SPEAKER_00
Ready to break free from algorithms, vanity PR, and money sucking ads? My name's Larissa Worstiek and I've learned in seven years of jewelry marketing that content is the crown jewel. My agency JoyJoya takes a holistic approach, leading with laser-focused storytelling, impactful content creation, and strategic content distribution. This method has worked for the solopreneur as well as the multi-million dollar company, and now I'm sharing these systems and tactics with you.

Here's to standing out in the sea of sparkle. This is episode 237 and today I'll be moving beyond all the foundational stuff we've covered so far since the beginning of the year. From shaping your brand to getting to know your audience in competition, brainstorming content ideas, and creating a content plan.

Now we're going beyond the basics and getting into the nitty-gritty details of making content. In this episode and many more to come, I'm going to share with you the most effective ways to create and share jewelry content with your target audience. We'll start by exploring the best practices for creating content on your website and we'll dive deep into this topic over the next few episodes.

Not only that, but I'll also be teaching you the essentials of search engine optimization or SEO and e-commerce user experience. So get ready to take your jewelry marketing content game to the next level and watch your brand soar. I'll be covering what do I mean when I say website content? Why is it so important to be a caretaker of your website content and to approach it with a strategy in mind? And how can you start improving upon your content today and as we move through the next few episodes? From now through early July of this year, I'm offering a free six month podcast guided program called Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart that involves weekly audio and video lessons just like this one, as well as companion PDF downloads for each new episode.

This week, Jumpstart members are getting exclusive chat GPT prompts that can help you write website content for your brand. If you haven't already signed up at JoyJoya.com slash jump, then I highly recommend you stop waiting and sign up now.

We're getting into go time with these hands on lessons for jewelry entrepreneurs like you to sign up for that free program right away and get that companion PDF download. Visit JoyJoya.com slash jump link in the show notes as well.

But before we get to the solid gold, I'd like to take a moment to remind you that this podcast has both audio and video. So you can either listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on YouTube by searching JoyJoya. You can support the podcast for free by taking the time not only to subscribe, but also to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

And if you leave a review, I might read it on a future episode. So let me know what you think about the Jumpstart program so far. Speaking of podcasts, did you know I also co-host another podcast with jewelry marketer Liz Cantner? It's called Success with Jewelry.

We've already released 30 free episodes everywhere you listen to podcasts as well as on YouTube. We also have an insider community where we share extended episodes, hands on guidance and a plethora of resources. Visit successwithjewelry.

com to learn more. OK, my sparklers, let's get into the next installment of Jewelry Marketing Jumpstart all about making the most of your website content and utilizing it to its fullest potential. So first, let's tackle the first question.

What do I mean when I say website content? So to preface this, I should say that if you're a jewelry brand in 2023, you need to have a website. If you don't want to sell products directly to your consumers online, then you don't necessarily need to have an e-commerce website. But if you do want to sell products online, even if you have a brick and mortar store or retail partners, then you should have an e-commerce storefront.

I highly recommend Shopify for that. And if you need to back up from this episode and get more information about jewelry websites before you move forward with this episode, then I highly recommend you check out success with jewelry episode number 17. And I'll put that link in the show notes so that you can get up to speed.

OK, now that I got that preface out of the way, I'll be assuming that you have some sort of website, whether it's shoppable or not. And I'll be talking about all the opportunities for different kinds of content on your website. So let's get into those types of content.

First, we have homepage content. The homepage is like the main first page of your website. There are plenty of opportunities for content there, including merchandise collections, more info about your brand and your values, customer service information, featured products, et cetera.

The list is kind of endless. Think of it as if you had a brick and mortar jewelry store. It's kind of like your windows of your store or the displays that a customer would see when they first walk in, when they get welcomed into the store.

Another type of website content would be your product descriptions. And you know from listening to this podcast that the higher the price point for your jewelry, the more important the product descriptions are because consumers really want to feel like they have all the information they need, that they're getting the value even just by looking at that product page and the product description. So your customers want a story.

They want to know about the process. They want to know about the materials. And those product descriptions are an opportunity for you to offer them content.

The next type of website content would be blog posts. So at the very least for search engine purposes, and we'll be talking more about this in future episodes, so don't worry if you don't understand. But just as a general rule from what I've seen, the effective blog posts are at least 750 words in length.

The longer they are, the better they are. Google likes that even more. But I would say 750 word minimum for blog posts is a good start.

And they provide extra opportunity for you to tell your brand story, share your values, talk about your products, merchandise them in unique ways, provide educational information, inform your customers about how to style the products. The possibilities are really endless. Another type of website content would be landing pages.

So those are just static pages on your website that are not your homepage, they're not your product page, and they're not a blog post, which is more like a publication. They are static, they are meant to be permanent, these landing pages. And typically they cater to what the customer needs.

So let's say you have a main part of your jewelry businesses like wedding jewelry. So maybe you have a landing page for those people who are coming to you to buy engagement rings, to give more information about the process of choosing the setting, choosing the diamond, etc. So it speaks in the language of what that customer would need.

Or maybe you have like a custom jewelry page, then that could be more information about the custom jewelry process. Another type of website content would be educational resources. So if you do sell products that require like a lot of educating of the consumer, again, wedding jewelry would be one, even if you just sold diamond jewelry, or a special type of colored gemstone, or if you had a proprietary process that you needed to like educate the consumers on, having a library educational resources on your website could be really useful, not just for search engine purposes, but as something you can just direct people to when they have questions, or they need more information.

And then finally, another type of website content would be the search engine content that's specifically for Google. And those are your page titles and your meta descriptions of the pages. And again, if that sounds foreign to you, don't worry, we'll get more into that.

But I'm just listing it here as a type of website content that you can take advantage of and optimize. So now that we got the different types out of the way, I want to talk about why is it so important to be a caretaker of your website content and to approach it with a strategy in mind? Why is this? Why am I harping on this basically? All right, I got eight reasons for you. So let's talk about why website content is so important.

One, it demonstrates that you have an understanding of your target audience and gives you an opportunity to speak to them in a voice that resonates with them and that they'll understand. Two, it can support an excellent online shopping experience by guiding the website visitor to the place they want to go. So you can think of this again as I just used the metaphor of the storefront and the windows and coming into the store.

You can think of your website content as the salesperson who's welcoming someone into the store, even though there's no person there. So the content can kind of substitute for that lack of the in-store experience and really help the customer through their shopping journey. Number three, it can address needs of subsets of your target audience.

So again, as I mentioned before, if you offer a wedding collection, then you'll want a landing page for that. Or if you have custom jewelry services, then you need something specific for that kind of customer. Number four, it gives you the chance to establish yourself as an expert and an authority.

It can help you educate your customers and again, especially for those bigger ticket items that are not going to be an impulse by the customers going to have questions. They're going to need to see the value before they commit to the purchase. Number five, it gives you so many opportunities to tell your brand story in a number of ways across a number of touchpoints and really enforce that for your target audience.

Number six, it provides you with diverse and multifaceted content that's not always just focused on product, product, product, buy me, buy me, buy me. And it gives you so much to be able to distribute on email, on social media, adding life and more dimension to your marketing efforts that are probably falling flat because all you're communicating all the time is just buy me, buy me, buy me, which gets old very fast. And that is when your target audience is going to tune out.

Number seven, it serves as the foundation for all your messaging. So you can write it once and then you're done because you can repurpose it. You can take bits and pieces of it and share it elsewhere like in email and on social media, as I just said.

And then number eight, I saved this for last because though it's important, it's not the primary benefit or goal. It's almost like a side benefit, search engine optimization or SEO. This content can help you get found by the people who are looking for you in Google.

Okay, tangent alert. I'm going to go on a really quick tangent. I think this is relevant.

Okay, so here's a quick note about blog post, which I mentioned as a type of website content because I do get a lot of pushback from jewelry brands. When I tell them that blog posts are a must have form of website content. So one listener, let's call her J.

I know she's listening to this and she knows who she is. So hi recently asked me, Larissa, do we really need to blog? Do people actually care and do they read it? Well, I have an answer for you. And what my answer is, is that I think you're actually asking the wrong question because if you come to content creation with the attitude of do I really need to do this and will people care? And then after you ask that question and you do it and you check off a box, be grudgingly and say, yeah, I did it.

Then yeah, it's it's not going to be good. Your target audience is going to see through the fact that what you're doing is a chore for you. So instead, I would invite you to see blogging as an opportunity to share your story, create a rich foundation of content that can be repurposed and shared in other places and boost your search engine presence.

Then that's a much better way to approach this marketing task. You need to be excited about what you're saying and you need to see blogging as an opportunity to expand the story beyond the limited scope that you are already able to do so that your target audience is also excited about that too. And you need to continually find ways to make your brand story and your products exciting and the blogging can be a practice in that and a practice in sharing stories with your audience that you can then repurpose in your email and your social media so that again, it's not just buy me, buy me, buy me all the time, which makes me want to tune out and delete your email or skip over your Instagram post.

And at the end of the day, it honestly doesn't matter if people do or don't read the blog post. That is beyond the point. And I can give you a specific example of why I think that's true.

So I help maintain a blog for one of my clients and over the course of doing this for a few months and being strategic in how we tell the story, the merchandising that we do in the blog post. We've been able to secure a number of really strong Google search rankings just with the blog posts alone that are bringing new search traffic to the website that they were not getting before. And even if those people don't actually read the post, they found a gateway to the brand and the website.

They have found this client and they would not have discovered them otherwise. I mean, maybe, but probably not. So if you are blogging and doing it strategically and getting those posts to rank in search engine results and then in the blog posts themselves, you're doing a good job of following practices of readability, adding photos, adding product links, adding calls to action.

Then you've just provided the website visitor in entry into your online store. And the best part is, is since they were already on Google looking for what you have to offer, this is a high intent website visitor. And at the very least, if you have your email marketing pop up set up and it has a compelling call to action, they will sign up for your emails and you will have gained someone with interest in your brand.

So my point of this tangent is, I would suggest changing your mindset about website content like blogs and seeing it not as a checkbox on a marketing list, but instead as a great opportunity to share what you have to offer and to attract the people who are, and this is the key, the people who are looking for you, give them entry to your online store. Okay, that's the end of my tangent. Let's keep going.

So how can you start improving your existing content today and as we continue to move forward through the next few episodes? First, I want you to review the content audit you did from episode 231. When it comes to website content, what was missing? What was lackluster? Where were the opportunities? Make sure to plug those ideas into your Google Sheet content plan. That was the last episode, as well as into Asana.

So you have accountability for updating the existing assets and adding new ones. If you came up with some great ideas, please make sure there's an action plan to put those into place for your content because great ideas are pretty much useless unless you have a plan to enact them. So you've already performed a master content brainstorm, but I'd suggest doing a more micro brainstorm just for blog content.

So what do customers ask you the most? What are the pillars of your brand and your values? What do you wish people could know about your products and services that they don't already know? How could you educate them or give them tips for styling your products? Make a list just for that and then take care to populate your content plan with space for writing blog posts at least once per month and at least 750 words for each blog post. Then what are some of the key words and phrases that people would search in Google to find you? Think of things that aren't too generic, like say engagement rings, kind of generic, but also not so niche that people wouldn't even think of it or know what it is. Be sure to also cover those keywords and phrases with blog post topics if possible.

Then you want to familiarize yourself with tools that can help streamline your content creation process, like chat GPT for example. I have a video on my YouTube channel about this. I'll link that in the show notes so you can watch it if you're interested.

But don't worry, I'll be talking more about it in future episodes. It's a tool that can help you with product descriptions, blog posts, and homepage content. And if you hate writing, you just hate it or you're not good at it, then invest in a copywriter who can do this for you because it's important.

Or you can find someone who's good at using chat GPT, but then punching up that first draft to match your brand voice. Okay, that's it for now. Much more to come in future episodes, especially about SEO.

Go to joyjoyet.com slash jump for additional information, action items, and exclusive chat GPT prompts that you can enter into the tool to help you with that content creation process. Before we get into the goldmine as well as my news roundup, I want to share a case study of a brand that I think embodies what I talk about in this podcast.

All right, let's get into the case study. These are my thoughts about how I'd apply the lesson to a jewelry brand in the wild. So let's talk about the brand Marla Aaron.

I'm sure you've heard of this fine jewelry brand that's known for their locks, highly collectible, very covetable. So I think they do an awesome job with their website content, especially with capturing a very specific voice and helping the customer through the buying journey. So on the Marlin Aaron Marla Aaron site, which I'll link in the show notes on the homepage, there's this really great little paragraph that guides the customer through this process of how to like get a lock and a chain and put it all together and kind of create your own look.

So it says, let's begin, you can take a lock and put it on a chain or try a strand and then add some charms and maybe you want to ring, perhaps start with an earring. The choices are infinite, but wait, there are also completed pieces. And each one of those product categories in that little blurb have a link.

So you can look at that and click on where you want to start, kind of like choose your own adventure, what interests you and then click to that category page. So I really like that it's friendly, a call to action and kind of makes the process less overwhelming. Also on the homepage, they have a call to action to join email and it says emails are boring.

We try not to be and then there's a call to action to sign up. I love that it's really like straightforward, no frills, fun, friendly, unique, definitely feels personal. And then there's a page called the guide to it all.

So there's if you're new to this brand, you might feel overwhelmed by how to get started. There are so many different approaches to kind of building your look or your collection with the locks. So there's a really great sentence that is from Marla's voice and it feels so personal.

It says the locks were the original concept for the entire collection. Once I realized that I could morph the shape of a hardware store, a carabiner in a myriad of ways, the collection became a reality. People often ask me which one is the one to own.

And I honestly can't say I'm partial to every single one of them. They are all solid and strong and crafted by hand and can be worn in infinite ways. Here you will see lots of versions of the locks, but you may have something else in mind and we love that too.

And then they have illustrations of the locks that make it feel like you're looking at the designer's own sketchbook. Also, if you go to the product pages, the description is quote and it says in Marla's words. So just one example I found in Marla's words quote, This lock was created based on my rope drawings when I felt the need to create a more textured and chunkier lock.

The closure mimics a tightly wrapped coil of rope. I love that there's this like short little blurb that comes from Marla, shares the design inspiration, gives a really personal take on the product. My only gripe about this website is that they don't have a blog and I feel like they actually are missing so many opportunities to show how to style, to merchandise the products in different ways.

So that's my only complaint. I just want to share this as a great example of utilizing website content. What do you think about the Marla Aaron website? Let me know in a podcast review or YouTube comment.

All right, let's get into the gold mine. This is a segment of the podcast that's a more personal heartfelt honest take from me about topics like entrepreneurship, mindset, growth, success, etc. This week's episode is all about confirmation bias and how it's potentially holding you back from achieving your marketing goals.

Back in 2022, in episode 212, I'll link that in the show notes if you want to go back to it. I did an episode all about cognitive biases in marketing. It's really interesting if you want to catch up and and hear that one again.

Basically, a cognitive bias is just a tendency our brains have. Life in the world is really complicated. So our brains in an effort to help us try to simplify things.

So to do that, our brains process information through a filter of our own personal experience and preferences. On one hand, it's like a coping mechanism that protects us from overwhelm. But on the other hand, it could really be limiting and keep us from seeing truths or past forward or even what's best for us and for our businesses.

We all have cognitive biases, so don't be ashamed, but it's good to be aware of them. So confirmation bias is one type of cognitive bias. And I'll just share the definition from psychology today so I don't butcher it.

Quote, it occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs. When people would like a certain idea or concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true. They are motivated by wishful thinking.

End quote. I see this so much with marketing, especially when new technologies get introduced or there is change. Naturally, people don't want to have to learn a new technology or a new approach.

Nobody likes change. So instead of accepting that change is coming, we often convince ourselves that this new thing must suck or it's not for me. And that way by telling ourselves that we can sneakily avoid having to deal with it.

Lately, I've been seeing this a ton with AI technology as it relates to marketing and business. I think people are kind of scared of AI and there are definitely some scary unknowns about it for sure. But it's a train that we're not going to be able to stop.

It's here. So it's really in our best interest to figure out how to make it work for us and reap the benefits because there really are benefits. I think a lot of people are in denial about AI technology coming or they're confused about it.

Or just tired of always embracing change in a digital world so they don't want to learn about it. So the immediate reaction they have is, oh, this is terrible and it's not going to work for me. If you feel that way, that is a confirmation bias that you've created for yourself.

And then to prove that confirmation bias, you will go and try the new tool or new technology with a chip on your shoulder and not really with an open mind or even a clue about what you're doing. And then you try it once. You don't get the result you want.

You're not dazzled by it. And then, ta-da, you've confirmed your bias. You say, I tried it and it sucks.

It's kind of like the little kid who's really picky about food and has all of these self-made rules about the food they eat like. I only eat sandwiches. I don't want to eat any other food and I definitely won't eat vegetables because they're all gross.

And the parents are trying to convince the kid like, Max, we'll let you eat some ice cream if you just try the vegetables, please. So the kids like, fine, mom and dad, I'll try the vegetables and he goes into the fridge, takes out a raw broccoli bunch, takes a bite out of the raw broccoli bunch in front of his parents and says, this is disgusting, but mom and dad, I did it. I tried it.

Now, where's my ice cream? Now, obviously that's gross. Obviously the kid had a confirmation bias about vegetables. He went into it knowing that he wasn't going to like it and then did the absolute most possible way to consume the thing he knew he wasn't going to like, to prove a point and to prove to himself that he doesn't like vegetables and will be more likely to eat vegetables, less likely to eat vegetables in the future.

So obviously this example is very extreme, but you could be doing something similar with your business and your marketing by having this attitude and then confirming it for yourself by not really trying the thing in earnest. So my call to you is to try to be aware of your own confirmation biases and that and knowing that trying a thing once and coming to a grand conclusion about it is usually not sufficient. So please be open to things because they can help you and they can be good for you and realize that getting a tool to help you is also many times about learning how to get the best result from it and not just expecting that it's going to deliver magic for you.

And that does take time and effort. So tell me in a YouTube comment or podcast review if you can relate to this. Do you ever try things once and then think they're not for you? Is there any situation where you may have been trying to convince yourself and you realized you had a confirmation bias? I would love to know your thoughts.

All right, let's get into the news roundup where I share three relevant articles related to jewelry or marketing. The first one comes from Insider Intelligence and is called for promising use cases for generative AI and content marketing. So what is generative AI? First of all, it's a type of artificial intelligence technology that can help you or it can produce various types of content like text, imagery and audio.

So what are some of the best ways to use these generative AI tools like chat, GBT for your jewelry, marketing content? According to a 2022 survey of marketers who are already using these tools, most are using them impactfully to optimize existing content. And I personally also love that the most. The reason I love using these tools to help me optimize existing content is because I can get a rough draft using some of the terminology language and words that I want to use or even kind of get it close to the voice that I want to communicate.

And then I can use chat GBT to kind of help me take that to the next level or give me some alternate options or expand on it or make it shorter. So you are giving it a prompt the best that you can. And it's kind of helping you take that to the next level.

And there are some other ways to also be using this tool. So to repurpose your content, AI can take an original piece of content and then create related pieces of content. So you can start with a blog post and then have it maybe distill email marketing copy from that or social media captions.

You can also use it to help you personalize content. So you can take a piece of content and then have it rewritten in a voice that would resonate with your customers using terminology they'll understand. You can use it to create high ranking content.

So AI tools can help you research and generate keywords to include in your content for SEO purposes. And you can also use it to help you test content. So if you do a B testing with your email marketing or with your website content, AI tools like chat GBT can help you come up with variations of something so that you can see what performs better with your customers.

My main takeaway is, as I mentioned earlier, if you're nervous about AI tools or don't understand them, start by getting creative about the ways that they can help make your life easier when it comes to marketing. Just playing around with a tool like chat GBT and spending some time experimenting it, experimenting with it can give you new ideas and open new possibilities for you. The next article comes from L and it's called What is Quiet Luxury and Why is the Trend Louder Than Ever? I believe I mentioned a New York Times article in a news roundup in another recent episode about this topic, but I saw it again in L this time and wanted to highlight it.

So Quiet Luxury is a trend that I think you should know even if you're not a trend driven brand. It emphasizes understated elegance and subtle sophistication and it's driven by the consumer's desire for timeless, well-made pieces that they can wear for years rather than disposable trend driven fashion. So for someone who embraces Quiet Luxury, they would have key pieces like tailored separates, classic coats, and fine jewelry with clean lines and minimal detailing.

And then sustainable materials are also super important because those who embrace Quiet Luxury have a growing concern for the environment and ethical production. So obviously these Quiet Luxury brands prioritize quality and craftsmanship over quantity and mass production. And according to this article from L, it seems to be particularly appealing to older consumers who value quality and durability over fast fashion.

So it's more thoughtful, more sustainable, prioritizes quality, celebrates the beauty of understated elegance. Main takeaway, again, even if you're not a trend driven jewelry brand, you may want to consider how to take bits and pieces of this concept that already exist for you. So if you cater to older customers, think about how they may prefer some aspects of Quiet Luxury.

Even if they're not like the aesthetic design aspects, maybe they're the aspects related to production and sustainability. Are you already doing some of these things without necessarily calling them Quiet Luxury? And can you amplify them to kind of appeal to this growing movement of consumers who are seeking these things? And then my last article comes from, I'm going to butcher the name, Lae Fisiel Singapore. And it's called Hermes Fit, the Amalgamation of Fitness and Luxury Fashion.

So this is a really creative brand activation. And if you don't know what that means, check out my interview with Emma Morgan. That's episode 219.

Put the link in the show notes. This example with Hermes is such a fun way to reach perhaps a new customer or to appeal to a new side of their target customer. So Hermes is elevating the luxury fashion experience with Hermes Fit, an interactive platform that allows customers to engage with the brand's iconic accessories.

Following successful events in Tokyo, New York and Sydney, they're bringing this personalized fitness experience to Singapore. So Hermes Fit is incorporating iconic accessories as alternative tools for physical training. This is a really fun and creative merging of conventional workout culture with luxury fashion.

So adorned with Hermes's signature motifs and painted in the trademark orange hue, there's this pop-up gym, I guess, that features a custom designed wall of Hermes barbells and kettlebells. And there are fitness classes, including belt stretching, which is a flex class with Hermes belts as alternatives for resistant bands, ballet arms with bracelets, and shoes hit a cardio-based workout using Hermes shoes as weights and more. Like, yes, please.

It makes working out more fun and fashionable. It's a little bit tongue-in-cheek. My main takeaway is, have you ever thought about appealing to your target audience through a unique event or out-of-box experience? It may help people who already know your brand see it in a completely new light, and it can also help you introduce them to new products and collections.

That's it for today. Did you have any questions about jewelry and marketing jumpstart? You can always email me, Larissa, at JoyJoya.com. If you love this podcast, please share it with a friend who'd appreciate it. And don't forget to subscribe as well as leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

If you're completely new to digital marketing, then you'll want to purchase and read a copy of my book, Jewelry Marketing Joy. Visit JoyJoya.com slash book for more information.