← Success With Jewelry
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- [00:00]
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.
- [00:10]
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Today 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 a 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 help helping designers confidently show up and shine. I found that the Stay Gold Collective to create community and support for independent jewelry brands.
- [00:40]
B
Together we bring you 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 giggles along the way.
- [00:56]
A
This is episode 162. Today we're talking about blogging and why it might be one of the most overlooked ways to build long term visibility for your brand and for insiders. We'll go deeper into how to structure a simple blogging strategy that actually supports revenue. Let's get into it.
- [01:15]
B
I'm really glad that you brought up this topic, Liz, because somehow we have never addressed it on the podcast and it's like one of those things that I think that people would be surprised to hear is like valid or could be part of a successful like 360 marketing strategy.
- [01:36]
A
It's kind of like bringing up this topic, it feels like we're talking about something that is old, like what year is it? Why are we talking about blogging? Should we still be blogging?
- [01:49]
B
I think because the word blog just sounds so outdated. It sounds so 2000 or something like
- [01:57]
A
that and there's so much focus on short term content. And I think that remember when, I mean this wasn't that long ago. Remember when reels were getting pushed really hard and like everybody wanted to do reels or we needed to do reels or that was the only way to grow on social media and just short form like grab people's attention. And I still think some of that is important, but reels just aren't as effective as they used to be. And when you're looking at long term results, having real authentic niche content in a longer form is actually more beneficial.
- [02:34]
B
Yeah. And just to kind of like put this into some perspective in case we've already had people mentally tune out when they heard the word blog. I think prior to one to two years ago, there were benefits for SEO, like getting ranked in Google, but now with the rise of ChatGPT, with the rise of AI, even with consumers using tools like ChatGPT to shop, using long form content to get ranked for AI is like, should be extremely top priority for your e commerce business because you need to have visibility in all of these different channels. Not just in social, not just in email, not just whatever, xyz, but also in search, both AI and Google search.
- [03:25]
A
And I think something else to note before we dive in is that we're talking about blogging kind of differently than we used to talk about blogging. It used to be like you'd write a blog and then you'd send an email to tell people that you wrote a blog and you'd be promoting it on your social media too. We don't need to drive people to this blog. We're using it almost like a passive tool. To Larissa's point of view, driving searchability and showing up in AI search results.
- [03:53]
B
Absolutely. Yeah.
- [03:56]
A
So some of the reasons why blogging still matters is that social media posts disappear. Although I would say that longer form Instagram captions are really important too. They've worked for me and I like to write longer form, so I love that. But that shows up in search results too. Like there are searchable aspects to writing longer captions, but social media posts do have a shorter shelf time. So that's one benefit of blogging. Blogs show up in search. They answer customer questions and they really educate the client. And you know, another really important thing, like kind of talking about SEO and AI is like FAQ pages are super important because that's how people are typing into ChatGPT to answer, to ask questions. So blogs can help answer those questions too.
- [04:49]
B
Absolutely, yeah. You mentioned, Liz, about how with blogs, like, we're not necessarily using them or promoting them like on social or email, but another side benefit that I have found and that we use with some of our clients is you write a longer form blog post that is kind of structured to rank in AI or for Google or to answer questions. But then in the effort of doing that and building out all of this great content, you can now have a lot of like micro ideas that you can pull out and share in other places with the effort of doing just like one more longer form piece.
- [05:34]
A
My system is I'll write my email and then I'll take my email and convert it into a blog and put it on my blog, and then I will break that email or blog post down and create social media content from it. So you are sharing the content in all of the places, so everything's in alignment. But you're not saying, hey, go to my blog kind of thing. Because people don't want to leave the platforms. Yeah, if they're on social media, let them stay on social media. Um, but it's interesting looking at. I don't know if you've looked at, I don't know if your website does this, but I was looking at my analytics on my website recently and it started showing, you can see like the keywords people get to your website from, from. A lot of them are from my blog posts that are originally from my emails. But also they started showing me what people are asking and how I'm showing up in AI search results, which is interesting to kind of take a look at.
- [06:31]
B
Yes, absolutely. I know it's good to look at your traffic too, whether it's like within your website platform or in Google Analytics and seeing like, where are. How are people coming in? Like, is it through a certain category, a certain product, and then even shaping the blog post content around that to kind of expand and, and build that.
- [06:52]
A
And I'm sure I've said this before, but if you are out doing markets or in person events or you just get questions, often think about what those questions are. And those can really help you create an FAQ page, of course, if you don't have one. But they can also help inform that blog and email content. Because if they're asking you, there are people out on the Internet searching these questions as well. So you want to be someone who
- [07:17]
B
shows up for that response.
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A
You want to answer the questions.
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B
Definitely.
- [07:25]
A
And the really important thing, I think about blogging is that you don't want to be everything to everyone. You want to lean into your niche, you want to lean into your voice and you want to tell your story. And I think that years ago or in the past, like years when we're talking about SEO, a lot of times people are thinking like, oh, I just need to get more content up, more content up. And the content becomes really watered down because you're just, just trying to like, keep updating your website, keep updating your blog, but that's not what needs to happen. You just want to be consistent. If you think about one blog post a month that is really authentic, written from your voice in your niche, like maybe you are passionate about using ethically sourced gemstones from a specific region, talk about that and talk about your process and dig into it, because that's going to Stand out more and be more effective than just kind of writing generic things.
- [08:19]
B
That's such a common misstep. I see. When people start a blog is they think too broadly, like, for example, how to find your ring size or I don't know, like, guide to the four Cs of diamonds, which are all very helpful and they could be related to your brand. But if you were to Google like guide to four Cs, you're gonna see the sea of content about that. And good luck trying to outrank like every other blog post or page or whatever that has ever been published about that. So try to have your own unique spin on it to Liz's point. So that for the more niche customer who is maybe wondering, oh, guide to the four Cs when it comes to like antique reclaimed diamonds or something like that, and a little bit more specific, that way you have a better chance of ranking and reaching the customers who are truly for you.
- [09:24]
A
Mm. And then you're like, just showing up more authentically. You're showing up, you're digging in more so to the what people are interested in about your brand. And that's really important. Another thing I'll say one of the things that I feel like intimidates people about blogging is like, how much you need to write and you don't need to write a lot.
- [09:44]
B
I think that that's, you know, with
- [09:46]
A
emails too, I get a lot of pushback on that. I don't like writing. I don't think I could write that much. But you can keep it concise. So that's just something to keep in mind. Some of my blog posts are very concise and they're a testimonial and like a little blurb about the designer and that's fine. It do what you can do.
- [10:06]
B
Well, this is a good use case for AI as well. I would not recommend you ask ChatGPT to just write a blog post for you. But if you can, oh, here's something I do. I'll give a tip that I do. I love making voice notes, like when I have a thought or idea. So I'll get on my phone, I will just literally blah, blah, blah, blah, all my thoughts. Take the transcript of that plus maybe an outline. Give all of that to ChatGPT and have it do a first draft that is already more in my voice because it's literally taking things that, like, I have said. So if you hate writing, you don't mind talking. Like, make a voice note and use that as a rough draft for a blog.
- [10:54]
A
Post. I love that tip. I love a voice note transcribed to become an email or blog post. I think that's super, super helpful. Something else that's really important that I was having a conversation with a designer about recently is that they, they love writing blogs. They are totally down to write blogs. They love to research them. They love to add historical references and photos and things like that. But there's a disconnect because then they feel uncomfortable adding their product. So they're telling this, like, great inspiration behind some of their work. But then they're and here's what I made that's based on this inspiration and here's a link to buy it. And you don't necessarily need to say here's a link to buy it. You could simply say like, here's what I created based on this inspiration. It's available on my website, here's the link kind of thing. But you need to tie these blog posts back to what you're selling.
- [11:48]
B
I'm so glad you said that. The blog post has to be shoppable in one way or another. Like, we are not doing like our blog spot from when we were in high school and just like doing a personal diary here. This is in service of your business. And if you don't share a call to action or a next step to the reader, they are not going to know what to do. There are many reasons why someone may have come to that blog post. And if they don't understand that there are products associated with what they're looking at, nine times out of 10, they're just going to leave and nothing is going to come of that visit to your site.
- [12:32]
A
It's so true. And I know that it can feel uncomfortable to add a call to action, a strong call to action, but you can still tell a story. You can still authentically share your inspiration. And it's a service to then say, like, oh, and I created this thing that's inspired by this thing, or I'm telling you all this because it led to this creation, or this is my process for making this thing. There's a lot of ways that you can really, you know, be chatting with your audience in a conversational way in a way that feels like you're not being salesy at all and still have a clear invitation at the end.
- [13:11]
B
Yeah. And then alternatively, or in addition to having products, you can also have a call to action to sign up for email also so that you can capture that person and then, you know, bring them into your world through email marketing.
- [13:27]
A
If you're sharing a testimonial or a custom design. Having an invitation to contact you or inquire is great, too.
- [13:36]
B
Yep.
- [13:39]
A
All right. Do you blog? 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.