Hello, jewelry store friends!
My husband Hun’r and I, the Jewels of the Trade sales team, offer vendor trunk shows as a service to our retail partners. This means that between our trunk show season and our years of retail experience, we frequently get to observe firsthand the “do’s and don’ts” of trunk shows.
Retailers invite us to host Mason-Kay Jade trunk shows as a way to train staff, introduce jade to their customers, and help sell through in-store interactions as well as online via Facebook Live, Instagram, etc.
Over the course of experiencing many trunk shows, we’ve found a few key things that seem to really drive sales and we want to share those suggestions with you. Try these out and let me know if they help you when hosting your next trunk show!
#1. Social Media. Social Media. Social Media.
You know how important social media is. Start posting about your event at least two weeks before, and don’t be afraid of “overposting” about the event; the key is to diversify your posts as not to “spam” the platform.
Just to simplify, I’ve made a checklist for you to start approx. 2 weeks before your event:
☐ 3 Engaging Instagram Stories per week. “Engaging” meaning “interactive.”
Start with a story that depicts the product you’ll be featuring in your trunk show. Add the sliding bar and ask followers “Do you want to see this/these piece(s) in our store?” On the next story, announce that they can see these pieces on the date of your event!
A couple days later, use multiple product photos from the jewelry line in a game of “This or That” (using the poll feature) and repeatedly remind people that they can view these pieces in-store on the date of your event.
Share stories throughout your advertising stage of employees/the owner talking about the event to the camera with captions.
☐ Create a Facebook Event and invite everyone. I mean everyone!
☐ Make at least 1 well-designed feed post per week on Facebook and Instagram about the event.
☐ Make at least 1 Reel promoting the event.
(If you book a Mason-Kay Jade Trunk Show with JOTT, we’ll send you video for Reel material. Just saying!)
☐ Create a blog post about the event for SEO and share it on all of your social media platforms, including Pinterest! This will help with search engines down the road so that customers looking for the will find your website.
☐ Send out the announcement in your email newsletter one week before and one day before.
☐ Host a Live on both Instagram and Facebook 1-2 days before, once you have your product in hand.
and this is the most important one….
☐ Schedule a Live (on both FB and IG) for the day of the event.
Set a time and advertise the heck out of that Live video 1-2 days before. Set a Story Countdown, mention it in your other Live, and tell everyone to tune in so that they can buy pieces straight off of Facebook and Instagram Live. We have seen tremendous success when retailers utilize Live Sales. The trick to it is scheduling the Live and telling everyone when it’s going to be and how they can buy. (i.e. do you want them to claim it in the comments, message you directly? Be very, very clear that they can buy and what the rules are.)
Most of our trunk shows result in sales after the event because of social media advertising.
Sometimes the store even sells more the day after than the day of because of customers coming in already knowing which piece they want!
#2. Host an evening event the night before the trunk show.
Almost every single one of these we have done was on a Friday night, with the show taking place all day Saturday. And it works! Schedule your kick-off event after your store closes and allow for about 3-4 hours of selling. Offer drinks, food, drinks, maybe some giveaways, and drinks. …Did I mention drinks?
Facebook and Instagram Live the heck out of it to get everyone excited for the main event the next day.
Invite all of your friends who work in influencing/blogging, marketing, and press.
Encourage all of your staff to come and socialize with customers.
Pro Tip: We recently worked a trunk show where the kickoff event was held at a location outside the jewelry store and the customers absolutely loved it. Get creative! A winery, a restaurant, a classy bar, somewhere that people want to go to drink. Did I mention you should offer them drinks?
#3. Contact your VIP customers.
You know who your top 20 customers are, but you want to get to know their friends too. So you need to pull out all the stocks to make sure they not only come, but that they are excited enough about the event to bring an entourage. Here’s what we’ve seen work:
Hand-written letters. Because your VIP customers really are that important to you and this is a great way to show it.
Personal phone calls to everyone on your Top 20 (at least) list. Once two weeks before, and once the day before.
If your sales staff has their own “store Instagram,” (which I highly recommend) ask them to add your VIP customers on IG and promote the event in their stories.
What do your VIP customers do for a living? What business do they own or work for? Maybe consider hiring their staff for the event. Use a customer’s restaurant or catering company, advertise with their influencer brand, or buy their product to offer as giveaways. Trunk shows are a great opportunity to support other local businesses and the people behind them.
So there you have it! Trunk shows are a very fun and lucrative form of marketing. Booking a Mason-Kay Jade trunk show with Jewels of the Trade means free labor, a lot of fun (you might not know this but we’re hilarious,) and will inspire confidence in your salespeople to sell the product at hand.
If you are interested in hosting a Mason-Kay Jade trunk show with Jewels of the Trade, don’t hesitate to reach out!