How To Make Seasonality Work For Your Jewelry Business

Content marketing and pristine visual content are non-negotiable requirements of success in the highly seasonal jewelry business. Whether you’re a hobby crafter or an established jeweler, this article will help you navigate your brand through the waters of this tricky but rewarding industry.

Thematic & Professional Visual Content

Visual content is vital for a successful jewelry business. It can also be thematic, showcasing particular collections of jewelry for seasonal campaigns.

Jewelry giant De Beers embark on a multichannel marketing strategy every Christmas holiday season. The ‘A Diamond is Forever’ campaign appears every year and features a combination of print adverts in glossy magazines, along with promotional images and videos on the De Beers social media channels and e-commerce store.

The De Beers holiday campaign displays statements, branded pieces of jewelry lying in the snow, on frosted trees, and iced petals. Here’s what De Beers are doing right:

• Every image is consistently themed and branded: from the first appearance, it is clear that this is a Christmas campaign. Consistency improves the professional appearance and boosts conversion rates
• The image has been retouched to studio quality to ensure that the product is shown in the best possible light
• The background images are beautiful but simple and predominantly white, allowing the jewelry to stand out as the viewer is not distracted
• Prop wax or hanging instruments can be a useful tool to display your jewelry in photoshoots. Hanging instruments are particularly great for making a necklace hang as it naturally would on a customer’s neck – they can see how the product will really look
• Clever use of color and tone is another way in which the icy festive theme is displayed in this advert. They complement the frosty look of the platinum jewelry products

Pro tip: Create a set of guidelines for your visual content to meet. Consistent and high-quality promotional materials are integral to showing off your products and generating sales.

Using an eCommerce platform to sell your jewelry and employing a photo retouching service will help to make your store look professional. Make sure you choose the right platform that will allow your visual content to shine (even on small mobile screens).

Cash Flow Management For Seasonal Trade

Seasonality can make a jewelry business particularly difficult to manage, as often there are peaks and troughs in demand throughout the year.

Pro tip: You should adhere to an annual financial plan, but be flexible and have money saved up to use in case of a seasonal slump in sales.

Here’s how to gain control of your seasonal finances:

• Tight budgeting on a spreadsheet will enable you to keep track of your spending and time cash inflows and outflows accordingly
• Keep cash in reserve in case demand slows down unexpectedly. Jewelry products are luxury, seasonal goods and therefore jewelry stores are likely to experience an oscillation in demand
• Seasonal staff or virtual assistants can be a great way to handle jobs such as admin and order fulfillment in busy periods, without needing to employ staff all year round
• Dropshipping could also be a good option for your business. This business plan entails ordering stock directly from a supplier, who ships it straight to the customer. This means you do not need to store stock yourself. Dropshipping is useful for seasonal industries to ensure you are not left with unsold and out-of-season stock

Creative Content Marketing

According to McKinsey, 50% of buying decisions around luxury goods are influenced by what consumers hear or see online. Seasonal content marketing will make your jewelry business stand out in a saturated and competitive market, and help you make the most of sporadic demand.

On-Page Seasonal Campaigns

Daisy London is a great example of successful, seasonal on-page content marketing. The brand created a beautiful promotional spread and lookbook on its eCommerce page for Valentine’s Day this year. Here’s what Daisy London did well:

• They created an emotional connection with the page visitor to capitalize on this romantic occasion. Daisy London offers to assist their customers in what is often an emotional experience: purchasing a gift for a loved one
• The use of white space draws the eye to the bold copy and promotional image, with little else to distract the customer’s attention

An appropriately pink and warm color palette on the page is in keeping with the Valentine’s Day theme

The image airbrushing has made the image really stand out and glow, again fitting with the romantic theme

Pro tip: Using content to make an emotional connection with page visitors will make you far more likely to win their business, particularly with seasonal goods such as jewelry.

Will You Make Seasonal Trade An Opportunity?

It can be tricky to stay afloat in a seasonal industry. But there are ways that you can make seasonality work to your advantage:

1. Create consistent and professional visual content to show off your jewelry products
2. Stay on top of your cash flow management and ensure that you have money put aside to help you through dips in demand
3. Engaging your customers with great content is key to publicizing your jewelry during seasonal events or occasions and making those all-important sales

You are in a competitive industry and volatile demand can pose an additional problem. However, being organized and planning ahead will transform this problem into an opportunity.

Was this advice helpful and relevant to your jewelry business? What lessons will you take away from it? Let us know in the comments.