Marketing Handcrafted Jewelry and Gems - Take 2

[Beth]

Marketing is a very important part of having a small business...something artists and craftsmen often don't want to admit   Marketing is hard work for every business, but particularly for craftspeople such as jewelry makers or faceters.

Tell us about your business and what have you found to be affective or not?  Participate in shows? Do you have a website? blog? do you advertise on the internet or in magazines? Online auction sites that work for you?

Need ideas, let us help you brainstorm.

If you are looking for ideas, ganoskin has great section of articles:
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/directory/library/subject/11/1

They have a do it yourself marketing audit here:
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/marketing-audit.htm

If you have a link to marketing ideas, please share.

(Okay guys, I am NOT asking for ideas for PrettyRock here...this is to help you all, not us.)

[amethystguy]

Hey guys, I am sort of on the path to selling gemstones and minerals.  I didn't really get into rocks, minerals, and gemstones until about a year ago.  I always had an interest but nothing serious until of late.  I am slowly getting things around and will start by selling some stuff on ebay and other auction sites.  After that I plan on having my own website and then maybe in the future even opening a store here in ATL.  There is one lapidary/mineral store around atlanta and it' s 40 miles from the city.  With only one store and 5 million people in the metro area I think there might be room for one more.  I am blessed with having a bigtime dealer take me under his wing and show me some of the ropes with the min/gem biz.  I have sort of taken an intern position with him.  The good thing is when I am ready he will loan me lots of inventory to sell at wholesale prices.  I wanted to make it on a trip to Africa this year but will have to put it off.  I will also miss tuscon this year too.  I have been told by many a dealer that Tuscon is a must if you ever plan on selling or dealing.  I think to get the best deals you have to travel to the mine to get mine-direct prices.  I know that is true with top quality rough and min. specs.  I guess we will see what happens.

[Spauwe]

I think to get the best deals you have to travel to the mine to get mine-direct prices

let that be the first and formost truth. There is a but though. Often the cost of travel, stay,  research and 'making learning mistakes' outmatch the extra cost of buying from a more local dealer by a mile. So it's in volume where the trick lies. Gathering 10 grand and travelling to Africa is cool but you will have to buy just top notch material to make a fair profit of what's left after paying your way there and back. Top notch material is always expensive btw, even in Africa...

It's a tricky business. Low margin, low risk seems to be going a long way sometimes.

my 2c

[Beth]

We haven't actually had a chance to do the math to see if actually going to the mines was a better deal then having it shipped to us.  I think we will find that Tucson maybe be better, however, we had access to material we never see in the states...like alexandrite rough.  Now that we have been there, we have connections and will be able to do some purchasing over the internet / phone.  We have also be fortunate enough to have one of the Brazilian dealers add our house to his traveling route when he comes for Tucson. However, I think that might have more to do with feeding him a home cooked dinner and drowning him with southern sweet tea, than with how much we purchase.  We are small potatoes compared to most of his customers.

[BobsYourUncle]

Just in case anyone might be interested in some professional small business guidance, here is the address of my daughter's business: 

info@businessinbluejeans.com 

Susan Baroncini-Moe works with small business clients to help them in every aspect of creating a successful enterprise.

With regards,

John

[flawlessfacets]

The only suggestion I can really think of is to put a lightbox on your site as well as a list sign up on the main page.  A lightbox is a pop up that comes up typically after a visitor has been on the site for 5 to 10 seconds.  I am designing one for my page this weekend.  It will say something like "sign up for my preferred customer notifications so you know when new gemstones are offered at Flawless Facets.  Preferred members save x% on purchases".  I will also be adding a list sign up form on my homepage for getting names and email addresses of visitors to my site.  Right now there is no way on my site to capture this information.  One way to get this information is to offer a free report, like "Sign up for our free report on what to look for in a rough gemstone dealer" or something like that.  Then you can also market to these people in the future to try to drive sales.  You already have a good organic placement in Google so just trying to capture more visitor information and being able to market to those individuals may help drive sales.

[flawlessfacets]

Oh I forgot to add, you can sign up at aweber.com for lightboxes and a list manager.  You can then automate everything and create campaigns or 3,5,7,10,14 day touches to your new additions to your lists.

[AlBalmer]

The only suggestion I can really think of is to put a lightbox on your site as well as a list sign up on the main page.  A lightbox is a pop up that comes up typically after a visitor has been on the site for 5 to 10 seconds.

If you must use those, don't make it the only way to sign up, because many people who hate such things will filter them out.

In general, the simpler the better when it comes to web sites.

[flawlessfacets]

The simplier the better is correct, mine will ask only for the name and email address.