CMI Jewelry Showroom

Luxury retail · Raleigh, NC · Ongoing since 2016

The situation

Importing diamonds since the 1970s and running a showroom since the 1990s, CMI wanted to compete against nationally known brands in the Raleigh market — against competitors with far larger budgets.

Outspending them was never an option, so the entire plan rested on targeting precisely enough that budget size stopped mattering.

What we did

Focused on two buyer moments: couples approaching engagement, and high earners buying for themselves or a partner
Activated CMI's existing client list as both an email audience and a digital targeting seed
Ran paid social, display, eblasts, print, and holiday direct mail into high-earning ZIP codes against those same two audiences
Narrowed paid search targeting month over month, lifting click-through sixfold in a single year
Built relationships with local publications in the areas they wanted to grow
Then moved budget out of paid and into organic search, to hold the position without renting it

Paid search conversions, 2022

838

Search click-through, Mar to Sep

0.16% → 1.08%

Google profile impressions, 2025

+83%

Calls to the showroom

+15%

Directions requests

+16%

The reach numbers were large — 3.3 million impressions and over 13,000 clicks at the 2022 peak, with paid social beating category benchmark at 1.27% against 0.90%, and display at 0.15% against 0.10%. But impressions were the input, not the result. Once the audience was proven, we cut paid spend and moved the budget into organic search, so CMI now owns its position on jewelry repair, jewelry appraisal, and "jewelry stores Raleigh, NC" rather than renting it monthly.
Calls and directions requests are the metrics that matter here — nobody asks for driving directions to a jewelry showroom out of curiosity.

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