Guest post by Max Greene, Muffin Marketing
If you sell products on Amazon, the chances are that most of your marketing time will be spent writing product descriptions, optimising titles and testing features to boost sales and help you rank on the first page of Amazon search. But what else can you do to stand out?
Thinking outside of the box and promoting your Amazon business online can help reach new customers, build awareness of your brand and make you more money. Below, we’ve rounded up just some of the marketing tactics you should employ if you want to go to the next level.
1. Launch Your Own Website
Selling products within the Amazon ecosystem is, in many ways, better than launching your own ecommerce business. Not only do you get access to Amazon’s clout and audience, but you can leave the company in charge of shipping, returns and customer service.
But you should never put all of your eggs in one basket, and launching a website for your brand could help to set you apart and build trust. Even if you choose not to sell products and link users back to your Amazon pages, a site allows you to add information about products, give users the ability to leave reviews, and share updates on new products and developments.
2. Use Social Media to Sell Products
Social media has transformed the way we shop. We can spot a product we like on Twitter and have it delivered to our doors the same day – like with Amazon Same-Day Delivery.
Launching dedicated social networking accounts for your business is a smart move, and can help you drive more traffic to your product pages and build relationships with your customers.
By posting regular content related to your niche (for example, if you sell clothing on Amazon, you could post pictures of celebrity fashion, make-up tutorials, etc), you can become an authority on social media and attract the attention of new, potential customers.
With a consistent strategy and regular posts, you’ll quickly be able to drive new customers to your Amazon products.
Depending on the nature of your business, you could even partner up with social networking accounts that have lots of followers – or work with celebrities or influencers – and have them share affiliate links of your products.
This form of social media marketing is increasingly popular, especially for small businesses looking to target millennials and Generation Z consumers.
In fact, an incredible 86% of women say they turn to social networks before making a purchase, so an integrated influencer marketing campaign along with your own regular content could be the perfect way to boost sales and encourage repeat orders from customers.
3. Encourage Reviews Through Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most powerful forms of digital marketing, with each email address worth a lifetime value of £84.50. If you’ve got a database packed with email addresses of your customers, you can use them to encourage reviews on your product pages, which will naturally increase trust and push your product listings higher up the search pages on Amazon.
Online reviews are essential if you want your products to be seen by would-be buyers, so the more of your existing customers write and post positive thoughts, the better. Reviews posted online impact 67.7% of all purchasing decisions, with 84% of consumers claiming they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. In short: reviews are vital.
Sending email reminders to your customers about leaving reviews makes sense, but you should be mindful of Amazon’s policy on reviews. In 2016, the company changed their Community Guidelines to ban what it called “incentivised reviews” from companies that were offering free or discounted products. You’ll have to work harder to persuade customers to share their thoughts, and that starts by offering great products at a good price.
4. Write Awesome Product Descriptions
As well as sending emails asking for feedback, you should focus on delivering the best products and offering exceptional service. And this starts with writing those product descriptions. For the most part, negative Amazon reviews stem from inaccurate or misleading product descriptions or titles, so review your literature and make changes to be as transparent and precise as possible.
Writing content for search engines like Amazon and Google is also important. Rather than copy-and-pasting product descriptions from a manufacturer’s website, think about delivering the very best user-experience and offering valuable information that will aid in a consumer’s purchasing decision. Offering the right dimensions, uses for the product and information about its physical appearance, smell, texture and other attributes can also be of use. Simply put, the more in-depth and well thought out your product listings are, the better they’ll rank on search.
Related: 3 Expert Tips for Amazon Product Descriptions
5. Pay for Sponsored Listings on Amazon
If you’re short on time and want to get more eyeballs on your products as soon as possible, then you can effectively “cheat the system” and pay to promote your products on Amazon. Sponsored Products appear right at the top of search results pages, and by bidding on relevant keywords, your products will show up to consumers that are looking to buy products like yours.
One of the biggest benefits of advertising on Amazon over methods like pay-per-click or social media advertising is that you only pay when a consumer clicks on your Amazon Ad. And because 55% of consumer start their shopping search on Amazon, they’ll be more likely to buy immediately after finding the right product, rather than saving a product for a later date.
To save money and maximise your return on investment, you should conduct keyword research using a tool such as KeywordTool.io to find relevant search terms that don’t cost the earth. Or, if your marketing budget allows, you can find keywords that competitors are targeting and promote your products using the same keywords and phrases at a higher cost-per-click price.
Final Thoughts
Whether you sell your products on Amazon exclusively or you run your own business alongside an Amazon store, it’s important that you look outside of the Amazon ecosystem and find new ways to capture the attention of customers. Try out the techniques we have mentioned in this article and see which is most effective for you. Good luck with your campaign.
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