• As jewelry makers ourselves, my wife and I find that over 70% of total sales come from our website. Obviously, an internet presence can be a valuable thing to have. Do you feel that in this day and age it’s possible to successfully sell homemade jewelry WITHOUT having your own website?
It’s possible to be successful, but you won’t as easily get exposure outside of your selling area. Even if the website just shows the artist’s jewelry, it’s a way for people from around the world to find out about you and your work.
• Is maintaining a current customer mailing list as important as the jewelry pros say it is?
Yes, particularly in a field as dependent on referrals as artisan jewelry. Beyond just the person’s name and address, you want to learn and store as much about their jewelry buying preferences and habits as possible. What color stones do they like? What kind of metal? Are they into funky or traditional? Do they want to know when you’re designing something new? How much did they spend? How did they find out about you? Who did they refer to you, and who referred them to you (or how did they find out about you)? All of that information should be in the mailing list database.
Also, because one of the keys to selling artisan jewelry is the personal connection with the buyer, don’t be afraid to send personal notes as updates when you have something you think a specific client would be interested in.
• What kind of content should go in a jewelry making newsletter, and how often should it be sent out?
The newsletter has to serve a specific purpose and be something that will keep the artist’s name in front of the clients, without being intrusive. If it comes out too often, you’ll be struggling with what to include. If it’s too infrequent, people won’t get it enough to make an impact. I’d start out with a quarterly or bi-monthly (every other month) and put a lot of good thought into it. Things to include: pictures and copy about new designs, planned designs, events where you’ll be selling your jewelry, locations where your jewelry can be purchased, offers to produce house parties, information about the success of previous events, and anything relevant about sources.
If you offer repair services or custom made work, that should be emphasized as well. If there are some good repair stories to share, that’s good too! For example, Charlie Hamilton, who owned the gem and jewelry supply store Lapidabrade in Havertown, PA, once opened his shop after hours to tighten the setting of a woman’s amethyst ring the night before she left on a cruise. She was superstitious and thought something bad might happen if she didn’t wear the ring on the cruise, but she was afraid the stone would fall out if the setting wasn’t tightened. That’s the kind of story you want to tell in a newsletter.
• Do you recommend doing cross-promotions with other DIY jewerly designers (i.e., adding their business cards to your orders that are shipped out)?
This often sounds great in theory, but in practice is difficult to do in a way that benefits everyone. If the jewelry makers produce similar kinds of work, you can lose customers to someone else by marketing together. If you don’t, someone might be attracted to another designer, and presumably that means someone else has lost a customer.
What I have seen work well is when jewelry makers who sell to a different clientele completely have referral arrangements with partners. For example, if you don’t make beaded jewelry, but have a good relationship with someone who does, that can make for an effective referral partnership. All jewelry makers benefit from having referral partners, particularly if you need repair work done, but don’t do it yourself. Another effective relationship can be between jewelry makers and clothing and accessories stores. There, you have a natural synergy among products, without competition.
• How about repeat customers… are there any tips you have to keeping buyers coming back for more?
The old saw is “people buy from people they like,” and I believe that very much. Think about the relationships you’ve developed with the people you buy things from. For special items … fine jewelry, good clothing, a great meal … you probably like the person you shop with. And that’s true in artisan jewelry, as well. In fact, it may be even more important in artisan jewelry, because a lot of what you’re selling is your relationship with the client.
Also, you want to make sure that customers have a story to tell about the piece they bought (through a story card or your own narrative) so that when others ask about the piece they bought from you, they can repeat that story — and remember you — at the same time.
And add them to a mailing list, with their permission, so that you can keep in touch. If you establish the right relationship they’ll come back.
