Jewellery Hints and Tips
Finding Customers
- If you want to sell through retailers, find the name of buyers
and send photographs of your work.
- Custom jewellery sells best through recommendation.
- Carefully select local craft shows. Try to find out about
previous attendance numbers. Be cautious if organisers are cagey
about previous events. Ask for an introductory discount if this is
your first time with them. If they are confident it will be useful
for you, they will probably be generous.
- Large shows like Hampton Court Flower Show, if you can afford
it, can work for some designers, but not for all. Visit these shows
first and chat to stallholders who sell work similar to yours
before committing.
- Don’t under-estimate the value of giving cards to interested
visitors to your stall at shows. Whilst you may not sell to them
immediately, if they like your work there’s a chance they will
contact you in due course, especially if their partner (usually a
husband) is inspired to use you to make a present they know their
partner will like.
- Carefully designed small ads in glossies can work if you have a
good website. Just a picture or two and your web address are
probably all you need. Contact other advertisers first to see if
they’ve had any luck with their ads. 50% discounts are not unusual,
especially for experiments. Don’t book a series until you’ve proven
the publication works.
- Jewellery is a visual art form, so Google and other textual
ways to advertise can be difficult to make work.
- Use local press to invite people to workshop / studio ‘open
days’. If your work is particularly unusual, the paper may run a
short story on you – which is free publicity. You can only do this
once, however, so maximise the opportunity. Whilst you may not
attract many people to come to your event, the PR will ensure your
name and your work become better known.
Keeping Customers
- Use email and post to stay in touch with customers (so make
sure you always get both their addresses when you sell them
something). Although email is easier and cheaper, more and more
people are using spam blockers and may change addresses every now
and again, so you stand a better chance of being noticed if you use
the post.
- Send tickets for shows and events where you’re exhibiting, to
past customers. Ask them if they’d like free extra tickets to bring
a friend. It may cost you to buy extra entry tickets (but you
should get an exhibitor discount), but it will pay dividends in
goodwill.
- If someone is buying a piece for someone’s birthday, make a
diarised note to contact them at the same time (or perhaps a little
earlier) the following year. If they bought ear-rings, for example,
maybe suggest a necklace or broach in the same style.
- Send reminders to your whole customer list in November.
Remember you must plan in enough production and despatch time as
well as any hallmarking – which can take several weeks longer in
the run-up to Christmas. Call the Assay Service first to find out
what lead times they are currently working to.
Things you must do
- Decide if you want to mass produce or produce custom pieces. It
is tempting to try to do both, but if you do get increasing orders
for a particular piece/s remember your time will be spent more on
manufacture, and less on design – which may prove less satisfying.
You may also make less money from large volumes where a significant
proportion of the retail price goes to the retailer who probably
also sets the price, than from direct sales of custom pieces.
- When you send letters, invitations and brochures by post, write
‘Dear [first name]’ in long hand at the top of each letter. Ideally
include a little personalised hand-written note at the bottom,
perhaps ‘hoping your still enjoying the necklace etc’, or just
‘hope you can make it’ if you’re inviting them somewhere.
- Make yourself known for a particular style, theme, choice of
materials, manufacturing technique etc. By experimentation to find
what people like, this will hopefully one day become your
brand.
- Insure your stock. Take advice through associations about who
is offering the best deals.
Things you must not do
- Don’t persist in trying to sell something you like, but which
you can’t sell. Be prepared to ‘murder your darlings’.
- Never compromise on quality, but be sensible about balancing
time you spend manufacturing, time spent designing and time spent
selling.
- Don’t walk into galleries with examples of your work asking to
see someone. This happens to them all day long and they’re probably
too short-staffed to pay you any attention. Better to find the name
of the person to write to with a request for an appointment, and
send them photographs of your work together with a short CV. You
can then follow-up with a phone call.
- Don’t buy too much stock even if you’ve negotiated a good
discount. Not only is it a security risk, you may not be able to
sell fast enough to justify your cash being tied up.
Things to be cautious about
- Security is always an issue. Be particularly careful at shows.
Think about investing in display cabinets. They can make you look
more exclusive, but may also put off browsing impulse
customers.
Other tips
- Pricing your work is always difficult. Artists tend to price
too low and struggle to recover costs. If you want to sell through
third parties, try and find out what discounts other jewellers have
negotiated. Try to agree a discount first with a retailer. Then you
can work with them to decide on the best price point to maximise
proceeds for both of you.
- If you would rather be designing than manufacturing, why not
train a junior to help, but be strict on quality control. Take
someone on for a trial period to make sure you are happy with their
workmanship. Ensuring quality is easier to do with caste
items.
- You will probably only get one outlet to stock your work in any
town. If they agree to stock you, they will probably demand you
don’t offer your work through anyone else locally. So make sure you
approach the best first.
- Training course at colleges etc can be expensive. Why not team
up with other jewellery designers you meet at shows and through
associations to arrange your own training sessions with established
lecturers and other experts. Not only will this probably better fit
in with your schedules, it should be cheaper.
- Offer to train others you meet through associations and shows.
In return, ask if they’ll train you in new processes and
techniques.
- Organise your own shows with other local designers. Use village
halls or perhaps schools and churches. You may even be able to
organise evening shows at local car dealerships who are always
looking for reasons to attract visitors to their showrooms. Their
own invited customers could also prove useful prospects for you,
especially if you pick car brands you think match your work.
The One Thing You Must Do....
- Start small. Find your niche and then gradually build on that.
It can be financially dangerous and dispiriting to base your whole
business around a single theme or design, only to find it is not as
popular as you would have hoped. It may also not, in due course, be
what you want to spend your life doing. In addition, you don’t want
galleries, retailers, the press and even your marketplace to brand
you too early for something you may want or need to change. Have
fun carefully testing your markets.
Useful Services
www.assayoffice.co.uk/Services/Hallmarking.asp
- Everything about hallmarking.
www.acj.org.uk – Association for
Contemporary Jewellery. There is a membership fee, but it gives you
access to forums for advice and many more hints and tips,
advertising your services to other jewellers, finding out about
suppliers, training courses, events and much more. There may also
be a regional group http://www.acj.org.uk/pages/whoweare/regions
who will be worth getting to know. Or think about starting one
through ACJ.
www.ganoksin.com – Large showcase
for ideas, technical information, forums etc.
www.benchpeg.com – Trade classified
advertising, announcement of shows and vacancies.
www.cooksongold.com – Material
and equipment suppliers. Also useful technical knowledgebase.
www.bettsmetalsales.com –
Material and equipment suppliers.