Join Mike for an exciting vlog-style podcast episode as he takes you behind the scenes of the THIRD annual Punchmark Client Workshop, in Charlotte, NC. He shares what goes into organizing an educational summit for 35 clients, 8 sponsors, and 20 Punchmark Team members.
It's a lot of fun every year, and we are already planning the next one, so mark your calendar for the end of April 2025!
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Join Mike for an exciting vlog-style podcast episode as he takes you behind the scenes of the THIRD annual Punchmark Client Workshop, in Charlotte, NC. He shares what goes into organizing an educational summit for 35 clients, 8 sponsors, and 20 Punchmark Team members.
It's a lot of fun every year, and we are already planning the next one, so mark your calendar for the end of April 2025!
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
What's up guys. This is Michael from In the Loop, and this episode is meant to kind of document my trip and also give a peek behind the curtain of what goes into planning a educational client workshop, and it was a really, really fun time. We actually did a live in the loop recording, had tons of seminar sessions by the Punch Park team as well as some industry professionals that sponsored the workshop, and you can also join me as we go to the cocktail hour and the after parties that always take place. We do this every year, so if you missed this one and you want to go to the next one, maybe consider blocking off the end of your schedule for next year at the end of April and join us for the next one. It was super fun and I hope you enjoy. Peek behind the curtain for this trip. All right, enjoy.
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Speaker 2:And now back to the show. Okay, so first, recording of the client workshop trip. I just spent the last 25 minutes trying to record a three-minute teaser episode that's probably going to come out right before this. Oh my gosh, you guys consume those pretty quickly, but, trust me, it takes a lot of effort to make those ones. I just got here a couple days early and I'm going to see the Punchmark Squad and then help Jason get set up for the client workshop on Sunday.
Speaker 2:All right, we're just in Charlotte now and we are just all set up for the welcome reception. We just put up the banner at the top and me and Diana and Jason set everything up and we just have our first guest and it's pretty cool. We're just giving them like a little goodie bags that come with like a pad of paper and, uh, pop, ring pop and a couple of other things and a badge. So it's gonna be a really good, uh good start. But this party is always like a lot of manual setup and then we'll get to it afterwards. It'll be fun. All right, I'm with diana. Hi, diana, hi, mike, all right, um, so we're at the reception and you helped organize a lot of this. Do you know where we are right now.
Speaker 3:We are at the Hyatt Center City in.
Speaker 1:Charlotte Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Jason drove and I was just in his backpack for the entire thing. Essentially, it was super cool. We got an open bar and some food and everyone's sitting around and getting a chance to talk to each other. It's really nice.
Speaker 3:And then after this, we don't have anything for the rest of the day, right? Nothing planned, no, just the welcome reception.
Speaker 1:Welcome all our great clients to our punch mark workshop and then we'll uh, probably go out.
Speaker 2:Afterwards. We'll figure something out, but yeah, stay tuned. After the welcome reception, we ended up going out out to a place called Graham Street, which is a popular sports bar. Lenny from the Edge really wanted to watch the Rangers game that was going on, so we ended up going there. We got food and drinks. It was a really nice time and we ended up staying out pretty late and we had to get up super early because Jason lives outside of Charlotte, so we had to drive into the town and traffic was bad.
Speaker 2:Alright, it's 7.35 in the morning and we are getting ready for day one. We got back pretty late, like right around midnight or so, and we gotta get back and help set up, gotta put out all the directional stuff and just get there before everybody. Then everything's going to start, I think at 9 o'clock. We got about a 30-minute drive anyway, so it should be fun. We're stuck in traffic on the way to the convention center. That sucks. We have 35 minutes and that'll put us there like 10 minutes before it starts. Day one officially kicks off with a tutorial by Jason on Site Manager as well as the latest developments that Punch Bark has been coming out with. It's always a really popular section and we allow everybody to get as many questions as they might have or have brought with them to the workshop and just kind of a good way for everybody to start on the on the same page the new logo coupon feature form builder, the new notification center, our AI tools and diamond modems.
Speaker 3:Okay, so the logo coupons. We had a lot of people ask for this, so we made it happen.
Speaker 2:You can set up a coupon where Stu say hi vlog, hey vlog, it's a vlog, vlog, hey vlog. Actually, is it a vlog? It's video. Yeah, there's no video right now, so it's a log, a log. That's right, a log. So day one, I hope, presented, did really well and now we're doing the meet the account managers and you can probably hear the uh in the background. There's a million people talking um when you present, uh 3 30.
Speaker 3:What are you presenting uh e-commerce trends and statistics for jewelry stores anything, any uh teasers for that, anything that's interesting people are surprised by. People will be surprised by the numbers that come in in terms of what people are shopping, what people different age groups what channels are using and things. Social media drives a lot of attention, but it doesn't always lead to sales. The sales come later interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one thing I'm I'm very thing I'm trying to follow as much as possible is trends in jewelry. So I think that one thing we're noticing is that sometimes the average transaction size is actually down this year or down last year and 2022, though what the big deal was, all the lab-grown was so expensive and also everyone was buying it. But this past year it was all about gold and fashion jewelry and I think it just unfortunately ate into the ticket size, but as a result, the transaction count was actually up. So I wonder if that's true about in-store as well.
Speaker 3:We'll find out about the in-store. I mean, we're going to ask a lot of people here and things. I did think it was interesting when we saw in the news a couple weeks ago that some of the biggest players in e-commerce like you know, the Blue Niles they were pivoting away from you know, the diamonds and the bridal and selling a lot more fine jewelry and it's allowing them to beat out in e-commerce sales a lot of the older people who are at the very top.
Speaker 2:Interesting. Yeah, I think it'll be good to follow more occasions to buy instead of one big occasion. I think that's definitely something that we're seeing a lot more, and also just like I think people are layering jewelry more more bracelets, more rings, more necklaces so maybe that's encouraging for all these people.
Speaker 3:I think so. There's a lot of opportunities for a lot of these retailers to grow. They obviously want to keep on growing 10, 20, 30% every year, but you know, sometimes the things that used to sell the most aren't the things that are selling the most now. Gotta stay nimble.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks, stu Yep. I'm with Sarah Weeks, art Director, at Punchmark.
Speaker 1:Well, hello.
Speaker 2:So you were in charge of all the branding and promotion of this, along with Savannah.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:What's changed since last year?
Speaker 1:So this year we wanted to stick to more of the traditional Punchmark branding, because last year we went into a different direction, but then we had to order everything new, and so this year we're trying to order things that don't have dates on them, so then we're able to use them again next year and just kind of save us some money in the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so much smarter. But I like how you guys have expanded the Punchmark branding so that it's more versatile. I'm looking at the client workshop lockup and it is the Punchmark branding, but it's like more versatile. Just, I'm looking at the client workshop lockup and it's like it is the punch mark branding, but it's like you know just different words.
Speaker 1:Is that Acumen Din? Oh, I think all titles are Din and then copy is Acumen.
Speaker 2:This is design, nerd stuff, but no, it's super cool. I like how, like now that we kind of have figured it out, it's like starting to kind of, you know, be more efficient every year, but I feel like we kind of refine it every year even more. So, who knows, in maybe two, three years we'll have it even completely different, but even better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we at least nailed down the logo and I think we're going to keep that every year, just so there's some consistency every year, just so there's some consistency. But then we can change up things that need to be printed again anyways, like badges, and make those fun and different for each year. But, yeah, it's fun to work on print material for once, and so all websites.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks, sarah. We had lunch right outside the workshop classroom and then we went into a Jewelcraft presentation by Ross and Stephanie and that was received really well. And then Ross Cockrum presented on website content and it was super engaging and really dynamic. He showed a whole bunch of presentation points about how to write and generate new content and also publish it in a variety of formats. I thought it was super cool. And then Stuart, our director of digital marketing, presented on e-commerce statistics and trends, and Lenny from the Edge presented about their POS system.
Speaker 2:And then we wrapped up and we had about an hour and a half or an hour and we went over to Fahrenheit, which is a rooftop bar in downtown Charlotte, for a happy hour and some food. And it's crazy. We always do it every year and we've had the most beautiful weather and this year was no exception, and it's always just a real fan favorite because everybody gets a chance to talk talk to the Punchmark employees, but also talk to other jewelers and we actually did some awards as well, which was really well received. We just got the Fahrenheit at the end of day one Super, super good day.
Speaker 2:Really liked the presentations by the sponsors this year. I thought that they were really informative and everyone seemed super engaged and that was nice. It's just a short walk over to Fahrenheit. It's a rooftop bar. This is the third year that we've actually had it on the top and it's a super bluebird day. Really, really, really, really nice out. It's just like could have been a rainy day and we would have all been inside and not enjoyed the view, but instead we actually got a really nice day and people start showing up here in just a couple minutes and we'll have a little cocktail hour for I don't know two or two and a half hours, yeah, and that'll cap off the day.
Speaker 2:We'll probably go out after this to somewhere in Charlotte you never know where, but it's been really fun. Charlotte, you never know where, but it's been really fun. I spent most of today interviewing a couple of next-gen clients of ours in various parts of the building for some B-roll and for some promotion material, so that's what took a lot of my day up, but it was a really fun day. I think every year we get better at putting this thing together, and this year it really feels like we kind of nailed everything down. So it's got me almost excited for what are we going to do next year, because it seems like we're kind of putting everything together better and better, and I think that next year we'll even have it even stronger. All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. Good news, everybody. Punchmark just released new digital marketing programs starting at just $199.
Speaker 2:Many of our listeners are Punchmark website clients and they trust us to handle their online branding and their e-commerce, but they've had their PPC and SEM grandfathered in with a local agency or even their radio station or newspaper. This can cause headaches, as it increases. The number of vendors you'll deal with leaves a lot of question marks for what is actually getting done effectively and is a generic solution not tailored to the needs of a jewelry store. Effectively and is a generic solution not tailored to the needs of a jewelry store. And not to mention, many of these local agencies also service their competitors, and if you're existing in a small market, that's no bueno. Punchmark's digital marketing team just released new packages that are the perfect way to consolidate your marketing vendors and grow your business with our digital marketing services. Sign up for our new digital marketing products for as little as $1.99 a month for our SEO traffic booster, or elevate your online sales with our product and e-commerce SEO plan for only $3.99.
Speaker 2:More advanced options, including PPC, sem and paid social, are available as well. If you want to get fancy or have us handle what your previous company was also handling for you, no additional dashboards or onboarding fees. Your add-ons will just get added right to your existing Punchmark plan. That's why they call it add-ons. Visit punchmarkcom slash marketing for more information or ask your account manager about getting started with Punchmark Digital Marketing today. Again, that's punchmarkcom slash marketing. Let our experts be your experts. And now back to the show. And we're back, so just bear with me. We have four awards for clients, four for Punchmark people, so just bear with us. But it was important to us that we recognize some people that traveled here and also some of the people that helped your websites not going down right, right, right, good.
Speaker 2:So I think I'm going to call out we'll do a lot of the client's birth, because it's what yeah, it's the client workshop, so you guys are in the name. So we have two people that have come to every workshop this third year, and so we have these two workshop warriors, and the first is Caleb from Fall Jewelers. Oh hey, look at that, you're good, you can get Hi, man.
Speaker 3:You've been a long time. I'm from Singapore, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You're free. I don't know. It's OK you can work.
Speaker 2:And then the other one is going to be Bob from Where's your Lures, hey, In attendance. We have the longest standing client and Punchbox has been around for 15 years. So this person has been with us for 13 years, I believe. And this is Kristen from Selman's Jewelers. And then we're always looking for forward-looking indicators. So like what is it most likely to have a very successful website or be doing well, or whatever that means. And the number one thing we've seen is logging in a lot is going to lead to your website doing well. Logging in a lot is going to lead your website doing well. So we have the most active and engaged for the most logins to their site manager.
Speaker 2:And this is with over a thousand logins. Just last year is Liz, with Georgetown Jewelers.
Speaker 3:That's crazy. Oh she's laughing. Oh she's laughing, you know.
Speaker 2:After Fahrenheit, which is a rooftop bar on like probably like the 45th floor, so it overlooks all of Charlotte, we ended up at a different rooftop bar called Novelty House, which is super popular and that is also downtown, but it's actually on like the sixth floor, so it's a completely different view and it's really cool feeling like the sixth floor.
Speaker 2:So it's a completely different view and it's really cool feeling like the buildings are like looming overhead of you and this is much less formal. We don't have anything planned. It's mainly, you know, whoever wants to go out and keep hanging out a little bit more and have a couple more drinks, and we ended up bringing a whole bunch of clients and a lot of punch mark people ended up going out as well, and it's just a really casual setting and just a nice way for us to kind of spend a little bit more time together, especially for the people who had traveled all this way and for me also, now that I live out of state, to catch up a little bit more with the client, the clients and also the employees and kind of talk with them a little bit more casually.
Speaker 1:What's up, guys?
Speaker 3:This is Michael from In the Loop.
Speaker 2:I'm going to use that, Absolutely yes.
Speaker 2:I'm going to intro your next. This is going to be the intro for the entire episode. All right, it's 11.42. Jason just started the car and we're walking back from Novelty House. It was a really nice time. Everyone was super nice. Yeah, we just gotta be there Pretty early tomorrow, so it's gonna be kind of rough, but we'll make it. Day two kicked off with a email marketing seminar by Hope on best practices and also how to write engaging content, and also a presentation by Jason on the edge integration, with some help from Lenny.
Speaker 3:So just going over some general statistics here, as you can see on this graph we've got the open rate here at the top and the click-through rate at the bottom, averaging from 2005 to this year. So we're generally seeing around the 30% rate for open rates when it comes to emails and about under 5% for click-through rates.
Speaker 2:For the past two years. The highlight for the client workshop for me is when we get to do the live in the loop episode recording, and this year I had Alex from Kiefer Jewelers in Florida and Caleb from Falls Jewelers in Kannapolis, just north of Charlotte, joined me for a retailer roundtable and I didn't really have a huge idea about how I wanted to structure this episode. I kind of wanted to keep it a little bit loose and kind of just pose a bunch of questions to two next generation jewelers and hear their views on how they are transitioning to owning their store, because right now they are co-owners with their parents and now they are slowly transitioning and taking on more responsibility. But also I want to get their opinion on certain things like what does the role of social media play in their business promotion efforts? Are they marketing with branded jewelry or unbranded jewelry? Things like that, and Caleb and Alex were excellent and I really enjoyed it. This episode is going to be coming out next week, so be on the lookout for that. It'll be a live recording and it's cool, so much fun, because you get to hear kind of and feel the audience react to some of the humor that's in it, and I would love to do more of these. So if you're listening and you organize a jewelry trade show, please reach out to me. I would love to do more live recordings.
Speaker 2:My name is Michael Burpo, I'm the director of user experience at Punchmark and I also host the weekly In the Loop podcast, and that actually started out in case you guys were customers of ours during the pandemic. We actually started out as what's called the Jewelers Survival Kit, and the Jewelers Survival Kit actually started out as kind of our way to fill the silence that seemed to be happening in the jewelry industry. We just did the live recording and I think it went really well. It actually went for a little bit longer than I kind of expected. I thought we were going to be about 30 minutes and we'd be out of there, but it ended up going super well. Oh, it's kind of loud in here. We're in the workshop room, but everybody is super nice and asked a bunch of questions, especially to Alex about her social media kind of management style, and I thought it was really cool kind of getting a chance to talk to them about and just pose a bunch of questions, and I think that that episode will come right after this one next week. So if you're listening to this one, make sure you listen to that one. I think it was a really good one.
Speaker 2:After the live recording, we had a presentation from National Rarities who do estate buying. We've had them on in the loop quite a few times and they were one of the sponsors for the workshop. And then we had lunch and it was barbecue. It was delicious. We always do barbecue on the last day and I love that. And then we had a simplex presentation. And then Stuart came in and talked about 12 months of marketing. So how can you identify holidays and market? It wasn't so much about OSPI itself but about the people that work there and how they draw inspiration from their clients and also the cornerstones for their business, and I just really enjoyed the presentation. And then, finally, we did a live leadership Q&A with Ross, brian and Dan from Punchmark and we talked about the roadmap and a couple of things that we have coming down the pike and let everybody ask their questions before they leave. All right, I wrapped up the last presentation with the leadership roundtable. I'm with Ross. How do you think it went?
Speaker 4:I think it went excellent. You know, I'm floored with the fact that so many great friends of ours, clients of ours, come all this way just to get their education on right, just to learn and share ideas. You know like it really just solidifies our stance, as we made this thing to give back and we're glad that people are picking it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's just super cool how the energy and the vibes are super up this year I mean every year, but I really like the location that we're in way more cozy and like a lot more people had to sit next to each other, which was, I think, really great and makes it more collaborative. So definitely think we're going to come back to the same spot, hopefully next year, but I think every year we get, you know, 5%, 10%, better, and every year, if you do that, it just compounds. So really great.
Speaker 4:For sure, and I also am happy that the weather was perfect for our little Fahrenheit rooftop bar. Again, three for three.
Speaker 2:Literally couldn't have been better. It's insane. We need to also have the workshop on the day of like someone's wedding, because we always have good weather. It's crazy Sure. And then as quickly as it started, that was it. We ended the client workshop after two days and it was two awesome days of excellent education from Punchmark partners and employees and just collaborative efforts. I really enjoyed it. There was a dinner at Finanfino afterwards that most people attended. Unfortunately, I flew out later that day and wasn't able to attend.
Speaker 2:But if you haven't been able to attend a client workshop, I'd recommend that you try to make the next one. We'll be having it in April and we always have a really great time. There's a lot of interactions between retailers that really kind of warm my heart a little bit, whether it's people sharing knowledge during the actual education sessions or just afterwards making new friends. I'm always kind of shocked at how small the jewelry industry is and how everybody seems to know each other. But on a personal note, I can say that I'm always really proud of the kind of environment and vibe that we foster at Punchmark and that goes out to especially Jason, who's the director of education and kind of puts this whole thing on, and Diana, who is our administrative assistant, who books a lot of it, and Sarah, who's our art director, who ends up designing a ton of collateral for this, along with Savannah, our designer, and then also with Ross, dan and Brian, our leadership, for making the whole thing, you know, kind of come to life.
Speaker 2:I would highly recommend that, if you are a jewelry vendor or technology company that you consider sponsoring next year, you get a chance to present, in front of a captive audience of, you know, 40 to 50 retailers that all have one thing in common, which is that they are tech fluent and all have a Punchmark website, and I can't say enough good things about it. All of that to be said. Thanks so much for listening. We will have the live episode out next week, on Tuesday, and I appreciate you listening to my trip to the Punchmark Client Workshop for the third year. Thanks everybody, we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye, thank you.