back on slide 15. So I’m guessing most of you didn't notice that in this one, this presentation, I have now used this photo twice. And if you did notice, I don't think it hindered your presentation experience. If it did, let me know in the comments. But most likely, you didn't notice. Or if you did notice, it was in a collage format, before and now it's a bigger photo. So I kind of used it in two ways and,
like I said, most people didn't notice. And if you did notice I don't think it would hinder your experience at all and now you have a better, you know, view - a larger view - of this photo. You can see the jewelry better. And it might remind you to go check out her Instagram after this. Which, Stephanie is not promoting this at all, but just wanted to give you it in context that you can spread it out but it doesn't have to be four months later. You, you know, can post it a week later and different people are going to see it. My only tip for if it's a social media post and you're going to reuse it is to update the copy. I wouldn't repost the same image and have
it say the exact same thing under it. You know, switch it up. Say something different about it just in case the person is seeing it for the second time. So promoting an older blog with a different photo than before - kind of in my 10 ways to promote a new blog post. Pull a different photo from the blog. Maybe when someone was scrolling through
Instagram the first time, the first photo you posted about your blog didn't catch their eye but now this one did. So now they're going to read the copy under and click through and go to your blog. Emails. I think you can actually use the same content in emails and just switch up the copy a little and change the formatting. Especially with people looking at emails on their phone, a lot of times they might just open your email and see what's before the fold - what shows up before they scroll. So if you did post a piece of content that was further down in your email, maybe on last month's newsletter or the one before, maybe move it up this next time. You know, switch up the copy a little. But people that did not see it last time may notice it now.
So recycle. So this is kind of, you know, I think mostly blogs and Pinterest boards can kind of feel outdated. But if there's still quality content there and things that are relevant to your customer, it's totally worth just doing a little facelift a little freshening up and then repromoting again. So for Pinterest boards you can change the cover, add a few more pins, upload a
couple of your own photos, maybe delete some that aren't as relevant anymore. And for blogs also, if the content is still good overall, but there's a few things that need to be updated - you know, delete a couple of paragraphs, add a few ones in, maybe add in a new photo. gaain you can repromote and it'll feel like fresh content. If the blog or the Pinterest board is over six months old, a year old, it's probably going to feel like totally new content to your audience. Most likely in the last
six months, in the last year you have gained a lot of new people that maybe haven't seen this at all. So really it's only old content to you. Your audience does not feel that. So by integrating content that you've already made and just, you know, recycling and using stuff, this is going to reduce your stress. Build this into your marketing strategy when you think about your 12-month timeline. Even when you break it down like into your quarter or month,
you know, every month try to reuse something. Something can be posted twice or if you're still too nervous to post within the same month, maybe every quarter. You can put on your timeline that you're gonna, you know, re-promote an older blog.
So we're just gonna go through a recap of the three sections we kind of went through. So first power of planning. You have to have a plan. You have to have a marketing strategy. You know, if you are a small business owner, you obviously want your business to grow, you want to make more money, you want to get more customers, a larger audience. So you have to have a plan. Creating that 12-month timeline, I really think it will help you out. And if you need kind of further details on that and more about a marketing strategy, I suggest you go and watch my presentation on building your marketing strategy - it's on our YouTube channel now.
It kind of breaks down the timeline for you, but I promise if you make a plan and you plan ahead you're going to get more accomplished. I think when you don't have a...prior to having the plan, you kind of get frozen and overwhelmed with how much you have to do. You know, people who have never owned a business, never owned a small business, do not understand how many hats you wear - how many jobs you actually have.
And Marketing Manager, Marketing Strategist is one of them. And you just don't want it to fall...you just don't want to fall behind with it, because this is how you're going to grow your business. So maximize your reach. You know, if you're going to take the time to make a piece of content,
make sure you promote it everywhere you can. All of your social media pages, your email list, your website. Anywhere that you can control what is being posted, control it and post about your stuff. And then also always reach out. You always want to be networking. You always want to be talking to other small business owners, bouncing ideas off of them. And,
you know, eventually start to collaborate and create content for cross promotion. So reuse, recycle, reduce your stress. It is okay to reuse your content. When me and my husband owned our small jewelry business, I for some reason like could not handle reposting the same photo. But it really is okay and people do not notice. All of your followers did not see it the first time you posted it, I promise. And if they did, they're not gonna be upset if you post it again. It's probably just gonna remind them that they did like that post. So refreshing older content and promote again. Always look back in your archives, you know,
you've made quality stuff - take the time to repromote it. And, like I said, quality content should be used regularly. If you did make this awesome, you know, shopping guide for your city or something - don't just share it once and never think about it again. It's probably still relevant six months later a year later. So make sure you re-share.
So I love just this little quote or saying “work smarter not harder”. By planning ahead, you are going to be working smarter. It's going to be harder for you if you don't have a plan and every day you wake up and you're just stressed about what photos you need, what content you're promoting, what are you getting out there to your audience. So make a plan. Be strategic with your time. Promote, post, and share everywhere you can. Remember it's okay to repost a photo, graphic, blog, etc. Like I said, you're probably the only one that notices or has any type of negative feeling about it. And one thing
I can suggest, and suggest to small businesses, is look into social media scheduling services. The two that I’m familiar with is Tailwind and Later. I know there's other ones out there. This will just help you save, help save you time and I promise reduce your stress. So we have a huge archive of marketing articles on our blog. So check it out. There's a few I’ve wrote on there, but we also have a lot of great guest bloggers. We have Liz Kanter from Stay Gold, Robin Kramer from Red Boot Consulting, Tracy Matthews from Flourish and Thrive.
They've all wrote guest articles for us. So go in and check them out. And that is the end of my presentation for today. I just want to let you know that this was recorded. If you registered, you will get the recording link later today. We also will be getting this up on YouTube in the next couple weeks and it will have closed caption there. And you will also be able to fast forward and rewind there. The replay link that you're going to get later today unfortunately will not have that capability. But in the next few weeks we'll let you know once it's up on YouTube. So thank you so much, and Ashley did we have any questions? Ashley: We do have a few. Kelli: Okay. Ashley:
Someone was asking if you can rename photos on an iPhone and I’m asking Janelle about that. Kelli: Okay. Ashley: Because I went into my iPhone and I couldn't find a way, but maybe she knows a secret. Kelli: Okay. Yes I’m not fully familiar with that. I put everything on laptop or pc. But there should be, I know you can name your folders but yeah I’m not sure about photos. So we'll let you know if you hear back from Janelle. Ashley: Yeah. Okay, so the next question was, Julie was wondering what your favorite social media scheduling platform is? Do you have a favorite? Kelli: I think we like Later don't you? Ashley: Yeah I like Later a little better than Tailwind. It depends on what features you're looking for though. Kelli: Definitely. They're about the same cost though right? Ashley: Pretty similar. They're all very similar,
just depending on what you want. Kelli: And it's about $20-$25 a month right? They're not super expensive. Ashley: I’m not sure, we're on the annual plan. Kelli: Okay, but you can do monthly. Sometimes it's cheaper if you pay for a year and obviously if you're investing your business, but I think - I even think the yearly was like $150. Ashley: Yeah. Kelli: It's not super expensive. So I really suggest doing that. I can't imagine
trying to go in there every day and post stuff. It will save you a lot of time. Ashley: So on that subject, how often should you post to social media? Kelli: Okay, so it really depends on your bandwidth. You know, if you're a...you're running, it's just you. And you make the jewelry, you respond to your emails, you do everything - I mean what's realistic for you? If you're using the social media scheduling platform, I think it's very realistic to post three times a week, if not more. If you're not using the platform, you know, it's probably harder to do that. But
it kind of just varies for everybody. But I’d say, I get nervous if I go onto somebody's page and they haven't posted in over a week. Then I’m like oh that's weird. So I definitely think weekly at the bare, bare minimum. But I would say three times a week, if not more. And, you know, utilize your stories too. I know if later you can post, you can plan stories ahead of time too. But yeah. Oh I see, Carol said can you post too much? Maybe. I mean if you're posting like, you know, five plus posts a day people might be...
I don't know irritated with it and I just I wouldn't suggest that. Unless, I mean, if you are just like overflowing with content, I mean maybe. But you I would, you know, if you have five posts in your five pictures and you're super excited about it, like just spread them out over a week. It's just gonna give you more content and more time. So yeah. Ashley: Yeah definitely. Let's see here, so Carmen has kind of an interesting question. She's thinking about
collaborating with a makeup artist who has a photographer. They're still trying to figure it out, he wants $125 an hour, but she'll be using her own jewelry. Do you have some advice for kind of how to proceed with that sort of...Kelli: So a lot of times, if it's a photographer... depending on where people are at in their business - and I don't like to give away free services - and I can understand that the photographer, like that is his job. And so, by him going and doing that, it would be like him giving away a free service. I mean obviously Carmen, you are using your time. But you're not giving away your jewelry, you'll get that back.
You know, he has to take the photos and then edit them. So sometimes I do think it's okay to pay the photographer or certain people that are in the element. It depends on where you are and what kind of photography he's doing for 125 an hour. I can't tell you,
you know, if you're in New York City versus somewhere else - I don't know the rates for photography. But I do get, I just warn any small business from giving their services or product away for free. So I kind of get on a photographer's end why they would charge. You can always look around and see if there's one willing to do it for free or for less. But if you really
like that one, then it might be worth it. Ashley: Okay. Let's see here. And then also do you have tips for how to kind of refresh your email list. Kelli: Like get new subscribers, or...? Ashley: I think so. I think that's what her question means. Carmen if you want to go in there and clarify if
this isn't correct feel free to do that. But I think that's what she's saying. Kelli: Okay. Yeah I mean, your email list in general kind of refreshes itself. Because if people aren't super into your emails they're going to unsubscribe. And don't ever get discouraged by unsubscribes. People do it for all different reasons. It does not mean they hated your content or they hate you or anything. You know, they might have just signed up for too many. Okay Carmen says yes it's so old. So your email list is old.
I would maybe, you know you can use SurveyMonkey or some different things to like send out an email and kind of get some feedback from the people on your list. Just saying hey are you still interested in my jewelry, what kind of content are you interested in seeing from me, like let me know you know if you're still here. I mean most likely if they haven't unsubscribed from your list - I guess if you're not using a email platform they can't necessarily unsubscribe. But if you're just sending it from your Outlook or from your Gmail and you just have a list you put in there, I would just maybe send out an email like “update your contact info” or like “are you still interested” in the subject line. And kind of just see who is still interested in that. Ashley: Yeah. Let's see here. Do you have any tips on product descriptions? Kelli:
So for your descriptions on your website, I mean I think you want to be as detailed as possible. For product descriptions too you also kind of want to think about SEO. So what would the average person type into Google to search for that product. So maybe to you, you know, this is a 14 karat gold ring with a sapphire set in it. But maybe to somebody googling it might be an alternative engagement ring. So sometimes you might just want to think of other ways people would think
about your product and add it in the description too. But then you also want to be, obviously, as informative, as descriptive as you can. You know, the size of the ring, the weight of the ring, the metal, the stone, the size of all of that to be specific. Ashley: Definitely. You want to make sure it's easy for a beginner person who's just searching for something interesting. Kelli: Yes. Ashley: There's a few questions coming in about emails. So kind of how to get subscribers and then like a good platform for beginners, especially. Kelli: Okay. So I see Rosalind’s question. So yeah, with in-person I mean,
a lot of people at shows would have people sign up for the email list there. Now you kind of have to use your social platforms to get people to sign up for your email. So, you know, putting a link to subscribe to your email. Or even if you're not on a platform yet,
just saying “DM me your email if you want to be added to my list.” Or, you know, give them an incentive to get - for them to give you their email. Like “hey I’m going to be running a giveaway next month” or “I have a new collection dropping on Friday, if you're on my email list you'll get notified first” and then say shoot me a DM with your email. Those are great ways to kind of get emails now through social. And I think just giving them a little incentive
to give - to have them give you their email is a good idea. And then I see Kim asked about a good platform for email to start with. I think MailChimp’s super easy to use and work with. And then depending on how big your list is, is how much they charge you. So it's, you know, if you only have 100 people on your list it is going to, it's not going to be very expensive at all.
And they give you these beautiful templates and you can just drop in your photos and stuff it's really easy to work with. Ashley: Definitely. And then how about some tips for getting social media followers. Kelli: Engage. You have to spend so much time on there, you know, you're going to want to search hashtags that you think potential customers would be following. Go on their pages, comment on - start conversations with them. Comment on, you know, what they're doing.
You need to be posting as much as possible, utilizing the hashtags too, sharing your content. See, in the beginning collabs can be everything if you have another small business that wants to collab with you and post about you, share about you. Any customers that you currently have, you know, maybe do a little giveaway or an incentive like “hey post a picture in a piece of my jewelry and tag me, you'll be entered to get you know free shipping on your next order” or whatever it is. Just trying to entice people, you know, to share your stuff and so you can get a bigger audience. Ashley: Yeah. And then, so back to email real quick. Kelli: Yeah. Ashley: Do you know much about Constant Contact? Is MailChimp better than that, or which ones? Kelli: I don't know Constant Contact. I can't remember off the top of my head, I know Corky Bolton from Metalsmith
Society suggested an email platform. Do you remember what that was Ashley? Ashley: From JBF? Kelli: Yeah. Ashley: Oh there was another one, I can't remember now though. Kelli: There's a lot out there. I haven't used Constant Contact so I don't have a feeling either way on that. If you email me at webinars@halsteadbead.com I can email you the one that Corky Bolton...Julia said
Corky Bolton from Metalsmith Society did a presentation for us at the Jewelry Business Forum and she suggested an email platform. But I cannot remember the name of it right now. And it was a really beautiful thing. Ashley: Yeah I remember that now, because we were looking into it. I don't remember the name though. Julia’s asking for social media specifically, is outsourcing to a local expert worth, a worthwhile expense especially for a new business? Kelli: Yes. It can be. If you are signing the right contract and you're getting everything you want from it. You know, you just need to...do you have the extra money to pay someone to do that? I mean getting a, getting something like that off of your plate as a small business owner I think can help you out a lot. So yeah I think paying somebody to
do it can be really smart, you just want to make sure, you know, you're vetting the person, you've seen what they've done before, you have a really good contract, and they are following through with it. And I would also say like start contracts short. Like not too short, like you'd probably need at least three months or so to see any type of effect. Ooh Flodesk Julia. That is the one that Corky recommended. I don't have experience with it, but it looked really beautiful and I get her Metalsmith Society emails and they, I like them. So I would suggest Flodesk or MailChimp. And back
to paying for social media, help yes I suggest it. Don't do a super long contract at first, and then just, but make sure it's a detailed contract.
2021-05-18 02:11
