You hear about branding all the time when you start marketing your jewelry business, but what exactly is it and why is it so important? Learn more about this important jewelry marketing strategy.
Like many other marketing strategies, “branding” doesn’t have a clear one-size-fits-all definition. The first thing most people think of when it comes to branding is your logo. And while your logo is the foundation of your branding, there is so much more to successfully branding your jewelry business.
What is Branding?
Branding has a few definitions:
From the dictionary, branding is “the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design” or “distinctive wording or design used to identify a particular brand”.
From Entrepreneur Encyclopedia, “Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.”
In practice, your branding should include:
Your Business’ Mission
What is your jewelry brand’s mission? Tell your potential customers what your business and brand are all about. Summing this up in your mission statement will let your customers know what kind of business they are supporting. Think about your brand’s values as well. Many potential customers will buy from a brand if their values align.
Your Jewelry Brand’s Visual Identity
Your visual identity includes your logo, any graphics you create, as well as the colors and overall look of your brand. This may include using certain font styles, whether that’s clean lines or swirly script fonts. You should also decide if your brand will give off a vibe of modern, elegant, vintage, etc. This should be everywhere. Your website, social media, emails – anything that you can customize the look of should fit the overall visual scheme of your brand.
Your Brand’s Messaging
What are you going to tell your customers? What do you want your customers to know about your brand? Maybe you want to let them know about your eco-friendly business practices, your studio pets, or your behind-the-scenes process. When you post a photo/video or write an email, think about the things your customer would most like to know about you. Consider writing a tagline that embodies your business and brand in one sentence or phrase.
Your Brand’s Voice
Once you’ve decided what to tell your customers, decide how you should convey the message. This is the time to decide on your brand’s personality. Do you prefer to maintain an air of high-end elegance or do you have a bit of a quirky and fun personality? Again, this should come across through all of your channels and any employees should be given guidelines for how to interact with customers.
Why is Branding your Jewelry Business Important?
Branding is a lot of work. But it’s worth it! Think of a brand you know and love. Why do you prefer that brand over another? Many successful branding campaigns make us believe their product is better than a very similar item - sometimes it’s true, sometimes the off-brand version is just as good. Either way, we begin to form a brand loyalty because we believe every product is going to give us the same happy feeling when we buy it.
Your branding is your chance to connect with your customers and share your mission statement. Every time a customer interacts with your brand, they should feel like they are speaking with you. Use this time to explain who you are as a person and a business. The more they get to know you, the more likely they are to come back for more jewelry.
Most importantly, branding distinguishes your jewelry from every other jewelry business on the market. It should show your customers why they should pick your jewelry over another brand. When someone thinks of quality handmade jewelry, you want them to think of you! Having a consistent and quality branding strategy will help portray your business as a highly trustable jewelry brand. It will also make your brand more recognizable so a customer can share your business with their friends and family.
As your business grows you may find that your brand is evolving - and that's fine! Many companies go through periods of re-branding. But the core of your brand should remain consistent for long-term recognition.
How to Start Branding Your Jewelry Business
Before you start designing the look of your branding essentials, it’s time to think about what defines your brand:
- How is it currently perceived and how do you want it perceived: When someone looks at your business, whether that’s on a website, social media, or at a fair, what is the first thing you’d like them to think about your brand? For example: eco-conscious, affordable quality, healing crystals, modern minimalist, vintage, high-end. Ask people how they currently perceive your jewelry and branding. Do they match?
- What makes your product stand out: With the rise of Etsy, handmade jewelry has become a common product. What makes your brand stand out? And if you’re not the cheapest option available, why should someone choose to purchase your jewelry instead of the cheaper product? Maybe you use more recycled material or have better customer service. When you package someone’s order, do you dress it up with ribbon and include a personalized note? Even having an easier check out process than other business may help your product stand out. If you use a higher quality product that’s an easy point to make – though you may have to explain to customers the difference between the products (i.e. gold-plated vs. gold-filled).
Jewelry Branding Foundations
Your logo and color scheme are going to be the most visible part of your branding, so you want to make sure these are consistent across all channels. It’s okay to have a main logo and an alternate option, but you don’t want to create too many. For an in-depth look at creating your logo and other graphic design basics, check out this article on graphic design basics. Again with the color scheme, it’s okay to occasionally use other colors than your selected palette. What you want to avoid is using too many colors too often. Try to stick with a general palette. For example, at Halstead you’ll see a lot of deep red (we call it Halstead Red) mixed with white, black, and gray. But we do mix in other colors depending on the situation and theme.
Expand your Visual Identity
Beyond your logo and color scheme, there is a lot more to think of when you’re creating a visual identity for your brand.
- When you take photos, what will the backgrounds include? This could remain consistent or you may choose to make seasonal backgrounds.
- When you post photos on social media, do you want to use a particular filter? Some brands also like to create a pattern in their Instagram grid.
- What are your show displays going to look like? Think about the tables you want and the display holders as well as the signage you’d like to show off. If you have a physical store, you may want to make your temporary displays an extension of your store branding.
- How will your packaging fit into your branding? You can keep it simple with a branded necklace card or you can take it up a notch by adding jewelry boxes, colored paper shreds, etc.
- What marketing collateral will you need and how will you incorporate your brand? This might include business cards, information cards (i.e. product care), small brochures that tell your story, etc.
Always remember the key to effectively creating a visual identity is consistency across all of your marketing channels.
Establish a Brand Voice
Your jewelry business branding should be a reflection of who you are as a person. Think about your personality traits and incorporate them into your business. Your branding should quickly and easily convey your brand’s personality/voice. The easiest way to convey your voice is in your copy. Think about the words you want to say and how you want to embellish them – do you want to get straight to the point in a social media post or tell a story in every post? You may also want to include your jewelry story as a way to connect with your customers.
You won’t always be a one-person shop, so make sure you establish some guidelines for employees about the personality of your brand. Of course we always want friendly customer service, but think about smaller details as well. If one person loves to use emojis on social media and the other doesn’t, you may want to establish guidelines for using them (yes/no, how often, etc.).
Establishing your jewelry business branding isn’t always going to be an easy task, but when it’s done well it will certainly pay off in the end. Distinguish yourself and your jewelry from the other options on the market and connect with your customers to ensure long-term relationships.
Check out these other jewelry marketing tips:
Turn Your Artist Bio Into Your Jewelry Story
