Marketing Fundamentals

12 Feb Marketing Fundamentals

In my former career, I ran the client team for a marketing agency. We looked after clients across a variety of sectors from interiors e-commerce firms through to the Waitrose Farm. Whilst they all used marketing in different ways and to different effect, they all adhered to some fundamentals, which are seen as good practice. How you go about marketing your business will have nuances depending on your marketplace, but the basics help form a solid foundation from which to start. Over the next few blogs, I will delve into some of these areas which may help you when thinking about your own marketing within the jewellery sphere. In this blog, I cover the marketing groundwork: your audience, your brand, and your tone.

Your Audience

If you’re working in the business to consumer (B2C) arena, you need to know who your target audience is. This dictates how you market to that audience and the best way to engage with them. There’s a subtle difference between your target market and target audience…if we think about children’s toys, the target market are children, but the target audience are adults. So, if you specialise in engagement rings, you’re more than likely going to have a primary target audience of men between 25 -40 and a target market of women 25-40. Look back at the clients you’ve had and then think about the ‘personas’ of these people. Think about features such as their purchasing style, cars they drive and then how these brands reach that audience. By defining 2 -3 personas, it gives you clarity on the nest steps; how to find your audience and how to pitch your tone of voice to best engage with them.

If you’re mostly business to business (B2B) you may think that marketing isn’t necessary as you’ll work off word of mouth, but marketing will still have its place in your business. For example, knowing your competitor set and understanding what they do well and what you do better, is a great way to try new tactics that could lead to an increase in revenue and more business.

Find Your Audience

Once you know who your target audience is, the next question is, where do you find them and how do you engage with them? By analysing your previous clients and having your buying personas clearly defined, it will help you know where to focus your effort and energy. I thought Instagram would be one of my biggest sources of clients, but upon recent scrutiny of how clients had found me, it turned out to be LinkedIn! This has allowed me to pivot the type of content I post on there to try and gain more clientele, whilst also looking at my Instagram copy and seeing how I can tweak that for greater engagement.

Your Brand

Think about some of the most recognisable brands in the world, like the colour used in Tiffany & Co and their logo. Or the tag line for De Beers… You know instantly, who the brand is. They are consistent. Is your branding consistent? Do you use the same logo, font, colour palette tag line and imagery across all your marketing touch points (web, boxes, business cards, bags etc)? If not – why not? According to research, 90% of potential customers expect to have a similar brand experience across different platforms (social, email, packaging etc). When an audience start to see inconsistencies in these areas, it’s a subconscious red flag. We are conditioned to respond to branding as it carries with it a certain level of trust and safety. Although it may seem like an arduous task, bringing all your digital touchpoints into line is hugely beneficial and won’t take as long as you think!

Tone of Voice

It may not seem like a big deal, but the tone of voice (ToV) your brand carries will determine the perception a client has of you. Tone of voice considers the choice of words, brand personality and emotional tone. As you’ve established your audience and personas, they will help you in defining your ToV and making sure it’s applicable. For example, if you have a target audience of women, 55+, you won’t be using colloquial terms like ‘bae’ as a term of endearment!

I used to think using ‘we’ in my marketing would make the business sound better (established, larger, busier) but part of what people like is the personal touch of bespoke jewellery, so using the first person was a selling point and therefore a better option for me. The types of words used are also important. What’s the difference between using ‘client’ vs ‘customer’? What perception does this create? Once you’ve established your ToV, you need to be consistent whilst also being aware of brand tone (you wouldn’t necessarily use the same tone in a social post as you would replying to a complaint email).

The Take Aways

Sometimes the idea of having to define some of these areas is enough to put you off from starting! However, even if you start to think about what you’re doing and how, you may find you’ve automatically adhered to some of these elements without even realising it! Some notes on your competitor set, a rough plan of your buying personas or a check of all your marketing inventory would start the ball rolling.

In the next blog I will cover website and content and how to leverage them, and the last will cover social media and different uses. If you have any questions, then feel free to contact me.