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Success With Jewelry
163 - Laryssa and Liz on Why Email Marketing Still Drives Jewelry Sales (Even When Social Media Changes)
00:17:26
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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 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
- [00:22]
A
Joya and I'm Liz, your creative compass and advocate for designers doing things differently. I I live for brilliant brand storytelling, beautiful visuals, and helping designers confidently show up and shine. I founded the Stagold Collective to create community and support for independent jewelry brands.
- [00:39]
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 163. Today we're revisiting email marketing. Not because it's new, but because it still works. While everyone is chasing social media growth, email remains one of the most reliable ways to drive consistent sales in a jewelry business. If you want more predictable revenue, stronger client relationships, and less dependence on algorithms, this matters. And for insiders, we'll go deeper into what to actually send and how often to send it and how to turn your list into a study sales channel. Let's get into it.
- [01:29]
C
Liz, we touched upon my very favorite topic today.
- [01:34]
A
I know this is like your episode. Well, I mean all the email ones really are. But yeah, what. What's going on with email right now?
- [01:43]
B
I mean it's still the thing I'm the most excited about in marketing right now, I think because if a brand has done the work of building a list, it doesn't even have to necessarily be a huge list, but a list of like engaged people that there's so much that can be done with that. And to your point, I think you just said it more of like a predictable revenue generator. So there's a lot of exciting things you could do with it.
- [02:09]
A
The fact that you own your list and you have those emails and of course people can unsubscribe but you know your email is hitting the inbox versus with social media, things are one constantly changing. I just saw a post that was like and I'd been suspect of this for a while but reels are no longer it. So if you put all of your time and energy into Reels news, I know that's not it anymore. It's carousel posts And I still argue single image posts with a strong caption that somebody can relate to I think are great. But anyway, that's always changing and it could go away tomorrow. And you're only about 20% of your followers are actually seeing your content. I made up that percentage. I don't know if that's a true percentage, but that's what it feels like.
- [02:59]
B
To echo your point about your list actually seeing your email in their inbox, the other thing that's really cool about it is it's one or two clicks away from the cart. So an email is likely sending someone to a product page or to a collection page, and from there they can go to cart. On social media, it's like who knows where, what, how who what is clicking and how they're going to get anywhere. There's no clear path to purchase from any social media platform. Well, maybe Pinterest, but that's a whole
- [03:34]
C
other story because you have no control
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B
over who's like, seeing those pins.
- [03:40]
A
Something I really like about email too is it feels very personal. Even though you're writing a email to a list, it feels more intimate because it's showing up in my inbox and it feels like you're talking to me, especially if you write it in a way that is more personal. So also, the people on your list are warmer to what you're selling, so they're not necessarily finding you from an Explore page and have no idea about who you are and what your brand is. So they're more intrigued by what you're doing.
- [04:11]
B
Totally. Yes, they are. As to your point, in a warmer place, I think that's why, that's why
- [04:18]
C
I like email too, because it's not
- [04:22]
B
as hard of a sell to be speaking to someone that's already familiar with you as opposed to higher up in the funnel. When someone's just doing discovery or stumbling upon you through search or social media, you're dealing with an audience that already has some level of knowledge about your brand.
- [04:43]
A
I really appreciate with my email list, I often do a call to action that's like hit reply and tell me how you're feeling or hit reply and let me know what your goals are this month and things like that. And getting those responses then really that's a strong lead and it's a relationship builder and we're creating connection there. And I think that's a powerful thing. Yeah.
- [05:11]
B
And we mostly have been talking about campaigns. But the other thing that is so powerful and maybe the most powerful about email marketing is all the stuff you can set up to work automatically and behind the scenes without you having to like send a campaign. So automations or flows like they're doing all the work of engaging your audience behind the scenes. And in many cases those can be the most powerful revenue revenue driver for your business. Not just the campaigns, but the flows as well.
- [05:42]
A
Can you talk a little bit about must have flows?
- [05:46]
B
Oh yeah, I got to go to definitely a welcome. Everyone needs a welcome flow that is non negotiable. And then the ones that we typically set up as like our starter pack for clients would be welcome all the abandonment flows. So browse abandoned cart abandon and checkout abandon. A sunset flow, which is a mechanism to kind of suss out and literally sunset or move away people that are no longer engaged post purchase flow, which is like a thank you and then customer win back would be the last one. So that is a flow that tries to engage people who have placed an order with you before, but it's been a period of time where they have not come back for like their second or third or fourth order.
- [06:44]
A
I only have a welcome flow for myself. All of those sound really important. I'm not an email marketing expert, though Larissa definitely is. But the welcome email is so important because somebody could sign up for your list and they'll be very excited about your brand and you might not have an email scheduled to send out for another week or another couple weeks. So you want to hit them right when they're most excited about you and your brand.
- [07:08]
B
Definitely. Yeah. And a big mistake with that one that I see is not building it out enough. Like I would say, most brands that I audit maybe have literally just one welcome email or maybe two. And a lot of times if there's more than one, they're just kind of
- [07:25]
C
saying the same thing over and over.
- [07:28]
B
And so it's really about. The key word here is series. It's a series of emails about four where a story is told over the course of those four emails. And you're not just like repeating yourself over and over.
- [07:42]
A
I also see a mistake with welcome emails where they don't. Where you designers don't edit the template. So it's like a very straightforward. Or they tweak it a little bit, but they're not really saying anything. And I think that's. That's not great either. Your emails, you want to say it's kind of.
- [08:01]
B
I thought this would be a good
- [08:02]
A
topic post our blogging conversation because being niche and authentic with your emails too can be really impactful and lead to More connection and then ultimately more trust and more sales. So that's just something to keep in mind. You don't want to just be putting out content to put out content. You want to have a strategy with it. And to Larisa's point, a series, something that you think out versus doing it just because you. We said it because it's on the to do list.
- [08:31]
C
Well, that's what it feels like not to call anyone out because I get it.
- [08:35]
B
It's hard.
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C
It's work. You have to set aside time to do this.
- [08:39]
B
But it's effort to try to, like, make this your own. And very tempting to just go in
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C
and say, okay, click a checkbox. And I did it because, like, Liz and Larissa told me to, like.
- [08:51]
B
No, you have to really be intentional about it.
- [08:54]
A
Can you talk a little bit? This is not on my outline, but I'm wondering, and maybe this is a larger episode, but can you talk a little bit about segmentation?
- [09:03]
C
Yeah, definitely.
- [09:05]
B
If you have a smaller list, like less than, let's say I'm going to make up a number less than 5,000, which I would guess most people listening, that's where they're at with email marketing. I will be totally honest with you. I don't think segmentation is that important because your list is so small that segments are not really going to give you a big enough advantage for you to try to, like, futz with them. I think at that stage too, you're probably not sending more than once a week. And so segmentation is kind of more beneficial when you have a bigger audience to work with and you're sending like multiple times a week, you have lots of different messages that you're putting out. Otherwise, a segmentation just for the the sake of it, like, isn't going to totally move the needle. If you're at like 5,000 plus and you're at a place where you're sending more than once a week, then, yeah, I would say, like, start doing segments. But all that being said, I do think it's important for everyone, no matter what their list size is, to have a segment of disengaged subscribers because you don't want to be emailing those people no matter what your list size is. And when I say disengage subscribers, that means usually someone has been on your list for 90 days or more. And within that period of 90 days, they have never opened, they've never clicked, they've never gone to your site, they haven't taken any action at all. That's someone that you don't want to be emailing.
- [10:47]
A
I have another question that could probably be its whole own episode as well. But how do you stay out of the spam inbox?
- [10:57]
B
Yes, this could be its own episode. There are, there are a lot of, there are a lot of factors, some of which are very technical and some of which are more like content based. So the technical part is just making sure that your email account is set up properly and that your domain is verified. I don't want to get like too much into the weeds of this because it can be like very technical. But when you're sending email marketing through a platform like Klaviyo or whatever other platform, your domain, which is like at your website.com, your email address, there needs to be some steps of verification done in your domain settings so that when your email hits like a Gmail inbox or whatever Hotmail inbox, Gmail can confidently say this is like a verified sender and this is not spam. So there are a few like technical things that need to be set up, otherwise the chance of you ending in spam is very high. Gmail is trying to protect its users from spam. So there's a technical part of it and then there's kind of like a content and list hygiene part of it too. If I talked before about having like a segment of disengaged subscribers that you don't want to be emailing. If you're constantly emailing people that are not engaging with you, there's like a algorithm of sorts that Gmail has that they know. Oh, Lizuccesswithjewelry.com keeps emailing people that don't care. So this must be spam. And you will be more likely to end up in other people's spam folders too. So that's why it's really important to only be emailing people that are engaging back with you, because it's like a positive reinforcement signal that you are not a spammer. And then also content wise, you just want to not email things that are spam. Like, you know, you want to provide value. You don't want to overwhelm your audience. You want to send emails that like are easy to read and digest and that people will want to engage with. And so like those are kind of the three main factors. The technical, the list hygiene part and then just like the content part of it.
- [13:37]
A
It's a lot to think about. I think that we said a few things so far in this episode that might scare people. So I just want to check in with them and make sure everyone is okay. But one is a list size. One is a list size of 5,000. That's obviously a huge list. It's okay to have a small list that you keep.
- [13:58]
B
Yeah, totally. A hundred percent. I'm not saying if you have less than 5,000, like don't do email marketing. I'm just saying you're going to do like a more beginner approach to it. Maybe.
- [14:13]
A
And the other thing is when you're saying about sending multiple emails a week or even weekly emails, because a lot of pushback I get with email marketing is I really don't want to bother people. I send only when I have a sale or an event, or I only want to send quarterly. And that's where email marketing won't necessarily work well.
- [14:35]
B
Okay, to my point about spam, let me tell you, this is counterintuitive, but if you're a sender that only sends when you have a sale or you only send quarterly because you're afraid of bothering people, I will put money on the fact that you are going to be more likely to end up in spam, actually.
- [14:58]
A
Because people aren't used to getting something.
- [15:00]
B
Exactly. Might have. Exactly. Find out. Yeah, being consistent, sticking to a weekly or I don't want to say it bi weekly, I would rather you send weekly schedule. It actually keeps you in better standing. You will be, you will be a healthier sender the more often that you send. I know that that sounds weird and that throws people off, but I will tell you 100% from being in the weeds of this, that that is true.
- [15:29]
A
I know you recommend once a week emails. I tend to recommend twice a month emails, which I would say is the minimum people should be sending.
- [15:37]
B
Yes, a hundred percent.
- [15:39]
C
Yeah.
- [15:40]
B
Yeah.
- [15:40]
A
And in terms of the other pushback I often get with email marketing is like kind of what do I say? And I know we've said this before, but like align the content. Like if you're going to start blogging or if you're, you have a blogging strategy or even if you simply have an Instagram strategy where you know what you're talking about on social, pull that into your emails. Or I like to start with emails and then take that apart and put it on social media, but just kind of align everything. I know sometimes when you're in it, it feels like you have nothing to say. But me as a consumer am intrigued by pretty much anything you tell me about your materials, your process, your inspiration, your brand, more details about specific products, all of that is interesting to me.
- [16:26]
B
Yes. I think I don't want to call anyone out, but I think the majority of people who are sitting there saying,
- [16:34]
C
I don't know what to say, don't have a content calendar for email marketing. Because if you sat and, like, planned
- [16:40]
B
out six months, whatever, how far you can go, you won't be trying to, like, think of a topic on the, like, obligatory day that you have to send your email.
- [16:52]
A
That's so true. I think we should revisit email marketing again next week and dig in a little bit further. But I'm gonna wrap this episode up with something that we, like, end most episodes with. But, like, consistency builds trust. So once you decide you're doing email marketing, stick with it and stay consistent. All right, do you have an email marketing strategy? 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 you. Thanks for being part of our community.