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The Smart Lab: 5 Reasons Why You Need a Digital Marketing Strategy
Here’s how the new mediums can help grow a jewelry business, according to Smart Age Solutions CEO Emmanuel Raheb.
Emmanuel Raheb is the CEO of Smart Age Solutions, a digital ad agency and coveted Premier Google Partner. With nearly 18 years’ digital marketing and e-commerce experience, Raheb is passionate about helping and strategically growing national jewelry brands and local retailers alike. Contact him at eraheb@smartagesolutions.com.
Every good marketing strategy starts with who, what, where, when, why, and how.
It doesn’t matter if it’s traditional or digital media, you need to be able to answer these questions:
-- Who is your audience?
-- What is your message?
-- Where does your audience live?
-- When should you run your campaigns?
-- Why should your audience choose you?
-- How will you know your advertising is working?
These questions have always been the bedrock of traditional marketing and still apply even today with digital marketing.
Remember, there’s more to digital marketing than social media—pay-per-click, display ads, re-targeting, SEO, and content marketing are also critical components of the digital marketing mix.
Here are five reasons why you need a well-planned digital marketing strategy.
1. It’s how your jewelry store gets noticed.
Everything today is digital. With the average person spending three to four hours a day online (and that’s just during their leisure time), we live in a digital-first world.
The time spent online is even greater when you consider working hours.
Your audience isn’t flipping through magazines or watching traditional television anymore—it’s all about scrolling through social media feeds and binge-watching streaming shows (without advertising).
If you’re jewelry store isn’t in front of your audience where they “live” every day, then you don’t exist. You must break through!
2. It’s measurable and easily tracked.
Traditional media (due to lack of measurement) has always struggled to answer basic marketing questions.
As newspapers, magazines, and even billboards crumble and go out of business, gone are the old ways of advertising. Their power has eroded significantly.
But digital marketing—with real-time results and accessible analytics—easily outperforms even the most aggressive traditional marketing campaign. Knowing your numbers is critical to your success.
It doesn’t matter if it’s traditional or digital media, you need to be able to answer these questions:
-- Who is your audience?
-- What is your message?
-- Where does your audience live?
-- When should you run your campaigns?
-- Why should your audience choose you?
-- How will you know your advertising is working?
These questions have always been the bedrock of traditional marketing and still apply even today with digital marketing.
Remember, there’s more to digital marketing than social media—pay-per-click, display ads, re-targeting, SEO, and content marketing are also critical components of the digital marketing mix.
Here are five reasons why you need a well-planned digital marketing strategy.
1. It’s how your jewelry store gets noticed.
Everything today is digital. With the average person spending three to four hours a day online (and that’s just during their leisure time), we live in a digital-first world.
The time spent online is even greater when you consider working hours.
Your audience isn’t flipping through magazines or watching traditional television anymore—it’s all about scrolling through social media feeds and binge-watching streaming shows (without advertising).
If you’re jewelry store isn’t in front of your audience where they “live” every day, then you don’t exist. You must break through!
2. It’s measurable and easily tracked.
Traditional media (due to lack of measurement) has always struggled to answer basic marketing questions.
As newspapers, magazines, and even billboards crumble and go out of business, gone are the old ways of advertising. Their power has eroded significantly.
But digital marketing—with real-time results and accessible analytics—easily outperforms even the most aggressive traditional marketing campaign. Knowing your numbers is critical to your success.
3. It’s how relationships are built with the “new” jewelry consumer.
Digital marketing is a two-way medium: it’s conversational, especially on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. You can get feedback from your customers and instantly answer any jewelry questions they might have.
You’re also no longer shouting your message at them. You’re helping them choose styles that match their taste or helping them shop for a gift for a loved-one, and you’re able to fully understand the latest jewelry trends and what your audience likes.
You get to intimately know them just as they get to know you! You build trust and relationships.
4. It builds your jewelry store’s brand identity.
When you grow your digital marketing, you’re growing your jewelry store’s brand. The more times you can get in front of your audience, the more they’ll remember your name, especially when it comes time to buy an engagement ring or even for a self-purchase to reward oneself.
Half the battle in sales is name recognition. If someone visits your jewelry website, you can easily re-target them with digital billboards, always keeping your name front and center.
You want to be top of mind when someone thinks of buying jewelry.
5. It’s scalable and can grow as big as your dreams.
Digital marketing is infinitely scalable to whatever your business goals are. The only limitations are your knowledge and your budget; both can be easily solved.
You have to invest in your marketing, and you have to invest in the right experts who know how to get the results that you’re looking for.
If you don’t have a lot of money to begin with, you can start small and grow your digital marketing campaigns as you increase sales. Really, the only limit to your success is your own desire. Your marketing should pay for itself.
Even if you think you know digital marketing and have dabbled a bit online, chances are you’re just skimming the surface.
Yes, most people intuitively know how to use Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to learn how to run effective ads on these platforms or keep your costs low. And you surely don’t want to overpay.
Remember, every dollar saved is a dollar earned, which you didn’t have to go out and replace.
No matter what stage you’re in—from beginner marketer to digital marketing expert—there’s always more to learn. Your digital strategy should be the driving force of your business.
Digital marketing has come a long way over the past 20 years, and it’s not done yet. As younger generations come of age, it will only grow to become even more prominent and critical to your jewelry store’s success.
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