In this episode, I share my interview with Melissa Becker, a Vice President of Berkley Asset Protection, a Berkley Company, and global specialty insurer dedicated to jewelry, fine art and other collectibles. With a 20-year career in the insurance field, Melissa now serves as the marketing and communications leader for its global jewelers block, personal jewelry, and fine art practices. Melissa is also responsible for leading Lavalier, a direct-to-consumer personal jewelry platform.

Melissa and I speak about the importance of value-added services in jewelry marketing. When I say “value-added service”, I mean the above-and-beyond things that will help your jewelry brand distinguish yourself from your competitors. For example, most wedding jewelry brands offer free ring resizing within a certain period of time after purchase; that’s a pretty standard purchase that I see. However, how many jewelry brands go above and beyond to educate their customers on long-term care and cleaning? How many jewelry brands go above and beyond to educate their customers on appraisals and even about insuring their products? How many offer a service for planning the perfect proposal? A value-added service is anything a customer wouldn’t necessarily expect you to offer.

By offering value-added services, the services that will help you stand apart from your competitors, you can focus on creating true lifetime value with customers. No brand should be spending all their time, efforts, and marketing budget on acquiring new customers all the time. That’s just not a sound business strategy. Instead, they should be focused on making lasting impressions with their customers, so those customers keep returning for more and more – over time, this reduces cost in your marketing spend, and allows you to plan for the long term.

These value-added services can be offered in house, or it can come through a partnership, like this one Melissa describes in this episode. Watch it now.