In our last month of 2024, we are reflecting and enjoying the fact that we were able to celebrate SilverTowne’s 75th anniversary all year long. The blog has highlighted several groups of people who maintain and operate this small town, big business, and we will round out the year with another imperative group of people behind the scenes.
SilverTowne has a retail shop located in Winchester, Indiana, and we pride ourselves on the number of visitors we get from year to year from all over the country. However, a lot of our “traffic,” and a notable portion of our existence in today’s numismatic climate, is online at our website. We offer a plethora of products, with the main product always being silver and precious metals. That web presence has been built and maintained by our next group of individuals that work tirelessly making sure it’s not only user-friendly but stands out.
Angie – Web Administrator
Responsible for web development and SilverTowne’s online presence, Angie has been with the company since July of 2011.
“Web administrator encompasses a lot of different things,” Angie said. “Among my main responsibilities are web development/design, working with 3rd party developers, maintaining the web servers, working with product listings, creating and maintaining reports, assisting with product photos, product packaging, marketing materials/emails, and coordinating with the SilverTowne Mint when it comes to new product ideas.”
Hired a little over a year ago to assist Angie, Brandon also helps with the email newsletters that go out every Tuesday and Thursday. In addition, he provides support in preparing listings of products for the website. This ranges from sovereign coins, SilverTowne minted products, and special occasion gifts. With all that comes photography and writing descriptions for the products.
“On a day-to-day basis our department is all about prioritizing the most urgent tasks,” Angie stated. “As far as the team is concerned, I am the point of contact, but we are very much a team. We are responsible for the design and creation of the Christmas silver bullion lineup each year in addition to the new packaging options, new products, and the promotion of it all. It’s our biggest selling season and/or product line.”
“We also work with our in-house enamellers on paint schemes for the painted pieces,” added Vickie, graphic designer for SilverTowne and The Coin Vault. “We typically give them an idea of what we’d like, and they make samples. If something we have tried does not work or they have a better idea, they present it to us and nine times out of ten they are right.”
Vickie – Graphic Designer
“Creating all the website graphics including banners, blog posts, and social media graphics for both companies is a large part of what I contribute,” said Vickie, “but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Packaging graphics, new silver bullion designs, print advertising needs, supporting the Corporate Engraving program by prepping logo files and custom graphics for engraving, and communicating with outside vendors on advertising and marking materials are also regular tasks. With Christmas being our biggest selling collection and the importance of getting it right every year, it takes a lot of work and preparation for that to happen.”
Usually more than a year in advance, the team starts brainstorming and designing new bullion options for the following Christmas.
“As soon as Christmas 2024 is over, I will start creating new designs for Christmas 2025,” Vickie stated. “Both bullion and packaging designs. And then we will follow with product images, skus, sales flyers for retailers and dealers, ordering the pieces, assisting our purchasers in managing the inventory to make sure we don’t order too much or too little. It is a year-round process for the Christmas collections alone.”
Like many others in the building, the web team wear many different hats. Random tasks seem to gravitate towards many employees, and a lot of the time they stick.
“All the t-shirts and merch are also our brainchild,” said Vickie.
“What we offer to the business is visual communication through our graphics and branding,” added Angie. “Our most important task as a team is our online sales presence. We are constantly brainstorming on how to improve the website, the products, etc. And we are ALWAYS thinking of Christmas.”
