In the Loupe
In the Loupe
The Holiday Website Tune-Up ft. Jason Adams
Michael is joined by Jason Adams, Director of Education at Punchmark, to discuss how to get your website ready for the busiest time of the year, and encourages all Punchmark clients to get their website tickets and requests in early. There are a few key parts of your website that should be checked prior to the holidays, and Jason shares his expertise so that you feel like you are putting your best foot forward.
Jason also discusses the new Punchmark Tune-Up package that is designed for precisely this, getting your website ready, even if you might not have the time to do it yourself. Listen for more details or reach out to lorenzo@punchmark.com.
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop, your website, going into the busiest part of the year, and we set it for the middle of October because the holiday rush is about to get on, not just for you but also for us, and we get the most tickets and the most emails during the holidays, just like you guys are doing your most sales, and we want to encourage people to get their changes in early.
Speaker 1:But also, we have outlined a couple of key ways you can tune up your website in the most important and impactful ways possible. So updating your categories, your navigation, your homepage banners and also checking out your mobile cart experience and just making sure that it works okay and that you have everything in the right spot. But we also created a tune-up plan in case you're too busy and you just don't have the time to do that, but you want to get something done. You can learn more about that Message, lorenzo, that's L-O-R-E-N-Z-O at punchmarkcom or just contact your account manager about the tune-up program. We made it as affordable as possible because we know you're busy and sometimes you just need someone to take care of it for you. Hope you enjoy listening to me talk with Jason about tuning up your website. Cheers.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmarkcom. Slash go.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. Welcome back everybody. I'm joined by my buddy, jason Adams, director of Education at Punchmark. How are you doing today, jason? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing so? Well, we're leading into the busy part of the season. I'm sure that the CS team has noticed. How are you guys handling everything so far going into when everybody starts to get really serious about their website for the year?
Speaker 3:Yeah, everything's great. We're trying to get ahead of it a little bit. We sent out some emails just asking people, you know, if they have anything that they want to accomplish for the holiday season and anything that we can help with. So we had the account managers reach out and hopefully that helps. Hopefully it helps the clients get you know what they need done in a before the rush starts, because we know here it's October 18th and it's barreling down upon us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems that. I mean, I remember when we, when I first started and I was across from you in the office, I remember it was like the week of Thanksgiving. People would be hitting us up all the time hey, can you put these flip books on? Do people still do flip books or is that kind of a little bit outdated at this point?
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, lots of flip books. So yeah, it's one of the one of the requests we get a lot Valentine's day, christmas flip books. So, yeah, definitely, we're here to help with that, for sure.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and so I guess one of the things that I always think about when it goes to getting ready for the holidays is we always are just kind of encouraging people to kind of like, if there's ever a time to tune up your website and get things kind of ready, it's now. Can you just talk through a couple of things maybe for some listeners right now? What are some key points of interest that people should be paying attention to and maybe considering tuning up going into the busiest part of the year?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Obviously, this time of year a lot of people are shopping online for gifts. So you want to make that easy. So a lot of people will choose to do a landing page, holiday gift guide type of landing page where it's broken down really easily for customers to shop by price, right, a lot of people have a price point in mind when they're shopping for gifts. Like for my brother, I want to spend no more than $250 or I you know from my dad, I'm willing to spend $2,000. So if you can have a gift guide that has your shop by price options. And then also around this time of year, people are more in tune to brands, I would say, as opposed to some other parts of the year. They're seeing commercials for Hearts on Fire or whatever. So you can also do shop by brand on your landing page. Um, so you can also do shop by brand on your landing page. Uh, so just making it easy for people to find gifts? Um is definitely important.
Speaker 3:Uh, you want to make sure that your edge images are up to snuff, because people are shopping online. They, if they see a bad image, you know it's. They might not, they might not pull the trigger. Um, make sure your prices are obviously up to date. You want to do some make sure your categories are organized in a manner that is easy for customers to use. You know, and in that vein we offer a tune-up package that kind of goes through some of those things. You know there's four different versions of it. Obviously, as you go up in price, you through some of those things. You know there's four different versions of it. Obviously, as you go up in price, you get more and more things. But it starts at $800 and it goes up to $1,750. But it's really geared towards people who don't have the time to kind of put in and just handle some of the basic tasks that you want to do for this type of season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so one of the things I always hear you guys talking about, about the importance of, is product categorization. I guess on the surface level, I think that people are like, oh yeah, just put it into rings and earrings and you know engagement rings. But correct me if I'm wrong, that's not the best solution. Uh, you should be having better categorization with more subcategories. Uh, what are you recommending that jewelers are doing nowadays with their categories?
Speaker 3:yeah, you definitely want to have some categories because if, let's just say, you just have a rings category, there could be 3 000 items in one category and that's hard for people to sift through. So you definitely want to have subcategories. But you also don't want to have too many subcategories where the dropdowns are overwhelming to people, right? So maybe try to keep it to four to five subcategories per main category. So you know, you could have diamond, fashion, colored stone, gold, right, something along those lines. Just keep it simple where people can find what they're looking for easily, but not have it 10 subcategories per, where it's just overwhelming and people get overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:I want to try to keep it easy, yeah, and how about with people's navigation? So you just mentioned these dropdowns and how it can. You don't want to overwhelm, but you also don't want to be too general. Um, what are you recommending when it comes to people's navigations these days, especially with regards to, like you know, mobile shopping Cause? Increasingly we're seeing more and more mobile checkouts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so with the navigations, you know we have new mega menus. A lot of our new themes have mega menus and those are easier to use because they're wider. They're bigger and it's not just a straight dropdown where things can get a little confusing. So if you don't have mega menus, I definitely recommend reaching out to us and inquiring about those. You know, as part of the tune-up even the smallest one we do do navigation optimization and we will do category optimization as well. So, again, those are just some of the things that are included in the tune-up that might be helpful if you don't have time to kind of do those things that might be helpful if you don't have time to kind of do those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I also think that just uh, categories and navigation is one of those things that I think that they fall victim to. Uh, creep over the course of the year where you know maybe you did them last year and then you know you've added a brand, you've removed a brand, you've added additional categories, and sometimes it's like you look around it's like, oh, this isn't as good as I remember it being, just like with organizing your fridge or your pantry. You might've done it once, but since then you've probably gone to the grocery store a few times and it's probably not as categorized or organized as you had originally wanted it to be. I think, especially around the busiest part. Having a little bit of special attention to it is definitely key. What, jay, do you find that people these days are focusing for people to come into their store and shop? Is that like the call to action lately? Or do you find that there's a balance with, like shopping online? Or what do you find that most of our clients are focusing on these days?
Speaker 3:Or what do you find that most of our clients are focusing on these days? Yeah, it really depends on the client's clientele. We have some clients who have an older clientele. They're in a small town or something, and a lot of their clientele are older and for stores like that, their call to action is always going to be come in store, because older people tend not to shop online. Going to come in store because older people tend not to shop online. But if you have a younger clientele you're in a college town or something like that then your clientele is more apt to shop online and so you would want your calls to action for that type of clientele to be shop online by now. So it really just depends on the client.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that also depends knowing what your end goal is. So I always talk about, like conversions and a lot of times we think that conversions is just selling the product right away, and the truth is conversion could mean a lot of things. It could mean making an appointment, it could mean adding to your wishlist. It could mean it could mean checkout, but it could mean a lot of things. It could mean making an appointment, it could mean adding to your wishlist. It could mean it could mean checkout, but it could mean, you know, sharing it to someone with someone else. Those are all conversions and they all can be remarketed to and retargeted.
Speaker 1:So just kind of knowing what your end goal is and setting up like what your actual goals that you're trying to achieve are going to be is definitely key. Setting up like what your actual goals that you're trying to achieve are going to be is definitely key. But so just to like maybe circle back to this tune-up program. You and Lorenzo have been working together, I know, to set this thing up. What kind of brought about this idea? Is it because there are key things you want people to be fixing up or is it because you just realized that some people didn't have the time and you're like, okay, we need to go in and help people with.
Speaker 3:With a couple of steps, yeah, I mean, a lot of our clients are small business owners, right, and they're one or two or three man shops and they just as much as they want to right, as much as when they get into it they're like I'm going to focus on the website and I have to do this. Then life takes over. You know, someone calls in sick or they're down a staff member, and it's very hard to staff these days as well. So they just don't have the time. And that's where we want to be able to help. So, you know, we kind of came up with this. Especially this time of year, they are very busy. They don't even if they need help. It's hard for them to find the time to reach out to us and say, hey, I need you to help me with this. They just are so busy. So if we can try to do these things before the big rush and help out, that's what we want to do, nice.
Speaker 1:And I think that there's a couple of things that you can do on your website also, just to kind of put it through like a health checkup almost for your website. For example, I recommend that everybody checks out your website on mobile. So, if you're listening, this is just a good exercise you can do right now. Pull up your own website and pull up on your phone and just go through the process of buying yourself a nice set of earrings. Just go in, find your earrings, find something that you like, put it in your cart, go to the cart and just do the steps. You don't have to buy them, obviously, but I think it's worth knowing what the process is like and how many steps there are. And also just like if there's any opportunities where there's like weird breakpoints with some of your sliders or something like that, where maybe you were building a page one time and you thought it looked good and it just turns out you forgot to look at it on mobile. I think it's definitely worth it. But also with certain things like your navigation. I mean, jason alluded to it earlier, but your navigation is kind of like a tricky one because it can be dynamic. But your navigation is kind of like a tricky one because it can be dynamic and, as a result, if you're adding certain things in, sometimes you don't realize that it could be causing changes with your mobile navigation. As a result, it's worth looking at it, especially going into.
Speaker 1:This episode is going to air on the 24th, I believe, and, as a result, 23rd, I guess that's right before when we're kind of considering the holiday season. We think it's pretty much Halloween at this point and I think now is the right time. Go in, take a look, check out some of your key navigation items, take a look at your landing pages. If you have any, just making sure that they all link somewhere. Good, um, yeah, bang all the links at least once, just to make sure that they direct somewhere instead of a 404 and go from there. That's all something that's covered in the tune-up, but, um, we always laugh. A lot of the things that we offer are things you can do at home. It's just if you don't have the time, we totally understand and we're here to help and and do that for you.
Speaker 3:I was just gonna say, as you were alluding to earlier, creep right. So throughout the year you send in requests. I need to add this and you add this. Can you do this? Yeah, this. Well, we just had it out. Three new categories Can you add those right? And then we get to the end of the year and we have all this new stuff that we've added, and so we just want to make sure that you just want to go in and make sure that Everything is still easy to navigate after all the things that might have happened throughout the year.
Speaker 4:All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. Hey there In the Loop, listeners. This is Jason Adams, director of Education at Punchmark. Are you tired of feeling like a deer in headlights every time you log into your website to make a change? Does the thought of updating your website make you want to hide under a pile of diamonds? Well, fear not. Punchmark offers an in-store training program, your solution to turning website woes into website wows. I'll come to your store armed with 14 years of experience. Think of me as your website guru, ready to help you unlock the secrets of your online presence. Imagine no more confusion about products, edge integration, e-commerce or page updates, and definitely no more staring blankly at your screen. Instead, you'll learn how to shine brighter than a newly polished engagement ring. With personalized hands-on training, you'll gain the confidence to manage your site like a pro. Let's get started. Contact me today at jason at punchmarkcom to learn more about our in-store training program. Let's make your website as stunning as a jewelry you sell.
Speaker 1:And we're back. One of the big things, though, jay, is the edge integration, so a lot of our clients are using it and, as a result, it's just kind of like the backbone for a lot of people's websites or, honestly, just their point of sales integration. Because we also have an integration with LogicMate, I wanted to ask about if there's anything people can do to double check that their edge integration is working perfectly. It's working, you know, 99.99% of the time. It's working flawlessly without them ever having to look. Do they need to be running any checkups on it, or should they just assume that it's going to be totally fine?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we actually monitor that. And if the website goes 72 hours without an upload from the edge, we send out an email and basically it just lets you know hey, your website hasn't uploaded in 72 hours. There's lots of different causes that could cause that. If you turn off your server computer, for instance, that could cause that. If you turn off your server computer, for instance, it could interrupt the connection. If you change your Windows password, that could interrupt the connection. If you do an operating system update, that can interrupt the connection. So there's lots of different things. But if you get that email and it says hey, we have an end upload in 72 hours, reach out to us or reach out to the edge, and it can easily. Hey, we haven't, you haven't uploaded in 72 hours, reach out to us or reach out to the edge and it can easily get that back connected. It's normally just something that is interrupted the connection. So we try to monitor that for you and that's why we send out those, those edge inactivity. It's called Edge Inactivity Report.
Speaker 1:And you should get those if you, if you haven't't had an upload 72 hours, nice, yeah, I just. Just as people sell more around the holidays, there's just more of a chance for there to be a discrepancy on their website and nobody wants to sell things twice. But I think that that's uh, you know, a really good, uh kind of catch-.
Speaker 1:But Jay, I wanted to ask about the in-store training that you've done before, because I think it's related knowing how to, yeah, like, set up your categories and set up everything the best it can and making sure that everything is going to be um, you know, as smooth as possible. I know a lot of people are going to be planning for uh Q1 right around now, especially before they get into the holidays. Can you talk about your in-store training program and what you've done in the past?
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100%. So we try to offer as much training as we can. We have videos in Site Manager, we have this podcast, we have a written knowledge base. So we try to cover the basis. But, you know, not everyone learns the same way.
Speaker 3:A lot of people are more of a hands-on type learner, and so I can fly out to the store and we can sit down and we try to, you know, do it on the day that your store is closed or a day that's maybe slower, or if you have staff coverage, then it can. It can you know it's fine, but I'll come to the store, we'll do a site manager walk through, go through every tab, what it does, what real life applications each section has. We'll go through content management. We'll go through product management. We'll go through product management. We'll go through administrative updates, e-commerce, edge integration, seo and meta information and just basic best practices. And let's say, there's something you're working on, you're having an event coming up and you need to build a landing page. Well, we can build that together right there and do it in real time. So some people just learn better that way and um, and I think it's a really good program that that a lot of people should take advantage of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, also probably a pretty cool opportunity for you to go and see different, different jewelry stores. I think that that's one of those you know, probably fringe benefits of getting a chance to do that for you, jay, is that you get to go around and and and see the inner workings of people's stores. Um, in a different life, do you think you would have been a jeweler, or do you think that you always would have been? Uh, in tech.
Speaker 3:Um, you never know. I mean, I, I like bougie, I like bougie things. So it's definitely not off the table, right, um? But you know, like you said, it is important. It's good for me to see um people's stores and how they run and how they use the website in an everyday environment. Um, like, I got to go down to Florida to where's jewelers, um in Bradenton, florida, and I got to see uh Bob shop and um got to see how he his day entails right, and how much time he doesn't have and to spend on the website and and when he does, how he uses the website and how he interacts with it. And it gives us a better idea also of how to, how to enhance it to better, to give him a better experience. So it's beneficial for both parties.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember, uh, just kind of right before I had left Charlotte, I went into, um, was it Morrison Smith's jewelers? Sure, yeah, yeah, in, uh, in, uh, right in Charlotte, and I, uh one of our clients and I went in and I had some work done on like two of my earrings and I bought, you know, just some like cleaning spray and a couple of other things. It was so cool, like going into a jewelry store for like the first time since I was, like I don't know, seemingly like an adult adult, and it was really interesting getting a chance to kind of go in and experience it from the other side, especially now that I've spent more time in the jewelry industry. And it's kind of one of those examples of like we really should be kind of, yeah, seeing if we can get into jewelry stores, just to. It's not all about the online presence. Sometimes you got to walk into the store and actually kind of feel what the experience is like too. So I thought it was really neat.
Speaker 3:It's always good insight to see things from the other side Um, it's always beneficial, always helpful. I know that Brian worked in the Jewish. Brian worked at a Jewish store at one point Um, so he has a lot of insights um from their side and we bring that into into our company and try to use those in Um. But it's invaluable the things that you can learn when you, when you look at things from the other side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what about? Um, just, I mean, one of the best opportunities for us is getting a chance to talk to jewelers in person. Um, I do, I like to do it as shows, but also we kind of made our own show. So we have this workshop which, uh, you're, you know, in charge of kind of setting up every year. We've done it three years. At this point I know we're already starting kind of the planning this year. Every year we extend the planning stage. I remember the first year was like three months leading up to it, and then the second year was like four, four and a half months, and now we're like six months ahead of time and it's like, okay, let's start planning for the next year. Uh, what's the planning like for this upcoming year for the workshop?
Speaker 3:Yeah, You're for a can't believe it, um, but yeah, you learn something every year, right? So we've learned over the years we have to start earlier, um, but we'd have the dates um set for this year. So the workshop itself is going to take place on May 19th and 20th. That's a Monday and a Tuesday. We try to do it Mondays because a lot of stores are closed on Mondays, so that's helpful, that they only need to be away from the store for one day, and so the official workshop is the 19th and 20th.
Speaker 3:We also have a welcome reception on the Sunday before, so that would be on the 18th. Obviously that's not mandatory. If you want to come in just for the two workshop days, that's great. But Sunday gives us an opportunity to kind of mingle, get to interact with the clients, and then also a lot of the sponsors are there as well. So it gives our clients an opportunity to to mingle with the, with the sponsors as well. So May 19th and 20th save the dates.
Speaker 3:We'll probably be going out at the beginning of the year, beginning of January, and if it's something you're interested in, obviously we'll have all the information on the safety date and if you, if you already know that you want to come this year, then feel free to hit me up. You can email email. Uh, email me at Jason at punchmarkcom and I can put you down. Um, you know there's limited availability, so, uh, always best to to get in early. Um, once we have more information, um, as far as who the sponsors are going to be this year, um, who the partners are that are going to be talking, obviously we'll be dispersing that information.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was super cool last year. I'm going to say every year we get, I would say, 10% better, but it's compounding. And the first year I thought was really good, and then the next year we like tweak just a couple things, and then the year after that and on and on, and it's just like who knows where we're going to be in five years. But I know that next year is going to be, will be the next one, be the next best one, and then the year after that we'll get even a little bit more. Are there any like key tweaks that you are looking forward to implementing? Like I think that this past year the location that we chose was amazing. I know we're going back there. Um, any other kind of tweaks for the workshop that you can can allude to?
Speaker 3:yeah, so we sent out a feedback survey every year after the workshop just to get um feedback from the clients of what worked well, what didn't. Um, and a lot of the feedback we got was that they want to spend more time with their account manager. You know working working one-on-one. So we're going to tweak the format for that portion of the workshop and try to get get a little more one-on-one time between the clients and their account manager. That's super cool.
Speaker 1:I remember, I remember last year uh, I had never been like so kind of emotional about it. It was like you look around and it's like Mana has like 50 people around her and all of her accounts and like junior has everybody around. And I was like man, these guys like actually build connections with their, with their accounts, cause they talk to them every day and it's like it sounds, it seems, you know, hard to grasp when it's all digital, but then when it's you know, when you see it in person, it's like wow, they actually build a little bit of connection with, with each of their accounts. It's cool, you're going to double down on that. Give it a little bit more, more time as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's super important to build that relationship. We are here to help right, we are here to help small businesses grow. That is our goal, and when you get to know them as a person, it really helps solidify that relationship and it makes both parties want to do the best for each other, and and so the workshop is super important in that.
Speaker 1:For sure, jay. Is there anything else? Before we wrap up? It's that we covered kind of bit, kind of a lot and one of the biggest things is just really encouraging people. Give your, give your website a little wellness check right now.
Speaker 1:It's time to just go through, look at everything, check all the corners. It's like it might be time to get a haircut before you know your wedding. It's about time. Go, take a look and if there's anything that you notice that's out of place, put in a ticket. Get it in early, just so you have time for it to be done before it really starts to be important. But also it's important that you get a chance to have that time to do it, because we know that sometimes fixing things isn't just always like a one second thing and if you don't have the time to go about doing that, we also do have this tune-up program.
Speaker 1:We built it specifically this year with our jewelers in mind, with key aspects for their website that we identified that people should be working on and should be able to accomplish, whether it's your categories. Every single one starts with a kickoff meeting with Lorenzo 30 minutes, get a chance to kind of just talk through what your goals are for your website and then implementing those changes. Of course there's more comprehensive packages, but they're, all I like to say, very affordable. But we're trying to make it so that it's a no-brainer. Hopefully people do it every year because they're like oh yeah, why wouldn't I do it? So if that's something you're interested in, you can reach out to I know it's Lorenzo L-O-R-E-N-Z-O at punchmarkcom, or you can probably just reach out to info at punchmarkcom and they'll direct you to the right spot. Jason, is there anything else before we wrap that you want to cover?
Speaker 3:No, I just want to say you know, as we, as we get into this season, definitely reach out to us. If you're in need of any help or assistance, we're here to help. The earlier the better, obviously, because not only are you busy, but we get super busy as well. So if you need that flipbook added or if you need a banner added, or you just want to jazz up your site a little bit for Christmas, like you want to change your buttons to red or whatever it is that you want to do to jazz your site up and get and get it ready, you know your account manager is here to help and we're here to do that.
Speaker 3:And if you want to do a little bit more, because you know you don't have time, obviously the tune-up program is there and one of the things I did want to bring up about that, because it's been a hot topic recently on some of the discussion channels is ADA compliance Good call discussion channels is ADA compliance and ADA compliance updates is included in even the lowest tier of the tune-up package. So you know we'll give the site a scan and see where you're at and if any updates need to be made, we will do that. You know included in even the smallest one. So you know it's super important just to stay on top of, so I just wanted to bring that up as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah good mention. Yeah, every package, even the lowest one, comes with an ADA compliance scan, which is super important, and also a page speed update. So just getting yourself going as fast as possible, so definitely I think it's worth the time, or just at least considering doing it yourself. Definitely important, jason. Thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Thanks everybody. We'll be back next week Tuesday with another episode. Cheers Bye. Thanks, mike.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me on again.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. My guest this week was Jason Adams, the director of education at Punchmark. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cochran. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom. Slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E. Thanks. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye, thank you.
