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Success With Jewelry
141 - Laryssa and Liz on Holiday Planning for Jewelry Brands: Strategies, Timelines, and Key Dates
00:16:17
Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive. In Episode #141, we’re diving into one of the most important topics of the year:...
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the Success With Jewelry Podcast. Your go to source for real conversations about business marketing and what it actually takes to succeed as a jewelry brand Today.
- [00:10]
B
I'm Larissa, the strategist systems queen and the one who finds joy in turning big marketing challenges into step by step plans that actually work. Email marketing and generating revenue through it is the specialty of my agency, Joy.
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A
Joya and I'm Liz, your creative compass and advocate for designers doing things differently. I live for brilliant brand storytelling, beautiful visuals, and helping designers confidently show up and shine. I founded the Stay Gold Collective to create community and support for independent jewelry brands.
- [00:43]
B
Together we bring you nearly two decades of jewelry marketing experience and on this podcast we're pulling back the curtain on everything we've learned. Whether you're just starting out or scaling to your next big milestone, you'll get honest insights, helpful tips, and maybe a few laughs along the way.
- [01:01]
A
This is episode 141 and we're diving into holiday planning how to set yourself up for a successful season with timelines, marketing strategies and key dates to keep you on track. We'll cover ways to maintain consistent messaging, create promotions that feel authentic to your brand, and make the most of the busiest time of year for your jewelry business. And if you're an insider, we're taking the conversation even further with a bonus episode where we share examples of seasonal campaigns that work and tips to help you stay organized, confident and ready to shine this season. Let's get into it.
- [01:36]
B
Ooh, holiday planning. What a good time of year to bring this topic up.
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A
I know. We might even be like not late, but like a smidge late talking about this.
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B
I don't want to scare anyone.
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A
I don't want to scare anyone either, but we could have started talking about this in August.
- [01:53]
B
Yeah, definitely. But you know, now, right now is the best time to get started.
- [01:58]
A
Yes, I completely agree with that. And we've done episodes about holidays holiday planning before, so feel free to go back and listen to those too. I know this is a conversation that comes up in all of our holiday planning chats is like the designers who have the self purchasing client and are wondering why holiday planning matters.
- [02:18]
B
That's such a good question. Well, should we get into that?
- [02:22]
A
Let's get into that. I mean, so in general, in the jewelry industry, usually Q4 makes up like 6 60% of jewelry sales. And I know that's not for everyone. I was talking to a designer last week that was like summer is the busiest time for me and I was like that's unique. That's very cool. But people are in the buying mindset in the holiday season, so even your self purchasing clients could benefit from this type of marketing and putting a plan together.
- [02:49]
B
Yeah. And being in front of those clients even if they're not buying a gift like specifically for the holidays, maybe right after. Maybe it's like a spontaneous treat yourself kind of moment that they're having. I mean, I think the gift giving spirit is just alive in Q4.
- [03:07]
A
It's a great time for storytelling and leaning into like cozy feelings and timeless pieces. And it could be a great time to bring in new clients. So that's something to think about. I distinctly remember recording our podcast for last year and it's kind of crazy how quickly a year goes, but we talked about keeping it like fun and festive. Oh my gosh, we were talking about like pumpkin spice lattes.
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B
Fun and festive. I remember that language well. You know, 2025 is also a great time to be fun and festive. I completely agree.
- [03:41]
A
I think we need it more than last year even. But the thing with the reason why holiday planning is such a thing we need to think about like Even if maybe Q4 isn't 60% of your sales for the is that it does get to be very busy. Like as we head into this time of year. It's just people get so overloaded with things, whether they be business related or like personal stuff or just like events in your community and things like that. Planning ahead will be a huge help for you and will help you lower your stress, hopefully improve your sales and just be less flustered and have more space to spend doing fun and festive.
- [04:19]
B
Things and just being more strategic in general about all of those touch points. So if you do, for example, a Black Friday sale or small business Saturday, whatever that weekend, I mean it's just getting harder and harder and harder to stand out at that time of year. And so if you do want to experiment with some other kind of timing, well, that's even more reason to put a plan together sooner rather than later.
- [04:47]
A
Definitely. And maybe you want to do a promotion or a sale or something outside of those key dates, that key weekend, that's great too. But start thinking about that in advance. And the first thing to do, like with holiday planning, is to think through what are your deadlines. So do you do custom work? Do you have a deadline for your custom projects when they need to be placed by when you need to start having those conversations? And also with made to order pieces, is there a deadline for that? And then what is that final ship date deadline that you want to start promoting to your audience. And it's not even about promoting. That's the wrong word.
- [05:23]
B
Communicating to your audience.
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A
Because remember, sales is a service. So you want to make sure they have all the information they need to shop with you and feel really confident.
- [05:32]
B
In the past, I've worked with many designers who have, like, I guess to the general public would feel like very early cutoffs, especially for custom and made to order, just because of the lead time and making sure it's all guaranteed shipping. And, uh, they'd done a good job of like announcing those deadlines. But I think sometimes don't take for granted that, like, okay, you understand as the business owner why these deadlines have to be in place. But they could be kind of strange or shocking to people who aren't familiar with how long things take, especially in the age of like Amazon. Immediate, like, get your thing within a few hours.
- [06:17]
A
So.
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B
So I think for businesses like that, there is a lot of education and storytelling that has to go around. Like some of these deadlines that might throw off your consumer. It's so important.
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A
And custom projects always take longer than you'd expect. So a lot of times that custom order deadline is in September. And that's okay because of all the conversations that need to be had. Like the actual production time. Typical production is four to six weeks. Sometimes it's longer. And I remember last year, August, around this time, specifically designers speaking to that, like, you got to get your orders in now. Like, we got to start talking about this. You have to start thinking holiday. By the way, I ordered a standing desk and which I'm very excited about because my back hurts from my ergonomic situation. But the person who sent me the link and asked me to order it, a couple days later we were chatting again and she was like, did you set it up yet? And I was like, I don't have it yet. Like, it's been like a couple of days since I ordered it. But I guess they have Prime. And so anyway, I'm not a Prime girl.
- [07:21]
B
There's just this expectation of like immediate receipt of product. And it's just not true in all cases. And some people don't want to use Amazon or Prime like you. And I had a train of thought. Oh yeah, with the custom cutoffs that maybe come in September, I will tell you, people do not read. They do not pay attention. They might even see it and it won't like, register for them that, oh, September is like in right now. Basically, people are not Very aware of time. And so you have to say things more than you think you need to say them. And you're not being annoying. You're just helping people, like, absorb the information. Yeah.
- [08:05]
A
So a marketing strategy where you're talking about past custom projects that you've loved working on or showing, like walking people through the steps to make a custom piece. You know, we have this conversation or you fill out this form and then you got these sketches or renderings or whatever it is, and then we put it into production. So really laying it out for people can be helpful, too. Same with made to order. Like, just being really clear. Like, you know, we have stuff that's in stock and ready to ship, but a lot of our pieces are made to order, so we have to produce those to get them to you in time. Just being, like, really clear and helping people understand who maybe aren't familiar with the jewelry industry.
- [08:43]
B
And right now, right after you listen to this podcast, is a great time to also do like a quick audit and track of all your policies on your website, like lead time shipping. You might even want to have those holiday order deadlines somewhere on, like an FAQ page. Make sure all the messaging is aligned. Make sure your custom page is where you want it to be, because those things can really fall through the cracks when you're actually focused or more or paying attention on, like, the promotion of it, but not the actual, like, user experience of it.
- [09:17]
A
Definitely true. And something that's going to be really important with this upcoming holiday season. And always, it's always important, but there's so much noise out there this year, I feel like it's hard to break through it with content. So consistency is going to be everything. So consistent messaging across your email, your social, your website. You need to make sure that everything's consistent across all of your platforms. More now in the upcoming quarter than ever. Also, just, like, really think about authenticity and storytelling because people are primed for it this time of year. Like, you know, they're feeling, you know, festive and fun and they're with family and they're, you know, feeling the holiday season. They want to invest in a brand that they care about, that they feel really excited to share with someone or treat themselves to. So storytelling content is really important this time of year. The other thing to think about is that you need to fix. So we need to get our marketing in place right, but we also need to think about having inventory. So thinking about what, you know, you want to produce for the holiday season to have in stock and ready to Shift. So I always say look at last year's sales and make sure you have those things in order, like understanding what those are and make sure you have enough of them. But it's really hard to kind of gauge inventory. Looking at last year is the best way to go. But if you maybe don't have, you know, great records or you're just starting your business out and maybe you weren't selling last holiday season, I would look at bestsellers or what's getting a lot of attention, or you can really lean on that made to order deadline and just really focus on it. But you don't want to like necessarily.
- [11:01]
B
Run out of product.
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A
But you don't want to have too much product. So that's something to definitely think through as well.
- [11:06]
B
Merchandising also is so important and so overlooked. And by that I mean how do you want to group products? Do you want like a gift guide? Are you going to have a gift guide? Do you want to have some kind of like suggested bundles or sets or like whatever it may be. There are so many different ways to approach merchandising. So that's, that's a good thing to think through now. So to Liz's point, so you can be ready with the products that you want to include in all of these different groups and categories.
- [11:36]
A
Are gift guides still a thing? They're still a thing, right?
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B
They are, yeah. I, I think that they are a really good way to present product. They also, if you are short on content for the holiday season, like that's easy content to make and you can do a gift guide in many different angles. So like four email campaigns could be different kinds of gift guides. And there you go, you've already knocked out a bunch of content.
- [12:04]
A
I would also like when you're, if maybe you don't have great records of inventory to produce, I would think about like a more giftable price point. And then also like earrings and pendants are usually easier to as a gift just because you don't need to know a ring size. So that might be worth considering when you're looking at your inventory as well.
- [12:23]
B
Absolutely.
- [12:25]
A
Okay, a few final tips before we chat with insiders. But you know, I've been on about this with the Stay Gold Collective. Like we've been. Well, we did our first one this week, but marketing Monday, where I'm sitting on zoom with whoever wants to show up and we're just working on our own product projects like co working to like hold people accountable. Like you have to show up and state what you're working on. You don't have to talk, you don't have to finish it. But you know, we need to come together and work on it. But like putting something on your calendar like that. And then also like batching content, like doing a photo shoot that's geared towards your holiday season content. Like, do it all at once. So you just have a bunch of photos to use.
- [13:08]
B
Can I join your marketing Monday?
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A
You absolutely can. You can. It's 2pm Eastern time. I love that. I'm glad to share the link with State. With success with jewelry listeners too, because it's just.
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B
That's very cool.
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A
It's. I'm trying it out, seeing how it's going to. Um. Not too many people showed up to my first one, but that's okay. Uh, one designer finished a whole email in that time. Got their email done.
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B
I love that. Yeah.
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A
But you're more than welcome. So also going into the holiday season and even though this is coming out a few weeks later, but I have to read this quote from Taylor Swift that came up in her podcast interview that she did. If you're not a swiftie, which I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a swiftie, but I do pay attention. Anyway, this quote was so good about this. It fits right in. Where is it? So she said, you should think of your energy as if it's a luxury item. Not everyone can afford it. Mmm.
- [14:14]
B
So I like that.
- [14:16]
A
Yeah, I thought that was an interesting way to put it because your. Your time is valuable. So when you're thinking about the holiday season in particular, but all year, what feels really good for you to be doing, and if it doesn't feel good or if it. It's not something that you feel like is going to pay off or hasn't paid off in the past, but you feel like you need to say yes to it anyway, just say no. Protect your energy.
- [14:42]
B
Protect your dang energy.
- [14:44]
A
Protect your energy, Larissa. You need to protect your energy.
- [14:49]
B
I do work with some brands and I think. I don't know. In the case of just what I hear, a lot of times the business will bend over backwards, especially to cater to their wholesale clients. And I understand the desire to have like a really good relationship and protecting that relationship. But sometimes you have to do what's.
- [15:13]
A
Right for your business.
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B
And if other people are not happy about that, you know, there's only so much you can do. And that's part of protecting your energy too.
- [15:23]
A
Definitely. So set some boundaries for yourself. Like maybe you want to make sure that you take off weekends in December to do the fun and festive things with your family. Like, yes, set those boundaries and stick to it. The last thing that I just want to say is that it is important to make sure your customers have a good experience. So now is a good time to, like, make sure you have note cards and packaging and you understand kind of like ship times, like with whatever shipping service you use, like, how long does it take to ship the thing just so you can communicate that better with your audience and, and just be really clear and then they'll trust you because they'll have a great experience. All right. Have you started planning for holiday? Let us know. Visit successwithjewelry.com and if you love the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Send us a message or leave us a review. Thanks for being a part of our community.