Articles – Lilian M Raji | When You Know It's Time For More https://www.lmrpr.com Global Fractional Chief Communications Officer | Luxury PR & Marketing Advisor | Forbes Contributor Wed, 02 Jul 2025 20:11:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.lmrpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/cropped-butterfly_emblem-1-32x32.png Articles – Lilian M Raji | When You Know It's Time For More https://www.lmrpr.com 32 32 What is the Customer Journey https://www.lmrpr.com/what-is-the-customer-journey/ Wed, 15 Jan 2020 08:32:11 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=16090

  • In 2020, Focus on The Customer Journey

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If a customer is familiar with a brand because that brand has made itself and its stellar reputation consistently visible to the customer, that customer will happily drop $10,000 online because the brand has earned their trust.



Happy holidays, dear readers!

We’re breaking from our usual Q&A to dedicate 2019’s final column to those who’ve shared with me their business-crippling challenges of this year.

Those that know me well know I’m a 20+ year student of astrology and will happily interpret your personal astrology chart if you ask me nicely. No, I’m not talking about those silly horoscopes that give astrology a bad name.  I mean a real, mathematics-driven chart, composed of numbers and formulas and calculations (oh my!).

While I don’t believe we’re governed by the stars, I do believe the stars can decipher the energy and environment around us.  For instance, those born in the 70s and early 80s have been riddled with obstacles for the past two years because the astrological numerical values of that era conflict with the values of this era. (This also applies to some born outside these years, based on the mathematics of their personal chart, but that’s a different discussion.)

Anyhoo, the two astronomical figures representing the energies of chaos and discipline have been warring with each other, leaving us 70s babies (with our conflicting numerical charts) to endure one disappointment after another.

A battle between chaos and discipline only ends one of two ways: either by complete destruction, never to rise again, or by total transformation, bursting through ash and rubble like a phoenix.

Me personally? I prefer the latter.

Continue reading on The PR Advisor…

As always, lovelies, send me your most press PR and marketing questions!  




Originally published in National Jeweler, December  2019

]]> How Do You Use Influencer Marketing https://www.lmrpr.com/how-do-you-use-influencer-marketing/ Wed, 15 Jan 2020 08:13:37 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=16085

  • In 2020, Focus on The Customer Journey

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Don’t worry about how long it takes to reach 50,000 followers. Your followers are arriving organically; they’re authentically interested in what you have to offer.



Hello, my dear readers! Please forgive my absence! I’ve spent the summer laboring over my first e-book, “Influencer Fraud: Weeding Out the Fakers, Liars and the Delusional.” Given that influencer fraud is now a $1.3 billion racket, I’m certain you’ll forgive me once you’ve picked up your free copy.  Identifying influencer fraud is too immense a topic to cover in this column, so use this e-book with my compliments to protect yourself from scammers.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled column, already in progress, as we finish our three-part series on building your very own Super Influencer, Anastasia.

Dear Lilian,

Rather than paying influencers to help promote our business, how can I turn my staff into influencers?

Signed,

Keeping the Bacon at Home

How’s your hashtag strategy now that you’ve learned how to do it correctly?  Have you been dazzling the 2,300 people who want to know #howtoaccessorize?  What about the 35,000 who must know your jewelry #goeswitheverything?

If you’ve never considered hashtags like these, you’re not stretching your creative mind far enough.  Our favorite grand dame, Patricia Faber, knows what we’re talking about. 

To promote Aaron Faber Gallery’s Barbara Heinrich collection, Patricia used #personalstyle, #putaringonit, #loveisallyouneed, #letmechoose and #powerofthering. Altogether, these five hashtags exposed Aaron Faber to over 3 million Instagrammers.

More kudos to Patricia for choosing hashtags with a broad range of followers.  While #personalstyle has 2.6 million uses, #powerofthering only has 233. I assure you, however, those 233 followers are serious about the power of the ring.  All 233 are more likely to see your post than all #personalstyle’s 2.6 million. Since Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags for posts and 10 for stories, there’s no reason not to diversify your selections.

Next, do you know how I landed Beth Farber’s jewelry in the TV show Gotham?

Simple.  I asked.

And that’s what you must do.

Continue reading on The PR Advisor…




Originally published in National Jeweler, October  2019

]]> How to Turn Your Staff into Influencers https://www.lmrpr.com/how-to-turn-your-staff-into-influencers/ Wed, 12 Jun 2019 03:04:21 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=15848

  • Turning Your Staff Into Influencers

    how to become an influencer

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When you go beyond follower counts and examine influencers who get people to act on their recommendations, you find people who’ve established authentic voices with their followers.



Hello again, dear readers!  So sorry to have missed you in Vegas, but my Instagram didn’t!  Thanks to all-stars like Tanya Dukes, Cheryl Kremkow, Robyn Hawk, Patricia Faber, and, of course, the grand dames of National Jeweler, I’m in the know about what to know from the shows.

Very big congratulations to my dear friend, Natalie Rodrigues, and the whole Omi Prive team! And congratulations to all of you for surviving another jewelry week!

It’s back to business as usual. Ever since my webinar, Harnessing the Power of Social Media Influencers, bombarded the PR Advisor with questions, our ongoing business is all about influencers.   Let’s get to it!

Dear Lilian,

Rather than paying influencers to help promote our business, how can I turn my staff into influencers?

Signed,

Keeping the Bacon at Home

My dear Bacon lover, this is an ingenious idea of great magnitude, matched only by the sheer difficulty in making it happen. Yet the PR Advisor doesn’t believe anything is ever impossible. Creativity, perseverance and a strong work ethic are known to create miracles!

Your question is rather timely, as I’ve lately been focusing on growing my own social media presence.  Having been the proverbial shoe cobbler whose children are running around barefoot because I’ve been too busy helping clients with their social media to pay attention to my own, I’m learning firsthand the challenges of reaching 10,000 followers.

There’s a certain dedication to this task that I personally am unwilling to commit. Becoming an influencer requires a comfort with sharing TMI.  And while many of you have seen me sauntering around in my 5” ruby stilettos and colorful dresses, I’ve always preferred the backstage to the limelight. And dare I confess? I’m an introvert.

I know! You don’t believe it! But it’s true!  I’m more comfortable promoting other people than myself.  But as an introvert who spends my alone time analyzing human behavior, I understand the psychology behind what makes the most powerful influencers. 

When you go beyond follower counts and examine influencers who get people to act on their recommendations, you find people who’ve established authentic voices with their followers.  This is what your staff must do.

Continue reading on The PR Advisor…




Originally published in National Jeweler, June 2019

]]> How Do I Find the Right Influencer? https://www.lmrpr.com/how-do-i-find-the-right-influencer/ Tue, 09 Apr 2019 16:09:11 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=15152

  • Finding Influencers in Your City

    find the right social media influencers for your brand

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Start building your influencer list from your own followers, your competitors’ followers, and all the beautiful people who pose for pictures in your local magazines.



Dear Lilian,

How can I find a valuable micro-influencer and woo them in my small community?

Signed,

Where Do I Begin?

Happy Spring, my dear readers! Forgive my long absence – I’ve been traveling the world and spent much of January channeling the girl from Ipanema. I won’t tease you with details of my extraordinary, mind-opening month in Brazil – that’s what Instagram is for! Head over to my Instagram page to see more about my travels.

Head over to Instagram anyway, because this, dear readers, is where we’ll focus for the next few columns.

The lovely Susan Posnock of Jewelers of America recently invited me to do a webinar on Harnessing the Power of Social Media Influencers. If you missed it, no worries! You can catch a replay on my website.

I highly recommend watching it, if I do say so myself.  I cover the big topics, including finding the right influencers, not falling victim to influencer fraud and keeping the FTC off your back. 

This webinar brought an avalanche of questions.  And as you know, I’m all about the questions! I promised webinar viewers I’d cover each question in detail here over the next few months. 

So, shall we begin?

Continue reading at The PR Advisor…




Originally published in National Jeweler, April 2019

]]> Which Social Media is Best for Business https://www.lmrpr.com/which-social-media-is-best-for-business/ Wed, 03 Apr 2019 19:53:10 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=15296

  • The Best Social Platforms for Business

    social selling

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Pinterest and Instagram have proven to be the better money-makers. While Instagram is great for inspiring impulse purchases, Pinterest attracts users who are pinning with purpose.



Dear Lilian:

Thank you very much for this opportunity. The one thing for me right now is getting the mix right with what I’ll call “new age” media (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Yelp, etc.) and traditional types–print, billboards, radio and TV. They are all very important as we need to build new clientele, but not forget our past and who got us to where we are today.

The other part to this is based around the social media platforms. Yelp … as far as I know can be very useful. But we’re talking about another $400 per month in expenses … where do we put our money????

Colin R. Nash
Nash Jewellers
London, Ontario
www.nashjewellers.com

Dear Colin,

Remember the days when marketing consisted of just a magazine, newspaper or TV ad, perhaps a billboard somewhere, and lots of mail promising instant bliss with the purchase of this super-duper, handy-dandy vacuum cleaner? PR was considered a mysterious form of hoodoo and three-martini lunches at “21” were all the rage. Yellow gold Rolex Presidentials and football-player inspired shoulder pads–(sing it with me now) those were the days!

I kid. I don’t remember those days at all. I’ve completely wiped any memory of them from my mind as nostalgia only delays your progressing with the times. And fortunately–or unfortunately, depending on your outlook–the times are progressing quite rapidly.

As a PR person, I am perplexed (PERPLEXED!) by the number and frequency of the “next big thing” in social media because it means I will now have to investigate yet another thing and see if it’s worthwhile for my clients to adopt. Ninety-eight percent of the time, I discover it’s not–at least not yet, which means I must keep an eye on this nifty new social media gadget for some time before I can thoroughly dismiss it altogether.

So when I read your email, dear Colin, I felt your pain. I felt it deeply, I felt it dearly, and as you’re reading this, I’m sure millions of marketing and PR professionals around the world are all pouring out a few drops of the finest 28-year Glenlivet in honor of your pain.

Now that we’ve taken a moment of silence for your pain, let’s jump in, shall we?

Continue reading on The PR Advisor…




Originally published in National Jeweler, November 2015

]]> What Makes a Luxury Brand? https://www.lmrpr.com/what-makes-a-luxury-brand/ Mon, 01 Apr 2019 22:12:42 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=15274

  • What Makes a Luxury Brand?

    what makes a luxury brand

What Makes a Luxury Brand?

In my twelve years working in the luxury industry — first as a leading salesperson with Tourneau, the largest retailer of fine watches in the world, and then as President of The Lilian Raji Agency — I’ve had many opportunities to consult, create and execute marketing strategy for both small and global brands.

To better service our clients, I’ve spent countless hours researching and observing what brands do wrong and what they get right. This research is a critical part of the brand building process and it’s the first lesson I will impart to you in this series on how to build a luxury brand.

And it bears repeating:

If you want to build a successful luxury brand, you must first understand the market.

We’ll come back to this again, but first things first: what exactly is a luxury brand?

Continue reading at The PR Advisor…

]]> Understanding the Luxury Buyer https://www.lmrpr.com/attract-high-paying-clients/ Mon, 01 Apr 2019 21:42:07 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=15242

  • Understanding the Luxury Customer

In order to attract high end customers, you must first understand the many faces of the luxury customer.

The Four Faces of the Luxury Consumer

To attract high paying clients, you must first understand the luxury customer. The luxury customer is a fickle person. She wants what she wants and she will always find the money to pay for it. Her fickleness, however, is a consequence of her multiple personalities.

You see, the customer who consumes luxury has four different personas, each requiring a different strategy to gain her attention.  To build a luxury brand that draws the patronage of  high end consumers, you’ll need to understand all four faces and design your strategy to address the needs of each face.


These four personalities are not women by accident. Four out of every five luxury purchases are either made by women or controlled by women. While men certainly enjoy luxury purchases of their own, women shop more frequently and spend more than men.

Knowing these four personalities of the luxury customer is essential in developing a luxury brand, as selling to each one requires a different strategy.

Read more on The PR Advisor…

]]> How Do I Get Media Coverage for My Company? https://www.lmrpr.com/how-do-i-get-media-coverage-for-my-company/ Mon, 01 Apr 2019 04:11:51 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=15227

  • Finding Influencers in Your City

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Rather than invest money in participating in a press preview day, invest time in pursuing as many desk- side appointments as you can each month. Or better yet, use that money to invite editors to drinks or dinner, where you can really bond one-on-one.



Dear Lilian,

Is it best to participate in press preview days, usually with a cost of $2,000 and up, or better to try and get desk-side appointments?

Jodi Goldsmith
Gumuchian

Dear Jodi,

My, what controversy you’re trying to cause me!

I have my own opinions about press preview days  agencies that organize these are not going to like–not because I don’t think they’re a good idea. They are–in theory. But compared to the one-on-one of a desk-side appointment, I suggest you save your money and build your own relationships with press.

For those unfamiliar with press preview days, it’s an event, usually organized by a PR agency, where multiple brands are assembled in one spacious location in hopes of meeting the editors of Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, Elle and all other publications everyone wants to be in.

Think of it like speed dating, except instead of meeting a bunch of people you may or may not ever want to see again, you’re meeting with a bunch of different editors, whom you really, really, really want to like you.

Continue reading on The PR Advisor…




Originally published in National Jeweler, August 2015

]]> How Do You Increase Sales in Luxury Retail? https://www.lmrpr.com/how-do-you-increase-sales-in-luxury-retail/ Mon, 01 Apr 2019 03:46:50 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=15222

  • The Best Social Platforms for Business

    social selling

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Every single person that walks through your door must be treated as royalty. Because how they’re treated determines the story told about your store. And it’s those stories that build a brand.



Dear Lilian,

How should a multi-branded retailer incorporate 3rd party coop materials which may not be altered (other than placement of jewelers logo), be deployed without diluting the retailer’s own brand?

Co-op Curious in Colorado

Dear Co-op Curious,

Let’s start by clarifying one thing: the only way you can dilute your brand is by offering poor customer service.

If your luxury sales people aren’t taught that it doesn’t matter what a person wears when they enter your store, and potential customers are treated with varying levels of respect based on their attire, your brand is already more watered down than Anita Ekberg taking a soak in the Fontana di Trevi.

How salespeople treat luxury consumers when they walk through the front door is a subject very near and dear to me – it’s the secret to my success as one of the top earners at Tourneau Atlanta many years.

The man wearing sweatpants, ignored by everyone in the store but me, bought a rose gold Breitling Bentley from me at full price. And the customer who called looking for a $800 Movado would later allow me to curate his entire watch collection, which, through my personalized service and recommendation, was valued at $400,000 at the end of 2004.

So I start my response to you, dear Curious, with reinforcing the need to ensure every single person that walks through your door is treated as royalty. Because how they’re treated determines the story told about your store. And it’s those stories that build a brand.

Now, to your direct question.

Continue reading on The PR Advisor…




Originally published in National Jeweler, September 2015

]]> How to Create a Luxury Website https://www.lmrpr.com/how-to-create-a-luxury-website/ Mon, 01 Apr 2019 03:24:11 +0000 https://www.lmrpr.com/?p=15209

  • Finding Influencers in Your City

    find the right social media influencers for your brand

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The very essence of creating an experiential site is to evoke emotion from visitors. Emotions are the quintessence of luxury.



Dear Lilian,

Many thanks for your informative articles.

I have decided after 17 years to do a new website. My current website it lovely but not interactive. I want this site to be really user friendly, passworded in order to view collections and have awesome photography. I have two shops in Barbados and would like the website visitors to have an “interactive ” experience when on the site. Most people are seeing your website before your shop. How can I get the private jeweller of Barbados feel on a website?

Heather Harrington Jones

Dear Heather,

Hopefully, you and my wonderful readers are having a fantastic summer! I write to you now from the breathtaking shores of Capri – which the Italians have ardently informed me is pronounced KAH-pree.

It’s only fitting your email is my next focus as I’ve heard Barbados shores are just as spectacular!

I, and my dear friend, Christina Hagopian of Hagopian Ink, have reviewed your website. Christina’s business is ensuring the first impression her luxury clients’ receive is that they deserve whatever price tag they command.

Let’s start with your website’s biggest problem. This far outweighs your website’s lack of interactivity because, as it currently stands, your website can’t be found organically.

Continue reading on The PR Advisor…




Originally published in National Jeweler, August 2016

]]>