Of all the rare gems in the world, one the most beautiful has to be Tanzanite. Although the mineral was discovered in 1805, by an Austrian named Zois, who originally called it zoisite, it wasn’t until 1967 that Manuel de Souza in Tanzania, found blue zoisite near the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. In order to create a market for it, Tiffany & Co., renamed it Tanzanite after its country of origin. So popular has it become, that in 2002, it was chosen as an alternate birthstone for December.

Sometimes mistaken for a blue sapphire because of its lustrous purple to blue color, but much rarer as its only source is Tanzania, some say it is rarer than diamonds. When mined, this beautiful gem is amber brown, and not until it is heat treated by a gemologist, does its majestic blue violet reveal itself.

Here we have a spectacular example of Tanzanite in a ring by Joseph Aviv Fine Jewelry which contains a 40 carat museum quality Tanzanite stone set in 18k carat white gold ring and encrusted with 110 diamonds totaling 2.05 carat.

Hubspot succintly breaks down Inbound Marketing into three steps: 

Get Found. 
Convert. 
Analyze. 

The very first step is to get found. You do this by creating original and interesting content that attracts visitors, and which allows you to assert yourself as an authority in your field. It will help you gain loyalty and trust, not only from customers but peers, competitors and partners alike. You then have to optimize that content for search engines using on-site and off-site SEO and promote your content via social networks. 

The next step is to take the visitors your content is attracting, and convert them to leads, and convert those leads to customers. Just because you’re now getting more traffic doesn’t automatically mean your going to get sales. You have to convert visitors to leads by having an actionable website and landing pages. The landing pages can offer webinars, eBooks, newsletters and contests -- anything you can provide your potential customers with that will have them provide you with their contact information.

Finally, you analyze the data you’ve been gathering and make sure your content is attracting the visitors you are looking for, and that those visitors are converting to leads which ultimately is about converting your leads to sales. 

After making these adjustments, you essentially repeat the three basic steps: get found, convert and analyze. Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to success using Inbound Marketing!

Many fine jewelry store owners reading this blog are wondering what exactly inbound marketing is and how it applies to them. I guess the best way to describe inbound marketing is to describe what it is not. Inbound marketing is not attending jewelry trade shows, sending email blasts to purchased email lists, cold calling, or even advertising.
 
Inbound marketing is all about being found by customers who are searching for you and who are ready and willing to buy. Wikipedia puts it best, “Inbound marketing, or “new marketing” and modern marketing, is a response to the recent change in consumer behavior. People are more in control of what information they receive and how. Rather than interrupting people to get their attention with emails, cold calls, commercials, etc. (outbound marketing), inbound marketing relies on the principle that visitors find and come to you. In outbound marketing, the company is in control. Using outbound marketing, the customer is in control.”
 
So if you think you are ready to put your customer in control, and you want to find out the basics of a successful Inbound Marketing campaign, stay tuned to this blog as we show you how to create and publish content, how to optimize for search engines, and how to circulate to a wider audience using social media.

A recent Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council survey shows that 50 percent of the over 1,000 respondents surveyed purchased fine jewelry this past Holiday season, not for their significant other or family member but for themselves, up 15 percent from last year.

15 percent the survey respondents also indicated that they spent over $1,000 on the fine jewelry they purchased for themselves. Last year only 4 percent of customers spent more than $1,000 when buying fine jewelry and watches for themselves.

Of the respondents who purchased jewelry for people other than themselves only %9 spent more than $1000. The majority of jewelry purchases where $100 and under, something to take into consideration when the price point is set.

The Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council 2010 Holiday Purchases Report is freely available here.

Happy New Year and welcome to Joseph Aviv Fine Jewelry's first blog post!

32 years ago, Joseph Aviv Fine Jewelry was born and since then, we've been doing what we do best - providing our customers with the highest quality, service, style, and glamour that they've become used to.

And we have no plans to change that. If anything, now more than ever, we would like to thank all of our clients, past and present, that helped us get to where we are today. We hope to also welcome all of the new clients still to come that will ensure our success in 2011 and beyond. We owe a world of gratitude to all of you!

And like most things that are worth it, all of these years have been great, and there's still a lot of growth and evolution still to come for us. We will continue to evolve our business to ensure that we will still be around in the next 32 years to continue to provide our clients with the stylish, luxurious, and most high-end jewelry they have come to expect from Joseph Aviv Fine Jewelry.

We have a lot of new ideas in store for 2011 and we hope that you will keep checking back in with us for all that we've got going on!

This new year has us rolling out our new look with our revamped, clean, simple, and easy to use website as well as new added features such as our blog and more!

Please like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, sign up to receive our newsletter, and keep coming back to our blog for all of the latest news and going-on's at Joseph Aviv! We're just getting started!