Market Amazon products using these proven techniques that will help you attract external customers as well as internal customers in the marketplace.
Amazon is a leader in the market. There is no doubt about it. Getting your products recognized and purchased requires a marketing approach that allows you to make the most of this online e-commerce juggernaut, whether you’re a tiny seller or a major corporation.
For nearly every type of product, today’s buyers turn to Amazon as their first stop for information. In fact, 63% of online customers begin their search for products on Amazon. However, with so many products accessible from multiple sellers, each with its own shipping choices and discounts, it’s easy for potential customers to overlook your brand.
The key to reaching Amazon customers is to make your listings as visible as possible. Buyers don’t have the time or patience to comb through every single product on the market since there are so many. Make it simple for customers to find your products, and you’ll see an increase in sales.
We’ll go through major techniques to attract external traffic outside of Amazon and internal traffic within the marketplace to your listings to help them stand out. These techniques direct buyers to your listings, allowing them to go through your sales funnel and become customers.
To navigate the sections quickly, use the links below.
- What is Amazon advertising?
- Top Key Reasons to Sell on Amazon
- Top Strategies to Implement
- Top 10 Ways To Market Amazon Products Effectively
What is Amazon Advertising?
Amazon is one of the most popular marketplaces. It’s so popular among online consumers that some of them are so devoted to the platform that they won’t consider buying anywhere else.
Amazon’s dominance is accompanied by fierce competition among Amazon vendors. As a result, Amazon Advertising is expanding, and sellers want a comprehensive and adaptable advertising strategy that will provide them with the highest potential return on investment.
Simply put, Amazon advertising is similar to that of Google Ads. When you type a phrase into the Amazon search box, you’ll see that some of the top results are sponsored postings, which are referred to as Amazon Ads. They’re identified by lettering that says “sponsored” or “ad.” So, for example, if I am looking to buy Nivea Lotion I would get the following ad banner:
Advertisers who want their items to be more visible on Amazon can pay for these spots by bidding on specific keywords, which will increase their visibility in the Amazon SERPs. When a shopper clicks on the marketer’s ad, the advertiser will be charged. Amazon’s advertising platform is essentially the Amazon version of Google Ads.
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5 Key Reasons to Sell on Amazon
1. Users mostly begin their search on Amazon
According to new research, the vast majority of consumer journeys begin and end on Amazon. According to Jungle Scout’s “Amazon Advertising Report,” 74% of U.S. shoppers start their product searches on Amazon.com. More than half of shoppers agree that if they could only buy things from one store, it would be Amazon. Another piece of positive news for Amazon (and online retail in general) is that nearly four out of ten (37%) Americans report that while their overall spending is down, their online spending is up.
JungleScout discovered that Amazon’s ad income growth is accelerating. Amazon’s ad revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 was $7.95 billion, up 66% from the previous year. Three-quarters of Amazon third-party sellers utilize at least one sort of Amazon pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, with one-third (34%) planning to spend more on strategic advertising this year than in previous years. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that Amazon ad spend is trending away from sponsored product ads and toward sponsored display and brand ads, which have a higher return on investment.
2. Amazon is a great sales channel
While common wisdom suggests that you should diversify your sales channels and avoid relying on Amazon for all of your revenue, Amazon is a terrific sales channel to use with your website. Many people fear that Amazon will eat up all of their revenue, but the truth is that you can still have a successful direct-to-consumer website in addition to Amazon. If set up right, Amazon may rapidly become a valuable addition.
3. Amazon helps users discover your brand
Amazon is rapidly expanding and now dominates online purchasing, offering a wide range of products. Amazon’s expansion into nations across the world is fueled by online brand purchasing. Amazon’s strategy is to emphasize brand as a key selling feature to entice customers to shop on their site.
Amazon can assist in the development of a funnel of potential clients who will eventually shop on your Shopify store. Many successful firms have started on Amazon and then moved their clients to their own site to buy the same or similar products.
4. Amazon is an open marketplace
Amazon is a large retailer of everything from car seats to lipsticks to umbrellas. You are purchasing directly from Amazon’s whole product inventory and individual sellers when you shop on Amazon. The Amazon Marketplace is a marketplace for third-party retailers that are incorporated into the same platform as Amazon.
It provides users with a considerably larger product selection from thousands of external merchants, as well as the ability to compare prices to keep the platform competitive. Many buyers are unaware that they are purchasing from third-party merchants since Amazon Marketplace is so tightly integrated into Amazon.
5. Amazon customers have higher trust in and convert at higher rates on the platform
Customers have faith in Amazon. Consistent and transparent product experiences have developed and maintained that confidence. “Amazon has gained our trust by constantly delivering the things we want, on schedule, unharmed, and in the same branded brown boxes,” Forbes stated.
Stand out: 5 Reasons Branding is More Important Than Ever on Amazon
Top Strategies to Implement
1. Create an Amazon Advertising strategy
Most marketers start with the basics, learning as they go and progressively adding more advanced techniques to their toolkit. The good news is that by utilizing Amazon’s advertising tools and functionality, you may start getting greater results with your advertising budget.
Here are some Amazon advertising techniques you can apply right immediately to help your ad campaigns acquire greater traction:
- Sponsored Brands can help you raise brand recognition.
- Concentrate on product profitability.
- For Sponsored Products, use category-specific targeting.
- Negative keywords can help you save money on ads by reducing the amount of money you spend on them.
- Have a goal for an advertising cost of sale (ACoS) that is adjustable.
- To explore, use auto campaigns, and to exploit, use manual campaigns.
- Make your bids more effective.
2. Create an Amazon reviews strategy
Customer feedback and ratings are crucial. They’re particularly more vital in the world of ecommerce, where customers can’t see or touch a thing before purchasing it. Customers prefer not to engage with firms that have less than a 3.3-star rating, according to recent research.
Amazon understands the value of customer reviews and, in keeping with its buyer-first philosophy, includes them prominently on each product page. Customers can look at customer photos, search for information inside reviews, sort reviews by stars, and read customer questions and answers.
You should always emphasize reviews as a seller. They have the power to make or break a customer’s purchase decision, and the more positive evaluations your product receives, the more likely it is to convert casual interest.
3. Employ an Amazon SEO strategy
Amazon is the ecommerce market leader. It’s also a search engine, and therefore it is not only an ecommerce site. It also has its own search engine optimization, or SEO, as a search engine.
A9 is the name of Amazon’s search engine. It is comparable to Google in that it has its own algorithm and unpredictable updates. A9 is likewise similar to Google in one important way: it prioritizes searchers, in this case, customers. If you’re a shopper, this is fantastic, but if you’re a seller, it’s more difficult.
Thankfully, there’s a simple rule to follow when it comes to Amazon SEO: Consider yourself a buyer. This entails focusing on three aspects of your content: discoverability, relevancy, and sales. In other words, you want people to look at your things, click on them, and buy them.
Create entries for your product category that reflect widely used keywords, and make sure your product pages contain up-to-date, useful information.
4. Understand your niche and hyper-target them
You’ll need to understand a few things about what makes a product “good” for selling on the internet. Sell things that have a year-round demand – Small business owners should look for products that have a year-round demand. Take the iPhone, for example: over time, the number of people who want to buy it will likely decrease. In short — avoid selling seasonal items.
Choose a product that will set you apart from your market competition. Selling specific/unique products, such as “Owl pendant with clock necklace” or “Butterfly pendant with tassel necklace,” as a small seller, would be easier and certainly more successful than selling typical necklaces. A large and heavy product will almost certainly cost extra to ship both in and out. Small and medium sellers should sell products that are small and easy to pick and pack so that they can save money not only on shipping but also on returns and storage.
Consider your second, third, and fourth products. Consider the big picture, the market, the chances it presents for you as a seller, and, finally, the brand you want to build. You should have a long-term strategy in place so that you can make the best use of your resources and see how you want to expand your company.
5. Implement keyword and sales tracking to learn and adjust faster than your competitors
Forgetting a vital keyword is similar to leaving your wallet on a park bench; you’ll be kicking yourself for a long time for that blunder, which resulted in money lost. Similarly, if any keywords are left out of your Amazon product listing, it will not be found via search! Keyword research, which comprises looking for all relevant keywords for a product, is an important aspect of Amazon search optimization. All search terms or “key” words/terms that a customer would use to find your product on Amazon would be considered relevant keywords. Sales tracking can provide you with real-time insight into the activities of your team. As a result, you’ll be able to spot possible concerns and address them before they become major problems.
Top 10 Ways to Market Amazon Products Effectively
1. Optimize Your Amazon Product Pages
(i) Product Title
When a customer is exploring Amazon, the title of your product is the first thing they see. While you should keep your titles short, Amazon allows up to 200 characters in your titles. However, make good use of the character restriction.
Here’s what we think you should include:
- Your company’s name
- The brand name of the product
- Features like size, color, material, quantity, etc.
- One or two distinct advantages or values
For two reasons, your title is a great location: product information and keywords. For the most part, these are the same thing, although some sellers choose to add a few more keywords to improve their chances of appearing in Amazon’s search results. Finally, before they reach your page, your title should match the words customers use to find your product and should educate them on it.
(ii) Product Images
While your titles convey product information, your photos are frequently used by customers to select whether or not to investigate your product page further. On a big list of Amazon search results, this is extremely important – the perfect product images can help your product stand out.
However, once a customer lands on your product page, the imagery becomes even more crucial, and it might determine whether or not they complete a buy. Amazon allows you to use up to nine product photographs, and we recommend using all of them if you have nine high-quality, relevant images. Amazon specifies that your main product image should be on a white background.
Customers can also zoom in and out of each photograph on Amazon. As a result, your product photographs should be at least 1,000px by 1,000px to avoid fuzzy or distorted images when visitors zoom closer.
(iii) Product Key Features (Bullet Points)
If a customer gets past the product title, photos, price, and purchase alternatives, they’ll come across your product’s major features, which are presented in the form of bullet points. These bullet points allow you to go into greater detail regarding the features, benefits, qualities, and specifications of your product. These bullet points are used by successful Amazon sellers to expand on features and benefits, as well as to address common inquiries, misconceptions, and issues.
(iv) Product Description
You can assume that if a customer gets to your product description, they’re on the verge of making a buy. What evidence do we have for this? To find it, customers actually scroll down a little. They navigate over Amazon advertisements, promoted products, and other prominent information. They expect to learn more about your product and complete their purchase if they make it to the product description.
This makes your product description an excellent spot to expand on your product bullet points, cover some lesser-known features and benefits, and possibly incorporate additional product photographs. Consider including characteristics that set your product apart from the competition, such as unique manufacturing methods, materials, or unique potential applications.
(v) Product Price
Setting the proper price is crucial for converting sales. Begin by calculating your lowest potential selling price. This is effectively a “break even” price that includes the costs of manufacturing your goods, money spent on promotion, and any Amazon fees — which vary based on the type of item you’re selling but are often between 8 and 20%.
This is your minimum price, for example, if all of these expenditures add up to $10. You’re not going to make any money, but you’re not going out of business either. While this is an excellent place to start if you’re new to the Amazon marketplace, your ultimate goal should be to sell things for as much as the market will bear.
To determine your upper price limit, lookup similar, popular products on Amazon and check how much they’re selling for. Next, decide how you want to position your brand: are you trying to dominate the low-cost market or are you aiming for premium prices? Both are feasible, but they necessitate distinct techniques.
2. Share Listings on Social Media
The average person spends approximately two hours every day on social media networks. Given this popularity, using your business’s social media accounts to share your Amazon listings is a great method to promote your products to more shoppers.
Because your followers demand value from your postings, it’s advisable to avoid making posts that are essentially advertisements for your listings on your account. Instead, it’s preferable to share your listing in less obvious ways that are still beneficial to your audience. Here are a few suggestions:
(i) Use a social media promo code
Sellers with an Amazon Professional Selling account can build a promotion link to publish on social media about a listing discount they’re offering. Unlike a traditional advertisement, posting a promo code adds value to customers by allowing them to save money.
(ii) Share content that includes your listing link
An educational, helpful blog post or video, such as a how-to video or a list post that includes a link to your Amazon listing is a terrific method to indirectly market your Amazon products through social media.
(iii) Host a contest or giveaway
Make a public announcement on your social media platforms that anybody who includes your Amazon listing in their profile will be entered to win a reward. This incentive will encourage consumers to share your listing and promote your Amazon products.
3. Run Competitor Analysis
Your Amazon listings must keep ahead of competitors’ products for internal exposure. If you don’t keep track of how those listings are engaging shoppers, your products will lag behind competitors’ items in search rankings.
There are a few aspects you should keep an eye on in competitors’ listings to keep your listings high in Amazon’s search rankings:
(i) Price
You want to keep your listings’ prices at or below competitors’ not only because consumers want the greatest discounts, but also because if you’re sharing a listing with numerous sellers, you want to win the Buy Box, and Amazon looks at price when selecting who gets the box.
(ii) Images
When Amazon customers scroll through search results, they’re looking at more than just the price, they’re also looking at photographs. Because visuals can be a powerful motivator for people to buy, you’ll want to make sure your listing contains more photographs of higher quality than competing items.
(iii) Text
It’s possible that the listing text isn’t regarded as relevant by Amazon’s search engine if your listing isn’t currently ranking high for your product keywords. Examine the language of the existing top-ranking listings for potentially relevant keywords that you may incorporate to help your product rank higher.
4. Partner With Influencers
Influencer marketing may help Amazon listings generate considerable attention, much like it can help products on an online store. When influential people in your sector support your product and connect to your offering, it sends a message to your target buyers’ communities that your listing is worth looking at. To use influencer marketing to promote your business, start by making a list of notable people in your industry who have a substantial social media following.
5. Encourage Reviews But Make Sure You Stay Within Amazon Policy
It’s no secret that customer reviews are crucial. We’ve probably all purchased something from Amazon, and in many cases, the selection was based on whatever product had the best reviews. Furthermore, because shoppers like to do their research on Amazon first, reviews on Amazon will have an impact on other channels.
You may have heard about Amazon’s recent changes to its review policy. In a nutshell, Amazon is prohibiting Professional Sellers from writing evaluations for discounted items. Previously, many firms would offer customers reduced or free products in exchange for a review through a variety of outlets, including review sites.
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6. Run sponsored product ads
Amazon’s ad infrastructure is powerful, allowing you to sell your goods to Amazon shoppers. Amazon Sponsored Product Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) approach for promoting your products alongside search results. On desktop, advertisements can be displayed above, beside, or below search results, as well as on product detail pages.
Begin by using automatic aiming. This enables Amazon to use its strong search engines to provide you with a comprehensive list of prospective terms. This necessitates selecting a single default bid for all keywords, but the purpose is to get data on how different keywords perform.
Start assessing your automatic targeting campaign once you have at least a few weeks of data (the longer the better) to see which keywords performed the best. You’ll want to move those to a manual campaign so you can concentrate on only the most relevant keywords that worked successfully for you. You can adjust bids by keyword while running a manual campaign.
Iterate your manual campaign’s keywords and bids as needed. Although data is your best friend⸺ if you truly believe that you should include extra terms that haven’t performed well before, experiment with different bid levels. Different bid amounts can result in different locations and results, so keep experimenting until you discover something that works well.
7. Create Strong Product Ratings
When you’re competing in a marketplace as competitive as Amazon, first impressions are crucial. Buyers are sifting through thousands of products and will not accept items that appear to be of poor quality. Maintaining high-star ratings is a straightforward approach to providing buyers a pleasant first impression of your Amazon listings. The star ratings for each product are accessible as shoppers browse through their Amazon search results.
These star ratings, along with pricing, are a crucial determinant in whether or not shoppers choose to click on your ads. Because they can’t view your products in person, consumer feedback is very valuable to those considering a purchase.
Here are some pointers for keeping your Amazon listings’ star ratings high:
(i) Describe your item exactly as it is in your listing
False product descriptions and photographs may raise sales at first, but they will ultimately harm your Amazon business. Buyers who acquire a product that differs significantly from the listing are likely to give it a negative review out of dissatisfaction.
(ii) Provide excellent customer service
You’ll enrage customers if you don’t manage client demands appropriately, such as shipping an item late or failing to complete a return in a timely manner. Delivering the item as planned and immediately resolving difficulties can help you avoid a negative product rating.
(iii) Reach out to disappointed buyers
When a consumer gives you a low rating, contact them to see if you can still help them with their problem. If you can solve their problem, they have the ability to update their review and change their rating to help the product achieve a higher overall score.
8. Maintain Strong Shipping Performance
At first glance, shipping may appear to be unconnected to product promotion. However, on Amazon, your shipment performance has a significant impact on the visibility of your listings.
Amazon wants to keep customers satisfied, so they make shipping a component in winning the Buy Box and ranking high in Amazon’s search results. You’re less likely to win the Box or rank high in search if you have a history of delivery troubles.
Instead of jeopardizing your visibility, follow these guidelines to keep your Amazon shipping performance strong:
(i) Regularly check your shipping performance metrics
You can track numerous critical shipping performance metrics in Amazon Seller Central, such as on-time delivery rate and valid tracking rate, to ensure that you’re consistently providing excellent service and pleasing consumers.
(ii) Use Amazon FBA
Sellers that sign up for Fulfillment by Amazon don’t have to worry about offering excellent shipping because the marketplace takes care of it. Because the marketplace is liable for delivery concerns, if there are any complaints regarding your shipping from buyers, the marketplace will remove the rating.
(iii) Use inventory management software
Using an inventory management system keeps you on track so you don’t end up understocked or unable to fulfill orders.
9. Monitor Your Seller Rating
Your total seller rating on Amazon, like your shipping performance, has an impact on your chances of winning the Buy Box and ranking high in Amazon’s search results.
Low-rated sellers are penalized with less visibility as a way to keep Amazon customers satisfied and the marketplace afloat. It ensures that buyers are dealing with merchants who have a good reputation and can deliver excellent service.
Follow these techniques to keep your Amazon listings visible and maintain a high seller rating:
(i) Keep a track of your seller rating
You can look at the factors that go into your total seller rating on Seller Central, such as Perfect Order Percentage and Late Response Rate, and see which ones need to be changed in order to raise it.
(ii) Be prompt in customer service
Make a daily reminder to take care of client issues and respond to communications. Buyers will be more impressed with your service if you pay attention to them quickly.
10. Revamp product packaging
As you continue to sell your products on Amazon and win sales from new customers, it’s critical that you make an impression on your newest customers — and pique their interest in your product and brand, which can lead to repeat purchases and word-of-mouth recommendations. Is there a way you can accomplish this? Yes, you can — with a new product packaging.
Existing customers account for more than 60% of a company’s sales, which is one reason why Amazon sellers should work to increase their consumers’ brand loyalty. You may increase brand loyalty in a variety of ways, including through digital marketing, but you can also do so through traditional marketing. One of the most effective old-school marketing strategies is the packaging of your product. You may utilize your product’s packaging to expand your relationship with new consumers, as well as sell your product’s features, benefits, and more, whether you’re fulfilling product orders in-house or via Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
Here are some tips for product packaging:
(i) Keep it simple with your packaging
While you want to accentuate your brand through everything from color to font, it’s critical that your packaging stays simple – and easy for customers to open.
(ii) Offer something useful
You must produce packaging that is valuable to users in order to get the best results from your Amazon marketing efforts.
(iii) Include a CTA (call to action)
Your team should create a CTA as part of your packaging design. If you’re only focused on selling your goods on Amazon, you might want to urge customers to leave a review. You may also persuade others to follow you on social media.
Final Thoughts
Amazon is a tough and complex business, but if you take the time to optimize and promote your listings, you’ll be in a far better position to compete.
Do not become distracted by attempting to manipulate the system. Instead, concentrate on what you would like to see as a customer: clear and descriptive pages, competitive pricing, credible and high-quality reviews, and a dependable and responsive vendor.
You are already ahead of many competitors if you can focus on the important things while maintaining a professional and credible approach. Now get out there and sell!
