Amazon has grown into the largest e-commerce platform and a major sales and marketing channel for a range of businesses. One recent statistic: Amazon’s revenue on Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, grew 74.5% from 2017 to 2018, CPC statistics show. Amazon reports that almost half of all products sold on the site come from marketplace sellers.
Amazon offers businesses a cost-effective way to reach a large audience. Almost any business can create an Amazon account to sell its products through the site. If they choose to have it fulfilled by Amazon, then an Amazon warehouse will store their products, ship, and handle all customer service and returns. However, simply adding a digital ribbon icon to a site is unlikely to move a significant amount of merchandise. The competition is tough. Price is usually the only differentiating factor. Experts urge businesses to promote only products with adequate margins and to consider inventory, order fulfillment and overhead costs when determining prices.
Unless you have a unique product that you created, there’s a chance that someone else is selling the same product as you on Amazon. Price competition can be fierce. As with any channel, businesses need top-notch marketing skills and a good marketing strategy to outperform competitors, gain attention and convince customers to click the buy button. Amazon marketing advice could consume a book, but here are some of the most important factors, according to leading marketers.
title.
The title is one of the most important elements of an Amazon product detail page. A good title succinctly and accurately describes the product and its benefits within Amazon’s 150-250 character limit.
Keywords in the title help your product rank, but don’t stuff your title so full of keywords that it becomes meaningless. Consider using tools like Merchant Words, Google Keyword Planner, and Simple Keyword Inspector to find related keywords and estimate search volume, says Kevin Rizer of Big Commerce. You can also start typing keywords into Amazon’s search bar and see the results populate below as “recommended” search terms. Others also recommend using Amazon’s keyword tool to optimize your listing titles.
The key parts of the title include:
Brand Name
Product Name
Any distinguishing characteristics such as colour, size or purpose.
picture.
Images, more than anything else, may cause shoppers to click on your listing or keep scrolling.
Include images from all angles, but don’t fill all the allowed space with only inferior images. Amazon requires a plain white background for primary images, but allows other image types for secondary images.
The platform requires images to have a minimum size of 1.000 x 1.000 pixels to take advantage of its zoom feature, which allows buyers to scroll over an image to enlarge it. “This is a popular feature with Amazon buyers, so take advantage of it,” Rizer said.
Bullet points.
Bullet points also provide key opportunities to close the deal. Amazon allows five spaces for bullet points, but that doesn’t mean you can only use five words or even five sentences.
To get the most out of bullet points, Rizer recommends using short, two- to four-sentence paragraphs and focusing on your product’s features and benefits. Address any common problems or objections that might prevent someone from purchasing. Remember to update frequently.
A recommended formula: In the first three bullet points, introduce the most important features of your product. In the fourth and fifth bullet points, answer common questions or respond to common objections. Update bullet points and even headlines to respond to complaints and check out comments.
Product Description.
To write Amazon product descriptions that appeal to customers, Pilar Newman of A Better Lemonade Stand recommends:
Discuss features and benefits: Showcase product features and associated consumer benefits.
Solve a problem: Reference the product problem you want to solve
Make it relevant: Create a picture in the consumer’s mind of how the product is relevant to them.
Conclude with a strong call to action. Invite customers to buy.
Rizer recommends utilizing the basic HTML that Amazon allows in product descriptions to create bold, italics, quotes, and other simple formatting to avoid making the text too long. HTML formatting can highlight certain words or phrases and make the description easier to read.
Start your first purchase.
New products are often buried in search results. Winning the first few orders quickly can give the product a valuable boost in rankings and gain organic visibility, Newman said. If you have sold the product elsewhere before and have a customer list available, use that listing to launch your Amazon product. Emailing a specially discounted Amazon coupon code to your customer list can help generate initial sales.
Promote products on your blog, website, other websites, and social media. “You are not allowed to market outside of Amazon, but you are definitely allowed to market externally to drive customers to your Amazon store,” said Jami Deloe of Ecomdash.
Feedback and comments.
Customer reviews and positive feedback are very important. Nearly 90% of buyers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. However, only about 10% of Amazon buyers leave feedback after a purchase. Fight court to fully pay customers for organic reviews; Amazon is now prohibited from giving discounts in exchange for reviews. Tools like Feedback Five or Feedback Genius can help solicit feedback, manage comments, and increase feedback volume.
Understand the rules and regulations.
Make sure you understand and comply with the platform’s many rules and regulations. “Adhering to them is important to the success of your business because if they break, you risk getting your account suspended or closed entirely,” Deloe advises. By following the rules and regulations, you can increase your Amazon sales the right way.
Consider advertising.
Advertising on Amazon can significantly increase your visibility and sales. “Paid advertising on Amazon continues to grow in popularity, importance, and sophistication for brands,” states Search Engine Watch’s 2019 guide to Amazon advertising. “One only needs to look at the evolution of Amazon’s search results page to see how paid placements have become dominant in front of shoppers.”
The Sponsored Products option displays products below the search results or on the product detail page. Under the guidelines, advertisers will have more control over who they target. Product targeting makes it easier to engage shoppers as they browse detail pages and filter search results.
Bottom Line:
Amazon provides a viable way for businesses to launch products and attract customers. However, competitors may crowd into this space, and customer attention may be short-lived. Success requires the right writing and marketing skills as well as business acumen. On Amazon, pricing is also crucial.
