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Filter Gold Nuggets By Tag: "Holiday Season"
Friday, December 23, 2016

Portland Oregon Search Results Review

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Portland Oregon Search Results Review daily-golden-nugget-1536-85
Happy Holidays! There are only a few hours left in the 2016 holiday shopping season as I write this. Those still doing their last minute shopping are probably thinking a little outside the normal box in order to find something good for their loved ones.

For this week's website review, I will work through a search scenario in hope to illustrate how your customers use the internet and why it's so important for you to build out your online identity much further than you might imagine. For many businesses, this is the make-or-brea...
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AT: 12/23/2016 10:31:56 AM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, November 25, 2016

Amidon Jewelers Black Friday Email & Website Review

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Amidon Jewelers Black Friday Email & Website Review daily-golden-nugget-1532-98
Over the last 6 years, I've subscribed to more jewelry email lists than I can remember. Whenever I do a website review, I look for the newsletter signup and add myself to their list. Most of the time, I never hear from those retail jewelers because they don't follow through with their email list.

Amidon Jewelers, in New Hampshire, is one of the few independent retail jewelers that I know that has consistently sent me emails since I signed up to their list way back in 2012. Years ago, they were sendi...
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AT: 11/25/2016 12:53:57 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Most Popular Mobile Devices and Resolutions from December 2015

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Most Popular Mobile Devices and Resolutions from December 2015 daily-golden-nugget-1452-10
Bring up the topic of smartphones with your friends and the conversations will soon turn into a debate over the reasons why some think the Android OS phones are better than iOS phones. While the iOS phones are only available in a limited number of models from Apple, the Android OS is available on dozens of different models from dozens of different phone manufacturers.

Regardless what your personal smartphone choice is, knowing what your customers are using will help you design a ...
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AT: 02/16/2016 09:38:43 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, February 03, 2016

2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Query Word Count and Unique Keywords

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2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Query Word Count and Unique Keywords daily-golden-nugget-1443-70
Throughout the past month, I analyzed different sets of keywords that I collected during the 2015 holiday season. Most of that research focused on overall analysis of the keyword data without breaking it down into the desktop, mobile, or tablet categories of devices. I chose that approach to save time, and quite frankly, so as not to bore everyone with too much similar information.

That said, in this edition, I am splitting apart the results to show you how the u...
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AT: 02/03/2016 08:05:17 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, February 02, 2016

2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Top Keyword Phrases

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2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Top Keyword Phrases daily-golden-nugget-1442-42
This is the last Daily Golden Nugget where I'll dive deeply into specific keyword phrases I collected during the 2015 Holiday Season. I've presented a lot of information over the last 30 days and I could spend another month sifting through it, but this stuff does get boring after a while when there's no specific goal in mind. That's an important thing to remember; it's best to perform your keyword research when you have a specific goal in mind. Every time I grind through keyword data, I seem to lose an...
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AT: 02/02/2016 12:09:18 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, January 27, 2016

2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Jeweler vs. Jewelers

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2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Jeweler vs. Jewelers daily-golden-nugget-1438-30
The difference between the singular and plural version of the same keyword phrase oftentimes represents a very specific consumer point of view. When digging into your website keyword data, it's very easy to arbitrarily group phrases together, but doing so will most likely lead you to the wrong conclusions, which translates to the wrong SEO advice, which leads to the wrong marketing advice, and eventually the wrong business direction.

You have plenty of opportunity to capture data from your websi...
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AT: 01/27/2016 09:52:54 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, January 26, 2016

2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Fine Jewelry

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2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Fine Jewelry daily-golden-nugget-1437-59
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'm going to examine more of the keyword data I collected during the 2015 holiday season, specifically the phrase "fine jewelry."

Retail jewelers and jewelry designers like to think of themselves as being in the "fine jewelry" industry, and they might even use that phrase in their advertising, but the truth is that the general public doesn't think about "fine jewelry;" they just view all jewelry as jewelry. Website research and search engine optimization activities ra...
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AT: 01/26/2016 12:21:04 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, January 20, 2016

2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Engagement Rings

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2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Engagement Rings daily-golden-nugget-1433-12
What I'm presenting today is a continuation of the 2015 Holiday Season keyword data I presented yesterday. Today, I'm reviewing my findings about search queries that contained the phrase "engagement rings."

What I have here today is similar, yet very different to the "engagement ring" information I presented yesterday. Notice the difference in the query phrase between today's plural version an...
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AT: 01/20/2016 07:22:24 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, January 19, 2016

2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Engagement Ring

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2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Engagement Ring daily-golden-nugget-1432-12
Today I'm reviewing more keyword data that I collected during the 2015 Holiday Season, specifically some of my findings about search queries that contained the phrase "engagement ring."

Take note that I said the singular form of the phrase "engagement ring," rather than the plural form "engagement rings." Originally, I was going to review both variations in today's Daily Golden Nugget like I did for my VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 01/19/2016 10:37:23 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, January 12, 2016

2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Diamonds vs Diamond

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2015 Holiday Season Keyword Data: Diamonds vs Diamond daily-golden-nugget-1427-10
Today I'm reviewing more keyword data that I collected during the 2015 Holiday Season, specifically some of my findings about search queries that contained the words diamond and diamonds.

The typical keyword phrases I've reported on in the past have not changed much at all, and includes these examples:


AT: 01/12/2016 08:36:56 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Holiday Season 2015 Keyword Data from Desktop Search Impressions and Clicks

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Holiday Season 2015 Keyword Data from Desktop Search Impressions and Clicks daily-golden-nugget-1423-53
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'm continuing my analysis of a lot of keyword data I collected during the 2015 Holiday Season. Today's information is a continuation of the organic impression and click data I previously shared.

For today's Nugget, I sorted through the 16,000 keywords collected from desktop ...
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AT: 01/06/2016 12:49:28 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Holiday Season 2015 Search Impression and Click Results for Retail Jewelers

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Holiday Season 2015 Search Impression and Click Results for Retail Jewelers daily-golden-nugget-1422-54
Now that we closed the book on the 2015 Holiday Season, it's time to review the results. Over the course of the holiday season, I captured more than 47,000 different keyword queries related to retail jeweler websites. I'm sifting through all that information to find something actionable for retail jewelers. I've been looking for things like a list of good keywords, or popular designer brands to carry, or even where to focus your energy over the next few month...
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AT: 01/05/2016 12:24:06 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, January 04, 2016

Website Session Stats from the 2015 Holiday Season

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Website Session Stats from the 2015 Holiday Season daily-golden-nugget-1421A-0
With the 2015 Holiday Season at an end, let's take a look at some website tracking results from the Thanksgiving week through Christmas.

I have a lot of data to from various retail jeweler websites. The set of data I'm referencing below was recorded across retail jewelry websites that have been active with updating their website regularly over the last 12 months. These same websites are also mobile friendly. This includes a combination of retail jewelers and ecommerce sites. Remember, the results show...
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AT: 01/04/2016 12:20:09 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, December 29, 2015

The Majority of Couples Get Engaged on Christmas Eve

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The Majority of Couples Get Engaged on Christmas Eve daily-golden-nugget-1417-36
Social media is bringing to light something that retail jewelers have known since they started selling jewelry: Christmas is when "everyone" gets engaged. According to the Chillisauce Marriage Proposal Survey, the most popular day to pop the question is Christmas Eve. Here's the bar graph with their findings:

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AT: 12/29/2015 10:53:15 AM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, December 25, 2015

Christmas Specific SERP Review

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Christmas Specific SERP Review daily-golden-nugget-1415-5
This is a special Christmas edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. Each and every Friday, I write some type of website critique or review as an educational case study. For Christmas today, I'm changing it up and reviewing a Christmas-related search engine results page.

As I started my search today by typing out "christmas jewelry ideas," Google offered me the suggestions you see here:

Christmas Specific SERP Review 1415-ch...<br />
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AT: 12/25/2015 08:58:47 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, December 24, 2015

'Twas The Jeweler's Night Before Christmas #TBT

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(We had something else planned for today, but then realized that it is #ThrowbackThursday, so why not just repost last year's poem instead? Enjoy...)

'Twas the night before Christmas, and time to close doors
after a long four weeks, the time still soars.
Did you break record sales with engagement rings sold?
Hope she says yes tomorrow; the future's untold!

While it's usually children dreaming the morning's delight;
the guys that you helped are filled with horrible fright.
You're the town's best jeweler; the men come to you;
your jewelry's the best at getting an "I do."

The times, they have changed, and there's much online chatter,
you've got to keep up, or else you won't matter.
You made mistakes then, when your website used Flash,
but you took steps; improvement when sales came to a crash....
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AT: 12/24/2015 01:50:52 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, December 03, 2015

Decorating Your Website For the Holidays #TBT

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Decorating Your Website For the Holidays TBT daily-golden-nugget-1399-7
In this edition of #ThrowbackTursday, I'm jumping back to October 2011 to the topic of website holiday themes.

In that Nugget, I explained how you could add a few small, cheerful holiday design changes to your website as well as some quick links to help holiday shoppers.

Most retail websites maintain the same design throughout the entire year even though those same businesses will dec...
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AT: 12/03/2015 10:01:06 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Organic Traffic Results For Thanksgiving and Black Friday Weekend 2015

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Organic Traffic Results For Thanksgiving and Black Friday Weekend 2015 daily-golden-nugget-1397-78
Reports from the first weekend of the big holiday season in the U.S. are in, and they are quite mixed.

Businesses both large and small tried to get a jump on the Black Friday specials this year by advertising "Black Friday" discounts throughout the four weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Early in November, a blog post on C|Net speculated that VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 12/01/2015 02:14:40 PM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, November 27, 2015

Kuhn's Jewelers Website Flop Fix

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Kuhns Jewelers Website Flop Fix daily-golden-nugget-1395-3
Welcome to the #FridayFlopFix edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, and it's also Black Friday in the U.S., the largest retail shopping day of the year for U.S. retailers.

The goal of these weekly flop fixes is to identify something on a retail jeweler's website that should be fixed. My suggestions are based on my previous experience and research. In honor of the upcoming Cyber Monday, I decided to specifically look for a retail jeweler with an e-commerce website to find some flops that need fixing. I made my search f...
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AT: 11/27/2015 12:20:42 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, November 26, 2015

302 Redirecting Your Home Page to Landing Pages #TBT

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302 Redirecting Your Home Page to Landing Pages TBT daily-golden-nugget-1394-28
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., the only national holiday that transcends all races and religions. The holiday is typically celebrated by gathering together with friends and family and enjoying an elaborate meal. The next few weeks will see huge spikes in retail store sales, and today is probably the last day off most retail store owners in the U.S. will have until Christmas Day.

I'm mentioning this because a recent review of my own Google Analytics revealed that 47% of...
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AT: 11/26/2015 10:07:05 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Customer Selfies and Testimonials that Follow FTC Guidelines

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Customer Selfies and Testimonials that Follow FTC Guidelines daily-golden-nugget-1393-39
Today is the eve of the official start of the "holiday season" in the U.S. Retail businesses have been preparing their inventory, ads, and employees for the last few months in hopes to really boost sales this year.

In a perfect world, most holiday season ads are already finalized and scheduled, but there's always the opportunity for retailers to gain a little extra publicity every day through different types of engagements with their customers.

Typ...
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AT: 11/25/2015 12:09:07 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, October 26, 2015

2015 Holiday Run-Up Summations

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2015 Holiday Run-Up Summations daily-golden-nugget-1371-26
One month ago today, I introduced the 2015 Holiday Run-Up with the premise that this year you could create several specialized marketing campaigns, or micro-campaigns, focused on singles products or groupings of products. Implementing the micro campaigns would require lots of product photography, correctly targeting your customers, writing lots of product content, sharing that product content to social media, coordinating...
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AT: 10/26/2015 08:40:32 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, October 22, 2015

Setting Up Google AdWords Express #TBT: 2015 Holiday Run-Up

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Setting Up Google AdWords Express TBT: 2015 Holiday Run-Up daily-golden-nugget-1369-39
It's #ThrowbackThursday, and it's also the 19th installment of my special 2015 Holiday Run-Up series. Over the last 30 days, I've written out holiday marketing steps for Pinterest, Google+, VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 10/22/2015 12:25:28 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, October 21, 2015

How To Measure Offline ROI: 2015 Holiday Run-Up

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How To Measure Offline ROI: 2015 Holiday Run-Up daily-golden-nugget-1368-93
"Save the clock tower! Hey kid, save the clock tower. Lightning struck that thing, 60 years ago!"

Today is Back to the Future Day, the day predicted in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II (BTTFII) where Marty McFly and Doc Emmett Brown race to the future--Wednesday, October 21, 2015--to save the McFly family from a horrible fate.

During that iconic silver screen time jump, the movie VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 10/21/2015 09:44:35 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Instant Gratification and Long Term Investment in Your Website: 2015 Holiday Run-Up

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Instant Gratification and Long Term Investment in Your Website: 2015 Holiday Run-Up daily-golden-nugget-1367-37
As I write this, I'm indulging in a very large pumpkin muffin. It will quite possibly be my lunch for today even though I know it's just a quick fix of food and not the type that could sustain me for more than a few hours.

Our lives are filled with quick fixes of one type or another. Many advertising tactics feed into the need to satisfy the human nature for a quick fix. In the website and e-commerce realm, we of...
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AT: 10/20/2015 12:35:50 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, October 19, 2015

Discover Your Own Social Media Timing and Scheduling: 2015 Holiday Run-Up

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Discover Your Own Social Media Timing and Scheduling: 2015 Holiday Run-Up daily-golden-nugget-1366-51
The time needed to manage social media can easily eat up most of your day. Over the last few weeks, I've detailed a lot of social media tactics in this 2015 Holiday Run-Up series. If you've missed out on the discussion so far, then go back to the beginning here and catch up.

As I've detailed steps for VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 10/19/2015 09:41:14 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, October 15, 2015

Why To Post To Google+ #TBT: 2015 Holiday Run-Up

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Why To Post To Google+ TBT: 2015 Holiday Run-Up daily-golden-nugget-1364-67
In today's #ThrowbackThursday, I'm jumping back to January 2014 to my directions on how to post to Google+. This is also a continuation of my special 2015 Holiday Run-Up series giving you the tactics you need to help boost your sales this upcoming season.

I've already given you steps and tactics for VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 10/15/2015 11:15:17 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Simple Explanation and Twitter Usage Suggestions: 2015 Holiday Run-Up

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Simple Explanation and Twitter Usage Suggestions: 2015 Holiday Run-Up daily-golden-nugget-1363-53
I've covered topics of Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram so far in this Run-Up to the 2015 Holiday season. This is my 14th installment in this special Daily Golden Nugget series to help you boost your 2015 holiday sales.

If you're just joining in for the first time, then you should review the outline of this series I explained here. I'...
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AT: 10/14/2015 12:34:12 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Instagram Videos and Marketing Campaigns: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Instagram Videos and Marketing Campaigns: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1362-92
This is the continuation of my annual Daily Golden Nugget "Holiday Run-Up" series loaded up with step-by-step explanations of how to make the most of your holiday season advertising. The focus of this Run-Up is how to make the most of your product advertising to attract customers through multiple media methods. This is the 13th installment of the Run-Up, and this series still has a few more days before I finish all the topics that should make a positive impact on ...
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AT: 10/13/2015 12:52:41 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, October 12, 2015

Pinterest Pinning and Marketing Campaigns: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Pinterest Pinning and Marketing Campaigns: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1361-33
This is Part 11 of my annual special Daily Golden Nugget "Holiday Run-Up" series packed with tactics to help you during November and December this year. I started this series 3 weeks ago with directions for all the initial steps needed to prepare for the information you'll find in these last few run-up days. The initial marketing strategies overview is here....
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AT: 10/12/2015 10:44:34 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, October 08, 2015

How-to Boost a Facebook Post #TBT: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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How-to Boost a Facebook Post TBT: : Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1359-92

This is probably the Daily Golden Nugget you've been waiting for! Over the last few weeks I've been working through several topics related to marketing for the upcoming holiday season. This is part 10 in that special Holiday Run-Up series, and it's also a #ThrowbackThursday edition.

I'm not throwing back too far in this one, only to August 2014, when I explained how to use Facebook's VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 10/08/2015 11:57:15 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, October 07, 2015

Prevent Your Facebook Boosted Posts From Getting Rejected: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Prevent Your Facebook Boosted Posts From Getting Rejected: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1358-88
This is Part 9 of my annual special Daily Golden Nugget "Holiday Run-Up" series packed with tactics to help you during November and December this year. I started this series with an overview of the marketing strategies that have worked over the last 12 months and have been expanding on each idea every day since.

Today I'...
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AT: 10/07/2015 11:13:20 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, October 06, 2015

Product Photoshoot Tips When Ultimate Photo Use Is Unknown: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Product Photoshoot Tips When Ultimate Photo Use Is Unknown: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1357-79
This is Part 8 of my annual special Daily Golden Nugget "Holiday Run-Up" series packed with tactics to help you during November and December this year. I started this series with an overview of the marketing strategies that have worked over the last 12 months and have been expanding on each idea every day since.

Today ...
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AT: 10/06/2015 11:44:42 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, October 05, 2015

Online Product Information Leads to Purchase Decisions: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Online Product Information Leads to Purchase Decisions: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1356-6
This is Part 7 of a multi-day Daily Golden Nugget series packed with tactics to help you in your 2015 holiday marketing. The series started with the overview of 2015 holiday marketing strategies and has continued since.

In this edition, I'll explain ways you can plan your product content to correspond to the holiday ads you have ...
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AT: 10/05/2015 11:00:53 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, October 01, 2015

Donating Gift Cards to Local Charity Events #TBT: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Donating Gift Cards to Local Charity Events TBT: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1354-62
For today's edition of #ThrowbackThursday, I want to jump back to a Nugget from November 2013. In it, I gave ideas on how to use gift certificates as a reputation management tool. That idea, which is still very viable today, is to donate a gift certificate to your local charity in exchange for asking them to write an online review. VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 10/01/2015 11:03:42 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Directions for First Time Users of Facebook Audience Insights: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Directions for First Time Users of Facebook Audience Insights: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1353-73
This is Part 5 of a multi-day Daily Golden Nugget series packed with tactics to help you in your 2015 holiday marketing. The series started with the overview of 2015 holiday marketing strategies.

In this edition, I'll show you how to use the Facebook Audience Insights tool to build and save a target audience fo...
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AT: 09/30/2015 07:01:37 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Uploading Your Customer List to Facebook Custom Audience: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Uploading Your Customer List to Facebook Custom Audience: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1352-38
This is Part 4 of a multi-day Daily Golden Nugget series packed with tactics to help you in your 2015 holiday marketing. The series started with the overview of 2015 holiday marketing strategies. Today I'm specifically covering the topic of...

Choosing Your Target Audience


When deciding on the items to promote...
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AT: 09/29/2015 11:28:54 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 28, 2015

Understanding Product Photos for Ads and Social Use: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Understanding Product Photos for Ads and Social Use: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1351-82
This is Part 3 of a multi-day Daily Golden Nugget series packed with tactics to help you in your 2015 holiday marketing. The series started with the overview of 2015 holiday marketing strategies. Today I'm specifically covering the topic of...

Photography: When More is Not Just More


A professional photographer has a kee...
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AT: 09/28/2015 06:54:49 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, September 24, 2015

Using Domain Names to Track Offline Ads: Holiday 2015 Run-up #TBT

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Using Domain Names to Track Offline Ads: Holiday 2015 Run-up TBT daily-golden-nugget-1349-46
This is the #ThrowbackThursday edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, but it also has a special tie-in to my ongoing Run-up series of 2015 Holiday Season Marketing Preparedness. The throwback doesn't go back too far, in fact it's a year ago today when I originally wrote about using different domain names to track your offline marketing. I've since...
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AT: 09/24/2015 07:45:42 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Branding Your Holiday Advertising: Holiday 2015 Run-up

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Branding Your Holiday Advertising: Holiday 2015 Run-up daily-golden-nugget-1348-86
This is Part 2 of a multi-day Daily Golden Nugget series packed with tactics to help you in your 2015 holiday marketing. The series started yesterday with the overview of 2015 holiday marketing strategies. I'm breaking down each section of that overview into a more detailed Daily Nugget.

Beginning with...

Create a Uniform Branding With Your Ads


Acc...
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AT: 09/23/2015 11:42:05 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Run-Up Planning for the 2015 Holiday Season

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Run-Up Planning for the 2015 Holiday Season daily-golden-nugget-1347-81
Another summer has come to a close and the holiday season is almost here. No matter what the financial forecasts say, I want to give you some current ideas to improve your marketing methods, and hopefully your sales, through the end of this year.

Create a Uniform Branding With Your Ads


I'd like to start with a suggestion for you to review the ads you are already planning for this season. Instead of running standalone ads this year, you can use all the potential advertising methods...
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AT: 09/22/2015 11:04:07 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Shifting Away From Traditional Media to Smarter Digital Ad Spending

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Shifting Away From Traditional Media to Smarter Digital Ad Spending daily-golden-nugget-1342-58
The holiday season is quickly approaching and you need to consider how you will be spending your advertising dollars. Will you hold an event promoted with post cards and phone calls? Will you have a Black Friday sale promoted in the local newspaper? What medium will you use for your weekly ads for the holiday season?

There are a lot more choices now than just newspapers, post cards, billboards, TV, and radio. VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 09/15/2015 09:43:22 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Review Your Marketing Results From Last Year Before Planning This Year

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Review Your Marketing Results From Last Year Before Planning This Year daily-golden-nugget-1332-94
September has a strange place on my yearly calendar. I view it as a month that tries to maintain a death grip on the hot days of summer while also revealing the temperatures and colors of the fall. I remember how it was to dread the beginning of the school year, and now, even though I'm not a parent myself, I can appreciate how parents feel now to have their children occupied all day again.

As a consultant serving the jewelry industry, I n...
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AT: 09/01/2015 09:17:58 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, January 15, 2015

2014 Holiday Keyword Data from Google Image Search

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2014 Holiday Keyword Data from Google Image Search daily-golden-nugget-1169-47
Google Image search has really started to mature. Not just in its ability to find and surface images, but also with the way that people are using it.

In fact, if you look at this Nugget from last week, you'll see that 75% of the search impressions are generated through Google Image Search and 57% of actual organic visitors come from Google Image Search too.

The image searc...
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AT: 01/15/2015 09:39:38 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, January 14, 2015

2014 Holiday Keyword Report for Repairs, Watches, & Services

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2014 Holiday Keyword Report for Repairs, Watches, & Services daily-golden-nugget-1168-52
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'll provide some research based information about mobile keyword search data collected during the 2014 Holiday Season.

Cross reference your own sales figures and website analytics against this data, and use it to improve your future marketing. The findings here should be useful to you all year long, but especially as you start planning your website content and marketing for the 2015 Holiday Season.

My analysis today will focus on a ...
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AT: 01/14/2015 08:21:04 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, January 12, 2015

2014 Holiday Keyword Report for Jewelers, Jewelry, and Jewelry Stores

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2014 Holiday Keyword Report for Jewelers, Jewelry, and Jewelry Stores daily-golden-nugget-1166-83
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'm exploring keyword data collected between November 1 and December 31, 2014 from many retail jeweler websites.

I collected a large amount of keyword data from people using Google's desktop search, mobile search, and image search. The mobile search data is very interesting. Last week, I presented th...
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AT: 01/12/2015 10:02:43 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, January 08, 2015

2014 Holiday Diamond and Engagement Ring Mobile Search Report

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2014 Holiday Diamond and Engagement Ring Mobile Search Report daily-golden-nugget-1164-16
When using Google Webmaster Tools, you can view which search queries will trigger your website to appear in search results. In the past when we SEO guys would spew the phrase "search queries" it was just a fancy name for saying "keywords." In fact, you can say "search queries," and "keywords," and "search phrases" and mean the same thing.

Regardless what you called it, all you wanted to do was put the right words on your website that correspond to what people search for in the dif...
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AT: 01/08/2015 09:54:29 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, January 07, 2015

November and December 2014 Web Keyword Data for Retail Jewelers

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November and December 2014 Web Keyword Data for Retail Jewelers daily-golden-nugget-1163-36
Throughout 2014, Google made several advancements in their search engine and gave us some new reports in Google Webmaster Tools to see the results of those advancements.

Specifically, from within Webmaster Tools you can easily see when your website appeared in web search results, images search results, and mobile search results. During the first quarter of 2014, I started noticing retail jewelry websites appearing in image results more than ever before, and the Webmaster Tools ...
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AT: 01/07/2015 12:27:16 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Website Session Stats from 2014 Holiday Season

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Website Session Stats from 2014 Holiday Season daily-golden-nugget-1158-30
With the 2014 Holiday Season at an end, let's take a look at some website tracking results from the Thanksgiving week through Christmas.

The following data was recorded through more than 100 jewelry related websites. This includes a combination of retail jewelers and e-commerce sites. Results shown here only apply to the jewelry industry.

Holiday 2014 Sessions


Here's a screen shot of my Google Analytics tracking across the retail jewelry websites I'm tracking:

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AT: 12/31/2014 01:52:45 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Email Marketing Stats From 2014 Holiday Season

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Email Marketing Stats From 2014 Holiday Season daily-golden-nugget-1157-38
The 2014 Holiday Season has come to a close and it's time to review your marketing strategies and record the results for next year's season.

I've compiled some email details that you can use as a benchmark for your own strategies.

I've subscribed to hundreds of email newsletters from retail jewelry stores, large and small e-commerce jewelry sites, and a few chain stores. This is a graph showing the quantity of emails I received from all those senders from November 1, 2014 through December 26, 2014:
...
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AT: 12/30/2014 08:03:56 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, December 24, 2014

'Twas The Jeweler's Night Before Christmas...

by Matthew Perosi and George Blair IV
'Twas the night before Christmas, and time to close doors
after a long four weeks, the time still soars.
Did you break record sales with engagement rings sold?
Hope she says yes tomorrow; the future's untold!

While it's usually children dreaming the morning's delight;
the guys that you helped are filled with horrible fright.
You're the town's best jeweler; the men come to you;
your jewelry's the best at getting an "I do."

The times, they have changed, and there's much online chatter,
you've to to keep up, or else you won't matter.
You made mistakes then, when your website used Flash,
but you took steps; improvement when sales came to a crash.

Your jewelry designs always win Best in Show,
but your website's sad ranking had fallen too slow.
With new learning, you hoped an answer'd appear...
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AT: 12/24/2014 08:30:38 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, December 18, 2014

2014 Holiday Season Website Statistics

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2014 Holiday Season Website Statistics daily-golden-nugget-1149-70
Here are the website tracking statistics from mid-November through mid-December 2014. As usual, these results are pulled from the group of 100+ retail jewelry websites that I monitor and the results might not apply to any other industry.

4-Weeks of Holiday Data


Here's the graphical representation of the sessions I've been tracking:

2014 Holiday Season Website Statistics 1149-google-analytics-sessions-overvie...<br />
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AT: 12/18/2014 08:10:01 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Holiday Season Email Marketing and Landing Page Review

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Holiday Season Email Marketing and Landing Page Review daily-golden-nugget-1148-17

The 2014 Holiday Season is flying by. Hanukkah began last night and Christmas Eve is one week from today.

Holiday decorations are everywhere, even on Google's search results...

Holiday Season Email Marketing and Landing Page Review 1148-google-holiday-serps-97 VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 12/17/2014 08:05:12 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, December 03, 2014

2014 Website Activity for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and November

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2014 Website Activity for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and November daily-golden-nugget-1138-68
Here are the website tracking statistics from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday in 2014. As usual, these results are pulled from the group of 100+ retail jewelry websites that I monitor and the results might not apply to any other industry.

November 2014 Sessions


Let's first take a look at this chart from Google Analytics:

2014 Website Activity...<br />
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AT: 12/03/2014 12:59:17 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Reporting The Number of Black Friday Related Emails in November 2014

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Reporting The Number of Black Friday Related Emails in November 2014 daily-golden-nugget-1137-resized-99
It's time to kick off my yearly report of email subject lines throughout the holiday season. This is my breakdown of "Black Friday" emails throughout November 2014.

As part of my email tracking, I'm subscribed to hundreds of different email lists. Every month, I monitor trends and techniques to see how email marketing is evolving. During the month of November, I received almost 1000 emails building towards the launch of the holiday season. VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 12/02/2014 12:33:06 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, December 01, 2014

How To Drive Website Traffic and Sales on Cyber Monday

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How To Drive Website Traffic and Sales on Cyber Monday daily-golden-nugget-1136-28
As the internet and online shopping have become more popular over the last few years, today, the first Monday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday, has earned the designation as Cyber Monday. This is the day when many e-commerce websites have 24 hour sales to lure shoppers to spend their money online instead of shopping in local stores.

Every year comScore.com reports the sales figures for different shopping days through the holiday season. Although the calendar date of Cyber Monday changes ever...
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AT: 12/01/2014 08:06:16 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, November 27, 2014

Reason Why Online Ad Costs Increase During the Holiday Season

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Reason Why Online Ad Costs Increase During the Holiday Season daily-golden-nugget-1134-45
It's the Thanksgiving Holiday in the United States. For many years, this day marked the official point on the calendar as the start of the holiday season in the US. Not too long ago, you wouldn't see a single Christmas Tree or holiday decorations in a store until the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade would march down the streets of New York and not a word about Christmas was mentioned until Santa Claus went by on that last float, giving us the go-ahea...
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AT: 11/27/2014 08:51:06 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Google Shopping and Double Management of Your Inventory

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Google Shopping and Double Management of Your Inventory daily-golden-nugget-1133-61
I've seen a lot of chatter online recently and in business magazines about the management of store inventory and how it relates to online advertising. Many of the conversations stem from the requirements for the new online advertising system called Google Shopping and how it will help online sales for this holiday season.

For today, the eve of Thanksgiving in the United States, I wanted to briefly cover the topic of online inventory, inventory uploads, and how that works with Google Shopping.<...
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AT: 11/26/2014 09:43:11 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, October 20, 2014

Referral Websites That Work for Retail Jewelers

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Referral Websites That Work for Retail Jewelers daily-golden-nugget-1106-2-66
We're now in the last two weeks of October and a lot of holiday promotions are about to launch. You've probably already completed your own marketing and all the publication dates have been set. In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'll go over some last minute online marketing referral sources that you still have time to set up this week.

Your customers will find you through many online sources. Some of those sources will be your own paid marketing, while other people arrive through organic tra...
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AT: 10/20/2014 12:24:11 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, October 13, 2014

Google Analytics: Segmenting Mobile Traffic

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Google Analytics: Segmenting Mobile Traffic daily-golden-nugget-1101-95
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'll bring to a close a multi-part series of holiday marketing for the 2014 season. This is the 11th part of the series all based around the unified topic of marketing for the 2014 season.

In this series, I started with explaining how to organize your marketing, then showed you how to set up tracking of that marketing, and concluded with a few posts showing you how to read the tracking results.

I've including the previous 10 related posts at the bottom, but you don't...
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AT: 10/13/2014 11:25:03 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, October 06, 2014

Examples of Scrollmap Usage

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Examples of Scrollmap Usage daily-golden-nugget-1096-78In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'll show you how to use a scrollmap to help analyze a product page. A scrollmap is a created by monitoring the up and down scrolling of your website visitors to reveal which part of the page are viewed most often. The brightest areas show what users have seen the most, while the darker areas show what has been viewed the least.

Although you can read today's Nugget as a single post about scrollmap usage, this is a continuation of a longer series designed to help you with your 2014 hol...
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AT: 10/06/2014 07:13:05 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, October 02, 2014

Google Analytics: Exit Page Report

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Google Analytics: Exit Page Report daily-golden-nugget-1094-6
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'll show and explain the Exit Page report in Google Analytics.

Although this edition can stand alone as a single Nugget, it's actually part of a larger series on holiday marketing and how to analyze that marketing. This is the 8th part to that series. I've included the first 7 in a link list at the bottom of this Nugget.

Google Analytics Exit Page Report


Let's take a look at the Exit Pages report in GA. This is similar to the VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 10/02/2014 07:01:54 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Google Webmaster Tools: Top Pages Report

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Google Webmaster Tools: Top Pages Report daily-golden-nugget-1093-10
In today's edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'd like to show you how to find the keywords that people are using to find particular pages of your website.

Although this Nugget does stand on its own, it's actually part of a series of post I've written for the 2014 holiday season. This is part-7 in that complete series. I've included links to the first 6 parts at the bottom of this post.

Today we'll be looking at Google Webmaster Tools, so if you don't already have your account set up and ve...
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AT: 10/01/2014 09:06:28 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 29, 2014

Planning the Online Tracking Needed to Help Sell Your Products

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Planning the Online Tracking Needed to Help Sell Your Products daily-golden-nugget-1091-23
Throughout all of last week, I've been laying the groundwork for a complete holiday 2014 marketing plan that you can use to promote a chosen suite of items.

Here a recap:

1. You need to select some items that you'll use in your holiday promotions. Read this to find out how to select the best items.

2. You then need to plan your o...
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AT: 09/29/2014 08:52:49 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, September 25, 2014

Domain Names Used to Track How You Sell Your Products

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Domain Names Used to Track How You Sell Your Products daily-golden-nugget-1089-50
Over the last three days, I've given you some specific marketing tactics that, as a whole, would equate to a large marketing campaign for the holiday season. I began with a discussion on choosing the right products for the campaign, then explained how to VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 09/25/2014 08:43:16 AM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 22, 2014

Building a Marketing Campaign To Sell Your Products

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Building a Marketing Campaign To Sell Your Products  daily-golden-nugget-1086-68
In this edition of the Daily Golden Nugget, I'm outlining a potential marketing plan for the upcoming holiday season. My example will focus on specific items which we will build content around and share socially.

What I've written out in this guide will be good for anyone looking for a different approach to marketing for this upcoming holiday season. There's a lot of detail for the setup, implementation, and then the post-analysis of the entire campaign. You'll do the setup...
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AT: 09/22/2014 07:36:51 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, September 04, 2014

Important 2014 Marketing Dates and Sales Headlines

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Important 2014 Marketing Dates and Sales Headlines daily-golden-nugget-1074-45
Over the next 4 months, you'll have several opportunities for social media and email marketing campaigns that can be associated with special calendar events.

A quick look at my own wall calendar and I see these jumping out at me as important US dates that can tie into your marketing campaigns:

September 7, 2014: Grandparents Day
October 13, 2014: Columbus Day
October 31, 2014: Halloween
November 2, 2014: Daylight Savings Time Ends
November 11, 2014: Veterans' D...
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AT: 09/04/2014 11:10:49 AM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, December 26, 2013

Final Holiday 2013 Email Review for Retail Jewelers

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Final Holiday 2013 Email Review for Retail Jewelers 398-daily-golden-nugget-894I'd like to officially close out the 2013 Holiday Season with one last review of a few emails I've been tracking. I've lost count with how many email newsletters I've joined since I started tracking this in 2011, but I know it's more than 200 retail jewelers all over the world and in multiple languages.

Some jewelry stores have a regular routine of sending email newsletters for many reasons other than sales or promotional offers, while others only send emails when they want to sell...
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AT: 12/26/2013 04:19:45 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Final Holiday 2013 Website Stats for Retail Jewelers

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Final Holiday 2013 Website Stats for Retail Jewelers 8295-daily-golden-nugget-893It's Christmas Day and the holiday gift buying season has come to a close. Typically this day each year is one of 3 with the lowest website traffic for retail jewelry stores, and the traffic that is searched is usually related to popular brand names and specific style numbers. That type of traffic always makes me wonder if people are searching for details of jewelry they gave as gifts, wanted to get as gifts, or saw someone else open as a gift.

But let's leave the speculation...
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AT: 12/25/2013 01:55:13 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, December 05, 2013

Black Friday Mobile vs. Desktop Engagement Rates

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Black Friday Mobile vs. Desktop Engagement Rates 2123-daily-golden-nugget-879The big shopping dates of Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed for the 2013 season and the mobile user numbers are in.

Total mobile usage is at 42.74%!!! Compare that to the 40% mobile usage I predicted back in August.

Smartphones alone account for 26.91% of that traffic and these numbers still seem to be climbing for this Holiday Season.

Th...
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AT: 12/05/2013 02:07:32 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Early 2013 Holiday Season Website Traffic Could Be Confirmation Of Lower Sales Forecast

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In yesterday's Nugget I showed you the current bounce, duration, and pages per visit for jewelry website visitors from the first 16 days of November 2013. Today I'm going to quickly compare those numbers to the same period from the 2012 Holiday Season.


Early 2013 Holiday Season Website Traffic average-bounce-rate
Bounce Rate for Nov 1-16
<...
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AT: 11/19/2013 09:41:31 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, November 04, 2013

Setting up GA Views and Filters to Track All Your Promotions

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In this installment of the Daily Golden Nugget I'm going to explain how to correctly set up your Google Analytics account structure to correctly track your marketing activity.

Almost as if they knew I was planning this topic for today, Morgan Stanley reported last week that that we would see the weakest Holiday Season since 2008. One of the reasons they cited in their report was that "increased promotional activity likely inhibits 2013 Holiday sales."

It seems like they are referring to the idea that too many promotions will cause people to buy less. Of course that almost seems like a paradox unless you are aware of all the consumer studies that measure choices vs. sales. This topic is widely e...
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AT: 11/04/2013 10:18:35 PM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, December 28, 2012

Most Popular Jewelry Landing Pages for 2012 Holiday Season

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Most Popular Jewelry Landing Pages for 2012 Holiday Season 2749-daily-golden-nugget-635In Yesterday's Daily Golden Nugget I listed the 9 popular pages that people were reading on independent retail jewelry store website throughout the 2012 Holiday Season. Today I'm looking at the popular Landing Pages.

The term "Landing Page" refers to the first page a person visits when they arrive at your site. This is the page you link to from Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or a blog post. More importantly, it's the page that people see when they search for something in Google or B...
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AT: 12/28/2012 01:01:13 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, December 27, 2012

Most Popular Jewelry Website Pages for 2012 Holiday Season

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Most Popular Jewelry Website Pages for 2012 Holiday Season 4339-daily-golden-nugget-634I'm still reviewing more online tracking data for the 2012 Holiday Season. Today I take a quick look at the popular pages that customers were most interested in during the 2012 Holiday Season.

As always, the most popular page on any website is the Home Page. Here's a list of the 9 pages from independent jewelry store websites in the order of their popularity for the Holiday 2012 Season:

1. Online Catalog
2. Store Hours
3. Contact Us
4. Designer Pages (for specific ...
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AT: 12/27/2012 06:41:59 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Google Analytics Reports for 2012 Holidays

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Google Analytics Reports for 2012 Holidays 6495-daily-golden-nugget-632This is Christmas Day!

I'll keep today's Golden Nugget brief and just cover some statistics I've been tracking this season in the jewelry industry.

Here are some stats direct from Google Analytics. These are average statistics measured across many websites run by independent retail jewelers. These statistics include both e-commerce sites and non e-commerce sites and are a comparison of the 2011 Holiday Season to the 2012 Holiday Season.

Website Visits: Up 35.45%
Unique Visitor Count: Up 42.23% VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET


AT: 12/25/2012 05:48:55 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Psychology of Landing Pages

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Our previous 8 Daily Golden Nuggets covered many topics of email marketing. Today we'll switch gears into a new topic that is directly related to all your email marketing, and that's your website Landing Page.

Every marketing strategy should have a message and a call to action.

Typical calls to action are:
• "Visit our store"
• "Visit our large showroom"
• "Give us a call"
• "Fill this bag with unwanted gold and bring it to us to sell"
• "Visit our website"
• "Click this link for more information"
• "Sign up for your own wish list"
• "Scan this QR code for more information"

We assume you will have website links in all your digital advertising. Those links shouldn't simply direct people to your website home page, or to a web page which is only somewhat ...
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AT: 08/25/2011 11:32:46 AM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Holiday Email-Prep: Some Ideas

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So far, you have a lot of ammunition from us to have a pretty successful online holiday season. But we don't simply want to sit back and watch you succeed. Here are even more email ideas that we've learned from previous years.

Your emails and website don't actually need to be holiday focused. In other words, you don't need to have photos of Christmas Trees or Menorahs. Instead you just need to show photos and tell stories that remind people that the holidays are a wonderful time to talk about the future and the past.

Emotions drive purchases and if you can somehow tap into those emotions you will have successful sales.

Some specific ideas:

1. Create a relationship or longing of emotion by showing photos on your website and in your email newsletters. Go to bigstockph...
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AT: 10/26/2010 11:48:51 AM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, October 20, 2010

People Needs Jobs, So Give Them One

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You know we're just coming out of a recession, right? Have you kept track of how many people are still unemployed? You should, because right now it's a business owner's market for picking the best qualified person for your job opening. Better yet, you can offer them peanuts for pay.

Your busiest month of the year is right around the corner. Do you need to hire more staff to help out? Please, before you say "no" let's try a little test.

1. Are you the only full time employee with only 2 part time employees? Hire another part-timer quick!

2. Track how much time is spent on all phone calls for 2 weeks. Double that number. Can your current staff handle that much time on the phone and also properly service their normal duties and the increased holiday foot traffic?
If not, hire someone else.

3. What are your e...
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AT: 10/20/2010 01:38:34 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Our Last Holiday Planning Trick

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This is the last in our series on holiday planning.

Each of the past 9 Daily Gold Nuggets gave you tips and strategies for marketing through November and December this year.

Each day we told you to write some new content and add new pages to your website. Photographs were equally important to include in each new page we suggested adding.

We also gave you ideas for changing your home page throughout the holiday season including who to target and when to target them.

It all sounds like a lot of work to do during your busiest time of the year. However, there's a trick to making it work smoothly.

Ready for the trick? Here it is...

Use your content management system to set up all the pages now. And we really do me ALL the pages, including the variations of your home page.

Make them live on ...
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AT: 09/28/2010 02:56:06 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 27, 2010

Holiday Planning Day #9

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It's almost 2 weeks since we started this series on planning your strategic online holiday marketing. Many of the ideas we presented need to be implemented on your website before Friday THIS WEEK in order to have the highest chance to work before November. Clear your schedule and get it done this week.

Tomorrow is our final nugget in this series, but before we wrap it all up, let's talk about the online frenzy that takes place in the USA the final 7 days leading up to Christmas.

During those last 7 days, the home page of your website should display all types of gift ideas for her and for him. Most of the merchandise listed on your home page should stay below the $487 psychological price barrier. Your photography is especially important since many will gravitate to that.

To increase click through rates, add some re...
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AT: 09/27/2010 02:17:37 PM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, September 24, 2010

Holiday Marketing to Him

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In yesterday's Gold Nugget, we described the strategy of changing your website home page in early November to take advantage of the women shoppers that purchase earlier in the holiday season.

Today we will briefly explain how to turn this idea around to target the men shoppers that typically wait until the first and second weeks of December to shop.

David Geller explains the many differences between the sales pitch toward men vs. women. Here's one example he used last time we attended his workshop: When selling a diamond to a lady, put it in a setting so she can try it on; however, when selling a diamond to a man, hand it to him in tweezers with a loupe. Men want to know more of the technical aspect than the beauty or emotion of it.

We don't consider large diamond ring purchases to be a last minute gift item; that ...
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AT: 09/24/2010 01:58:51 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, September 23, 2010

Holiday Marketing to Her

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We've given you several action plans for producing content for the holiday season, but so far we haven't told you how and when to use it. That information starts now.

If we asked you who procrastinates more--a husband or his wife--what would you say? Do we need to find statistics that state 99.999% of men procrastinate more than their counterparts? We don't really have that kind of measured data other than looking at our own family and friends. But it sure seems like all the women we know can plan way in advance for all parts of life, including printing out directions.

All joking aside, let's apply this idea to our marketing strategy: "Women shop early and men procrastinate."

Starting early in November you need to restructure your website's home page with large photos of jewelry and watches "for him." The captions...
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AT: 09/23/2010 02:15:14 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Holiday Hours

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Quite some time ago, while we were A/B testing one of our websites, we discovered that your store hours should be posted on a page by themselves.

This single, dedicated page allows you to track exactly when people visit your website only to see when you're open.

While reviewing statistics from the past few years, we noticed a trend similar to the online activity we mentioned last week.

In November, the number of views of the Contact Us and Store Hours page increases each Saturday.

The Friday, Saturday, and Sunday right after Thanksgiving all have the highest number of Contact/Hours views for the entire season. More than double!

Then, throughout December, we have a consistent trend of more views each Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Here's what we can determine if we correlate the data prese...
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AT: 09/22/2010 02:26:01 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Holiday Planning with Commodity Items

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Quick! Name items you sell from your jewelry store more during the holiday season than any other month of the year.

Your sales might reflect differently than our findings, but here's what we know for sure.

According to statistical data provided by Google since 2004, we have seen higher online interest in lockets, crosses and jewelry boxes every holiday season for 6 years in a row.

Did you know that there's a psychological dollar value barrier that consumers are not willing to spend above online? We've seen that number to be somewhere between $450 and $497. Purchases of higher value than that usually trigger the need for a consumer to physically touch the product before purchase.

Lockets, crosses and jewelry boxes are relatively low ticket items, and consumers are willing to spend money on them without botheri...
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AT: 09/21/2010 02:14:37 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 20, 2010

Holiday Video Planning Starts Today

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When it comes to SEO, time is very precious. It's ticking by very quickly and if you want your website to be functioning correctly for the holidays, you need to take action before September 30.

On Friday last week, we explained a strategy of writing a description of your holiday inventory and having your webmaster post it on your website. Today we are continuing with a different spin of this idea.

Video.

As soon as your holiday inventory arrives, you need to film a video presentation of each item you are serious about selling. Production studio camera and sound quality is not needed, but lighting is very important.

You have several choices to shoot your video: Digital camera, Flipcam, or Cell Phone.

Your audience will forgive poor audio quality as long as the video image is good, and the jewelry color...
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AT: 09/20/2010 02:12:16 PM   0 COMMENTS
Friday, September 17, 2010

Holiday SEO Planning Starts Today

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It's September 17 and no doubt you already have your holiday inventory picked out.

Since you already know what your Holiday inventory will be, you need to post that information to your website immediately.

Here's why:

During our Live 2 Broadcast Event from August 13 - August 29, we set up a full jewelry website for demo and training. That website is still live at http://www.perosijewelers.com; the mobile version is available at http://demo.perosijewelers.com/mobile.

While broadcasting live, we added products, blog entries, and newsletters to that site. Then we used our Google Webmaster Tools account to submit a sitemap to Google on August 13, 2010 and again on August 18, 2010.

All search engines take at lea...
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AT: 09/17/2010 01:42:37 PM   0 COMMENTS
Thursday, September 16, 2010

Holiday Calendar: Planning Days and Strategies

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This Gold Nugget is part of our extended series of data analysis for the holiday season.

This is what you need to know to properly coordinate your online advertising to previous trends throughout November and December. This data *does not apply* to January - October!

DAYS OF INTEREST we saw in both 2008 and 2009 (our recession years):

* Typically, the busiest day of the week for all online activity is Tuesday. However, for the jewelry industry, each year starting the second week of November, that day changes to Monday.

* We also see a lot of new activity starting the third Friday of November and continuing each Friday until Christmas.

* In 2008 and 2009, online activity on Saturdays and Sundays was always lower than the previous Monday and Friday. Interesting to note: the activity volume is 25% les...
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AT: 09/16/2010 02:18:53 PM   0 COMMENTS
Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Homework: Holiday Planning Ahead

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Planning for the holiday season always seems like a never ending task. You select your holiday inventory during the summer months; plan your advertising in August and schedule dates for events; give your staff a brush-up on merchandise knowledge and sales tactics; and after all that, you even have to decorate your store.

Come January, you need a vacation!

For several years we've been tracking dates, times and jewelry types that should be advertised between November 1 and December 31. Over the next week or so, each Daily Gold Nugget will be dedicated to a single group of days and the strategy you should employ on your website.

The tips we give you this September should be enough time to help you with writing copy and gathering the necessary photography for November and December.

As we work through our series o...
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AT: 09/15/2010 02:05:35 PM   0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Increase sales through Wish Lists

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During our live broadcast on August 27, 2010 we demonstrated how important a wish list is for a jewelry website and, more importantly, that a customer should be able to add items to their wish list from their cell phones.

Here's another Gold Nugget idea you can implement with those wish lists for the 2010 Holiday Season: Wish List Special Offers.

Recent research data from the location based service WeReward identified that consumers are willing to change their purchase decisions with a special discount for as low as $2.00.

Let's apply this idea to your marketing while at the same time adding value for the purchaser of an item from a wish list.

How do you notify significant others that a wish list is waiting for them at your store? Do you mail a postcard or a copy of the wish list? You should at least send...
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AT: 09/14/2010 02:27:54 PM   0 COMMENTS
Monday, September 13, 2010

Your 9-part Online Marketing Plan

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Marketing is your responsibility; not your bookkeeper's, not your salesperson's, not your bench jeweler's.

Owning the store means not only making sure it runs every day, but also planning marketing far enough in the future to ensure continual profits (or at least break even in this economy).

It's time for an online marketing plan that you can get running quickly.

Here's a list of things that we have measured successfully for retail jewelers. This list alone can be used as the basis for your online marketing strategy:
1. Add new information to a blog on your *website* regularly.
2. Manage a Facebook Business Page and give your customers a reason to Like you there.
3. Link your Facebook status feed updates to Twitter.
4. Maintain a Flickr account and post new photos of jewelry daily, properly labeled.
5...
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AT: 09/13/2010 02:14:35 PM   0 COMMENTS
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