Don’t Sell.
Got your attention? Who tells a retailer not to sell? We do. And, statistics are backing that recommendation up. Of course, don’t take that so literally. If someone walks in your door, of course, you want to sell them something. Better than that, you want them to walk out the door with a piece of jewelry they love and can feel excited about, to have either for themselves or to gift to someone special. And in your store, they’ve had an experience no other competitor can provide. You want them to feel welcome and not intimidated. And, when you accomplish all these things, you will not have “sold” them. You will have made each of these individuals, in effect, a brand ambassador for your store. Nothing could be better.
Case in point. We’re typically designing, writing, and implementing custom emails for our clients. As lovely as they are, the intent (of course) is to drive them to the retailer’s website, and as most retailers do, push product for an inevitable sale. It occurred to us that we might want to try another approach —to provide important, informational content a customer would find valuable, having nothing to do with selling or a product. In this instance, the email (which went out during the summer) was about what you need to consider (and do) when you travel with fine jewelry. It teased with some good copy and appealing design, asking them to click for more information, and what they needed to know was sitting on either a hidden landing page on the site or, if they had a blog, it became the recent blog post. The content was something the customer would find valuable. It related to jewelry, but it wasn’t selling jewelry. What did we find? Most open rates tripled and click-through rates did the same.
Building great and informative content is not always easy. But, you have a depth of knowledge you can impart. Not the typical stuff your customer can read anywhere. Impart information they may not know; the information they will find interesting to read. Some of that can relate to jewelry as this email did, but others might simply have to do with fashion trends; what was the hottest thing on the runway right after Fashion Week; to safety tips they might want to know about when they decorate for the holidays. There’s a wealth of information out there from news sources to fashion mags.
The same is true across the counter. Provide the information customers should know – enough information so you impart your expertise, and then think about the interesting stories you can impart. Is your client looking for an emerald? Inject some fun information, such as the first emerald was mined in 1500 BC in Egypt and it was one of Cleopatra’s favorite gemstones. If you represent a designer brand, perhaps a celebrity was dressed for the Emmys in a particular pair of earrings your customer is looking at. We often suggest inserting small counter cards in your showcases next to the designer line, showing a picture of a celebrity wearing the line. On the card: “Emma Stone simply loves Hearts On Fire”. You get the picture.
Don’t sell. And, watch your closing rates and sales soar.
We’re not selling either. But, if you want a marketing firm with innovative ideas, contact suits@fruchtman.com
