The digital screen on my bathroom scale has been on the fritz more and more every day, and I finally decided to do something about it today. I've owned different wearable devices over the past 7 years to monitor my health and daily activity, but I didn't yet have a smart bathroom scale to monitor my BMI or other health factors. Today was the day I would finally get one.
I contemplated buying one off Amazon.com but decided that I'd rather compare models ... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Last week, I went shopping for a water proof iPhone case; something that would be good enough to protect the phone while canoeing on a river. After a bit of searching at the local mall, I found a potentially good case made by THULE. Due to its price, the THULE Atmos X5 case was locked in one of those anti-theft store packages that covered most of the important details. Before buying it, I needed to make sure it was really waterproof rather than just splashproof, and to what dep... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Last week, I reviewed some good ways to correctly implement QR codes in your marketing and in your store. One of the methods I suggested was to create a QR code that would lead people to an online review form. To do that, you'll need the website address for that form, but Google doesn't make it easy to find any more.
This is the #FridayFlopFix edition of the Daily Golden Nugget. Each week, I find a random retail jewelry stores and review their website in hopes that we'll be able to learn something from the process. I call this a "Flop Fix" because I specifically look for websites that are making mistakes, i.e. flops, so I can suggest fixes.
Here's the search results I saw this week when I searched Google for "jewelry stores Elko, NV":
There was a lot of marketing buzz around QR codes when they appeared in the USA in 2009 and 2010. Marketers thought they would be a hot sensation for smartphone users and started slapping them on all their ads. Even though QR codes began to appear everywhere, their usefulness and marketing success rates were small. What marketers didn't realize was that QR codes must be utilitarian, but most were gimmicky. I wrote this Nugget about... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
I'm going back to my own jWAG website tracking today to look at the top 10 Daily Golden Nuggets of all time, that are still relevant today. I see that some of the Nuggets with the highest reader count are out of date because Facebook and Google have changed things, and a few others are very similar so I'll have to do some consolidating.
Popular Screen Resolutions
1. The most popular screen resolutions change constantly as new mobile devices and laptops are introduced. I publish an updated version of screen resol... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
QR Codes have been a hot topic for several years. In this #ThrowbackThursday Daily Golden Nugget, I'd like to jump all the way back to my second Nugget ever, which was on QR Codes. That was July 27, 2010!
That Nugget was the number one most popular post I had ever made, until I started writing about screen resolution and setup directions for Google M Business. It has since d... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is the second part of my Daily Golden Nugget series outlining a potential marketing plan for the upcoming holiday season. The first part I began yesterday explained how you should select a specific set of jewelry items and then write blogs, take photography, and make videos for those items.
Over this past weekend I attended the MJSA Expo show in New York City and met with several vendors, jewelers, and speakers. I especially enjoyed my conversation with Eugene Brill of Rio Grande about their e-commerce use on mobile devices.
One of the topics Eugene brought up during his seminar was the use of VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Here's an idea that will help you during the holiday season, and it shouldn't take too much time to set up.
There are occasions when customers will browse through your jewelry store on their own, without help from a sales person. Instead of letting them look around randomly, this is a good opportunity to invite those customers to find out more information by scanning the few QR codes you've placed inside your showcases.
Two years ago I mentioned QR codes in Daily Golden Nugget #2, but at the time very few people knew ... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Today I'd like to tell you give you some additional warnings about QR code usage. QR codes are those square barcodes that look like a bunch of small dots. Many companies have incorrectly tried to use them in their advertising. Keeping with the theme of today, there are times when you should use QR codes and there are times when you should simply scream in horror at the waste of time and money that some marketing companies would suggest.
I've seen such horrors, and I can't believe that large companies actually spent money on these marketing ideas withou... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
QR codes still remain a mystery to many people in the United States. Around the world the popularity of QR codes has gone from tech usage, to fashionably popular, and has settled into common place usability for many purposes.
In case you don't know what I'm revering to, a QR code is a square barcode that's made up of many dots. It has smaller squares in 3 of the corners to help the barcode reader know which end is up or down. The "reader" is actually any smartphone with a "QR Code App" installed. When you s... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Every marketing tactic you use helps bring a few more customers to your jewelry store or your website. Some marketing strategies bring a lot of business and some are barely noticeable but help build your brand awareness.
Using QR codes as an add-on to your existing direct mail marketing will help lift your response rates with the 20-something generation. QR code usage is finally starting to catch on in the US and you commonly see them in grocery stores, in magazines, on small billboards, and on direct mail.
Using the QR code doesn't require the need for technical knowledge, you just need to create the code and give it to the person creating your direct mail ad. Creating the QR code is easy with the website I'll give you below, but before you do that, there are a few logistical things to think about that I should mention f... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Yesterday we attempted to explain the difference between using m.domainname.com and domainname.mobi for your mobile website.
Our bottom line was that it all depends on how long your domain name is, and if you want your domain name to exactly match your jewelry store's name.
Shortened mobile domain names really do help users. Bank of America uses "bofa.mobi" on all of their mobile marketing literature.
Typing B O F A . M O B I on a mobile device is a lot easier than typing out M . B A N K O F A M E R I C A . C O M.
Although, the people over at Bank of America are clever because if you type bofa.mobi in the smartphone, it redirects you to www.bankofamerica.com/mobile/richui.do#_home, and that's a much longer URL that no one would want to type into their smartphone.
In yesterday's Daily Golden Nugget we gave you results from a QR code micro test we conducted over the last 7 months. We found that QR codes could be successfully used inside your store as a way to lead consumers to a review website.
When customers have to wait anywhere from 1 minute to 5 minutes, they will take the time to scan a QR code hung in the waiting area, then either read or leave a review.
We think it's important to note that the QR codes in our test were hung on a wall close to the customer rather than on the wall behind the counter. It is our opinion that physical proximity matters. One just does not expect to be allowed to take their phone and take a photo of something behind a salesperson.
Here are the steps to making this work in your own jewelry store:
We're at the point in time where modern technology can influence consumer buying decisions within seconds through the use of mobile devices. We're not talking about mobile websites or intentional mobile marketing but rather online reviews and testimonials.
Through various blog posts Google continues to affirm that 1 out of 5 searches are related to a customer's location. Those location searches trigger the organic results to include Google Places listings and online review websites. Most of the time each of these results is accompanied by a set of star ratings.
Google tweaks the SERP layouts continuously. As of this writing, the review stars appear in the AdWords ads, Citysearch.com listings, and Yelp listings. Note that Google specifically includes the stars next to the AdWords ads instead of the Places listings in the... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
Of all the chapters in this Holiday 2011 Run-Up, this might be the most important. Consumers are using smartphones today, right now, this exact minute. The data is undeniable and we're going to step through it and show you what the experts are saying and how you can use mobile technology yourself.
In the past 12 months we've heard many retail jewelry store owners tell us that "their customers do not use smartphones" and they don't need to create a mobile website even though those same jewelers themselves have an iPhone or an Android. This is similar to what we heard in 2003 when jewelers claimed their customers didn't use the internet and they didn't need a regular website.
We have our own in-house mobile research methods, and we've been tracking mobile usage for more than a few years, but to get a broader view of the mo... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
We're not going to talk about anything new today. Instead, we wanted to share industry statistics and our own findings for this 2010 holiday season. Everything reported is for online sales or statistics.
These statistics were reported from comScore.com Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 25) $407M, up 28% Black Friday (Nov. 26) $648M, up 9% Cyber Monday (Nov. 29) $1,028M (that's a Billion!) 16% Green Monday (Dec. 13) $954, up 12% Free Shipping Day (Dec. 17) $942M, up 61%
The week of December 17 (Free Shipping Day) saw 52.7% of online transactions with free shipping. comScore also reported that there was a greater trend for online buyers to wait until Free Shipping Day before making the final sale. This is a clear indication that free shipping is a deal winner when selling online.VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
All week, we've told you about QR Codes and some ideas to build a buzz around this new advertising technique. Curiosity from the current tech savvy consumer will drive them right to your doorstep.
As a QR Code advertiser, you will find yourself in the position of teacher in addition to your already busy duties as jewelry store retailer. But our guidelines... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
We hope by now you realize that the idea of QR Code advertising is to use the barcode any place where your customers are not at home or at their computer, yet they are willing to give partial attention to reading a mobile website that they request to view.
Now that we've given you ideas how to use these you probably want to know how to get thee codes for yourself and make them work, we're going to give you those tools in tomorrow's Gold Nugget, but today we want to pause and explain the power of timeliness in QR Code advertising.
All of us at jWAG will always say it's important to keep your website updated on a regular basis, but when it comes t QR Code advertising you need to make a choice between using he QR Code to direct people to you, or offer them an incentive on the spot.
This is a continuation of our 5 day Gold Nugget Series on QR Codes. Normally we publish our Nuggets publicly right here, but the content in this one is for your Gold Subscribers only. We have to apologize again for how long this is, but it's worth it.
Today we have for you an advertising methodology and 2 effective ways to use QR Codes if you are located in a touristy area. These techniques were learned first hand while researching mobile advertising in Europe in July 2010.
The methodology is simple: Make sure you are showcasing regionally specific jewelry in your store. Do you have jewelry representing the area? Examples that come to mind would be Statue of Liberty jewelry in New Jersey and New York City, or manatee jewelry from Florida, or jewelry shaped like Lake Tahoe for those towns in Nevada and California. Simpl... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
This is a continuation of our 5 day Gold Nugget Series on QR Codes. Normally we publish our Nuggets in this public area of jWAG, but we're can't publishing this one except to our Gold Subscribers. This is also a little longer than what we want to publish as a daily Nugget, but it's worth it.
Today we have for you 6 effective ways to use QR Codes in your advertising.
These first 4 examples are used all over Europe. We've had first hand experience seeing dozens of people scan QR Codes in these locations.
1. Bus station signs. Think about this. People are waiting in a bus terminal or at a bus stop. Many stand around with nothing to do except play with their cell phone. Putting a QR Code on your bus stop sign will turn your ad from a simple sign into a real world method of interaction. Curiosity will make the pote... VIEW FULL GOLD NUGGET
In Gold Nugget #2, we mentioned QR Codes. This week, we're giving you 5 specific Nuggets relating to QR Codes and how to use them. First, take a look at this example from Bordeaux France: http://bit.ly/ctddeW
That's a huge sign in a high visitor traffic area of Bordeaux. Confused visitors can scan that sign from their phone and get more information about the city. You could try it right now if you have a QR Code reader on your phone. Just scan your computer screen. (Search the App Store for a free QR Code Reader.)
Of course that example is 4000 miles away from the USA, so how can you apply this QR Code advertising to your jewelry store?
Cheap and easy examples of using QR Codes: * The back of your business cards * Store window signs * Fliers or handouts at local events * Store receipts
I'm sure you've seen them by now. They show up on FedEx boxes, UPS Boxes, advertising posters, bumper stickers and even at bus stops. I'm referring to the dotted pattern squares that have larger dots in their corners. These are 2D bar codes know as QR Codes.
These QR Codes can be read by smart phones once the appropriate ap has been installed. The iPhone has a few dozen aps for this that are easy to install. It's easy to get similar aps for the Blackberry, Windows Mobile and the Droid phones.
"...articles are easy to follow and seem to have information one can use right away." -Ann, Gallery 4, Hamden CT
"...serious kudos to you. We love your straight talk, pertinent information and plain language. I don't know how many industries have something of jWAG's caliber available, but I learn from the emails every day. Really, really nice work, and very appreciated." -Cheryl Herrick, Global Pathways Jewelry
Over this past weekend I attended the 
Here's an idea that will help you during the holiday season, and it shouldn't take too much time to set up.
Today I'd like to tell you give you some additional warnings about QR code usage. QR codes are those square barcodes that look like a bunch of small dots. Many companies have incorrectly tried to use them in their advertising. Keeping with the theme of today, there are times when you should use QR codes and there are times when you should simply scream in horror at the waste of time and money that some marketing companies would suggest.
QR codes still remain a mystery to many people in the United States. Around the world the popularity of QR codes has gone from tech usage, to fashionably popular, and has settled into common place usability for many purposes. 
I'm sure you've seen them by now. They show up on FedEx boxes, UPS Boxes, advertising posters, bumper stickers and even at bus stops. I'm referring to the dotted pattern squares that have larger dots in their corners. These are 2D bar codes know as QR Codes.
