b'THE STATE OF THE THE JEWELRY THE COLOREDMAJORS DIAMOND DESIGN STONE MARKETINDUSTRYCompanies should also take ad-vantage of Instagram Stories tools,JEWELRY BRANDS like the ability to ask questionsI think editorial and conduct polls, to further facil- [content]DOING IT RIG HTitate a dialogue with establishedis critically and potential customers. important toIrene NeuwirthThe best thing a brand canany emerging or have happen is when a customerestablished brand.JW: Its really hard to have an buys a piece of jewelry, [she] be- Thats how youeponymous brand and find a comes an advocate for the brandway to balance your brand and and extends the story further. Ifbuild your brandspersonal life [on social media], you can make that story easy andsoul, other thanand I think she does a really simple for [customers] to under- having a greatsuperb job of that.stand and articulate to friendsproduct that and family, they become almostpeople believe in.Jemma Wynneanother marketing platform Jenna Wise, themselves, concludes Mortimer. The StoneJW: Jemma Wynne does Set Studio a great job of direct selling. DONT FORGET Theyre good at communicating THE WEBSITE messages like new pieces in or A website provides a destina- DM us if you have a stone you tion where all conversations andwant to reset. Theyre great at connections forged through social media lead. educating the custom-Its also the place where a lot ofer that they can be a jewelry brands are getting it wrong. partner if they have I feel like I get confused on jewel- a stone or want to ry websites because a lot of the time,breathe new life into there is no story, Mortimer says.their wedding band.But a website can be a great platform to talk about the story, the craft, your narrative, where you source your materials, who you are and sharePlus, she notes, the behind-the-scenes view. a websites content and keywords are essential for He says sharing a story through asearch engine optimization, or SEO, helping brands company website is even more import- rise to the top in search results so theyre easily dis-ant than showcasing the product. coveredby consumers.Wise agrees that websites filledCreating editorial content can even form the with little more than jewelry productbasis of a companys marketing strategy.shots are missed opportunities forWise advises asking oneself, whats the long-form brands to gain customers. angle here?Creating website content, such asIf you were to write a blog post or article about articles talking about the brand, itssomething you could then break it down into short- founder, the design process or even in- form content that could live on Instagram, Face-terviewing other creatives aligned withbook, YouTube, e-mail newsletterswherever you the companys brand ethos, are all wayshave a presence, she explains. to demonstrate what the brand is. The same goes for imagery. As traditional print media declines,The long-form version of visual content is a consumers are more likely to consumecollection campaign, comprised of at least 10-30 their content from a variety of digitalimages, plus a one- to two-minute video that sources. Again, creating editorial contentcan be edited into smaller snippets. From there, in the same vein as a magazine is a greatindividual images and videos can be shared across strategy to set a brand apart. all channels.I think editorial [content] is critically important to any emergingTaking it one step further, Wise says that for paid media, or ads, or established brand, says Wise. Thats how you build your brandsbrands can then distill that content into ad formats. soul, other than having a great product that people believe in. And that, she says, is how you build a revenue-driving business. 58 STATE OF THE MAJORS 2019'