Let's check in on the ongoing statistics for this current holiday season to take advantage of over the next 16 days.
Here's the Bitly link we set up a few months back to monitor the 2011 holiday season:
http://bit.ly/2011holidayinsights
That leads us to a live Google Insights for Search page showing active data for the most popular search phrases related to Google's Luxury Goods/Gems & Jewelry category. (Of course if you are reading this after December 2011, it's going to be static, preserved data of what was.)
Using the starting date of October 31, 2011 the search interest in jewelry has risen 57% as of Sunday December 4, 2011. The most popular single word is "jewelry." Here's the list of the top 10 search phrases in their order of popularity:
1. jewelry
2. rings
3. diamond
4. ring
5. jewelers
6. necklace
7. engagement rings
8. kay
9. tiffany
10. earrings
The Google Insights page allows you to drill down into more details, and we're digging in to see what's inside the report for "jewelry." When we do we find this sub list of the top 10 search phrases:
1. pandora
2. pandora jewelry
3. jewelry stores
4. jewelers
5. rings
6. gold jewelry
7. diamond jewelry
8. silver jewelry
9. jewelry store
10. jewelry box
According to this information, it looks as if Pandora is leading the entire industry this season. Can we have some reports from you guys out in the trenches? Are your Pandora sales bringing in the customers this season as well as they did in previous years? It's interesting to see the single word "pandora" on this list under Luxury Goods/Gems & Jewelry because during the other 11 months of the year Pandora always triggers results for Pandora Radio while only the combinations of Pandora Charms/Beads/Jewelry show up on the luxury report.
If you carry Pandora jewelry you should push it heavily right now. Send out an email blast; put it on your home page; and hang a big sign in your front window. Even though Pandora operates a large website, and ahuge Facebook Page and is anal-retentive about their marketing, they have *not* been directly soliciting sales from people who are signed up for their email newsletter--which leaves an opportunity for you.
On the other hand, if you carry a competing bead line, you could be strategizing emails and website home page changes using phrasing like "Pandora vs. Chamilia Jewelry Gift Ideas - Check this out if you like Mickey Mouse" to provide an interesting comparison between the jewelry brands, and to trigger top-of-mind awareness to a heavily pushed brand name. You might not carry Chamilia in your store either, but whatever you have try to make an interesting comparison between your brand and Pandora is worthwhile. Simply put, we're suggesting you use Pandora's name to get the attention of all those people searching for the phrase, which as we see by the data, is being searched for.
Returning back to the Google Insights screen, we see phrasing for "jewelry store" and "jewelers" widely searched right now. We know from past research that the phrase "jewelry store" is associated with local intent. We're going to assume the same holds true for this current data although the final reports will not be available until Q1 2012.
It's too late in the season to affect a website change using the phrase "jewelry store," but you could sneak a fast change into your Google Places account.
As an example, let's say your Google Places account shows the Business name "Smith's Diamond Jewelers" but you really want to capture those "jewelry store" searches. To do this you simply log into your Places account and change your store name.
Change your name from: "Smith's Diamond Jewelers"
Change your name to: "Jewelry Store: Smith's Diamond Jewelers"
Google Places should propagate that change into the SERP within hours, maybe even within minutes. Whatever words you put first will be the most prominent ones that Google will rank your store by.
The Google Insights page is interesting if you have the time to look at it. It's very interesting and can easily distract you from more important work. One of the interesting things you will see is how popular Jared, Kays [sic], and Zales are. Each of those companies have massive TV commercial airtime as well as a flood of email marketing this year.
To prove this wrong or right, we'd be interested in hearing feedback on how much foot traffic Pandora and other bead lines are generating in your store right now.
