EP392: How to Grow Your Custom Jewelry Business in 2023

2:27AM Feb 28, 2023

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Keywords:

people

jewelry

custom

business

customers

engagement rings

website

accelerator

fine jewelry

friends

buying

building

design

waitlist

wedding bands

selling

maker

referrals

remind

thrive

You'll get comfortable talking more and more about what you do, it will be so much easier for you to transition a casual conversation into paying customers. Welcome to thrive by design, the podcast for ambitious independent jewelry brands, looking to profit from their products, get ready to make more and sell more doing what you love, without spending every single waking minute doing it. Hey, and if you're a creative fashion or product based business, I want to welcome you to the show. I'll be dropping big tips on launching growing and scaling your business. So you could spend more of your precious time using your creativity to make money. You ready? All right, let's do this. Welcome to the thrive by design podcast episode 392. Hey, it's Tracy here. And I'm really excited for today's episode because we're going to talk about my favorite business model, custom jewelry. So if you're a fine jeweler who's trying to get more into doing more custom work, or if you have another type of jewelry business, and you want to design custom work, and you aren't really sure how to get into it, or you're already doing it, your private jeweler, etc, etc. You're gonna love today's episode, because I'm gonna break down some of the ways that you can grow your custom jewelry business in 2023. Now, this is exciting news. So last year, we were in one of our accelerators for our momentum program. And I asked a question, because we had a ton of Fine Jewelers in there. And the question was this, Hey, would you guys be interested in in me focusing on doing a fine jewelry custom accelerator to show you how I've built a business where I barely have to mark it, and where I'm getting repeat customers coming back and referring their friends. And even though I am extra busy, growing Flourish & Thrive Academy, I continue to always have a waitlist of customers in the wings waiting for me to have time to design for them. So I want to show you exactly how I'm doing that. So we are launching a brand new custom jewelry accelerator, it's kind of on the radar, we are already filling up with people who expressed interest last year. So we have a couple of spots left. So if you're someone who would like to know what it really takes to build a custom jewelry business, or you already have a custom or fine jewelry offering, where you're working with private customers, but you want to optimize your systems, you want to get more of those people coming back, you want to deliver a better experience. And you want to really streamline your sales process. And also get your website working for you. So you're getting a lot of leads coming to your website just because of what you've done to optimize it. Well then join us or apply, I should say, for this custom jewelry accelerator, it's application only. So in order to get your application in and to be considered, you need to head on over to flourish & thrive academy.com, forward slash custom and get your application in right over there. We are getting started in April. So if you'd like to be considered, head on over and fill out that application, and let's chat and see if you're a good fit for this. And we're keeping this group very, very small. And we have already a handful of people interested, I wanted to create this into an intimate experience, because you're going to be working directly with me, for the most part throughout this accelerator. And I can only handle so much by myself. So I wanted to make sure that we get you a great experience and that you're getting access to me to work with on your private or custom jewelry business. All right, so let's talk about how to grow your custom jewelry business in 2023. So I'm going to be talking about just some of the things that I have always found that have worked to get people to my website, filling out my forms or reaching out to me on Instagram or other places for my custom jewelry offering. So I don't know for many of you who don't know my story for many, many years back in the day I started my first jewelry company in 1990 probably 9093 or so when I kind of had it my side hustle. I did that for about five years or so and then launched my business full time in 1998. So throughout that time, I had developed a name in the industry as a contemporary jewelry designer. So what that really meant is I was selling primarily to small boutiques and specialty stores in the fashion and like contemporary fashion space and some gift stores and some jewelry stores but primarily, I developed sterling silver down my fine jewelry about I don't know 2006 Or seven I started I wanted to launch a new collection. So I launched a men's collection I think in 2005 six and then my fine jewelry collection right around the same time and started selling that to stores and one of the things that I noticed even though it was like building Three businesses at the same time trying to launch different, completely different collections. Both of those collections started doing really well. But people started coming to me asking for engagement rings and wedding bands, obviously starts with the friends and family, and then expanded beyond there. So when 2008 happened, and the market crashed, and I had to make a decision whether or not to keep Tracy Matthews designs open and get rid of all the 350 stores that I was selling into, that's a story for another time, but I had to make a decision, do I want to continue doing wholesale? Or do I want to switch gears and get back to doing what I really love, which was designing, working with the customers, and, you know, delivering a great intuitive experience, I'd always thought of myself as a Intuit and a healer. And I was teaching yoga at the time, and really kind of blending all these modalities of business together with like mindfulness, and teaching. Like, it's weird how all these things kind of come together to to create this business for me. And so when I was making that decision, and my consultant Phil was asking me, what do you love Tracy, what do you want to do, and all I could say was like, I love working with customers. I love doing this, I love doing that. But I do not love, X, Y, and Z. Everything that my old business or the old version of me was, was in that business. And that's part of the reason why I decided to shut it down amongst many other reasons, and then move into this new venture. And what I quickly found was that I was really on purpose. And at each evolution and stage of my career, I've noticed like shifts and energy and stuff like that. But the one thing that I really loved about building a private jewelry or custom jewelry business where I was only working with private clients, I wasn't worried about wholesale and all those things was that I got to spend more time with the customers, I made a ton more money because I didn't need to carry inventory. I didn't, I wasn't waiting 3060 90 days to get paid. Like all these things that were challenging. In my previous business model. Most of the payments were made up front for the most part I was working with, you know, it was easy to make a $25,000 order. Whereas like when I was selling wholesale, that might have been like working with six or seven stores that took a long time to even get those orders. So it just everything just seemed to fall into place. And I loved it. And so what I really worked on were optimizing the systems and the sales conversations, because I knew that if I had qualified leads, they had many other choices, I needed to be able to maneuver those conversations in a way that would get them to, to want to work with me and be like, ready to like hand over their money. So this was all like in a really organic way. And so part of what I talked about this earlier in the podcast, but part of what I'm going to teach in that custom jewelry accelerator is how I basically handle and position and create those conversations and the structure of them. So that when at the end of the call, people are like yes, you're the choice for me, I don't need to keep looking anymore. So it's fun, like I love all of this because you really get to serve people in a much higher way. So let's talk about how I really built my business and how I continue to do literally zero marketing. And I'm still getting inquiries every single month for projects. Right now I actually have like four or five projects, I can't really keep up with it, because I like to give my customers a great level of service. But if you're doing this full time, I'm going to show you how to be getting like 10 or 15 custom pieces a month, and more overflow then you even have room for so that you're building a waitlist. And people are literally waiting to work with you. And that's the key, right? We want to build that waitlist and get people to be waiting in the wings working with you. So you're not scraping by and waiting for the next random person to find your website, right. So let's walk through some of these tips that I've created, or I've seen work really well for some of the people that I serve, and that I've used for myself. So the first step to this is to be able to optimize your website for your local area search. I was one of the first people who was optimizing their website in New York City for custom jewelry and in San Francisco. And what that ended up doing for me was it allowed people who are searching for like unique jewelry, alternative bridal custom jewelry, custom engagement rings, etc. To be able to find my website. I've had so many people who just randomly came across my website because they wanted to do an heirloom redesign, or they wanted to have a custom engagement ring designed that was alternative

because of how I optimize my website. And so there's a couple of ways that you can do this for For me at the time, I didn't do Google My Business. But I definitely think especially if you have a location or a studio or somewhere, that you create a Google My Business free profile, and get that up there. So when people are searching for whatever it is that you do, or the keywords you want to compete with, that they're finding your business in that search, then I would you get a free listing with keywords. And then I would also work on getting Google reviews. This is really powerful to get that kind of social proof. So for anyone who already has customers, I would ask your existing customers to give you a Google review on your Google My Business, then I want you to optimize your website for local SEO. So this could be like if you live in Wichita, Kansas, let's just say Wichita custom jewelry designer, Wichita, alternative bridal designer, Wichita heirloom redesign, Wichita redesign, family heirlooms, excetera, things like that, if that's what you do, obviously, you want to think of the keywords that you're competing for. I'm only using keywords that my business was actually competing for. And then you want to rename your images to reflect those. You want to read write blog content about those things. So people can find your site. And you want to make sure that your metadata on your website, and the content on your website. So maybe your about page, your customer testimonial page, and your custom jewelry page are all optimized for that. Because that is the thing that's going to help you grow your audience and get more people finding you. So these are ways to get people on your website. But let's talk about what happens when people land on your website. Because there was one thing that has been a massive conversion tool on my website, that has helped me make way more sales, especially when it comes to cold traffic. And that is the maker video that I have on the homepage of my website, I have been in the process of redoing my Tracy matthews.com website for several years. And I put it on the back burner. I actually redid my maker video in 2018, the new one is really, really good. And I'm going to give anyone who joins us for the custom jewelry accelerator, like basically the script and everything that I did to create that epic maker video so that you're getting the right things coming out of your mouth and having it feel. So it's in a way that it's not contrived. So what I will say is that maker video that I've had on the homepage of my site forever, talking about what I do, how I do it, why it matters, all the things has been the one thing that has converted more people who have no idea who I am into someone to fill out a form and help me actually close them on a call, like more than anything. So you need a very compelling maker video, or Brand Story Video or something to share how the process works, and why they should trust you. Because the number one reason why someone would have an objection of working with you is, especially if they're finding you online, is to make sure that you're not going to run off with their money, or their family heirlooms. And they need to be able to trust the person that they're going to work with. So if you don't have a brick and mortar location, where people can, you know, it's like a retail store, you need to be continually building in that trust, wherever you are. And there's a couple of key things that need to be in that video, basically, an explanation of how you work with clients like what the experience is like, and also your why why are you doing this anyway? And what is the deeper reason that people should work with you over someone else. And for me, I always talk about the story of my mother passing, because that has built a lot of trust for people who have lost loved ones, and they're coming to me to redesign family heirlooms. So that maker video is a huge conversion tool. Now one of the other ways that you can grow your custom or fine or private jewelry business this year, is to really lean in to referrals. So the best source of referrals, obviously, our previous customers. So what this means is that you need to deliver an incredible experience for people when they're working with you. So that means having your systems dialed in making sure that there's the process is clearly communicated, making sure that it's clearly a step by step, and that so on and so forth. So things are easy for them to understand and for you to deliver and so that you're not reinventing the wheel every single time. That is really, really key. Now the second source of referrals, or obviously people may be in an industry where you could refer out So think through where you could pick up referral partners. So these might be people who are more influential. These might be people who are in your current network, who just talk about what you do, and so on and so forth. So you want to always be building out that referral network. We love the idea Have grassroots marketing over here. It's one of our core strategies that we teach to grow a business from the ground up. And with the high touch story business, like honestly, referrals are going to be the thing that will grow your business faster than any passive strategy. I see a lot of Fine Jewelers coming to us thinking that they can quickly grow by like, only doing like paid ads. And that takes a very long time and a lot of money. So I would rather have you lean into something that doesn't cost much except for your time, meaning like the investment of time, or someone on your team to go out and start to develop these relationships with people who will refer you out, right. So that's why it's always easiest to work with previous customers, but then to move on beyond that. Now, the next step of this is to talk about what you do everywhere. So I love telling these stories. I was at a cocktail party one time, actually it was a dinner party. But this has also happened at a cocktail party. So it's not the first time. And I happened to sit down, I was a little bit late. That was a small party. It was in New York City, my friend Laura organized it. And Laura was really known for curating unique people together. And so one of the things that she did is we had this dinner party at a restaurant. And so we had like a table of six or eight, something like that. So I show up maybe 10 minutes late because the subway was jammed up. Or I walked I can't remember it was in the East Village. But there was one other guy who was rolling in late right after me. And we happen to sit next to each other. I my other friends were sitting on the other side of the table. And so we sit down and I'm sitting here talking to this guy, and he's like, so what do you do? And I was like, Well, I designed engagement rings and wedding bands, and custom jewelry. And he his eyes just like immediately perked up. And it's funny because I knew his girlfriend. But he didn't know I knew his girlfriend. And I wasn't good friends with her. But we were acquaintances. And she told me that she was dating this guy, and they were talking about marriage. And so when I found out that connection, he his eyes perked up. And so I was like, Oh, are you thinking about getting engaged? He's like, Well, yes, I have a stone that I want to use. But I need someone to design the ring. And I'm like, well, let's chat. And so we discussed it. And he gave me this beautiful Sapphire. And I designed a beautiful ring for this, this woman named Lauren. So this all is was just in conversation on a dinner party. So be prepared to talk about what you do, wherever you are. That's why dialing in your elevator pitch can be so powerful. But the most powerful conversations are when they come organically. I will tell you that if you get comfortable talking more and more about what you do, it will be so much easier for you to transition a casual conversation into paying customers. Another example of this I was at a wedding. And my friend Alex and Danny were getting married. It was in the Bahamas somewhere. I can't remember the name of the island But doesn't that doesn't really matter. And I was sitting on the beach next to this woman. Her name is Joy. And she's like, What do you do? What I did was so different than everyone else because everyone else was either in finance or sales. I'm like, Oh, I'm a jewelry designer. I design custom work mostly fine jewelry for private clients. Her eyes perked up immediately. She's like, Oh my god, what is the stuff that you design, I started showing her some of the pieces I was wearing. It's like, you need to talk to Liam, her husband, because he is the worst at buying gifts. And I laughed so hard. Because basically he would have his assistant who didn't even know her go out and buy her gifts for their anniversary and their birthday gifts. And they were all kind of generic stuff that the assistant thought that she would like and little did she know that she has a really unique sense of style, and always likes things that are different and one of a kind. So this was a match made in heaven. In fact, because of the way I handled this relationship, I ended up during like over the course of three to five years, something like that, selling them over $78,000 worth of jewelry. It was insane. Like when I tell you they were like my best customers for a couple of years. It's the truth and they weren't even buying engage like engagement rings. This is just like a volume of like really nice pieces of jewelry that were one of a kind. And this was someone that I met on the beach

at a wedding so you never know what can turn out of all of your interactions right now, another huge source to be able to grow your company is just to be of service to your previous customers. So follow up with them after the sale. Ask them how they're enjoying the peace. Offer ring servicing or maintenance on their jewelry. offer complimentary cleaning for their pieces. Send them a little gift on their birthday or anniversaries or other special occasions and then remind them about what you offer because this is a great way to just let people know that you build your business on referrals. And also to remind them that you exist, which is awesome. So I wanted to mention that because this is a huge missed opportunity I see for a lot of people, it's like they don't have a continual long term follow up process that could literally pay off in spades down the road. And I'd recommend doing this with people in your close circle. One of my best customers is my good friend leave anytime she needs a piece of jewelry, that she's not finding off the rack, or she buys a stone in Thailand, when she's traveling or something along those lines, she always thinks of me, she's another person, that if I probably added up all of the projects that I've done with her, she spent like 10s of 1000s of dollars with me. So don't discount your personal network. When it comes to this. Remember that your network is your net worth. So this is really important. And then I also this is for people who aren't even in your personal network. One of my customers, Amy, who found me from a piece of publicity I got, I don't even remember being covered in this piece of publicity. But she's like, Oh, I saw you on an airplane in this magazine. And they did a feature on my jewelry. And she looked me up, I ended up redesigning her parents wedding bands into a couple of stack rings that she wears every day. And since then I've designed maybe six pieces of jewelry for her. So you just never know when people are going to be coming at you and looking for you. And if you deliver a great experience for them, they will continue to come back for more. This is what The Desired Brand Effect is all about. Now, finally, this is another thing that I want to remind you of is that, let's say you have a core offer. So for me, my core offerings are heirloom redesign and engagement rings and wedding bands. However, if you're a jewelry designer, you know, you want to maybe focus on the front end of your sales funnel on those two things. But on the back end, when it comes to previous customers or other people, you focus on offering them other types of jewelry for events, occasions, etc. So if someone's coming to you for an engagement ring, this might seem obvious, but I can tell you a lot of people don't think of this, your potential to continue selling to those people well after that engagement, ring purchase, or anniversaries, birthdays, all the things is super high. This is something that I was working on with one of my really high end bespoke engagement ring designers who was a private client of mine, she sold a $1 million diamond last year. And I worked with her on a couple of consulting sessions to help her improve her process. And one of the things that I encouraged her to do, and one of the reasons why she wasn't doing it is like her business is so busy with the engagement ring, but I'm like, Girl, you're leaving money on the table to not be able to follow up. So we work with her on a system to be able to offer lower end giftable types of jewelry that she wouldn't necessarily focus on. But she would hire an assistant to do the follow up for these other types of life moments or, you know, experiences that people will be buying jewelry for. And so I want to remind you that like when someone gets married and engaged, they have kids so that people are buying pushed gifts, you know, they have anniversaries, they have birthdays, momentous occasions, they have friends who you know, are probably of their same status, who want to buy the same thing. So this is a great way for you to keep going back and offering them something and making it easy. The one thing that I will tell you, the biggest takeaway that I want to remind you of is that when you can make buying something that's very high touch, super easy, and educate your customer and give them everything that they need to to make a Yes, right there, the easier it is to keep that customer for life. And the easier it is to get those referrals because they're always going to remember the simplicity of the process of working for you. Now my final tip to help you get more sales with your custom fine private jewelry business this year is this. Make sure that you have an ongoing list of testimonials, reviews, and other interview style types of content that you can share with new customers that you can sprinkle all over your website that you can, you know, send out in a video format so people can see what the experience is like to work with you. So what I would encourage you to do if this isn't feasible for you, is to interview some of your top customers every year. Not everyone's going to say yes to this because some people are private. They feel weird about it. They don't want to be on video like the whole thing. But there are some people who will do it and maybe offer them like a piece of jewelry for doing it. or you know, a gift, something, an incentive for doing it. Not that you're paying them, but just like a thank you more so than anything, and ask them to share their experience with you. And you can do this interview style. What I'd recommend, especially if you're doing expensive jewelry is to budget for this. And save to have this professionally shot by a professional videographer who can set the stage and make the background and backdrop look great. There's a lot of different ways that you can do this, you can send the videographer to the customers, you can set up a shoot day in your studio. But what you want to do is to create a high quality video that has B roll and a lot of other information that tells the story of what it's like working with you from multiple perspectives. And this can do a world of difference to elevating your status and your credibility and all those things. And so just want to tell you that interviewing your customers and creating great content around your brand from a case study and testimonial standpoint can be really really powerful in improving your conversions and getting people to buy from you the first time. So those are my tips today. I hope that you enjoyed this. And I want to remind you that if you want my support in upgrading and elevating your custom jewelry or fine jewelry sales process, I want to remind you that if you're selling fine jewelry online, that you have to be available to talk to people on the phone. So even if you don't do custom work, this accelerator will be a great opportunity for you to learn a little bit more about optimizing your sales process. And getting people from your website who land on your website to book calls with you to buy your jewelry. So if that sounds interesting to you, and you'd like to start getting a waitlist of clients for your custom jewelry or for your business, head on over to flourish, thrive academy.com forward slash custom and fill out the application right there. And let's work together in our custom jewelry accelerator which is happening in April. Once again, I'll be leading that accelerator I'll be on almost every call. And I say almost every call because sometimes we have guest teachers come in or other experts who are more of an expertise in a certain field, like setting up a CRM, I'm not a tech person, I'm probably not going to be the best person to necessarily teach the technical aspect of that, if that makes sense, etc. So thanks so much. And I'm looking forward to supporting you on your custom jewelry journey. And if you've enjoyed this podcast today, I'd love for you to take a little screenshot, share it in your stories on Instagram and tag us at flourish underscore thrive or me at Tracy Matthews and why. Thanks so much. This is Tracy Matthews, signing off until next time