Jewelry Business Slow ? Have a SALE to bring in cash!

Typically, summer means lean times in the jewelry business but it doesn't have to be! Have a SALE to bring in much needed cash to breathe life into your business; have fun and be creative and people will respond to it even more!

One of my favorite ways to increase jewelry sales is to offer my "regular customers and newsletter subscribers" monthly "specials". Note, I said "special" NOT "sale"! Often, I will create a limited edition design and let them get first crack at it. These "sneak previews" make them feel special (and they are!) and give me valuable feedback as well!

Here are 7 tips from Alicia M Forest on having a sale in your business to bring in cash NOW!

Enjoy!

----Randi

P.S.
Do you have marketing strategy that you would like to share that brings in consistent sales in your jewelry business? Please leave a comment!

Strapped For Cash? 7 Ways to Have a Sale Today
by Alicia M Forest, MBA
Multiple Streams Queen & Coach

Want to encourage people on your email list to buy one (or more) of your products or programs sooner than later? Have a sale! The following are 7 ways that you can provide value to your potential clients/customers and still bring in a profit for you at the same time.

1. Half-Off Sale:

Offer your product or program for 50% off its usual price. That may seem like a big discount - and it is - which means that many more people are likely to buy it.

Or go one step further and offer all your products or programs at 50% off (except any one-on-one work with you, of course!). I've been thinking about buying a few products over the past year from one site, and when they had a 50% off sale recently, I jumped at the chance to buy not just one, but three products for half-price.

2. Close-Out Sale:

Do you have a product or a program that you are no longer going to offer, perhaps to make room for some other offerings? Or are you coming out with a new version of one of your offerings? Have a close-out sale by offering a deep discount.

TIP: As an added bonus, you could then offer those people who bought your offering at the close-out price that same amount in a discount if they buy the new version.

3. Re-Gift Sale:

Remember the Seinfeld episode about re-gifting? Do something similar for the stock of any of your products that have been returned. "Re-gift" them to a new buyer for a discount.

4. VIP Sale:

Offer a coupon or promo code ONLY to your email list, or to your clients, or to those people who have bought from you before, that is good towards the purchase of any one or all of your offerings. You can set this up in your shopping cart system very easily, so there's no other extra work on your part.

5. Free Shipping Sale:

Offer free shipping on any of your physical products for a limited time, or offer free shipping on all orders over a certain amount.

Personally, if I'm looking to purchase something online, I will hunt through a half dozen or so websites to find the one that offers free shipping and make my purchase through them (price of item being equal).

6. Bonus Sale:

Add a valuable bonus or two to your offering for a limited time. It can be something you've created or something from one of your colleagues that your niche would benefit from.

Leverage this kind of sale by doing a "bonus sale swap" with a colleague, where they would offer a bonus from you and vice versa. Your own sale will bring you cash, and your bonus offering for your colleague's sale will bring you more subscribers to your list, which will ultimately bring you more cash.

7. Just Because Sale:

This is a favorite of mine - having a sale just because - it's your birthday, you want to show your gratitude to your list, it's the 1, 5, or 10 year anniversary of when you went into business for yourself, or for any other reason you can think of.

Having a sale WILL increase your sales, but there are some cautions to take when doing so. Only have a sale occasionally, and when you do, have a compelling reason for doing so. Otherwise, if it seems you're always having a sale, you're planting a seed in your potential buyer's mind that your offerings may not be worth their usual price.

So, which kind of sale are you going to have to put some extra cash in your pocket?

© 2008 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach^(TM) teaches self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create wild abundance in your business, visit www.ClientAbundance.com

Use Pay-Per-Click Advertising to get Targeted Traffic to your Jewelry Website

Since I started my e-commerce handcrafted jewelry & art glass decor business, I have used Pay-Per-Click Google ads to get targeted traffic to my website immediately. I like to use very "descriptive terms" to make sure I'm getting customers who are looking to buy (3 word search terms). My monthly marketing budget always includes this type of advertising.

Check out this article by Alicia M Forest to see why you should be using PPC advertising in your jewelry business!

Why You Should Consider Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Your Business
by Alicia M Forest, MBA
Multiple Streams Queen & Coach

Would you like to bring targeted traffic to your website in as little as 15 minutes? Then you should learn about pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, especially if you are starting to optimize your website for the search engines.

There are four advantages to pay-per-click advertising.

1. You only pay for the advertising that works...

... because you only pay for your ad when someone actually clicks on it to visit your website.

2. You can get your website in the search results within just a few minutes.

With search engine optimization, it can take several weeks to get listed in the search engines, but with PPC, you can literally jump to the front of the line.

3. You can be listed in prime advertising space...

...by simply outbidding the other advertisers. There's a bit of science + art to this, but it's still a much more simple process than trying to figure out the secret formula to the organic (free) search engine rankings.

4. You can have a very small budget and still make pay-per-click advertising work for your business.

In fact, my own ads are in the best positions on the first pages for several of my targeted keywords, and I've only spent about $50 to get there.

And it's not hard to do what I've done!

Just open a free account with Google Adwords, follow the easy steps to setting up your own advertising campaign, decide on a handful of keywords you want to bid on (the words that people in your market are searching for online), put in a few dollars as a daily budget, choose the amount you're willing to pay-per-click, and then watch what happens.

Some people are skittish to do a PPC campaign because they are afraid that it will run away with their money. But you can eliminate that fear because you have total control over how much you spend. Once you reach whatever limit you've decided upon for the day, your ads are no longer shown until the next day, so you'll never spend any more money on your PPC than you decide. You can also pause or delete your campaign if you need to at anytime as well.

If you choose good keywords, write an effective ad, and track your results, PPC advertising can be an excellent way to drive targeted traffic to your website, which ultimately will lead to more sales for you, in the form of new clients and customers.

Just remember that PPCs should be just one part of your overall marketing strategy. In fact, a balance of search engine optimization as well as running a PPC campaign is usually the most effective strategy for bringing your website the most targeted traffic overall.

Want to know more about PPC and how to find the right keywords for your market? Join us in the Coaching Cafe as we cover this topic in this month's members-only teleseminar. Go here for more...

© 2008 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

Reprinted with permission: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach^(TM) teaches self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create wild abundance in your business, visit www.ClientAbundance.com

Press Release-Breathe Life into your Jewelry Business

I'm reprinting this article with permission because this old tool,the press release , can breathe some much needed life into emerging and established handcrafted jewelry businesses!

A New Look at an Old Tool
The press release was long considered the workhorse of the public relations trade, now smart marketers are breathing new life into this tool.

It used to be that PR folks would create tightly formatted press releases to distribute a your company's story to the media. The hope was that these releases would catch the attention of a journalist and spark a mention or interview.

While PR firms still pump these documents out, they no longer have the impact they once had. However, smart marketers have discovered new ways to breathe life into the press release and use it a way to communicate directly with prospects as well as journalists.

Most journalists will tell you that they go online when researching story ideas and looking for sources to interview and quote. Creating press releases with an eye on search engine optimization has become a powerful way to get your story told while enhancing your overall web presence.

The trick to employing the press release as a search engine tool is to focus on creating quality content that features basic optimization techniques.

Why optimize

A press release that focuses on your company's primary keyword phases can often bring page one search results for very little cost.

Press releases distributed through the right channels can bring your web site hundreds of back-links in a very natural fashion (very important factor for the search engines)

Targeted press releases can bring very targeted traffic to your site when done on a consistent basis.

Tips for formatting

• Create strong, keyword rich titles and subtitles for your release - don't get spammy with this keep it strong and short
• Keep it short - aim for somewhere around 500 words tops
• Cover the most important details in your lead paragraph
• Add quotes from customers or executives and write in 3rd person
• End your press release with a concise paragraph about your company an don't forget contact information

You can use my free Instant Press Release tool to walk your through this and format the release for you.

Tips for optimizing

• Make sure you have your list of important keywords and phrases
• Try to work a phrase into your title, subtitle and several times in the body of the release but make sure that it looks natural - consider saying it several ways
• If you link to a page on your site, use the keyword phrase as your link text instead of click here - this is very important for long-term effectiveness
• Create an RSS feed (you can create a free WordPress.com blog and write your releases and use the RSS feed) and repost the content back to a page on your site.
• Make it easy to bookmark your release by adding social bookmarking tags

Now that you've created a well written, well optimized press release it,s time to get it out there on the Internet and in front of some journalists. (Don't worry if you don't get a call from the New York Times, the real value is what doing this on a monthly basis can mean to your web presence - if you get a story or two, that's great.)

There are many press release distribution services such as PRNewswire, MarketWire, and BusinessWire, but I think that PRWeb.com is the best small business tool.

For $80 PRWeb will distribute your press release to thousands of journalists and with its Online Visibility Engine much of the task of SEO and adding social media tools is done for you. The $80 level assures that your release makes it to Google and Yahoo News.

Related article - Minor PR Story Starters

~ ~ ~

John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of Duct Tape Marketing. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting www.ducttapemarketing.com

Promos-Let them sample the quality of your work

One of the ways, I attract new customers and retain the customers I already have is through "promos". For my business, it may mean simple silver earrings with beads and/or gemstones , art glass magnets, key rings, etc....The point of these promos is for them to try my work for FREE and feel and see the quality for themselves.

I was tickled to read an article on Making Promos by Caroline Gonzales ...
I couldn't have said it better myself.

Are You Prepared for Mistakes in your Jewelry Business?

As your handcrafted jewelry business grows, it is important to have policies in writing about customer service issues regarding "broken jewelry" or "repairs" etc..

These policies not only protect you as a business owner but inform your customer of what they can expect from you and your jewelry business.

By having these policies accessible, your customers can have a foundation to have a conversation with you regarding "mistakes" and have reasonable expectations.

Mistakes will happen and customer service is your opportunity to not just meet their expectations but EXCEED their expectations.

I recently took in an alteration for one of my best customers and made the mistake of not testing the metal ( I assumed it was sterling and not a base metal). I should have used a soldering iron and NOT my torch to do the alteration because the jewelry was made from a base metal.

OOPS! The first thing I did was contact the customer and admit I made a mistake due to my assumptions. I offered a few solutions but also asked what could I do to make this right (from their perception).

Once we agreed on what should be done, I exceed their expectations by including a free fused glass jewelry dish and pair of earrings.

This is an investment in the relationship I have with the customer.

How are you investing in relationships/conversations with your customers?

Market Your Handcrafted Jewelry Daily

If you do not have a website, how do you market your handcrafted jewelry so you are in front of customers daily??

1. Wear your jewelry everywhere. Think of yourself as a walking billboard. Make sure to carry business cards with you to hand out.

2. Consider jewelry trunk shows in spas, salons and boutiques....Call and ask if you can drop by and see if they would like to host a trunk show.

3. Private trunk shows....keep up the social networking. Who are your yes, no's and maybes to have a jewelry trunk show...

4. Do you wholesale your jewelry? If you do, make it a daily business activity to speak to/contact a new boutique or retailer on a daily basis. Pick up the phone book, do an internet search, etc...

These are just a few ideas to help you market your jewelry on a daily basis. What other business activities do you do daily???? Leave your comments!!

Jewelry Product Submissions to Magazines

Jewelry Product Submissions/Pitches to Magazines
are a great way to get free advertising. If you have ever looked into advertising for a magazine, you will know what I am talking about----Major Sticker Shock!

For the independent jewelry business this cost is way out of reach. But sending in a product that may be included in a gift guide or monthly feature, is a way to get in the back door. Your only costs will be the material used, time and the postage. There is NO guarantee you will be included but it so worth the small risk you are taking.

I went to my local library and got all the fashion and celebrity magazines. I started a journal on what the magazines tended to focus on for accessories. I want the jewelry I submit to catch thier attention and be in print. I also focused on the fashion and style editors of the magazine so I can get my jewelry submitted directly to decision makers.

I am working on several designs to submit to magazines and when I do send them I will let you know what happens.

If any other jewelry maker has experiences in this arena, they would like to share please jump on in and comment.

Here's to seeing your jewelry and mine in print!

Technorati tags: jewelry product submission ,jewelry business

Jewelry Line , Media & Press PDF-Why you Need and Want this...

Offer your jewelry line, media & press in down loadable pdf. Not sure what a PDF is? Scroll down. I found a great reference article by Mark A Abrahams.

1. Retail customers will love being able to browse & share your jewelry offline with a pdf version. It is a great way to showcase a gift guide with highlighted designs and there are NO printing costs on your part.

2. If you sell your jewelry wholesale, you can offer retail buyers a "virtual catalog". Just make sure that your retail customers are NOT privy to this information or they may get upset when they see the pricing difference.

3. If you pitch your jewelry line to magazines, they will have instant access to media ready photos, company bio, etc...This is so important considering they are often running deadlines and your jewelry might not end up in print because they did not have access to media quality photos (300dpi on white background).

4. Writing press releases? You should be! Refer to reason #3...so they instant access to media quality photos and information INSTANTLY.

Are you beginning to see how powerful this little PDF can be? Read on to find out how to create your own PDFs. I can not wait to put this in to use. I had been putting it off because of the cost of Adobe Software but I found a work around in the article below.

As always, got comments? suggestions? want to share ?? E-mail me!

Creating A Pdf Document
Creating A Pdf Document
By Mark A. Abrahams
When you first start out on the internet creating a pdf
document can be a challenge. While the Adobe reader is
free. The software to create pdf files from Adobe is very
expensive costing a few hundred dollars. This can be a
quite an expense for a person on a limited budget.
Especially if you only using this to give away free reports
and not selling anything you may have difficulty justifying
the expense. Pdf is the standard when it comes to reading
documents online and most people prefer this to any ebooks
created by ebook software because pdf ebooks are really
easy on the eye to read. Adobe is the standard and make the
best pdf software. I will show you some alternatives to
explore in case the price is to steep for a person starting
out.

There are many alternatives to use for pdf creation and
conversion. If you have a document like Word you can use a
free pdf online conversion service like Pdf Online. However
if you create pdf files regularly you may want to install a
pdf converter on your personal computer. The way that this
works is that you install a driver like a printer. Every
time you want to convert to a pdf file you need to print to
the printer and this will convert your file to a pdf file.
However for this option most of the alternatives charge a
fee.

One of the problems I have had with the alternatives to
Adobe software is that I found it impossible to insert
links directly in your pdf files to link to a web site url
using your own specified link text. I was eventually able
to overcome this problem. Google mail has a nifty feature
where it allows you to upload documents for example Word.
You then can make your changes and insert your links and
save the file as pdf. This is all completely free.L

Learning how to create a pdf document is one of the most
important skills you need to learn when you start marketing
online. Not only can you create free pdf reports and build
a relationship with your list, but you can also create
commercial quality ebooks and sell them for a price. You
can also embed your affiliate links in your pdf documents
and create additional profits.


Would you like to know more about the techniques that have helped me to quit my day job? I have just completed my new guide.

Download it free here: Secrets Of Internet Marketing

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_A._Abrahams
http://EzineArticles.com/?Creating-A-Pdf-Document&id=531599

Pricing Your Jewelry for Retail Sale

There are many formulas out there for pricing jewelry. You must consider the following:

1. Cost of materials (beads, wire, etc...)
2. Business costs (business cards, tools, entry fees,website, gas,.....)
3. Your Time (hourly wage)

In order to treat your jewelry business like a business you must take all expenses including your time into account, once you do that it really comes down to what the market will bear.

If you are selling your work at a art fair, people will not get sticker shock. They are expecting to pay for a unique piece by an artist. At the local flea market, well it really depends on your area and what type of customers shop there.

Once you have added all your costs to make an item up, you will multiply it (known as keystone pricing) by 2-5* to get your retail selling price for your jewelry. This is NOT a hard and fast rule just what I have used with success in different markets.

5 Places to Sell Your Jewelry

These are great places to start selling your handcrafted jewelry creations:

Host a Trunk Show in your home and invite family and friends. Is it a hit? Offer an incentive to the next person who hosts a trunks show (% of the proceeds towards FREE jewelry)

Approach Salon or Local Boutique and ask if they would be interested in a private trunk show for their customers with the salon/boutique receiving ~ 20% of the proceeds.

Festivals often have vendors and bread and butter items (under $15) will sell well.

The office lunch trunk show is often a huge hit.

Website with shopping cart

5 Business Actitivities You Must Do Consistently to Grow your Jewelry Business

1. Get in front of customers every day. For me that means, I advertise online and offline to drive customers to my online jewelry boutique.
**I post for FREE everyday in Craigs List
**I have Google Ads
**I hand business cards out everywhere I go because I "wear" my business and get comments all the time.
**I submit online press releases
**I submit articles to my local paper

2. I add a new offline or online venue to contact every single day. I call mid-upscale boutiques ( the newspaper is a great resource) and ask to speak to the owner or retail buyer; this is how, I have attained several wholesale accounts. I also search other venues online that I can write an article for in exchange for a link, or a place that I can post a blurb (social networking sites) about what I do, etc...

3. Ask for a Referral. Whenever I have a customer, I always tell them if you love the jewelry,

Tell your Friends

. Another example of viral marketing (yes, I do sound like a broken record).

4. Customer Service Excellence: offer the best customer service starting with their shopping experience, checkout and impression of your jewelry (package and display). But it doesn't stop there, keep in touch with your customers ( I use e-mail) and I offer Customer Rewards (Diva Bucks, private sales and trunks shows).

5.LISTEN to your Customers: if you just listen, they will tell you what you could do to improve and if they don't ASK.

Is there anything that we could be doing better? Did we meet your expectations?

These are just a few ways to get feedback. If you do get negative feedback, do NOT react. Write it down and look at what they have said. Is it an angry customer or is it a valid point? If it is valid, you better change and quick because it could be hurting your business.

In order to have a successful jewelry business, you must do these 5 activities consistently.

If you found this information helpful or if you have soemthing to add, post a comment. If you would like to see other topics covered, post that too.

Introduction to Viral Marketing

Write an article, promote it and as others read it and pass it on, you become a credible business and expert on XYZ. Include links in your article so they can find you, your product and business.

Here is a marketing article that I wrote and submitted to Ezine Articles. This is now archived on the web and has several permanent links with my bio and website information at the bottom.

How to Get Publicity for your Jewelry Business-Write a Press Release

Sooner or later you are going to have to learn how to write and submit a press release. Why? Free publicity!

There are several places to learn about writing a press release and how to format (just do a Google search and you will find what you are looking for).

Once you have a sample press release, read it again and have someone else read it. When you read the headline, ask yourself, "Who Cares?" If you can't answer that question, rewrite the headline. The headline is the attention grabber so you should spend more time on that than anything else (80% on headline and 20% on body. Look at newspapers and magazines. What headlines grab your attention and make you want to read? Yep, more homework for you.

Make sure you can get to the point in 2-3 sentences. If you can NOT, go back to the drawing board. The press release needs to get to the point and quickly if it is going to make it past the journalist's desk and not end up in the wastebasket!

Give the press release credibility by having a quote from you commenting on the topic.

Your call to action is very important; make sure you tell people to shop online at ----- or to buy----shop at ------. If you do not tell them what to do, they won't do it!

When submitting a press release to a newspaper or magazine, include your bio and company's background. If they have any questions, this extra information should assist them. Ensure your contact information is accurate in case they want to follow up with an interview! Yes, it happens all the time.

Don't forget to submit your PR online as well so it may be archived. Whenever someone searches for your business, they will find a press release which gives your jewelry biz credibility and establishes your company as a solution!

So, what are you waiting for, do a little homework and get to that press release!

If you have a website, make sure you have a page for media and press. Check out Designing-Diva Jewelry's press and media page. Note, I have my press releases and articles archived. I have made it easy for the media to gather information about my jewelry business and myself by having all the information accessible in ONE place!