I first started working with talented sisters-in-law, Louisa and Sal, who make and curate beautiful jewellery, principally using semi-precious gems, silver, gold and freshwater pearls, a few months ago. The idea was to revamp their ecommerce store, take them out of their comfort zone and help them propel their business to the next level.

Although they did well selling their jewellery at fairs around the UK, their website left a lot to be desired. It looked dated, completely ‘uncool’ and had no chance against big established jewellery online jewellery brands such as Stella & Dot and Azuni. It just didn’t give the right impression and what is worse is that their jewellery, which is LOVELY and extremely classy, didn’t even look especially nice on their website.

It was immediately clear to me that there was no way I could create a credible e-commerce store using their existing imagery. If they were serious about taking their brand to the next level, they needed to look at every aspect of the imagery on the site. Using my magazine and editorial background, I was able to organise a photoshoot with two models for the Flutterby.

We shot at Location 63, and took photos of every product styled on a model and also did a number of properly styled still-lives of the products, the sort of imgaes you’d normally see in a newspaper or magazine.

Have a look at the end result here www.flutterbyonline.co.uk

I hope you’ll agree the site looks pretty good (let me know in the comments below!). I especially love the ‘hover’ preview that you get as you move the mouse over any product. Rather than look like a run-from-home business, Flutterby now looks like a professional and credible ecommerce store.

And it’s not stopping here. The website features a first purchase 10 per cent discount code for ALL visitors, which moving forwards, will help the sisters-in-law grow their email marketing list.

I’ve also been assisting Louisa and Sal in beginning a social media strategy on Instagram and Facebook. Here, the photoshoot will show its worth again as we’ll be using the images from the photoshoot across social media and to run competitions (great images get a lot more engagement on social media than anything else.)

In the future, the images will also be useful when it comes to getting publicity for the Louisa and Sal, as presenting a magazine or paper with a set of high-impact glamorous images that they can use for free makes them more likely to firstly cover your brand and secondly give you more space.

I’m actually quite envious of Louisa and Sal’s business now! It has so much potential and has emerged from its makeover a serious contender in the online jewellery shopping world – I’d love to be running it myself. Now, the sisters-in-law have to embark on a strong and consistent strategy involving Facebook, Instagram, publicity and email marketing (using the dozens of fabulous images from their shoot) all of which, along with their new website, will make a dramatic difference to their business and positioning.